Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire has introduced some truly wild and unbelievable new moments to the Monsterverse. One of the few cinematic universes to even remotely capture the success of the MCU, the Monsterverse started off with a very different tone, with movies like 2014’s Godzilla and its follow-up, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, being far darker than recent entries. WIth Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the series has leaned even further into Showa-era Godzilla silliness.
Alongside this change in tone comes a need for ever-greater spectacle. This has resulted in some truly unbelievable moments peppered throughout the film, which continues to build on the lore of the Monsterverse’s hollow Earth. From deliciously creative fight scenes to hilariously over-the-top beats of the Titans interacting with recognizable monuments, there are plenty of wild scenes to appreciate in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
10Someone Models Their Username After A Deadly Monster
GhidoraStan64 raises some alarming questions
It turns out that just as fans of the series in real life have their own favorite monsters, so, too do the citizens of the Monsterverse. Where this becomes surprising is when the people of this world are willing to publicly declare their love for Titans who, in-universe, have killed countless people and decimated entire cities. At one point, Bernie Hayes complains of trolls harassing him on the internet, including one GhidorahStan64, who apparently is a big fan of King Ghidorah.
What’s important to remember is that King Ghidorah is a very real monster in this world who caused unprecedented damage, killing hundreds of thousands of people, if not millions. This troll supposedly named himself after Godzilla’s archnemesis despite this fact, which seems like it should be in incredibly poor taste in-universe. This little bit of worldbuilding isn’t nearly as absurd as some of the action in the film, but warrants examination as a wild concept.
9Skar King Throws A Building At King Kong
Speaking of collateral damage, the Skar King uses any advantage he can get
The Skar King is quickly introduced as one of the most devious and purposefully malicious characters in kaiju history. Willing to subjugate his own people and enslave the Titan Shimo, the lanky giant orangutan clearly holds humanity in high contempt. This is perhaps demonstrated best in the excellent Brazil fight, in which he uses his spinal whip to fling an entire building at King Kong.
If there’s one thing the goofier tone of the later Monsterverse movies clashes with, it’s the unprecedented amount of death and destruction caused by every Kaiju fight. Skar King assuredly killed hundreds of people with this single move, making it all the more unbelievable when it does happen. That being said, it’s nothing that hasn’t been done in a Godzilla film before, and pales in comparison to some of the later antics of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
8Kong Gets A Prosthetic Enhancement
Kong has come to accept his human caretakers
image via Warner Bros. PicturesOne of the best new characters introduced into the Monsterverse among Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire‘s cast is the kaiju veterinarian Trapper. Sort of an Ace Venture type, Trapper comes up with all sorts of ingenious solutions to Kong’s problems, including a cybernetic enhancement to his arm. After being severely frostbitten by Shimo’s freezing breath, Kong accepts some help from his diminutive buddies in the form of the new and improved mechanical implant.
This upgrade for Kong was featured heavily in the promotional material, and it’s easy to see why. The idea of giving Kong an ever-increasing arsenal of weapons in order to compete with his terrifying foes is quite satisfying, and the handwaved explanation that the device happened to be lying around at an abandoned Monarch base is appropriately silly. The very concept of Kong’s human-built upgrade is ludicrous enough, but seeing it in action is another story entirely.
7Godzilla Sleeps Like A Cat In The Roman Colosseum
The king of the monsters never looked so cute and cuddly
By far the more animalistic and dangerous of the two protectors of Earth, the Monsterverse’s Godzilla is certainly no benevolent protector of humanity compared to Kong. Showing a blatant disregard for inconveniencing or destroying human structures, Godzilla should be the most terrifying creature for humans of the Monsterverse to encounter. Yet Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire manages to make him look downright adorable as he curls up like a cat to sleep in the Colosseum of Rome like it was a giant pet bed.
Godzilla even returns to the Colosseum once more at the end of the film, sleeping off the bombastic final fight with Skar King and Shimo in the cozy-looking monument. The lore explanation for Godzilla’s fondness for sleeping in the Colosseum may be surprisngly tragic, with it reminding him of his old Hollow Earth home, but it’s an undeniably silly sight. Still, it’s nothing compared to the other destructive events of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
6Godzilla Jumping Off The Rock Of Gibraltar
Iconic monuments can’t seem to get a break from Godzilla
The Roman Colosseum isn’t the only iconic landmark that Godzilla tramples over throughout the course of the film. Upong hearing Kong’s Earth-shaking roar and call to action, Godzilla makes the trek to his location in Egypt, going south through the Mediterranean Sea. Crossing the gap between Europe and Africa, Godzilla leaps off of the famous Rock of GIbraltar, an iconic natural structure located in the United Kingdom’s territory in Spain.
