Godzilla Minus One’s Title Explained: Why The Godzilla Movie Is Called That

Godzilla: Minus One, the latest theatrical installment featuring the titular Kaiju, has a suitably intriguing title that holds a deep meaning upon closer inspection. By the time of Godzilla: Minus One‘s ending, it is clear that the film harkens back to the arguable Golden Age of the franchise. Foregoing the expanded lore of the recent Monsterverse for a much more straightforward Kaiju thriller, Godzilla: Minus One‘s reviews have reflected the outstanding filmmaking on display by becoming one of the better-reviewed monster movies in recent years.

One of the more refreshing elements of Godzilla: Minus One is its human story. The human characters on display are much more impressive than the Monsterverse’s recent attempts at similar stories. In this way, the recent film solidifies one of the ways in which it breaks the recent mold of Godzilla theatrical installments. Following on from this, another way in which Godzilla: Minus One breaks conventions of late is through its somewhat confusing title, though the film’s story makes clear the meaning of the intriguing subheading for the most recent Godzilla movie in no time at all.

Related

Does Godzilla Minus One Have A Post-Credits Scene?

Godzilla Minus One could be the start of a new Toho franchise, and here’s whether there is a post-credits scene that helps set up future movies.

The Real Meaning Of Godzilla Minus One’s Title

The real meaning of Godzilla: Minus One‘s title stems from what the titular monster represents in the film, and what Godzilla has symbolized in most iterations of the Kaiju outside of the Monsterverse. Godzilla was originally created as an allegory for nuclear warfare whose terrorization of Japan in most movies centered around the creature served as a metaphor for the horrors of war. Godzilla: Minus One reiterates this idea after the Monsterverse and Western media moved away from that concept, with the film being set in 1945 Japan.

The idea behind Godzilla: Minus One as the title is to indicate that Japan was at zero – the country’s lowest point – after World War II. From being on the opposite side of the war to the Allied powers of WWII to the nuclear attacks on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Japan was in an incredibly dire state in the 1940s. In the film, Japan’s restructuring as a country is worsened immeasurably by the emergence of Godzilla and his subsequent attacks against the country, hence the title of Minus One as Godzilla’s wave of terror takes the country below zero.

How Godzilla Minus One’s Title Connects To The Story

In terms of how Godzilla: Minus One‘s title connects to its story, the main link is found through Godzilla’s depiction. In Western media of late, namely the Monsterverse, Godzilla has been depicted more as an antihero than the destructive force of nature he usually is shown as in Japanese filmmaking. However, Godzilla: Minus One completely reverses this, going back to the stories of old in which Godzilla’s catastrophic actions were the instinctual rampages of a giant monster that served as the aforementioned metaphor for the horrors of warfare as opposed to Godzilla being a benevolent force for good.

In harkening back to this old meaning for Godzilla, Godzilla: Minus One adequately depicts how devastating the titular Kaiju can be. In the film, Godzilla holds none of the heroic aspects of the Monsterverse, instead serving only as a calamitous wave of ruin for the characters within the film and Japan itself. As such, Godzilla’s depiction perfectly mirrors the title of Godzilla: Minus One, providing it with an apt amount of meaning regarding how the film views Godzilla and what the iconic Kaiju has always stood for in Japanese filmmaking.