Two Of 2024’s Earliest Blockbusters Have Villains With The Exact Same Goal

Warning: Major spoilers for Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire below!

Not only did 2024 blockbusters Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire arrive during the same month, they have villains with near identical goals. There’s a curious phenomenon that happens in Hollywood every so often where two major movies have the same basic premise. It happened with Volcano and Dante’s Peak in 1997, or White House Down or Olympus Has Fallen back in 2013. On the surface, Godzilla x Kong and Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire don’t share much in common – but looks can be deceiving.

Broadly speaking, both of these 2024 blockbusters involved their titular characters dealing with apocalyptic threats and needing to work as a team. In Godzilla x Kong, the kaijus face off against The Skar King, who is the same species as Kong and emerges from the depths of the MonsterVerse’s Hollow Earth after being trapped there for centuries. Frozen Empire’s villain is Garraka, a demonic entity who escapes after being trapped inside an ancient artifact for centuries. Alongside powers like the ability to control other spirits, Garraka’s “Death Chill” can freeze anything (or anyone) in its path.

The Villains Of Godzilla x Kong & Frozen Empire Are Both Trying To Cause Another Ice Age

The antagonists of The New Empire and Frozen Empire like to serve their revenge ice cold

Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire’s ending reveals The Skar King plans to reach the surface world and use the ice titan Shimo to cause a second ice age. This just so happens to be Garraka’s plan in Frozen Empire too, with the sequel selling itself on images of the demon freezing over New York. So, both Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla x Kong have villains with the same ice age plot, with their finales finding the heroes racing against time to stop the planet freezing over.

Unlike aforementioned examples like White House Down and Olympus Has Fallen, Frozen Empire and The New Empire didn’t try to compete. In fact, The New Empire kept The Skar King’s ice age plan hidden in the marketing, with the trailers keeping both this element and Shimo a secret. The studio may have done this to avoid comparisons with the latest Ghostbusters franchise entry too, where the ice age element is key to that movie’s story right from the beginning.

Garraka and Skar King don’t have much in common personality-wise, but they are both seeking revenge for their imprisonments and want to take their anger out on mankind. They have also enslaved their own kind, with Skar King commanding Shimo with a crystal and controlling his ape tribe through violence. Garraka can psychically possess other spirits and seeks to raise his very own ghost army.

Godzilla X Kong & Ghostbusters’ Similar Villain Plan Explains The Shared Empire Titles

Garraka and The Skar King seek to remake the world in their image

The similarities between Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire and Godzilla x Kong: The New Empires titles was noted before their release, but few predicted they would share the same world-ending threat too. In truth, The New Empire doesn’t do much to earn its title, with the reveal of the ape army coming late in the narrative. Even then, the Skar King himself is doing most of the work.

Garraka wants to unleash all the spirits trapped within the Ghostbusters containment unit to build his ghost empire. He wants to unleash a new ice age that will wipe out humanity, and then rule over his army of spirits. Unlike the Skar King, Garraka gets quite far with his plot too, with the team almost being wiped out before the intervention of Phoebe Spengler (Mckenna Grace) and her brass-infused proton pack.

Frozen Empire Took Its Threat More Seriously Than New Empire

Garraka is a way more menacing foe than Godzilla x Kong’s Skar King

Every Ghostbusters thus far has featured the team trying to prevent the end of the world, be it Gozer (on two occasions) or Vigo the Carpathian. Frozen Empire pushes the horror of the series a little further than usual because, while the sequel has plenty of gags, it takes Garraka himself seriously. He’s a demon who wants to rid the planet of the human race, and the images of New York covered in ice underline the seriousness of the threat.

In contrast, Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire doesn’t take itself seriously at all and plays like a Saturday morning cartoon. This extends to the Skar King’s ice age plan, where Shimo fires her ice breath into the sky, beginning the process. This is soon forgotten as the kaijus have an almighty brawl, and once Skar King is defeated, Godzilla casually fires his atomic breath into the sky to undo Shimo’s ice blast.

Perhaps if Garraka and the Skar King had swapped notes, their second ice age dreams could have come through. Godzilla x Kong uses this threat to add additional stakes to the finale, but Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire – with its scenes of New Yorkers fleeing Garraka’s incoming ice storms – makes it a genuine story point.