Godzilla Minus Zero is now in movie theaters and raking in a ton of money, with the film on track for the biggest opening ever for a foreign-language movie in North America, stomping all over the competition, including The Cat in the Hat. Here at JoBlo, we’re massive Godzilla fans, and in our early review, we tried to go light on spoilers so that the surprises wouldn’t be ruined for fans. Now that it’s out, though, we wanted to point out some of the HUGE Easter eggs director Takashi Yamazaki included. Here are 10:
The film’s antagonist scientist, Kanji Murakami, played by Min Tanaka, wears the same expedition clothing in Godzilla Minus Zero as Professor Miura wore in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).
It’s not something we often see in a Godzilla movie, but there’s been a cute trend with Japanese kaiju toys depicting sleeping monsters. Ghidorah sleeping in Minus Zero may be a nod to that.
There have been a few different origins for Ghidorah, including being a guardian monster from Mount Fuji in 2001’s Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack, and the atomic-fused “Dorats” (a stupid origin, in my opinion) in 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. But most famously, and as we’ve seen time and time again, Ghidorah has been a demon from space. Minus Zero implies that Ghidorah also came from space.
Ghidorah’s ability to absorb matter may be a nod to the meteorite absorbing magnetism in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964).
This may be a nod to the original 1954 Godzilla, which also featured a dramatic hospital scene.
This was a clear nod to 2016’s Shin Godzilla, with the idea that Godzilla is contagious. The humanoid Godzilla creatures that emerged from his tail in that movie also share some of the characteristics we see Noriko Ôishi suffering from in Minus Zero.
In Minus Zero, we see that Ghidorah’s lightning/gravity beams also have anti-gravitational powers, something we haven’t seen since Ghidorah’s appearance in the 1970s Japanese show Zone Fighter (which is canon to the Godzilla Showa timeline). Similar powers were also seen in Godzilla: Final Wars (2004) with Keizer Ghidorah.
Matsumoto is where director Takashi Yamazaki was born, and the city was also featured in Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster (1964). After the three-headed monster hatches, it’s the first place he flies over. Yamazaki saw a 1970s rerelease of the movie when he was a kid and was disappointed that Matsumoto wasn’t destroyed, with Ghidorah simply flying over Matsumoto Castle. So, he finally got to destroy both the city and the castle in Minus Zero.
Perhaps the most obvious reference of them all…
The brilliant scene where Ghidorah chases the plane in Minus Zero mirrors the memorable sequence where Godzilla chases the boat in Minus One.
The spectacular New York City sequence (it sucks that it was just a dream) was also a nod to Godzilla’s appearance in New York City in 1968’s Destroy All Monsters, where we see him destroy the UN Building.
And no, Godzilla (1998) doesn’t count!
Did we miss any? Let us know in the comments.