Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization (2024)
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Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization is the novelization of the 2024 Legendary Pictures film Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, written by Greg Keyes. It was released first in audiobook form by Blackstone Publishing, narrated by Tim Campbell, on March 29, 2024.[1] Titan Books published it as an ebook on April 16, and as a paperback on April 23.[2]
Description
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The official novelization of the blockbuster Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire, the latest film in the Monsterverse franchise, starring Dan Stevens, Rebecca Hall and Brian Tyree Henry. |
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Differences from the film
- In a prologue set in 2016, Drs. Ishiro Serizawa, Vivienne Graham, Ilene Andrews, and Emma Russell visit Dr. Magezi Maartens in Greenland over her discovery that the worldwide layer of ice correlating to the beginning of the Last Ice Age froze unnaturally quickly, left signatures of radiation, and was identical to the ice imprisoning King Ghidorah.[3]
- The second chapter begins with a scene from Godzilla's perspective as he realizes Scylla is awake and prepares to fight her, deciding that she is incapable of learning her place even after their previous confrontation.[4]
- Andrews's TV interview, shown during the film's opening credits, is expanded on. After a commercial break, she and the interviewer are joined by a U.S. senator who opposes the Hollow Earth Conservation Bill.[5]
- The hovercraft model piloted by Trapper Beasley is identified as a M.U.L.E. (Maximum Utility Load Elevator).[6]
- Godzilla and Scylla's activities in Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted are expanded on and told from Monarch Director Hampton's perspective. After Scylla awakens, she moves through the Atlantic towards the Brazilian-owned island Ilha de Trindade. Monarch attempts to set a trap on the island using a large containment net, a M.U.L.E., and two Osprey Mark IIIs, but Scylla avoids it by utilizing a Hollow Earth vortex previously assumed to be a cave caused by volcanic activity. She travels to Bengal, India, to feed on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant. She withdraws into the ocean and makes landfall in Pakistan, then moves northwest towards the United Kingdom, destroying a nuclear enrichment facility in Iran and plowing through Azerbaijan, Ukraine, Poland, and Berlin along the way. After Godzilla kills Scylla in Rome, Italy, Hampton and Andrews question why he did so after sparing her in Godzilla Dominion.[7]
- Scylla's history and abilities are expanded upon. Monarch never set up a containment field around her initial resting place in Arizona due to her appearing dormant, with some scientists even believing she was dead. After the events of Godzilla Dominion, Scylla claimed a frozen pool on a South American island near Antarctica and began cooling the world's oceans. After awakening, Scylla begins warming the oceans instead. Her attack on the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant warms the area by four degrees as well as weakening the ozone layer overhead.[8]
- In the first of many sections of the novelization told from Kong's perspective, he is unable to recall any memories of his parents when they were alive.[9]
- The Iwi's psychic abilities are more heavily foreshadowed. Jia believes that she once shared dreams with Kong, feels a pain in her jaw mirroring Kong's broken tooth,[10] and remembers having "...whispery thoughts and words in her head that didn't come from her."
- One of the visions Jia receives is a dream, possibly a memory, of her watching moths with her aunt Oa and telling her about their song, although Oa cannot hear it.[11] Jia's ability to feel the vibrations produced by songs later allows her to locate Mothra's camouflaged chrysalis atop the Iwi pyramid.
