Destroy All Monsters (1968)

Female aliens take control of Earth's monsters and begin using them to destroy the human race.

Director:

Ishirô Honda

Writers:

Ishirô Honda, Takeshi Kimura (as Kaoru Mabuchi)

Stars:

Akira Kubo, Jun Tazaki, Yukiko Kobayashi

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Akira Kubo	...	SY-3 Captain Katsuo Yamabe
Jun Tazaki	...	Dr. Yoshido
Yukiko Kobayashi	...	Kyoko Manabe
Yoshio Tsuchiya	...	Dr. Otani
Kyôko Ai	...	Kilaak Queen
Andrew Hughes	...	Dr. Stevenson
Chôtarô Tôgin	...	Ogata
Yoshifumi Tajima	...	General
Kenji Sahara	...	Commander Nishikawa
Hisaya Itô	...	Major Tada
Yoshio Katsuda	...	Young Scientist
Heihachirô Ôkawa	...	Engineer (as Henry Okawa)
Ikio Sawamura	...	Old Farmer
Yutaka Sada	...	Police Officer
Hiroshi Okada	...	Doctor at hospital

Storyline

Aliens have released all the giant monsters from their imprisonment on Monster Land and are using them to destroy all major cities on the planet. It is up to the daring crew of the super rocket ship X-2 to infiltrate the aliens' headquarters before the Earth monsters and King Ghidrah annihilate the planet.

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Plot Keywords:

godzilla | kaiju | tokusatsu | giant monster | monster | 

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Taglines:

The Monsters in in revolt. And the world is on the brink of destruction!!

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Genres:

Action | Horror | Sci-Fi | Thriller

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Certificate:

G

Details

Country:

Japan

Language:

Japanese

Release Date:

23 May 1969 (USA)

Also Known As:

Destroy All Monsters

Box Office

Budget:

JPY 200,000,000 (estimated)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Toho Company

Technical Specs

Sound Mix:

Mono

Color:

Color (Eastmancolor)

Aspect Ratio:

2.55 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

Until Gojira: Fainaru uôzu (2004), this movie featured more monsters than any other in the Godzilla series, with eleven total: Godzilla, Mothra, Rodan, King Ghidorah, Anguirus, Minya, Spiega (aka Kumonga), Baragon, Gorosaurus, Manda, and Varan!

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Goofs

Obvious "seams" running down the "sky" in many shots, revealing where the sections of the painted backdrop meet.

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Quotes

Kilaak Queen: Ghidorah is a space monster. The monsters from Earth cannot win. I will get in touch with you, when you feel like giving up.
General: Why that...

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Crazy Credits

In Toho's international version, their English language credits list special effect director Sademasa Arikawa as "Sanemasa Arikawa."

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Alternate Versions

A Toho Video documentary released in the 1980s contained several unused and deleted takes from this film. The majority of this footage consists of alternate takes of finished scenes, such as the raids on Moscow and Paris by Rodan and Gorosaurus (respectively). Toho also filmed much more footage of the UN's defense of Tokyo, including a number of shots of missile launchers being deployed from the roofs of skyscrapers. The most notable unused shot in this feature has Godzilla thrashing the monster Manda against several Tokyo buildings. According to Haruo Nakajima, this was an impromptu act at the end of a take. This was likely removed from the finished film as both monsters were under Kilaak control and shouldn't have been fighting.

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Connections

Referenced in The Angry Video Game Nerd: Godzilla (2009)

User Reviews

Simply tremendous fun,possibly the essential Japanese monster movie

Destroy All Monsters is one of the most sheerly entertaining Godzilla movies. The story,if derivative of Monster Zero,is large-scale and exciting {although the alien invasion idea would soon be done to death},the action is non-stop and the film features almost all the monsters from Toho films made up to that time. There is mass destruction,lazer gun shoot-outs,lots of barmy but cool ideas such as Monster Island,a place where all Earth's monsters are kept by scientists-how can the movie not be terrific entertainment?

There are a few flaws with the film which may not have been present if the Toho of 1964 had made it rather than the Toho of 1968. Although the story has the entire world threatened and several of Earth's cities destroyed,the budget did obviously not extend to allowing much of a depiction of this,bar some brief,unconvincing scenes. Also,a few of the monsters are only briefly shown,such as Varan {The Unbelievable},who appears only in two blink-and -you're-miss-them shots {the suit had been ruined and there was not enough money to buy a new one}. The film may therefore have actually been better with less monsters. However,criticisms of dullness are ridiculous,the film is constant action,which makes up for the lack of interesting human characters,and amazingly,the film is taken more seriously than many of the other Godzilla films,almost achieving the perfection of tone of Godzilla Vs Mothra. Of course,there are a few wonderfully stupid moments,like the sequence of our heroes severing a control device with a lazer which helariously goes on for ages. A shame the final Earth monsters vs Ghidorah fight is too short,but than Ghidorah did not really stand a chance!

Terrific fun,though,with a wonderful Akira Ifikube score featuring two of the most memorable kaiju themes! Not the best Godzilla film,but probably the most essential one to see!