Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization
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Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization is the novelization for the Legendary Pictures film Godzilla vs. Kong, written by Greg Keyes. Titan Books published it on April 6, 2021.[1] The audiobook edition, released on Audible by Blackstone Publishing the same day, is narrated by Richard Ferrone.[2]
Description
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The official novelization of the biggest battle in movie history Godzilla vs Kong, the latest film in the Monsterverse™ franchise, starring Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Kyle Chandler and Zhang Ziyi. |
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Differences from the film
- The novelization begins by retelling Godzilla's rescue of Na Kika in Godzilla Dominion from the perspective of a Russian terrorist named Manchaary Rybekov who is attempting to sell the Titan to Rosales, an American businessman. The latter is implied to be a representative of Apex Cybernetics. Set three years and two months before the story's main events.
- Alan Jonah meets with Walter Simmons in Pensacola and uneasily agrees to sell him two Ghidorah skulls. While Godzilla severed one of Ghidorah's heads during their battle in Isla de Mara, the origin of the second skull is left unexplained. Set two years before the story's main events.
- David Lind's doomed trip to the Hollow Earth is told from his brother Nathan's perspective. Set one year before the story's main events.
- A Sirenjaw attacks Jia's family as a perpetual storm ravages Skull Island. Her sister lifts her onto a tree before a rush of water sweeps her away. Kong takes notice of Jia and rescues her. Set 11 months before the story's main events.
- Sensing Apex tampering with the Ghidorah skulls, Godzilla rouses himself. He now resides in the ancient cavern he discovered while battling Tiamat in Godzilla Dominion, having induced all of the Titans besides Kong to rest.
- Although the events of Kingdom Kong are referenced multiple times, the novelization contradicts the graphic novel's ending, wherein Monarch evacuates the Iwi from Skull Island, to better conform to the film. Dr. Ilene Andrews recalls that the Iwi refused relocation, and all but Jia "vanished" shortly after Andrews tried convincing them.
- The primary events of the novelization take place a little over three years after Godzilla: King of the Monsters, while the film takes place five years later. However, Simmons still says that Godzilla "first revealed himself to the world" 10 years ago.
- Miserable at school, Madison Russell tries convincing her father Mark to homeschool her.
- Monarch becomes aware that Godzilla has resumed activity long before he attacks Pensacola.
- Godzilla patrols his territory, first checking in on Rodan in Fiji, then Kong on Skull Island (explaining why the latter was enticed into throwing a tree at the Sun), Scylla at the tip of South America, and nearly checking in on Methuselah (who was apparently only 100 miles away from wherever Godzilla had been) before taking a sharp turn towards Pensacola.
- Talking with a young Monarch intern, Mark recaps the events of Godzilla Dominion. He is unable to convince his superiors to order any evacuations.
- Jia references a Blackstick bug when talking to Ilene, an insect native to Skull Island which can cause a person's foot to "rot off" if they step on it.
- In the novelization, the true name of the Skullcrawlers is revealed to be the "Halakrah" or “persistent enemy” in the Iwi language. The Skullcrawlers evolved from a lineage of non-amniote basal reptilomorphs that possibly originated from the Hollow Earth.
- The Iwi word for "Godzilla" is "Zo-zla-halawa." Jia recalls a story her elders told her of Godzilla or another of his kind "[eating] a star" in the Hollow Earth that turned him wicked. The Iwi and Kongs waged war against him and his kin for a time, but they were unable to defeat him. Ultimately, they journeyed to the surface themselves and took up residence on Skull Island.
- Madison suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder after her experiences with Jonah and Ghidorah and has started seeing a therapist.
