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Godzilla vs. Kong, also known as "Apex" is a 2021 American science fiction monster movie made by Legendary Pictures. It is the fourth film in the MonsterVerse, following Godzilla: King of the Monsters, which is a sequel to both King of the Monsters and Kong: Skull Island.

Godzilla vs. Kong has a rocky development, first scheduled for release on May 29, 2020, then being moved back to March 13, 2020, only to be postponed again to November 20, 2020, and finally to May 21, 2021. It was then rescheduled for March 26, 2021, before finally arriving in American cinemas on March 31, 2021. Additionally, the film was streamed simultaneously on HBO Max until April 30, 2021.

Adam Wingard directed the film, which was written by Michael Dougherty and Zach Shields. Borenstein, Dougherty, and Shields wrote it. It is five years after King of the Monsters when Godzilla and Kong square battle in Godzilla versus Kong.

A sequel to the film is currently under production.

Legends collide in "Godzilla vs. Kong" as these mythic adversaries meet in a spectacular battle, with the fate of the world hanging in the balance. Kong and his protectors undertake a perilous journey to find his true home, and with them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But they unexpectedly find themselves in the path of an enraged Godzilla, cutting a swath of destruction across the world. The epic clash between the two titans, instigated by unseen forces, is only the beginning of the mystery that lies deep within the core of the Earth.

As of 2024, five years after Godzilla defeated and killed his alien foe Ghidorah in a battle for control on Earth in 2019, he and Kong are the only Titans still alive on the planet. When a storm generated by Ghidorah combined with the storm cell that surrounds the island, the climate on Skull Island became unstable, forcing Monarch to confine Kong inside a dome-shaped facility that replicated the island's environment, with an orphaned young Iwi girl named Jia, who is deaf and can communicate with Kong via sign language, providing him with company.

Meanwhile, Bernie Hayes, an Apex Cybernetics employee and presenter of the Titan Truth Podcast, exfiltrates material indicating dark operations at a Pensacola Apex facility, but just as he finishes downloading the data, Godzilla appears and strikes. Among the debris of the facility, Bernie discovers a curious piece of technology that looks like a huge robotic eye during Godzilla's assault.

Following the attack, the public, impressed by Godzilla's abilities to defend humanity, turned against him. Madison Russell, an adult listener to Bernie's podcast, is terrified about the newest Godzilla attack on her school. When she tries to reason with her widowed father Mark (who also happens to be the Monarch's director) regarding the origins of Godzilla's rampage, he dismisses all she says, only stating that animals may change like people. Madison enlists the help of her best friend Josh Valentine to solve the secrets surrounding Apex and the guy responsible for Godzilla's rampage.

Nathan Lind is a former scientist at Monarch who now thinks that the Titans live in the Hollow Earth, an underground world that is below the Earth and where they hide. Lind will help Apex's CEO, Walter Simmons, find a powerful energy source in the Hollow Earth. Nathan is afraid at first because his brother tried to go into the Hollow Earth, but a strong anti-gravity field inside the tunnel killed him. After Walter tells him that Apex has made and built Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicles, which can withstand the gravity field's pressure, he finally agrees.

Nathan flies to Skull Island to see his colleague, Monarch anthropological linguist and Jia's adoptive mother Ilene Andrews, and proposes that they use Kong as their navigator to direct them to the energy source since Skull Island can no longer hold him and let him to exist. Though Ilene first refuses, explaining that Godzilla would come for Kong as soon as he was transferred off of Skull Island, she eventually agrees when Nathan persuades her that they must go on this mission in order to end Godzilla's rampage and find Kong a new home.

Nathan, Ilene, Jia, and an Apex crew lead by Walter's daughter Maia board a customized boat where a barely drugged Kong is shackled to keep him from escaping. On a rainy night, Kong grows restless and upset and begins pulling on the shackles that restrict him, but Jia soothes him by allowing her and Kong to hold fingers in solidarity as Kong signs the word "home" much to Ilene's surprise. The next day, Ilene tells to Nathan how she raised Jia as her adopted daughter when violent and unpredictable storms swept off the majority of the Iwi and her parents, but Jia was the only survivor due to Kong's protection, which resulted in the two developing a relationship.

By now, Godzilla has arrived and attacked the soldiers, before causing the barge to capsize and almost drowning Kong as well as the others on board. When Nathan frees Kong by unlocking his shackles, enabling him to combat Godzilla underwater long enough for him to surface and tip the barge back on its head, he saves the party from drowning. Godzilla goes onboard a neighboring aircraft ship to fight Kong, who has jumped onto it. Fighter planes divert Godzilla long enough for Kong to drive him back into the water, where the two Titans trade blows until the latter is forced to retreat. This time around, Godzilla doesn't let Kong get away by firing his atomic breath from the carrier, but instead takes him down into the water and intends on drowning him.

Their struggle is broken up, however, when Godzilla is distracted by depth charges, allowing Kong to surface for air.

As there is nothing else to do, Nathan decides that the group should shut down all the ships' power to make Godzilla think that he destroyed them and Kong was defeated, which works out. Godzilla looks at the destroyed fleet with interest. He thinks he's won, so he swims away. Reactivating the ships would allow Godzilla to return, so the group changed their plans and instead flew Kong to Antarctica, where Ghidorah was first frozen, so Godzilla wouldn't come back. Jia tells Kong that his home is through the entrance, but he is too scared to go.

