There Will Be No Winner In ‘Godzilla Vs. Kong’

Thankfully, Godzilla Vs. Kong looks to have taken some cues from Kong: Skull Island, boasting a brighter color palette, daylight battles, and some gloriously stupid action sequences. 

Watching King Kong punch Godzilla in the face, while standing atop an aircraft carrier, is exactly what we all expect from Godzilla Vs. Kong – but are we expecting a winner? The tagline promises that “one will fall,” but I think viewers have good reason to be skeptical.

The original film randomly imbued Kong with lightning powers to give him an edge against Godzilla’s atomic breath, and ended with both creatures falling into the ocean (although, only Kong surfaces). 

Movies that pit two iconic characters against one another rarely allow a winner, for fear of disappointing one half of the fanbase; I suspect Godzilla Vs. Kong will do the same, despite director Adam Wingard’s claims to the contrary: 

“I do want there to be a winner,” Wingard told Entertainment Weekly. “The original film was very fun, but you feel a little let down that the movie doesn’t take a definitive stance. People are still debating now who won in that original movie, you know. So, I do want people to walk away from this film feeling like, Okay, there is a winner.”

But when it comes to Godzilla and King Kong, there are a couple of complications; the recent Godzilla movies have framed Godzilla as a literal force of nature, protecting Earth against invasive species. He can’t really die, unless Kong is stepping in to take his place.

And the trailer clearly sets up Kong as the sympathetic kaiju; his best friend is a little girl, he’s being shipped in to stop Godzilla’s mysterious destructive streak, and you can see the ape’s facial expressions, even during the heat of battle. 

Godzilla’s spiky, unreadable face doesn’t invite the same level of empathy; we mammals are naturally biased towards Kong, and Americans even more so, considering that the great ape is an American icon.

Longtime Kaiju fans, however, might be more likely to root for Godzilla (personally, I want to see Kong’s head on the space needle) – but that’s not going to happen. I suspect that the film will declare Kong as the definitive winner, for the reasons stated above, only to reveal that Godzilla is really Mechagodzilla. 

This would make sense, because that’s how Mechagodzilla was first introduced, in 1974 – as a Godzilla imposter, covered in fake flesh, like a 50-foot-tall Terminator. This would also explain why this version of Godzilla is suddenly attacking human cities, as Godzilla and Godzilla: King of the Monsters depicted him as a benevolent behemoth.  

Or perhaps Godzilla is simply tired of ignoring humanity’s crimes against the environment – he must be sick of swallowing microplastics and swimming through bleached coral reefs. 

One tired old plot twist is practically certain; Godzilla and Kong are going to team up to take down a bigger bad at the end of the movie, and we’ll be left with the impression that Kong could take down Godzilla – if he really wanted to.

Hence, American exceptionalism and mammalian superiority are left intact – while still maintaining Godzilla as a hero of the franchise.