Godzilla would (and should) kick King Kong’s hairy butt

Ape meets woman

Released in 1933, King Kong begins with a film crew journeying to an uncharted island to shoot a movie. Unfortunately, leading lady Ann Darrow is kidnapped by the island’s ruler, an enormous ape named Kong. While the crew tangles with a plethora of prehistoric creatures, Ann desperately tries to escape the supersized simian. Kong himself resolves to protect his new companion from anyone or anything that might do her harm.

What he doesn’t realize is that his primal pursuit of this woman will ultimately be his undoing. At its core, the tale is a tragedy, but our other monster’s story is tragic in a different way.

Now, I become Godzilla, the destroyer of worlds

The 1954 Japanese film Gojira, known as Godzilla internationally, is rooted in the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Godzilla himself acts as a metaphor for atomic destruction, emerging as a result of hydrogen bomb testing in nearby waters. Armed with an impenetrable hide and fiery atomic breath, this colossal kaiju plows through Japan’s defenses and wreaks havoc on its unsuspecting people. Millions die from both the physical damage and the radiation left behind.

The inhabitants soon learn that their only hope lies in something worse, a weapon that could prove infinitely more devastating than Godzilla in the wrong hands. Even today, the film stands as a warning against such destructive power and its reckless uses.