San Francisco
San Francisco is a large city in the United States of America. Various Godzilla media made in the United States have featured the city, while other kaiju have also attacked it. This is due to both San Francisco's prominence (including the famous Golden Gate Bridge) and the fact that this California metropolis is roughly in a straight line from Godzilla's native Japan (5,183.27 miles away).
History
Hanna-Barbera's Godzilla
"The Eartheater"
The Calico crew traveled to San Francisco to attend a scientific convention but found the city being evacuated and ravaged by earthquakes. As countless citizens fled over the Golden Gate Bridge, the bridge began to collapse. Thankfully, Godzilla arrived and grabbed the part of the bridge before it fell into the bay, and set it down safely. The Calico crew then traveled to the now-deserted San Francisco to investigate the source of the earthquakes. Eventually, they discovered the source of the supposed earthquakes: the Eartheater, a giant monster made of mud that was burrowing underneath the city. The Calico crew used their Jeep to follow a tunnel made by the Eartheater after Pete and Godzooky were swallowed by a sinkhole. Inside the tunnel, they encountered the Eartheater and used the vehicle's high beams to scare the monster further underground. Once the Calico crew surfaced again, the Eartheater attacked them, now having become accustomed to the light on the surface. Godzooky called out to Godzilla, who arrived in the city and battled the Eartheater, which eventually retreated back underground. The Calico crew threw smoke bombs into the sinkholes all over the city, driving the enraged Eartheater back up to the surface. Godzilla attacked the monster again, which retreated and climbed atop the Golden Gate Bridge. Godzooky flew overhead and distracted the Eartheater, while Godzilla blasted it with his laser vision. Eventually, the bridge collapsed and the Eartheater fell into San Francisco Bay, where it melted into mud. San Francisco was finally safe from the Eartheater, and Godzilla swam back into the ocean.
Godzilla: The Series
"Vision"
A flock of Giant Mutant Hummingbirds that were mutated by polluted flowers in the redwood forests of California, and made their way to San Francisco, bringing down a military jet. H.E.A.T. traveled to San Francisco to investigate, accompanied by Godzilla. Godzilla was attacked by the giant hummingbirds but was unable to fight back due to the creatures' flight speed rendering them invisible. However, H.E.A.T. constructed a special pair of goggles that allowed Godzilla to detect the hummingbirds and fitted it to his head. Godzilla engaged the birds again and was able to defeat them all using a combination of his tail and atomic breath.
Monsterverse
Godzilla (2014)
After a female MUTO emerged in Nevada, the United States Military developed a plan to lure both MUTOs to a remote island offshore of San Francisco using a nuclear warhead, who in turn would lure Godzilla. The military then planned to detonate the warhead, hoping to kill all three monsters with the force of the blast. Ishiro Serizawa objected to the plan, believing the warhead would fail to kill the creatures, and arguing that Godzilla could kill both MUTOs on his own. Despite Serizawa's protests, the warhead was flown over San Francisco Bay and armed, only for the male MUTO to disable the military's vehicles with its EMP and steal the armed warhead. The MUTO brought the warhead to Chinatown, where its female counterpart was waiting. The MUTOs nuzzled each other and then began building a nest. Meanwhile, Godzilla surfaced in San Francisco Bay, intent on stopping the MUTOs' reproduction. The military opened fire on Godzilla from both the sea and from the Golden Gate Bridge, but the monster was unaffected. Godzilla grabbed the bridge's cables, being struck on both sides by artillery and rockets. One blast struck Godzilla in the gills, causing him to jerk sideways and smash through the bridge. Godzilla continued on his way to the heart of the city, where he was intercepted by the male MUTO. The military, meanwhile, sent in an extraction team to recover the armed warhead from the MUTOs' nest. When the team arrived at the nest, Godzilla engaged the female MUTO in combat. The male came to assist its mate, leaving the nest unguarded. The soldiers removed the warhead from the MUTOs' cluster of eggs and tried to disarm it, to no avail. They then began carrying it to the docks, hoping to take it as far out to sea as possible on a boat before it detonated. One