There, the three disembark and find themselves inside a huge dark chamber, but stumble upon Apex's ultimate weapon "Mechagodzilla", a mechanized counterpart of Godzilla being controlled by the late Dr. Ishiro Serizawa's son and Walter's chief technology officer Ren Serizawa. To test Mechagodzilla's might against the Titans as soon as the mecha is activated, Walter unleashes a large adult Skullcrawler codenamed "Number 10" into the chamber. The beast targets Madison, Josh and Bernie and is on the verge of attacking them when it is grabbed and restrained by Mechagodzilla, who cleaves the Skullcrawler in half using a powerful red energy beam, allowing Madison, Josh and Bernie to seek shelter in a small hatch. However, the test is cut short when the mecha powers down immediately afterwards due to limitations of the power supply.

Afterwards, Kong and Nathan's crew begin their trek to a large stone temple that formerly belonged to Kong's ancestor. During their explorations, they come upon evidence of a long-ago conflict between Kong's and the Godzilla race, as well as an antique axe crafted from a dead Godzilla member's dorsal plate. To enhance Mechagodzilla's supply of power, Nathan and his crew have discovered the source of the electricity needed to recharge Kong's axe. A spider-like drone is used by Maia and the Apex crew, despite Ilene's protests that Apex cannot just take the discovery of the century and send it back to Hong Kong. Maia has her guards point their rifles at Nathan's crew, only for Kong to fiercely yell at them in their defense. Godzilla, on the other hand, is alerted to the activation of Mechagodzilla and immediately commences a direct attack on Hong Kong.

When Godzilla makes his way into the city center and senses that Kong is lurking in the Hollow Earth, he uses his atomic breath to dig a hole through the biosphere, causing a temple to fall apart. Despite the fact that Kong and Nathan's team are fighting off a horde of Hellhawks and Maia and her team are attempting to escape in their HEAV, Kong manage to grab the aircraft and crush it in his hand after peeking inside to make sure Jia, Ilene, and Nathan are not inside, killing Maia and her crew.

When Walter returns to the Apex headquarters, he is overjoyed and orders Ren to dispatch Mechagodzilla to fight Godzilla. Though Ren cautions him against utilizing the new Hollow Earth energy source without first testing it, he dismisses Ren's warning and tells him to activate the mecha without hesitation. Bernie, Madison, and Josh are apprehended by security for invading Apex headquarters and are transferred to Walter's place of confinement. Despite the fact that Madison blames Walter of inciting Godzilla to war and caused everything to come to this, Walter boldly says that he took responsibility for providing humanity a chance to fight back against Godzilla and the Titans in the first place.

Unknown to Walter as his back is turned while he monologues about his creation, Mechagodzilla suddenly goes haywire under the influence of both the energy source and Ghidorah's neural networks, resulting in the robot killing Walter with a swipe of its hand and Ren's death by electrocution. Mechagodzilla, now possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness, breaks free from the Apex facility underneath Victoria Peak Mountain and rampages through the city before Godzilla confronts it. Quickly coming into contact with Godzilla, Mechagodzilla fires a barrage of missiles at its organic counterpart before the two engage in battle.

Godzilla, despite having already become tired from his previous fight against Kong, and Mechagodzilla battle, at one point both firing their energy beams at one other which lock together, only for Mechagodzilla to get the upper hand and push Godzilla down and burn him. Nathan, Ilene, and Jia approach an unconscious Kong, where Jia notices that his heartbeat is slowing down. While Mechagodzilla proceeds to overrun and severely beat Godzilla, the others approach an unconscious Kong. In response, Ilene explains that they are unable to generate a charge large enough to restart Kong's heart. However, remembering what Maia said earlier about the HEAVs producing a charge large enough to power Las Vegas for a week, Nathan flies the remaining HEAV onto Kong's chest and sets it to self-destruct, detonating the craft and unleashing a massive electrical charge that instantly revives Kong.

The two Titans work together to change the tide, but the robot outclasses them. Kong reclaims his axe from the ruins after losing it earlier in his fight with Godzilla, but his weapon has lost its charge and is ineffectual against Mechagodzilla, who tries to impale Kong with its tail drill. All appears lost for Kong and Godzilla as Bernie, understanding there is nothing he and the others can do, takes out a flask of booze, proposing that they all have a drink. However, Josh, suddenly having an idea, snatches the flask out of Bernie's hand and short-circuits Mechagodzilla's controls by pouring the contents of the drink all over the control panel, making Mechagodzilla momentarily stall and giving Godzilla and Kong the opportunity to recover and regain the upper hand.

Madison reunites with Mark and introduces him to Josh and Bernie, who are happy to see Mark and ask him onto his show to discuss the Monarch facility in Roswell. Godzilla suddenly approaches Kong, forcing the Titan to take his axe and restart the battle. Godzilla doesn't attack, but stares Kong down. Kong lowers his axe, ending the conflict between his species and Godzilla's. Godzilla and Kong are now equals, and Godzilla returns to the sea quietly, with Kong and all the people watching.

Monster Reviews by Decker Shado

On April 17, 2021, it was revealed that Godzilla vs. Kong had topped the entire box office of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, despite the still relatively low box office owing to the epidemic.

It has been 59 years since Godzilla and King Kong appeared in a film together, in 1962's King Kong vs. Godzilla, and this is the first time it has happened.

This film is Terry Rossio's first Godzilla film after his unproduced screenplay for the unmade 1994 film.

Chandler's appearances in King Kong, Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and Godzilla vs. Kong establish him as the only actor to appear in a King Kong picture, a Godzilla film, and a crossover feature between the two.

With a running time of 113 minutes, Godzilla vs. Kong is the shortest film in the MonsterVerse.

The film includes several references to NGE, including the following: