Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle (HEAV)
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The HEAV (ヒーヴ Hīvu), an acronym for Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle, is an anti-gravity craft designed by Apex Cybernetics to traverse the Hollow Earth in the 2021 Legendary Pictures film Godzilla vs. Kong. It reappeared as an upgraded model in the film's 2024 sequel Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire.
Name
In Godzilla vs. Kong, HEAV is established to be an acronym for "Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle." However, packaging for Playmates' 6-inch Skullcrawler and Mechagodzilla figures expand it as Hollow Earth Anti-Gravity Vehicle,[4] possibly an early production name. The upgraded HEAV featured in Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire is referred to as a Bio-Mimic HEAV on the packaging for a Playmates figure of Kong,[2] and HEAV 2.0 in a sizing chart shown in the "Monsters of the Hollow Earth" home video featurette.[3]
Development
The HEAV originally had a small role in Godzilla vs. Kong, deploying a HETV (Hollow Earth Terrestrial Vehicle) where the explorers spent most of their time.[5] Script revisions removed the need for the HETV. Michael Meyers and Simon Murton designed the HEAV, with Murton drawing on the way beetles retract their legs while flying.
The film's construction department built a full-sized HEAV for certain exterior shots, with a gimbal-mounted cockpit set built for interiors. The Macross series inspired the missile barrage one HEAV unleashed upon a Warbat.[6]
History
- Godzilla vs. Kong (2021)
- Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire (2024)
Monsterverse
Godzilla vs. Kong
Shortly after Godzilla attacked an Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, Florida, CEO Walter Simmons and Chief Technology Officer Ren Serizawa dropped in on Professor Nathan Lind at Denham University in Philadelphia, where they expressed their interest in Lind's studies of the Hollow Earth. Scans of the planet's core revealed a powerful energy source, much like the energy possessed by Godzilla, that sustained the Hollow Earth's ecosystem. They proposed a joint Apex-Monarch mission to the Hollow Earth using the company's new Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicles, or HEAVs. These HEAVs would allow the expedition members to survive the gravity inversion experienced when entering the Hollow Earth, which had killed Lind's brother when he tried to lead an expedition there earlier. There, they could harvest this energy and create a weapon capable of defeating Godzilla. Convinced, Lind proposed that a Titan may be able to lead them to the energy source due to genetic memory, which drew the Titans back to the location where they originated. The Titan he had in mind was Kong, and he turned to his former colleague Dr. Ilene Andrews and the young Iwi girl Jia for help securing his cooperation. Apex approved the mission, sending Simmons' daughter Maia to oversee it, while also providing three HEAVs. She boasted that their engines "produce[d] enough charge to light up Vegas for a week."
After Godzilla attacked the fleet transporting Kong to Antarctica, leaving the Titan badly beaten and most of the ships in ruins, helicopters transported him the rest of the way. The HEAVs followed him into a Vile Vortex provided access to the Hollow Earth. After passing through it, their engines briefly lost power, but restarted just in time to avoid crashing. As they followed Kong, a Warbat ambushed one of the HEAVs and bit down on it, destroying it instantly. Kong grabbed it before it could attack the ship carrying Lind, Andrews, Jia, and Simmons, and quickly killed it. When a second Warbat threatened to suffocate him with its hood, Lind ordered his HEAV to fire a barrage of missiles at it. Pained, it loosened its grip, allowed Kong to recover and beat it to death.
After feeding on the monster, Kong continued on a determined path. He soon located an enormous temple built by his ancestors. Inside, he found a massive axe that glowed with blue energy. Kong set it into a depression, which caused the ground to begin glowing with the same blue energy. Apex immediately unleashed a drone to begin extracting and analyzing the substance in the ground. When Lind and Andrews tried to stop them, Maia had her men point their firearms at them and Jia, causing Kong to roar angrily at them in their defense. Suddenly, Godzilla's atomic breath burst into the Hollow Earth, aggravating the Hellhawks roosting overhead and causing them to attack everyone. Maia and her men escaped in a HEAV, but made the mistake of firing on Kong, who caught the HEAV and crushed it in his hand, killing Maia. After Kong traveled to the surface to battle Godzilla in Hong Kong, Lind, Andrews, and Jia followed in the final HEAV, narrowing avoiding Godzilla's atomic breath. Godzilla triumphed over Kong, leaving him for dead, but found himself outmatched by Mechagodzilla, Apex's ultimate weapon gone rogue after receiving the energy from the Hollow Earth. Recalling Simmons's comment about the HEAV's energy outpost, Lind landed the ship on Kong's chest and set it to self-destruct, producing an electrical charge which restarted his heart. With Jia's encouragement, he ran to Godzilla's aid.
