‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’ or — Contains the Greatest Line of Dialogue Ever Written?
The last of the Showa era Godzilla movies ‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’ (1975) sees this period of the giant lizard’s escapades go out in style, even if that style is gloriously silly.
While searching the ocean for the remains of Mechagodzilla, after his defeat in the previous ‘Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla’ (1974), Interpol agents in their submarine are attacked a huge aquatic dinosaur called Titanosaurus.
It transpires that Titanosaurus is being controlled by crazed scientist Dr. Shinzo Mafune who is in turn being manipulated by aliens intent on destroying the world, something they’ve achieved by turning Mafune’s daughter, Katsura, into a cyborg after her father almost killed her in an experiment when she was a child… a cyborg who now contains the controlling device to the newly rebuilt Mechagodzilla inside her!
As Interpol frantically attempt to repair their wave oscillator to combat Titanosaurus before he attacks again the aliens continue their construction of Mechagodzilla (by using slaves who’ve had their vocal chords severed) which, once finished, will allow them to take over the planet because nothing can stop Mechagodzilla AND Titanosaurus combined!
Although we’re pretty sure a certain radioactive, giant lizard will have something to say about all this.
And if all this sounds daft and ridiculous that’s only because it is, with ‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’ containing one of the most ludicrous plots ever concocted. Yet what it also highlights is how heavily influenced the Showa era Godzilla films were by more than monster flicks such as ‘The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms’ (1953) but also, and just as heavily, the James Bond series, spy adventures and alien invasion movies so your tolerance for such material will depend on your ability to handle all these ingredients blended together like some demented smoothie.
It also means the film packs a lot of plot into its runtime so even though Godzilla doesn’t appear until the final third everything leading up to his appearance is far from boring, and when the action and destruction does kick-off it’s wondrous to behold.
There’s a phenomenal shot around the 1hr 03m mark where Mechagodzilla is stomping through a city, his laser beams blasting to bits everything before him. First cars, then the road and then… THE ENTIRE SET?! Seriously, everything on screen in front of the camera EXPLODES immediately before it cuts away to the next scene and the effect is one of the most powerful punctuation marks to an edit you’ll ever witness.
The film’s other element of genius is the script, specifically the American dub. Typically I always go for the original Japanese language track but these Godzilla movies are so inherently bonkers, and with the American writers leaning heavily into the craziness, that the American is frequently the more entertaining option.
The best example is when Katsura is mortally wounded and, in the Japanese version, tells the Interpol agent, Ichinose (who is also in love with her), that she contains Mechagodzilla’s controlling mechanism within her. However, in the American dub, as she’s lying in her lovers arms, their conversation goes like this –
ICHINOSE — Please don’t worry. Even if you’re a cyborg, Katsura, I still love you. You have a human heart like anyone else.
KATSURA — Please kill me. Destroy my body.
ICHINOSE — What?!
KATSURA — Inside me’s the controller. COUGH — GASP Mechagodzilla’s brain’s installed in my stomach!
I’m tempted to say at that point I almost completely lost it but that’s a lie because when Katsura spluttered her final words I DID completely lose it, finding myself reduced to a giggling mess on the floor like an over-stimulated five year old child. Oh, and for anyone complaining that Adam Wingard’s Godzilla/Kong films are too stupid for words then he’s only keeping the tradition going.
‘Terror of Mechagodzilla’ is sublime. I may not have a controlling device for a giant robot installed in my stomach but this film is irremovably installed in my heart.
