Ren Serizawa
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- Ren Serizawa: “The upgrade is untested. Once we get online, Gojira will come straight for us.”
- Walter Simmons: “He's been coming for us since our creation first awoke. We must embrace it.”
- Ren Serizawa: “We shouldn't rush this. We have no idea how this energy source will affect the Mecha.”
- Walter Simmons: “Get in the goddamn chair.”
- ― Ren Serizawa tries to convince Walter Simmons not to rush the activation of Mechagodzilla. (Godzilla vs. Kong)
Ren Serizawa (芹沢 蓮 is a character who appeared in the Serizawa Ren)2021 Legendary Pictures Godzilla film, Godzilla vs. Kong.
The son of Monarch's Ishiro Serizawa, Ren aligned himself with the mysterious scientific organization Apex Cybernetics, with the stated goal of helping to save the world. Not sharing his late father's admiration for Godzilla, Ren assisted Apex CEO Walter Simmons in the development of the artificial Titan Mechagodzilla: designed to defeat and replace Godzilla as the alpha Titan and make mankind once again the Apex species on Earth. Serizawa served as Mechagodzilla's pilot, controlling the mecha using a neural interface built into King Ghidorah's surviving skull. He warned Simmons against activating Mechagodzilla using the untested energy source from the Hollow Earth, but his warnings went ignored and both he and Simmons were killed once the mecha went berserk under the energy's influence.
Personality
Little is revealed about Ren's personality and motivations in Godzilla vs. Kong, although his alignment with Apex Cybernetics' plan to usurp Godzilla and his visible glee when piloting Mechagodzilla paint him as a polar opposite to his father. Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization's expansion on Ren's thoughts and motivations reveal him to be an angry, hateful, and deeply troubled man, who is haunted by his unresolved issues with his late father and personally despises Godzilla for taking his father away from him.
Ren is considerably more measured than Apex CEO Walter Simmons, and advises the latter to use caution when powering Mechagodzilla with the untested Hollow Earth energy source.
History
Monsterverse
Godzilla vs. Kong
When Godzilla attacked the Apex Cybernetics facility in Pensacola, Florida, Serizawa glared at the monster from a rooftop before being told by Walter Simmons to evacuate in a helicopter. Serizawa and Simmons later visited ex-Monarch geologist Nathan Lind at Denham University of Theoretical Science in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. Serizawa showed Lind a scan of the Hollow Earth, which showed a tremendous energy source similar to the energy possessed by Godzilla. Serizawa and Simmons convinced Lind to lead an expedition into the Hollow Earth to recover this energy source, allowing mankind to build a weapon capable of standing up to Godzilla. Lind asked the two if they were familiar with the concept of genetic memory, the idea that all Titans were naturally drawn to their evolutionary source. Serizawa compared this instinct to spawning salmon. Lind stated that this instinct could lead a Titan into its evolutionary source within the Hollow Earth, with Serizawa recognizing that this meant a Titan could show them the way.
Serizawa later went to an underground Apex facility in Hong Kong, underneath Apex headquarters in Victoria Peak. There, he piloted Mechagodzilla from within King Ghidorah's skull via a neural interface. Serizawa used Mechagodzilla to grab a Skullcrawler and hold it by its arms, then sliced it in half with the mecha's Proton Scream. Mechagodzilla powered down immediately afterward, with Serizawa reporting to Simmons that the mecha reached 40% of its power capacity. Simmons said this was as expected, but told Serizawa not to worry, as his daughter Maia and her team would soon recover the energy they needed to power Mechagodzilla from the Hollow Earth. This soon came to pass, as Kong led the joint Apex-Monarch team to a temple in the Hollow Earth which contained a deposit of the energy source. An Apex drone mined the energy, sending the data to Apex HQ and allowing it to be copied. Simmons gave the order for the energy to be fed into Mechagodzilla and told Serizawa to prepare to pilot the mecha, but Serizawa warned that they had no idea how the energy would affect Mechagodzilla and suggested they not rush things. Simmons dismissed these concerns and simply told Serizawa to "get in the goddamn chair." Serizawa entered Ghidorah's skull once more and put on the headband connecting him to the neural interface. Mechagodzilla powered on, but suddenly disconnected from its pilot as Ghidorah's consciousness took control of the mecha. Mechagodzilla promptly killed Simmons before an electrical surge killed Serizawa.
Books
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization (2019) [mentioned]
- Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization (2021)
Godzilla vs. Kong: The Official Movie Novelization
Though Ren Serizawa's role in the novelization does not deviate from the film, his motivations for piloting Mechagodzilla are explored and his final moments detailed. Watching Godzilla attack the Apex facility in Pensacola, he reflects on how Ishiro neglected him to pursue Godzilla, who Ren views as an older brother of sorts. In later narration, he expresses the belief that Titans are merely animals, meant to be conquered by humans like all the rest. He finds his father'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 Walter Simmons, who he sees only as a means to an end. When King Ghidorah's consciousness seizes control of Mechagodzilla, he feels the monster's presence in his mind and sees a vision of his father just before the machine's malfunctioning kills him. After Mechagodzilla kills Simmons, Madison Russell returns to the control room in the hopes of removing Ren's helmet, but discovers that "it had also been annihilated."
Trivia
- Ren Serizawa does not appear in any media prior to Godzilla vs. Kong, although the character is mentioned in Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization.
- Like Ken Watanabe in previous Monsterverse films, Shun Oguri rerecorded his own lines for the Japanese dub of Godzilla vs. Kong.
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