PUTTING THE “GOD” IN “GODZILLA”

Part I: Creation Regained

“The arrogance of man is thinking nature is in their control, and not the other way around.”

–Dr. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) in Godzilla (2014)

This article contains spoilers for 2014’s GODZILLA.

I once saw a two-hour special on The History Channel called Life After People[1].   It showed what could plausibly happen to the Earth if all human beings suddenly and inexplicably vanished without a trace.  While some might find such a concept existentially horrifying, I was actually very encouraged, because it demonstrated that within a mere handful of centuries—a nanosecond on a geological timescale—all evidence of mankind could be completely re-absorbed by nature, as if we never existed at all.  As a Christian, I took the message to heart that no matter how much we damage God’s creation; no matter how much we raise the temperature of the Earth; how much we acidify the oceans, or pollute the air, or melt the polar ice caps—the universe He made is capable of recovering.

This is an important part of a sound eschatology[2].  As sinful human beings, we have done devastating damage to the environment, sometimes even to seemingly irreparable levels.  We’ve wiped out countless species of plants and animals, and we’ve just discovered that thanks to global warming, the West Antarctic ice sheet is now melting away entirely, significantly raising global sea levels, and is too late for us to fix it.  Our sins have wounded Creation (Genesis 3) and caused it to groan (Romans 8:20) under the weight of them.

But the good news is that Christ’s sacrifice on the cross was not only to redeem His people, but to redeem the entirety of His creation.   Adam (and by extension, the rest of humanity) has failed to take proper care of what God has given us.  But now Jesus, the Second Adam, has taken back His place as the Covenant Head of His Creation, and He will restore and renew it to its former glory and beyond[3].

This is a prominent theme in Gareth Edwards’ new Godzilla film—summed up in the above quote from Dr. Serizawa.  Despite all the doom and gloom promised in the trailers, the movie actually offers a very optimistic message of Creation regained.  Our sins against the planet may be grievous, but there is hope that they can be undone.  That’s where Godzilla comes in—he’s here to set things right and to reverse the damage we did.  Nature—and by extension, the God who created it—is bigger than us, and shall never be conquered by us, despite our illusion of its domination.  In the film, Drs. Serizawa and Vivian Graham (Sally Hawkins) are the voices of truth and reason.  As true believers, they know what no one else in the film does—that Godzilla has come not to destroy us, but to restore balance to nature—a balance that mankind has upset.  He is, in fact, a force of nature—not for destruction, like an earthquake or a hurricane, but for restoration.  He’s like a physical manifestation of the protective spirit of Mother Earth.

Drs. Ichiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) and Vivienne Graham (Sally Hawkins)

Dr. Hawkins first puts the “god” in “Godzilla” when she tells us that as the alpha predator at the top of a primordial ecosystem, he is essentially “a god, for all intents and purposes.”  As an ancient god (practically a “Great Old One,” to use a Lovecraftian parlance), Godzilla may be somewhat disinterested in us (his sheer massiveness means that it is critically unsafe to be anywhere near him), but he’s not a vengeful god, either.  He’s not here to castigate us or to destroy us—he never intentionally hurts anyone, and he doesn’t even retaliate when we fire missiles at him.  Rather than punishing us for our foolishness, or even leaving us to our own devices, Godzilla actually cleans up our mess and gives us another chance to get things right.  And he’s willing to do anything to get the job done—even if it might mean sacrificing himself to do so.

Sound familiar?  Godzilla has a lot going on in the Echoes of Eden department.  While I wouldn’t call Godzilla a Christ figure, he certainly reflects aspects of Christ’s story of redemption, in a similar way that Odin’s sacrifice on Yggdrasil in Norse mythology is reflective of Christ’s sacrifice on the cross.  Just as Christ promises to redeem His creation, Godzilla shows up to save us from the damage we have done to the planet and to ourselves, causing the MUTO’s to become unleashed.  There’s even a moment when it appears that he has died while defeating the rival monsters.  In other words, from a dramatic narrative and thematic standpoint, Godzilla essentially dies for our sins.  

But then, when the dawn breaks, in a beautifully quiet moment, Godzilla experiences something of a resurrection, returning to life as he comes face to face with Dr. Serizawa, whose admiration for the ancient being borders on worship.  As Godzilla returns to the sea, the people of San Francisco declare him the savior of their city.  Like King Arthur (another messianic literary figure), Godzilla departs across the sea, where he will stay until he is needed again; a reflection—a dim reflection, but a reflection nonetheless—of Christ’s ascension into Heaven to sit at the right hand of God the Father (Mark 16:19, Luke 24:50-53); part of a tapestry of the elements of God’s redemptive-historical narrative that are woven into the fabric of Godzilla.

When I was a child, I was obsessed with monsters.  I first developed a love for Japanese Kaiju films when I came down with the chicken pox in first grade.  Stuck at home for a week, my father rented a stack of Toho movies on VHS—Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, King Ghidorah…I devoured them all as I lay on the couch covered in itchy spots.  Kaiju was my first fandom—even before Star Trek.  And as long as I can remember, I’ve loved monsters—from the very real dinosaurs of prehistoric times to the flying, fire-breathing dragons of fantasy.  And so it’s no surprise that as a child, my favourite passage of the Bible was Job 41: