Ending Explained is a recurring series in which we explore the finales, secrets, and themes of interesting movies and shows, both new and old. In this entry, we discuss the ending of Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Going into Godzilla: King of the Monsters, many of us expected Kong to be the biggest talking point coming out of the film. He’ll be facing Godzilla in next year’s Godzilla vs. Kong after all, so a cameo appearance from the big ape wasn’t such a far-fetched notion. That wasn’t the case, though. With this movie, Legendary instead focused on opening up the MonsterVerse to even more possibilities.
While King of the Monsters contains plenty of nods towards the Kong’s existence, the King of Skull Island is absent from proceedings (at least in the flesh). The movie is more concerned with G’s quest to overcome the three-headed dragon King Ghidorah, as well as introducing us to other colossal creatures that will hopefully feature heavily in future sequels.
However, as the post-credits reveal, Ghidorah will remain a strong focal point going forward. Of course, how they bring the dead dragon back is the big question. King of the Monsters ends with Godzilla heating up and completely evaporating his fearsome foe. Afterward, several Titans — including Rodan, a giant spider, and a mammoth — assemble and bow down to their rightful King. We assume that Ghidorah is toast, but there’s still a part of his anatomy lying in the wreckage from a previous battle.
Halfway through the movie, we discover that Ghidorah can regenerate missing parts. During an epic monster brawl with Godzilla, the dragon has his noggin removed courtesy of his opponent’s sharp teeth. Moments later, though, a new appendage appears in its place. With Ghidorah spawning replacement body parts right in front of our eyes, it’s easy to forget about the ones that he previously lost.
The post-credits scene takes us back to Isla de Mara, where Rodan was awoken earlier in the movie only to be overthrown by Ghidorah. In the scene, a fisherman has acquired Ghidorah’s missing head and sells it to Colonel Alan Jonah (Charles Dance) and his team of eco-terrorists. As we learned earlier in the movie, Jonah wants to use the Titans for his own nefarious purpose. But what does he want with Ghidorah’s rotting head?
The most obvious theory is that Jonah will somehow find a way to bring Ghidorah back to life in an upcoming sequel. Perhaps the creature will regenerate an entire body — either on its own, with the aid of science, or through the use of Titan DNA (which can create life). That said, there’s a more interesting idea that also seems entirely plausible.
King of the Monsters‘ post-credits cliffhanger is reminiscent of 1991’s Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah. In that movie, Ghidorah was killed and subsequently resurrected as a mechanized version of himself by one of the main characters. In the MonsterVerse franchise, Jonah and his terrorist pals have a gripe with humanity and an ambitious agenda to boot. Therefore, building a Mecha-King Ghidorah and controlling it to do their bidding is a strong possibility.
Unfortunately, we’ll have to wait some time for answers. Except for Millie Brown, the King of the Monsters cast won’t be returning for Godzilla vs. Kong, so any developments in regards to Jonah’s plans will likely be put on the back burner until that showdown has a winner.
Either way, we haven’t seen the last of Ghidorah or the eco-warriors who’ve claimed ownership of his head. We’ve already seen the giant monsters presented in their ancient natural forms. The next logical step is to give them a modified makeover and make this franchise as weird and unpredictable as the Toho saga.
Fortunately, the future of the franchise is brimming with exciting possibilities. Some of these hints were revealed during the film’s end credits sequence, which showed us newspaper headlines about global Titan activity. These clippings also mentioned a variety of monsters, including Kong, a new Mothra, and a serpent creature that’s probably Manda.
Elsewhere, King of the Monsters provides us with some other interesting clues as to what we can expect in a sequel. For example, in the film, scientists use an Oxygen Destroyer in a bid to kill Godzilla and Ghidorah. It doesn’t work, but I doubt this incident will be free of ramifications. We only need to look at previous Toho movies for proof.
In Godzilla vs. Destroyah, this weapon of mass destruction is used in a bid to stop G before his nuclear energy grows out of control. All it does, however, is bring forth Destroyah to cause even more havoc for Japan. The latest movie references the 1995 Toho flick a couple of times — especially at the end when Godzilla starts to heat up. The botched Oxygen Destroyer experiment in King of the Monsters is a perfect way to introduce another monster to the impressive roster.
It’s also worth noting that Legendary has unleashed some original creatures into the MonsterVerse as well. Maybe we’ll get to see these newcomers shine in their own movies at some point. The potential is there to make these epic monster smash ’em ups for years to come. Bring on the new golden age!
Related Topics: Ending Explained, Godzilla: King of the Monsters