- Jayne, a Monarch scientist working in Outpost One, has a heightened sense of smell, and she muses how different the scents in Hollow Earth are from the surface as she gathers plants for dinner. She is startled by a dirraff, a creature with a body like an armadillo, a neck like a snake, and a head like an otter. She recalls the recent discovery of the remains of Raymond Martin's Titan Hunter mech, which Kong destroyed in Godzilla x Kong: The Hunted.[12]
- Hampton relays to Andrews that Outpost One has "discovered a new type of beetle that eats electrical cables."[13]
- Jia is bullied at her school in Barbados, particularly by a girl named Samah, who pretended to be her friend in order to better mock her behind her back.[14]
- Andrews decided to become the director of the Kong Observation Project, which would take her and Jia out of Hollow Earth, after they were attacked by a Wart Dog pack that would have killed them had Kong not intervened.[15]
- The Great Apes' destruction of Outpost One plays out from perspective of a Monarch employee, Harris, and ends when one ape takes the roof off the building.[16]
- On the night of Outpost One's destruction, Jia has a vision of the Skar King.[17]
- Hampton explains to Ambassador Paoletti of Italy how he can convince his government to call off an airstrike as Godzilla departs Rome, damaging the Colosseum and smashing the Ponte Cestio along the way.[18]
- Jia senses Kong’s arrival at the Hollow Earth portal in Barbados and arrives early to meet him, despite her apartment being a 20 minute walk from the vortex.[19]
- It is implied that Jia learned of Godzilla's presence when he prepared to attack the fleet transporting Kong in Godzilla vs. Kong through her psychic abilities.[20]
- Project Powerhouse is mentioned multiple times before Kong receives the B.E.A.S.T. Glove.[21]
- Andrews recalls how Beasley, while excellent at his job, would frequently neglect paperwork, even on bigger assignments such as Project Powerhouse.[21]
- Hayes speculates that Beasley's nickname was inspired by the title character in the TV series Trapper John, M.D..[22]
- Godzilla knocks the French drones out of the sky with an electromagnetic pulse almost immediately after they engage him, knocking out power in a thirty-mile radius.[23]
- Mikael offers Andrews and Beasley weapons before they disembark from the HEAV. Andrews declines due to her lack of training, while Beasley says, "The only thing a gun will do down here is make us overconfident enough to die even faster." Hayes expresses interest, but Mikael quickly shuts him down.[24]
- In conversation with Beasley, Andrews confirms a rumor that she turned down an offer to become Monarch's director. She feels that Earth and humanity are both on borrowed time and wants to be more directly involved in the effort to save them; however, she's still been unable to spend much time in the field after the Wart Dog incident. Beasley points out that despite the dangers, Jia seems much happier in Hollow Earth.[25]
- Hayes hopes to encounter a "strange beast" to film for his documentary, the phrase a common translation for kaiju.[26]
- Five Great Apes are given names in the narration: One-Eye (killed by Suko), Stone Fist (killed by Kong in his first encounter with the Great Apes), Catcher (repelled by Kong in the first encounter),[27] Gnarled Finger (killed by the Skar King for protecting Suko),[28] and Knob (crushed by Kong's rock trap).[29]
- After agreeing to lead Kong to the other Great Apes, Suko recalls his selection by the Skar King to explore the upper layer of Hollow Earth after the Titan sensed when the sinkhole leading out of the Subterranean Realm opened up. Given a red stripe, he left with One-Eye, Stone Fist, Catcher, and the Skar King to investigate. The apes discovered and destroyed Monarch Outpost One before returning to the Subterranean Realm, discovering signs of Kong's presence along the way. The Skar King departed back to the Living Caves, leaving the rest of the apes to lie in wait for Kong to come to the Subterranean Realm.[30]
- The monster that eats Mikael is identified as a tree mimic.[31]
- Kong is shown beheading the Drownviper.[32]
- After her party is captured by the Iwi, Andrews tries asking where they're going in the Iwi's rarely-used spoken language, but they ignore her.[33] She muses further on the Iwi's language after learning about their telepathy, realizing that their spoken language was likely only developed to communicate with shipwreck survivors, with loanwords from Spanish and Malay.[34]
- In trying to determine Godzilla's motives for attacking Tiamat, Monarch is unable to find any instances of her attacking humans since Godzilla defeated her in Godzilla Dominion.[35]
- The Iwi's Hollow Earth city is named Malenka.[33]
- Bernie twice worries that the Iwi are going to sacrifice his group, human sacrifice being a common practice of Skull Islanders in other King Kong films.[36]
- Jia explains to Andrews that the Iwi queen did not inherit her position by birth, but was appointed by consensus as "the wisest, the most knowledgeable" among them.[37]
- Suko is stunned by Kong's easy willingness to share the Drownviper carcass with him, as competition for food is intense among the Great Apes. The Great Ape kindest to him, Gnarled Finger, would only give him food when he himself was sated, despite preventing the other apes from killing Suko earlier in his life.[28]
- Kong drinks water from Suko's hands and begins teaching him sign language, through which they learn each other's names.[38]
- The Skar King's kingdom is called the Living Caves.[39]
- Upon first entering the Living Caves, Kong assumes that the ruler and oppressor of the Great Apes is another type of Titan.[40]
- The crystal the Skar King uses to control Shimo is repeatedly suggested to have been broken off her back crystals.[41]
- The Iwi history Ilene translates described Shimo as a "World Ender."[42] It also gives her a title, but she isn't able to directly translate the first word, offering three possibilities: the "First Titan", the "Ultimate Titan", or the "Quintessential Titan". The same difficult-to-translate word is also used to describe Mothra.[43]
- It also reveals that Godzilla waged war with the Skar King alongside other Titans that were loyal to him. The war is suggested to be the basis of the Titanomachy in Greek myths and Satan's rebellion against heaven in Christian theology.
