Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire[a] is a 2024 American monster film directed by Adam Wingard. It is the follow-up to Godzilla vs. Kong (2021), the fifth movie in the MonsterVerse franchise, the 38th Godzilla movie, and the 13th King Kong movie. It is produced by Legendary Pictures and released by Warner Bros. Pictures. Starring in the movie with Rebecca Hall are Fala Chen, Alex Ferns, Kaylee Hottle, Brian Tyree Henry, and Dan Stevens. Hall, Henry, and Hottle all play the same parts as in the last movie. In the movie, Kong meets more members of his race in the Hollow Earth and has to team up with Godzilla once more to prevent their despotic king and his formidable, frost-breathing Titan from wiping out the planet’s surface.
Godzilla vs. Kong was a box office and streaming success during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in March 2022, Legendary announced that shooting for a sequel would begin later that year. It was revealed in May 2022 that Stevens had been selected as the main actor and that Wingard would resume directing. In the Gold Coast, Australia, filming got underway in July 2022 and ended in November of the same year.
On March 25, 2024, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire made its world debut at Grauman’s Chinese Theatre. On March 29, the film was distributed in the United States. Critics gave the movie varying ratings, with many drawing negative comparisons to Godzilla Minus One (2023). On a budget of $135–150 million, it has still made $547 million worldwide and smashed many records, becoming the second highest-grossing movie of 2024 and the highest-grossing Godzilla movie ever.
Plot of the Movie
Kong has made the Hollow Earth his new home three years after vanquishing Mechagodzilla[b], and he is looking for others of his kind. Godzilla kills Scylla in Rome and then rests in the Colosseum to uphold order between humans and the enormous monsters known as “Titans” on Earth’s surface.
An unknown signal is detected by a Monarch surveillance outpost located in Hollow Earth. Jia, the last known survivor of the Iwi tribe from Skull Island, first has hallucinations and visions due to the signal, which worries her adoptive mother, Dr. Ilene Andrews. Godzilla departs from Rome after receiving the signal as well and targets a nuclear station in France in order to gather radiation. After that, he travels to the Titan Tiamat’s Arctic abode. Monarch thinks Godzilla is becoming stronger in preparation for an impending attack.
Kong finds himself in an unknown world where a tribe of his kind, including a little one named Suko, have survived after a sinkhole opens up close to his house. Following a brief initial altercation, Kong persuades Suko to accompany him to the tribe’s lair, and as they travel together, the two gradually become closer. With the help of an ancient ice-powered Titan named Shimo, whom he commands through pain with the use of a crystal, the tribe’s despotic leader, Skar King, engages Kong in combat. Kong suffers frostbite on his right arm from Shimo’s icy breath, but with Suko’s assistance, he escapes after misplacing his axe.
To find the source of the signal, Andrews, Jia, conspiracy podcaster Bernie Hayes, and Titan veterinarian Trapper journey to Hollow Earth. The Monarch outpost is destroyed, they discover. Following the signal, the gang finds a temple that takes them to an underground area where a surviving Iwi tribe lives and converses with one another telepathically. After examining certain ruins, they conclude that the signal was the Iwi’s psychic distress call.
Andrews worries to Trapper that Jia would decide to stay with her people and that Andrews would have to accept it as she watches Jia interacting with the Iwi. Andrews finds hieroglyphics depicting the past and future within a temple: Once, Skar King made an effort to subjugate the Earth and battled Godzilla’s race, but Godzilla overcame him by imprisoning him and his tribe deep inside Hollow Earth.
Jia is also said to be essential to reawakening Mothra, according to the prophesy. After locating the temple after spotting Jia, Kong is given an exoskeleton prototype glove by Trapper to help mend and strengthen his frostbitten leg. Unaware that they had been tracked, one of Skar King’s partisans alerts him while he gathers his invading army for Earth. Jia awakens Mothra, who has been reincarnated.
After Destroying Tiamat, Godzilla absorbs cosmic radiation from her lair, causing his dorsal plates to become magenta. Kong appears in Cairo and summons Godzilla in an attempt to get the monster to Hollow Earth so that he might help him. Godzilla attacks Kong despite Kong’s attempts to communicate, believing he is returning for a rematch. A brief combat follows until Mothra steps in. Returning to the Hollow Earth, Godzilla, Kong, and Mothra fight Skar King, his army, and Shimo.
After the battle, Godzilla, Kong, Skar King, and Shimo are brought to Rio de Janeiro, where Shimo obeys Skar King’s orders to start a new ice age. Up until Suko comes with Kong’s axe and kills the crystal controlling Shimo, the sides are evenly matched. Then, Shimo and Kong break Skar King by freezing.
Godzilla comes to the Colosseum to relax after using his atomic breath to reverse Shimo’s ice age. Jia decides to stay with her adopted mother, which allays her concerns and brings her back together with Andrews. Mothra repairs the Iwi’s dwelling’s defense system. Kong becomes the new chief of the ape tribe after arriving back on Hollow Earth with Shimo and Suko.