- Bernie Hayes's wife Sara quit her job at Apex a year after the Battle of San Francisco. Following her death in an apparent car accident, he discovered a note she left which read "Godzilla > Apex > Monarch Contract > shipping manifest > component for bomb." He immediately secured a position at the company to investigate it, believing his wife had been killed because she knew too much. After Ghidorah's rampage, he concluded that the bomb in question was the Oxygen Destroyer (this seems to contradict Godzilla: King of the Monsters and its novelization, where Admiral William Stenz told senior Monarch members of its existence just before using it). Monarch has had a close relationship with Apex for years, with both organizations maintaining facilities in many of the same cities.
- Godzilla's landfall in Pensacola is told from the perspective of a park ranger.
- Watching Godzilla attack the Apex facility in Pensacola, Ren Serizawa reflects on how his father Ishiro neglected him to pursue Godzilla, who the son views as an older brother of sorts.
- After Godzilla's attack, Mark fields questions from reporters, with one asking if Godzilla is being controlled by eco-terrorists and another questioning if the Titan "hates artificial beaches."
- Ilene notes that Lin San "first formally described much of the island's flora and fauna."
- To safely move Kong from his enclosure on Skull Island, Monarch knocks him out with an odorless, water-soluble gas developed by sequencing his DNA. Beforehand, Nathan confers with Araya, the head engineer on the island and a survivor of Behemoth's escape from the Monarch containment facility in Brazil.
- Before deciding to contact Bernie, Madison wonders if Apex built a new ORCA to cause Godzilla to attack their facility and frame him as a menace.
- Bernie's strangest non-Titan conspiracy theory is a coverup of elves living at the North Pole.
- Guillermin, a minor character in the film, is the director of Monarch instead of Mark and has significantly more dialogue. Nonetheless, Simmons refers to Mark as "Director Russell" in both the film and novelization.
- After a conversation about responsibility with Admiral Wilcox, who is skeptical of his mettle, Nathan's hesitation leads to Godzilla smashing a destroyer before the fleet opens fire on him. Nathan manages to redeem himself by unshackling Kong and coming up with the idea of "playing dead".
- Walter sends his daughter Maia to oversee the Hollow Earth expedition without telling her of Kong's involvement, a typical "head game" to test the heir to his company.
- The Vile Vortex in Antarctica is located near Monarch Outpost 32, which once housed Ghidorah. Nathan and Ilene speculate on a connection, but decide they don't have enough information.
- Ilene notes that Monarch "collected seeds, spores, cell tissue, and even eggs from many of the doomed species" of Skull Island.
- While Madison, Bernie, and Josh travel to Hong Kong alongside Skullcrawler eggs, Bernie theorizes that Apex plans to implant remote control devices in the monsters.
- In further narration, Ren expresses the belief that Titans are merely animals, meant to be conquered by humans like all the rest. He finds Ishiro's most famous quotation the sentiment of "a man who could brush aside the untold causalities that 'letting them fight' always led to." His resentment of his father reached its apex when he missed his wife's funeral, which Ren organized himself at the age of 18. His contempt extends to Simmons, who he sees only as a means to an end.
- Simmons is aware of Bernie's podcast and delighted to meet him, quipping that "I loved that four-part series on chemtrails. Gave me some seriously promising ideas for future projects."
- Simmons revealed he intentionally waited for Kong to weaken Godzilla before unleashing Mechagodzilla against him.
- Ren sees a vision of his father just before Mechagodzilla's malfunctioning kills him. After the machine kills Simmons, Madison returns to the control room in the hopes of removing Ren's helmet, but finds it a ruin and his body nowhere to be seen.
- Throughout the novel, Mark is not completely clueless as to Mechagodzilla’s existence, unlike in the film. His team picks up a unknown signal and concludes that Apex is doing something that is provoking Godzilla, just as his daughter assumed after Godzilla's attack in Pensacola. The signal becomes stronger when Mechagodzilla uses the Hollow Earth energy before emerging from Victoria Peak Mountain, and Mark concludes that Apex's secret weapon was Mechagodzilla. At this point, he is unsure whether he should root for Godzilla or Mechagodzilla.
Appearances
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Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations
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Gallery
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References
This is a list of references for Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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