Godzilla vs. Kong (2021): Cast, Plot and Ending Explained

Godzilla vs. Kong opens five years after the earlier Titan battles, with Kong living under Monarch's watch inside a large dome on Skull Island. A young deaf orphan named Jia, who uses sign language, has a close bond with him.

The calm breaks when Godzilla attacks an Apex Cybernetics facility for no clear reason. Apex's CEO, Walter Simmons, recruits the Hollow Earth theorist Nathan Lind, who persuades Monarch to move Kong in search of a power source beneath the surface. Meanwhile, Madison Russell and her friends start investigating Apex, so the human story splits into two search parties heading for the same secret.

For the earlier chapters, see Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla (2014).

In Godzilla vs. Kong, Monarch moves Kong to the Hollow Earth to find a power source, Godzilla attacks Apex Cybernetics, and the two Titans join forces to destroy Mechagodzilla.

The story starts with Kong in a Monarch dome on Skull Island, where Jia communicates with him through sign language. Godzilla attacks an Apex Cybernetics site, and Walter Simmons responds that humans need a way to stop the Titans. He recruits Nathan Lind, who believes in a Hollow Earth, to lead a search for a power source there.

Monarch ships Kong toward an entrance in Antarctica. Nathan Lind, the scientist Ilene Andrews, Jia and an Apex team follow him inside in flying vehicles. Back on the surface, Madison Russell, Josh Valentine and Bernie Hayes look into Apex and end up in Hong Kong, where they find a secret facility.

Inside the Hollow Earth the group finds a glowing axe made from a Godzilla dorsal plate, and Kong takes it. Godzilla senses the Apex signal and heads for Hong Kong, and Kong follows. In their fight Godzilla gets the better of Kong and leaves him badly hurt.

Apex then reveals Mechagodzilla, a giant machine piloted through a link to the severed head of King Ghidorah. The machine takes on the will of King Ghidorah, kills Walter Simmons and overpowers Godzilla. Nathan Lind revives Kong with an electrical shock, and Josh Valentine disrupts the machine's controls. Godzilla powers up the axe with his atomic breath and Kong uses it to destroy Mechagodzilla. Godzilla and Kong acknowledge each other and part ways.

Godzilla vs. Kong was released in the US on March 31, 2021, and in Australia on March 25, 2021. Box Office Mojo reports both dates. No premiere date, city or venue and no UK release date have been confirmed.

The film was originally scheduled for November 20, 2020. The certifications on record are PG-13 in the US, 12 in the UK and M in Australia.

Box Office Mojo reports $100.9 million domestic, $369.2 million international and $470.1 million worldwide against a $155 million budget. In other words, the worldwide gross is a little over three times the cost of making it. For series wide totals, see the Monsterverse box office page.

In the ending of Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong and Godzilla destroy Mechagodzilla and part ways, with Godzilla returning to the ocean and Kong staying in the Hollow Earth. Apex's plan to control the Titans fails, and Monarch builds an observation post in the Hollow Earth.

The film ends with a mutual acknowledgment instead of a winner, because Godzilla beats Kong in Hong Kong but both are needed to beat Mechagodzilla. In my opinion, that is the smartest choice in the script: the title fight settles nothing, and the real victory comes when the two Titans stop fighting each other. For the strength debate itself, the Godzilla vs. Kong: who wins page covers it.

The last act is built from a chain of specific beats. Godzilla leaves Kong badly hurt after the Hong Kong fight, and the humans bring Kong back with an electrical shock from Nathan Lind. Josh Valentine disrupts the machine's controls, and Godzilla powers up the glowing axe, made from a Godzilla dorsal plate, with his atomic breath. Kong then uses that axe to destroy Mechagodzilla. The axe matters because it makes the kill a shared act: Kong swings it, but Godzilla supplies the power.

Mechagodzilla runs on a link to the severed head of King Ghidorah, takes on the will of King Ghidorah and kills Walter Simmons before Kong destroys it. That ties this film back to Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the third film in both release order and chronological order. In the series, this is the point where the Apex plot answers Simmons's earlier claim that humans need a way to stop the Titans, and it answers it by showing that the machine built for that job turns on its own creator.

Compared with the rest of the series, the ending is also a reset of territory. Kong: Skull Island is first chronologically and Godzilla (2014) second, and both treat Kong's and Godzilla's worlds as separate. This film closes the same way: Godzilla goes back to the ocean, and Kong is now the ruler of the Hollow Earth, where Monarch builds its observation post. That leaves the two Titans in separate territories and sets up further Monarch work below the surface. The thread leads into Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the fifth film.

The production record gives context for the finish. The Numbers lists a $155 million budget, and Box Office Mojo reports $470.1 million worldwide. Film Music Reporter notes the film was originally scheduled for November 20, 2020, and that Tom Holkenborg was announced as composer in June 2020, so the score was commissioned well before the March 31, 2021 release.

Godzilla vs. Kong was filmed in Hawaii and Queensland, Australia. The Oahu locations include the USS Missouri, Manoa Falls and downtown Honolulu, and Hawaii state officials referred to the production by the working title "Apex" while it filmed there in November 2018.

Filming on Oahu began in mid November 2018. The Australian part of the shoot was based at Village Roadshow Studios on the Gold Coast, with support from Screen Queensland and the City of Gold Coast, and other locations around Queensland were also used.

Godzilla vs. Kong was filmed under the working title "Apex" in Hawaii, where state officials used that name for the production while it shot on Oahu.

• The film was originally scheduled for a theatrical release on November 20, 2020.
• It sits fourth in both release order and chronological order, and you can find the full sequence on the Monsterverse movies in order page.