soldier, Ford Brody, stayed behind in the nest and opened a gas pipeline, which caused an explosion that destroyed all the MUTO eggs. The MUTOs ceased double-teaming Godzilla and went back to check on the nest. When the female discovered Brody was responsible, she prepared to kill him, only to be blasted from behind by Godzilla's atomic breath. The male MUTO attacked Godzilla again, allowing the female to chase the soldiers to the docks. Godzilla managed to kill the male by slamming his tail into it and impaling the MUTO on the 44 Montgomery building, which soon collapsed onto Godzilla. At the docks, the female MUTO began wiping out all of the soldiers, leaving only Brody to place the warhead on a boat. Before the boat could leave, the female MUTO's EMP field disabled it, and she prepared to finish the killer of her offspring once and for all. However, Godzilla grabbed the MUTO from behind and fired his atomic breath down her throat, decapitating her. Godzilla roared victoriously before collapsing from exhaustion, while Brody was rescued by a helicopter as the warhead detonated far offshore. The next morning, emergency workers were working tirelessly to rescue citizens from the underground shelters in the city, while the unconscious Godzilla was surrounded by military and scientists. Eventually, Godzilla awakened and wandered back out to sea, leaving the city's inhabitants pondering his status as the "savior" of their city.
Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Following the battle between Godzilla and the MUTOs, San Francisco was left in a damaged state, and at some point, completely abandoned. As Emma Russell noted in 2019, the unique radiation emitted by the monsters caused the city to become overgrown with vegetation.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters
"Aftermath"
To be added.
Video games
Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee
San Francisco appears as an arena in the game Godzilla: Destroy All Monsters Melee, and is unlocked by playing through Adventure Mode as Mechagodzilla (Heisei Mechagodzilla in the American version and Kiryu in the Japanese version). Smaller versions of the arena, North and East San Francisco, appear in the game as well.
Godzilla: Save the Earth
San Francisco returns as an arena in the sequel, Godzilla: Save the Earth. The city is slightly larger in this game, featuring AT&T Park as a destructible building. A smaller version of the arena centered around the Golden Gate Bridge is also available in the game.
Godzilla: Unleashed
San Francisco appears in Godzilla: Unleashed, where the crystal incursion has caused massive faults to open all over the city, destroying the Golden Gate Bridge and creating giant waterfalls on the edges of San Francisco Bay. In one level, the Vortaak Mothership will be flying above the city, and will later be brought down in San Francisco Bay, causing it to be tilted and partially flooded when the player travels there.
Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash
In Godzilla Unleashed: Double Smash, San Francisco is covered in volcanoes and volcanic faults, and is under attack by Baragon and Hedorah.
Comics
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Marvel)
In issue #3 of Marvel Comics' Godzilla, Godzilla came ashore in San Francisco, causing the Champions to mobilize against him. However, the superheroes and S.H.I.E.L.D. repeatedly blundered into each other while trying to stop the monster. Godzilla destroyed the Golden Gate Bridge during the battle before departing the city.
Godzilla, King of the Monsters (Dark Horse)
Various issues of Dark Horse Comics' Godzilla series were set in San Francisco.
Trivia
- San Francisco was also featured in two unmade American Godzilla films.
- The 1983 film Godzilla: King of the Monsters 3-D would have featured the adult Godzilla coming ashore in San Francisco in search of its child, only to become enraged after discovering its dissected carcass and obliterating the city, finally being killed by an experimental weapon on Alcatraz Island.
- TriStar Pictures' original 1994 vision for a Godzilla film featured Godzilla battling the United States Navy in San Francisco Bay before climbing onto the Golden Gate Bridge, where he is sedated by canisters of synthetic amniotic fluid and then airlifted to a military base.
Comments
Showing 8 comments. When commenting, please remain respectful of other users, stay on topic, and avoid role-playing and excessive punctuation. Comments which violate these guidelines may be removed by administrators.