GODZILLA: Godzilla 2000 (1999)

Godzilla in the Media

Godzilla 2000: Millennium (ゴジラ2000 ミレニアム Gojira Nisen: Mireniamu?) is a 1999 Japanese science fiction kaiju film directed by Takao Okawara and written by Hiroshi Kashiwabara and Wataru Mimura. It was the twenty-third film released in the Godzilla series, and is the only film to feature Orga. The film was released on December 11, 1999. Sony Pictures Entertainment's TriStar division, having the rights to the franchise at the time, released the film in the United States and Canada in August 2000 as Godzilla 2000; the last in the main Godzilla series to make a North American theatrical run until the Legendary Pictures remake. The film ignores continuity established by any previous films, aside from the original. The film was released on DVD by Sony Pictures on December 26, 2000, also under the title Godzilla 2000.

PLOT:
Godzilla is a literal force of nature to Japan (after the incident in 1954). After Y2K, the Godzilla Prediction Network (GPN) functions independently to study the mutant dinosaur and predict his landfalls. Meanwhile, the scientists of Crisis Control Intelligence (CCI) find a sixty million year old UFO deep in the Japan Trench. As CCI attempts to raise the UFO to study it, it takes off into the sky on its own. Godzilla arrives and battles the Japan Self Defense Forces, now equipped with powerful Full Metal Missiles, but the UFO appears, searching for genetic information that only Godzilla possesses. It fights Godzilla to a standstill, driving the monster underwater, and then lands to replenish its solar power.XXXYuji Shinoda, the founder of the GPN, discovers the secret to Godzilla's regenerative properties (named Organizer G1 in the Japanese version, but Regenerator G1 in the North American release), but so has the UFO. It frees itself from the JSDF's attempts to contain it, and heads for Shinjuku. After landing atop Tokyo Opera City Tower, it begins to drain all the files about Godzilla from Tokyo's master computers. CCI attempts to destroy the UFO using explosive charges, but Shinoda, attempting to find out more about the aliens, is nearly caught in the blast. He survives, and joins the rest of the cast on a nearby rooftop, watching the UFO. Almost in response, the UFO broadcasts its message of invasion and creating a new empire on earth, and Shinoda reveals that the aliens are after the regenerative properties contained inside Godzilla's DNA so that they may use it to re-form their bodies.XXXGodzilla arrives and again battles the UFO. However, he is subdued by the UFO's assault, and it absorbs some of his DNA, which the aliens use to reform themselves outside the space ship as the gigantic Millennian. However, earth's atmosphere is different to the one the Millennian used to live in and so when it exposes itself to the atmosphere, it mutates into a horrible monster named Orga. Godzilla recovers and fights Orga, which calls on the UFO to aid it in battle, but Godzilla destroys it with a blast of his atomic ray. With the UFO decimated, Godzilla continues to strike the alien being, but the damage inflicted is quickly overcome by the creature's new healing factor, a trait the beast obtained from Godzilla's DNA. Eventually gaining the upper hand, Orga drains more of Godzilla's DNA, trying to convert itself into a Godzilla clone. Finally, Orga opens its mouth, intending to swallow Godzilla whole, but Godzilla tricks it by deliberately throwing his head into its throat. While Orga begins to transform, Godzilla unleashes his nuclear pulse, beheading Orga and blowing the alien to bits. Mitsuo Katagiri, head of CCI, dies when Godzilla partially destroys the roof of the building where he, Shinoda and the scientists were observing the battle. The remaining cast on the roof wonders why Godzilla protects them, even though he attacks them and they attack him. They eventually come up with, and agree on, the theory that perhaps "there is a piece of Godzilla in all of us" as Godzilla begins rampaging through Tokyo.