Godzilla's Belly is My Favorite Part of Godzilla Minus One

2023's Godzilla Minus One sets the standard for giving our favorite kaiju a little tummy, and then making the final third of the movie about it.

2023’s Godzilla Minus One is about finding a reason to live after unimaginable trauma and destruction. It witnesses the PTSD and loneliness of WWII veterans in Japan and explores how to create something new—a family, a community, a reason to hope—after everything you knew or believed in has exploded away.

It’s emotional, thoughtful and raw. But amid this character study on the horrors of WWII, does Godzilla still show up and wreck shop?

You bet he does.

We get it all in this movie. The stomping, the tail smashing, the atomic breath. The “chomp and fling” move where Godzilla sends an unsuspecting human into next Tuesday with a flick of his mouth. It’s all there. It’s everything you wanted when you pressed play on Netflix.

This is an all-time Godzilla, and the best part, or at least my favorite, has to be his belly. Behold.

The power of Godzilla’s belly is not to be trifled with

You don’t often get a little paunchy belly out of Godzilla. In the 1998 Matthew Broderick looks confused Godzilla movie, the kaiju is more like a Tyrannosaurus Rex, without a lot of roundness in the middle. In 2019’s Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the monster’s whole front is rounded, so it’s hard to tell the difference between what’s belly and what’s not.

But in Godzilla Minus One, it’s clear as day. And like Kung Fu Panda taught us, a great warrior's power comes from his or her belly.

Godzilla Minus One knows this too. The first time we see Godzilla’s belly is also the first time we hear the iconic Godzilla theme. This tells us that Godzilla's true ferocity comes not from those claws or feet or spiky head, but from his fat tire of a tummy tum.

Also, watch as Godzilla activates his energy beam. All of his thagomizers and plates spring up with shiny blue energy, MAKING ROOM FOR HIS STOMACH TO EXPAND and unleash his superweapon.

As a note, they don't establish Godzilla's gender in the movie. This isn't one of those Godzillas where Mama Godzilla and Baby Godzilla team up with human scientists to defeat Mothra. There’s just the one Godzilla, smashing cities and trains, looking great. We'll use he/him/his pronouns for this creature, but if anyone knows the proper way to gender a kaiju, give me a shout.

Godzilla’s tummy makes an impact

In an interview earlier this year with The Los Angeles Times, Godzilla Minus One writer and director Takashi Yamazaki talks about the approach they wanted to take for the movie’s main attraction:

“The head is on the smaller side, the legs are very thick. When the feet are stomping on the ground, you can almost see the toes being raised, like a wild animal’s. And we wanted impact for the audience, so there’s an intense level of getting up close, personal and detailed, that you can’t really do with a man in a suit.”

I understand that I’m reading behind the lines, but all I can think of when he says “intense level of getting up close, personal and detailed" is “we’re going to give Godzilla a noticeable abdomen that will be the true source of his might.”

The way to defeat Godzilla’s heart is through his stomach

Godzilla's belly is also critical to the plan to save Tokyo. To do this, our heroes spend the final third of the movie thinking about Godzilla’s stomach and how they can attach things to it.

Naval scientist Kenji Noda, as played by Hidetaka Yoshioka, details how they'll wrap Godzilla's love handles with freon tanks and inflatables. When the tanks are activated, Godzilla will plunge to the bottom of the ocean. Once the bottom is hit, the inflatables will activate, sending Godzilla back to the surface.

The theory, as Noda explains, is that the sudden pressure and decompression of the rapid descent and resurfacing should kill Godzilla. All they have to do is wrap Godzilla with both, hit the switch, and watch while this watery thrill ride from hell does the work.

I believe Noda, because he looks like the most sciencey scientist that’s ever scienced. Agree?

At first, the he strategy is working well. The ragtag group of sailors and boating enthusiasts attach the tanks and inflatables to Godzilla’s love handles, as hoped for.

The switch is hit, and Godzilla takes his moist elevator ride. But it isn't enough. Godzilla resurfaces angrier than before, and prepares to use spray atomic fire breath on the sailors. It’s only when a brave pilot crashes a plane inside Godzilla’s mouth, sending an explosion down inside his body and stomach, is our favorite deadly kaiju defeated.

Godzilla dies like a laser show at a planetarium and everyone salutes Godzilla as he explodes and his face melts off. His belly never explodes, setting up the obvious sequel.

Great movie, great belly, five stars, no notes.