Future Shock

Godzilla: The Series Episodes
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"Future Shock" Series Godzilla: The Series Episode # 22 Directed by Alan Caldwell Written by Tom Pugsley, Greg Klein Air date September 18, 1999

"Future Shock" is the twenty-second episode of Godzilla: The Series, and the first episode of Season 2. A mysterious storm transports H.E.A.T.—minus Dr. Mendel Craven—to the post-apocalyptic wasteland of 2022, where Godzilla is dead and genetically engineered monsters called D.R.A.G.M.A.s rule the Earth.

Plot

As a sickly Mendel Craven watches from shore, Godzilla and the rest of H.E.A.T. pursue a Mutant Jellyfish in the waters near New York City. Godzilla evades the creature's toxic jelly globs, but one lands on the Heat-Seeker's deck. Nick Tatopoulos neutralizes it with a water cannon. Godzilla seizes the Mutant Jellyfish in his jaws and dives underwater as a massive lightning storm suddenly forms ahead of them. Monique Dupre tries to steer the boat out of the way, but the storm soon consumes it.

When the Heat-Seeker safely emerges, H.E.A.T. finds that the storm is stationary and the monsters have disappeared from their sonar. Even stranger, they find H.E.A.T. headquarters a ruin, with Craven nowhere to be found. New York City is similarly devastated, with the World Trade Center towers toppled into the Hudson River. A winged monster spots them from its perch and gives chase. It grabs the Heat-Seeker, but Monique knocks it off by steering the boat through a gap in one of the towers.

H.E.A.T. goes ashore, where they find advanced cars and a theater marquee for Ghostbusters 10. Elsie Chapman theorizes that the storm somehow sent them into the future; Randy Hernandez and Monique concur, but Nick is skeptical. They encounter a boy just as the winged monster, which he explains is one of thousands of D.R.A.G.M.A.s, attacks. He leads them into a storm drain and to a human settlement, where he introduces them to a battle-hardened Craven. He confirms their suspicions that they are in the future: 18 A.D. (After D.R.A.G.M.A.), or 2022. N.I.G.E.L., twice his previous size and speaking in Randy's voice, reports on fighting on the surface. Craven explains that Godzilla returned from their pursuit of the Mutant Jellyfish alone and died saving millions from a D.R.A.G.M.A. siege. Audrey Timmonds is still alive, but left for New Zealand, which has relatively few of the genetically-engineered monsters, with her husband. Victor "Animal" Palotti captured footage of the D.R.A.G.M.A.s conquering the world before going missing; the boy they met earlier is his son.

A reunited H.E.A.T. returns to the surface to help defend a human stronghold under attack from the D.R.A.G.M.A.s. To their surprise, Craven fearlessly charges into the fight, burying a D.R.A.G.M.A. under an overpass with his laser cannon. When another menaces the rest of H.E.A.T., he leaps onto its head and quickly dispatches it. As three more D.R.A.G.M.A.s fly towards them, they retreat inside the stronghold, where they find Major Anthony Hicks, now sporting a gun for an arm. He names the scientist who created the monsters: Dr. Jonathan Insley, who is now deceased, and laments that even freeing the denizens of Monster Island wasn't enough to stop the D.R.A.G.M.A.s. As the monsters breach the stronghold, Hicks orders H.E.A.T. to return to the past and stop Insley from creating them. Craven leaves them his laser cannon but stays behind as they climb aboard the Heat-Seeker. Elsie gives him a farewell kiss, which he says he has waited 23 years for.

The Heat-Seeker heads into the storm with a D.R.A.G.M.A. in pursuit, but lightning strikes it and it falls into the sea. As the storm clears, Godzilla and the Mutant Jellyfish burst out of the water, confirming their return to the present. Godzilla quickly defeats the mutation and H.E.A.T. returns to headquarters. To present-day Craven's confusion, they work quickly to research Insley, the founder and president of American Technologies. His website alludes to the monsters, whose name stands for Democratic Resurgence Against a Global Mechanized Armageddon. H.E.A.T. raids Insley's Long Island lab and prepares to destroy his research. Declaring his intent to save humanity from technology and return it to simpler times, he releases juvenile D.R.A.G.M.A.s to oppose them. However, their undeveloped exoskeletons leave them vulnerable to laser fire. Godzilla crashes through a wall of the laboratory to back up H.E.A.T. As the D.R.A.G.M.A.s swarm him, Insley backs up files on a CD and is nearly killed by two of his own creations. H.E.A.T. saves him, but Nick snaps the CD in half, informing him that he has just saved the world.

Falling rubble from the monster battle isolates Elsie from the rest as her gun malfunctions. Craven saves her in dramatic fashion, stunning a D.R.A.G.M.A with a flying stomp before shooting it. After Godzilla dispatches the rest of the D.R.A.G.M.A.s, she kisses him on the cheek and quips, "And who knows? You may not have to wait 23 years for another."

Cast

Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.

• Ian Ziering   as   Dr. Nick Tatopolous
• Malcolm Danare   as   Dr. Mendel Craven
• Rino Romano   as   Randy Hernandez
• Charity James   as   Dr. Elsie Chapman
• Brigitte Bako   as   Monique Dupre
• Tom Kenny   as   N.I.G.E.L.
• Kevin Dunn   as   Major Anthony Hicks
• Nick Jameson   as   Dr. Jonathan Insley
• Pamela Adlon   as   Animal's son / female soldier (as Pamela Segall)

Appearances

Monsters Godzilla D.R.A.G.M.A.s Mutant Jellyfish

Weapons, vehicles, and organizations H.E.A.T. Heat-Seeker H.E.A.T. Copter (mentioned)

Trivia

• Early in H.E.A.T.'s journey to the future, Randy Hernandez likens their situation to The Twilight Zone.
• One of the futuristic cars Elsie points out has gull-wing doors, akin to the DMC DeLorean featured in the Back to the Future film trilogy.
• The choice of Ghostbusters 10 for the theater marquee may have been a nod to the 1997 cartoon Extreme Ghostbusters, which was also produced by Adelaide Productions and Columbia TriStar Television. It proved semi-prophetic: while the fourth Ghostbusters movie, Ghostbusters: Afterlife, was released in 2021, its theatrical run extended into early 2022.

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