This moment is simply dizzying in its spectacle, with onlookers gasping as the gargantuan Godzilla sails over their heads and into the waters of the Mediterranean. There’s something inherently hilarious about watching Godzilla use a country’s most famous geographic feature as a mere springboard, sending chunks of it raining down below him as he carelessly tramples over the monument. His surprisingly graceful diving technique also warrants a few laughs as well.
5Godzilla Suplexing Kong
Godzilla doesn’t play when it comes to challenges
Finally making his way to Egypt, Godzilla locks eyes with Kong, immediately misinterpreting his call as a challenge to Godzilla’s status as the king of the surface world. In the ensuing scuffle, Godzilla manages to rely on his brute strength, employing a surprisingly familiar human technique on Kong. Trapped in a grapple with Kong, Godzilla manages to hoist the giant simian over his head and slam him back into the Earth behind him in a suplex, a famous professional wrestling move.
This wouldn’t be the first time Godzilla utilized human-looking martial arts, with his infamous dropkick in Godzilla vs. Megalon being the former prime example. It’s hard not to argue that this example is quite a bit cooler looking, however, with Kong helpless to fight back as his former rival lands the flashy move. Godzilla’s movements looking like a professional wrestling champ is a moment few had on their bingo cards for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, but it winds up being one of the wildest moments in the film.
4The Zero Gravity Fight
The entire sequence is bonkers from start to finish
Up till now, the most wacky and wild moments of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire have been short beats in longer scenes. However, the entire sequence of Kong, Godzilla, Skar King and Shimo’s battle in zero gravity in Hollow Earth might just take the cake for the single most creative extended fight scene in the Monsterverse. Why gravity has suddenly turned off doesn’t really matter, as it provides a fantastic excuse for all four leading kaiju to duke it out in zero G like never before.
There are so many fantastic beats in this fight. From Mothra using her silk to stick Skar King to a rock to Suko flinging rocks at Skar King’s goons to Godzilla and Shimo’s flailing slap fight as they fall back to the (hollow) Earth, the sequence truly has something for everyone. There’s even a rare moment of a Titan saving a human character as Mothra catches the plummeting aerial vehicle containing the film’s human cast.
3Godzilla & Kong Playing Volleyball With Skar King
Kong and Godzilla don’t need zero G to make Skar King look weightless
As great as the zero gravity fight is, the final battle in Rio de Janiero offers a great wealth of individually fantastical moments. The poor Brazilian city can’t seem to get a break in the Monsterverse, being visited by King Ghidorah earlier in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. In the most recent entry, Skar King decides to make this city his staging ground for an invasion of the surface, only to be stopped by Kong and Godzilla.
Before defeating him once and for all, Kong and Godzilla humiliate the Skar King by bouncing him back and forth between themselves like a volleyball. Kong flings his fellow ape over to Godzilla, who sends him sailing right back with a tail strike into Kong’s arms. As satisfying as Kong’s final kill ultimately ends up being, this particular beat stands out as one of the most memorable portions of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
2Kong Tries To Reason With Godzilla
Poor Kong can’t seem to get his message across
If there’s one thing Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire truly improves on compared to its predecessors, it’s the expressiveness of Kong and the other giant apes’ faces. Able to convey so much emotion, Kong finally feels like an actual character, even if the other Titans don’t always share his higher thought processes. Calling Godzilla to his location in Egypt with what appears to be a challenge, Kong is helpless to explain that he’s actually seeking Godzilla’s help, only to be immediately tackled through a pyramid.
Kong’s hilarious facial expression as he attempts to reason with Godzilla and get him to go into the portal is one of the best visuals of the entire film. This particular moment was so memorable and wacky, that it inspired a slew of memes featuring Godzilla and Kong entering a dance battle in an alternative version of the scene, to the tune of Closer by Ne-Yo. For this alone, Kong’s ineffective attempts to reason with the raging beast that is Godzilla is among the wildest moments in the entire film.
1Kong Uses Suko As A Club
Kong has no patience for deceptive kids
It’s a shame that upon meeting another member of his species for the first time in Kong’s long life, he’s immediately forced into a fight with them. Disarmed by the innocent appearance of the infant Suko, Kong is quickly lured into a two-on-one jumping, which he doesn’t take kindly to. Astonishingly, Kong chooses to beat the apes with their own kind, swinging Suko around as a weapon and smacking away his fellow apes before finishing one off by chucking the baby Titan at one of their heads.
This unfathomably awesome moment might be impossible for the Monsterverse to outdo. It’s even more unlikely that Suko and Kong are able to form a bond after this scene, but somehow, Kong still takes the child he just used as a weapon under his wing, eventually understanding that his hostility was the result of Skar King’s influence. Still, the jaw-dropping visual of King Kong beating other giant apes over the head with a tiny version of himself is by far the wildest part of Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.