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Right after Bernie Hayes showed Dr. Ilene Andrews a distress signal that was sent from the Hollow Earth, Director Hampton gave orders to form a team that consists of Ilene Andrews, Trapper Beasly, Jia, Mikael and later on Bernie Hayes. When everyone went inside the new and upgraded HEAV, Kong woke up and followed suit. He jumped down first with the ship following him down to the Hollow Earth vile vortex. Once down into the Hollow Earth, the HEAV followed suit until they encountered a pack of Vertacines following them, Trapper enabled the camouflage within the HEAV to blend in with the pack and continued on. Kong eventually departed and went back into his home while the team continued forward to investigate the devastating scene, once they landed onto the damaged and destroyed Outpost One base, the team investigated the area until Trapper noticed a handprint painted on a mountain from with the site, at first they thought Kong was the suspect until Andrews assured them that Kong isn't the one that caused the mess. The team then returned to the HEAV to find out what is going on.
Kong then grabbed his axe and headed straight to the Subterranean Realm in a area inside the Hollow Earth uncharted, the HEAV continued soaring in the air to find out the signal until it suddenly was going out of control from the same signal and almost crashed until Mickael managed to stabilize the vehicle and drove the ship back up. Eventually they landed on the ground again to find out where the distress call was coming from and came across the forest where they found out that they weren't alone and tried to go to another direction until they were ambushed by a tree monster that consumed and devoured Mikael. The team now consist of four members decided that despite the tragedy, they remained determined to get the answers so they kept going, they would find an old temple that had a paint of Mothra attached to the wall, once Jia pressed a button, it revealed a wall that was blocking something, they then tear open the wall to reveal a hidden Hollow Earth civilization behind it, the city of Malenka. They then were taken inside the place to find out that their queen was the one that sent out the signal as a warning that Skar King and Shimo have risen to power to conquer the planet from their enemy Godzilla.
After a while, they heard sirens going off and found out that Kong along with Suko had tracked them down to get away from the dangers that they ran from before. After Kong weakly collapsed to the ground, Trapper went over to find out the damage the ape's right arm had sustained and concluded that it suffered from Frostbite and needed something fast to get Kong back up and fighting otherwise he would not survive a day in the Hollow Earth with only one arm. Trapper suggested to go back to Outpost One to get the supplies to activate Project Powerhouse with Andrews giving the approval to go for it, once Trapper arrived to Outpost One to retrieve what he needed, he transported the M.U.L.E aircraft back to Kong and turned it into the B.E.A.S.T Glove to heal his damaged arm, once that was done Kong got back up and roared in approval of the Glove. When Suko came back to warn Kong about Skar King's invasion, he signed to the team that the army is coming and needed help, Jia told him to find someone for help in which Kong instantly ran to the portals inside the city to alert Godzilla for assistance. While Kong went through the portal to Egypt, the team tried to evacuate until Trapper suggested to take the HEAV to rally up some reinforcements, later on as Skar King along with Shimo and his fellow apes advance onwards with Shimo freezing the pyramids in place to prevent them from colliding, Trapper arrived just in time in a camouflage HEAV to lead an army of Vertacines right onto them, effectively slowing them down. Once that was done, Trapper landed the HEAV onto the ground to get everyone out before the battle began. Godzilla and Kong finally arrived to begin the battle before the two pyramids collided to invert the gravidity from within. The HEAV flew around the place struggling to be in control since the gravidity disrupted the battery while the battle was going on and was about to get crushed by a Great Ape soldier until Mothra arrived at the last second to save them. When the gravidity returned to normal, the HEAV was about to crash to the ground until Mothra saved them again with her claws and gently placed them down on a spot for safety. Godzilla, Kong, Skar King and Shimo all went to one vile vortex to Rio De Janeiro to begin the final battle.
