The United Nations Countermeasures Center (UNGCC) is established in 1992. Their mission is to devise a plan to stop Godzilla. They have salvaged the mechanical head from the Mecha-King Ghidorah and have reverse engineered its programming to create two anti-Godzilla machines. The first is an aerial weapon called Garuda. The other is a machine fashioned after Godzilla called Mechagodzilla. Both ultimate weapons are believed to be able to destroy Godzilla once and for all.
On a mission to Adona Island a team of scientists discover a giant egg. Before they can transport the egg to a research facility Rodan shows up and attacks the expedition. Then Godzilla appears and attacks Rodan. While the two monsters are scrapping the team high tails it out of there with the giant egg. They bring the egg to Kyoto where a scientist, Azusa Gojo, is assigned to analyze it. When the egg hatches they find that it contained a dinosaur. The baby dinosaur imprints on Azusa.
The researchers believe that the egg is of the Godzillasaurus family and that it was placed in the Pteranodan nest similar to what cuckoo birds do. They lay their eggs in another birds nest and when they hatch the foster mother bird thinks it’s their own and takes care of it. Same principal here. Even though Rodan thinks the baby is his, Godzilla knows that it is from the Godzilla family. Both Rodan and Godzilla want the baby.
The UNGCC are still trying to get rid of Godzilla so they decide to use the baby to lure it away from Japan to a place where they can attack it. When they place the baby on the cargo crate to fly it away the baby gets scared. Azusa decides to stay with the baby to keep it calm. When the baby gets scared its eyes turn red and it sends out a telepathic message that is answered by Rodan. Rodan grabs the crate containing the baby Godzilla and Azusa and flies away. Before the UNGCC can take on Godzilla, they need to deal with Rodan.
“Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II was released in 1993 and was directed by Takao Okawara. It is the 5th movie in the Heisei era and the 20th film in the Godzilla franchise. The film was meant to be the last in the Heisei series to avoid competing with TriStar’s Godzilla reboot in 1998. Toho had planned on doing a King Kong vs Godzilla remake but couldn’t secure the rights from Universal.
Although this is not my favorite Godzilla movie it is far from the worst. It ended up being quite enjoyable even though I’m not big on baby Godzillas. To me what makes the film even better is the music score by Akira Ifukube. Whenever I hear it I perk up and pay attention.
The English title “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla II” is a little misleading as it is not a sequel to “Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla” 1974 or “Terror of Mechagodzilla” 1975 from the Showa era series.
English dubbed
Japanese subtitled