- The Iwi writings also describe the Skar King as two-faced: while he tells the Great Apes they'll rule the surface together, he really seeks the destruction of all that he hates - which is everything.[44]
- Kong and Suko pass by four Wart Dogs while fleeing from the Great Apes; they take an interest in Suko, but Kong scares them off.[45]
- Godzilla seemingly absorbs Tiamat's DNA while evolving.[46]
- Andrews and Beasley have an extensive conversation over the Iwi's prophecy, as well as Shimo and Mothra's existence.[47]
- In a lengthy recorded monologue, Hayes theorizes that the Iwi's pyramids inspired the pyramids built by numerous civilizations on Earth's surface. Afterwards, he imagines thousands of people like him filming the Iwi and realizes that Trapper was right - they're better off if he doesn't tell the surface world about them.[48]
- Monarch collected Mechagodzilla's remains after Kong destroyed it and used the advanced technology within to aid in the construction of the B.E.A.S.T. Glove.[49]
- The Skar King takes almost every male ape under his command with him to invade the surface. Despite their greater numbers, they do not have any added impact on the final battle in Hollow Earth. He is also noted to have "many wives," who are moved even further underground when he departs.[50]
- Hampton shares with her assistant Laurier that she encountered Godzilla when he battled the male MUTO in Hawaii, and still wonders if he saved her intentionally.[51]
- Suko assumes that one of the female apes in the Skar King's harem is his mother, although he doesn't know who she is. He once hoped the Skar King, the only other Great Ape with reddish fur, would acknowledge him as his son.[52]
- After Hayes proposes a Hollow Earth cookbook while they're eating an Iwi dinner, Andrews jokes, "Take two cups chopped man-eating tree and fifteen clean giant river leeches. If unavailable, substitute tofu and anchovies."[53]
- Hayes questions whether the B.E.A.S.T. Glove is "an evil arm that's going to take on a life of its own"; Andrews jokes that the engineers said there was a "very low chance" of that happening.[54]
- Kong's arrival in Egypt is told from the perspective of two tourists named Keith and Fiona. Keith, haunted by the Egyptian myths his grandmother told him as a child, initially thinks that Kong is the Egyptian god of the underworld, Babi, and panics, but calms down once he recognizes the Titan.[55]
- Rio de Janeiro had just finished reconstruction in the wake of Behemoth's attack before the Skar King, Shimo, Kong, and Godzilla emerged from the Hollow Earth.
- Monarch had theorized the existence of Shimo, labeled "the Hypothetical," due to rock art and myths from an island in the Pacific, as well as the unique radiation signatures in ice from the Last Ice Age.[56]
- Hampton worries about the world's governments attempting a takeover of the Hollow Earth, which is only made worse with the presence of Shimo in Rio de Janeiro.
- Bernie, Ilene, and Jia choose to stay in Malenka a little longer while Trapper returns to the surface world, with hints that he and Ilene might rekindle their relationship.
Appearances
Titans and superspecies
Other monsters
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Weapons, vehicles, races, and organizations
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Gallery
Placeholder cover
Audiobook art
Trivia
- In contrast to previous Monsterverse media, monster species names (e.g. Skullcrawler, Leafwing) are usually not capitalized in this novelization.
References
This is a list of references for Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization. These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
Bibliography
- Keyes, Greg (23 April 2024). Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire - The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. ISBN 978-1803368108.
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