Capabilities
Flight
The HEAVs are equipped with antigravity engines which allowed them to keep pace with Kong as he dashed through the Hollow Earth. Their energy output is immense, allowing Professor Nathan Lind to restart Kong's heart by landing a HEAV on his chest and setting it to self-destruct.
Missiles
The HEAVs possess a hidden eight-cell and four-cell missile launcher above each front engine. These missiles have camera lenses on their noses, indicating that they are guided. A barrage of these missiles caused a Warbat to loosen its grip on Kong.
Machine guns
Two retractable machine guns on the bottom of each ship round out the HEAVs' arsenal. These weapons merely annoyed Kong, prompting him to destroy Maia Simmons's HEAV. They resemble M230 chain guns chambered for 30mm autocannon rounds, specifically 30×113mmB.[7]
Durability
The HEAVs were designed to survive the crushing gravitational inversion of the Vile Vortex leading to the Hollow Earth. However, two of the ships were easily crushed by a Warbat's teeth and Kong's grip.
Camouflage and mimicry
The Bio-Mimic HEAV is able to alter the coloration of its hull to blend in with its surrounding, even mimicking the appearance of nearby monsters. In Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, Trapper Beasley used this feature to make the HEAV imitate a Vertacine, even leading them into battle against the Skar King's army.
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Camouflage modes -
"Aspidomorpha" -
"Graphosoma"
Video games
- Funko Pop! Blitz (2019; added in 2021) - Android, iOS [Kong (Battle Axe) stickers]
- Pinball FX (2023) - PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, Xbox Series X/S, Steam, Epic Games
- Minecraft: Bedrock Edition (2011; added in 2024) - Windows 10, Windows 11, Xbox One, Xbox Series S, Xbox Series X, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Nintendo Switch, Fire OS/TV, Android, iOS, Windows Mobile, Samsung Gear VR
- Lords Mobile (2016; added in 2024) - Android, iOS, Microsoft Windows, iPadOS, Fire OS
- Doomsday: Last Survivors (2021; added in 2025) - Android, iOS, and PC
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HEAV in Lords Mobile -
HEAVs in Lords Mobile
Books
- Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization (2021)
- Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization (2024)
Comics
- Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted (2024)
- Justice League vs. Godzilla vs. Kong 2 #3–5, 7 (2025–2026)
Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted
After a week has passed, Raymond Martin begins preparing to head down into the Hollow Earth after hearing reports from one of his subordinates that the distraction for Godzilla had worked as intended. Martin then heads onto a specialized entry point where he stored his own HEAV thanks to Monarch providing them the set needed. He activates the HEAV and started heading straight down to his own vile vortex. Once he arrived at the Hollow Earth, his Titan Hunter mech was there waiting for its host, once he landed on the ground, he heard from one of his subordinates that through bribery from Monarch, they are able to secure an undisturbed adventure inside the Hollow Earth for 48 hours. Martin got inside the mech and began the hunt.
Gallery
Concept art
Godzilla vs. Kong
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Concept art by Dean Sherriff -
Concept art by Dean Sherriff -
Concept art by Nick Keller
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
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Concept art by Matthew Cunningham -
Concept art by Matthew Cunningham -
Concept art by Matthew Cunningham -
Concept art by Matthew Cunningham
Production
Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Screenshots
Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire
Merchandise
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Playmates 6" Skullcrawler with HEAV -
Playmates 6" Mechagodzilla with HEAV -
Playmates 6" Kong with B.E.A.S.T. Glove and HEAV -
Playmates Kong vs. Skar King diorama set -
The HEAV miniature from Prime 1 Studio's Godzilla vs. Kong diorama -
S.H. MonsterArts HEAVs, packaged with Kong Exclusive Edition -
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Miscellaneous
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HEAV NFT model by Terra Virtua -
References
This is a list of references for HEAV. 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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