Godzilla vs. Kong: The Ultimate Showdown of Titans

Madison and Josh find Bernie, who joins their investigation. They sneak into the wrecked Apex base, discover a secret facility underground, and are inadvertently locked into an underground hyperloop-type transport to Apex headquarters in Hong Kong, where they unwittingly stumble on a test of Mechagodzilla. It is telepathically controlled by Ren Serizawa, the son of the late Ishirō Serizawa,[c] through the neural networks from the skull of a severed Ghidorah head,[c] but is hobbled by its power supply's limitations. Walter intends to harness the Hollow Earth's energy to overcome Mechagodzilla's limitations.

godzilla vs. kong

Inside the Hollow Earth, Kong and the team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island. They discover his species' ancestral throne room, where they find remains of an ancient war with Godzilla's kind and a glowing axe made from another Godzilla's dorsal plates. As they identify the power source, the Apex team sends its signature back to their Hong Kong base despite Andrews' protests. Attracted by Mechagodzilla's activation, Godzilla arrives in Hong Kong. Sensing Kong and the hollow earth's energy, Godzilla directly drills a shaft to the throne room with his atomic breath. Maia and the Apex team attempt to escape in the ensuing mayhem, but their HEAV is crushed by Kong. Kong, Andrews, Jia, and Lind ascend to Hong Kong, where Kong engages Godzilla in a final battle. Kong initially gains the upper hand; however, Godzilla emerges victorious after incapacitating Kong.

Madison, Josh, and Bernie are caught by security and taken to Simmons. Despite Ren's concerns over the power source's volatility, Simmons orders him to activate Mechagodzilla. Now possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness, Mechagodzilla kills Simmons, electrocutes Ren, engages Godzilla in battle, and quickly overwhelms him. Lind revives Kong by destroying the HEAV on his chest, and Jia convinces him to help Godzilla. As Mechagodzilla overpowers both Titans, Josh short-circuits Mechagodzilla's controls with Bernie's flask of liquor on its control panel, momentarily interrupting the mech. Godzilla charges Kong's axe with his atomic breath, allowing Kong to destroy Mechagodzilla. Madison, Bernie, and Josh reunite with Madison's father Mark, while Godzilla and Kong agree to a truce and go their separate ways.

In April 2020, images of toy figures were leaked online, revealing different forms for Godzilla and Kong, Mechagodzilla, and a new monster named Nozuki.[96] In July 2020, images of Playmate figures and packaging with concept art were released online.[97] In December 2020, brief clips from the film were shown during Comic Con Experience,[98] and in January 2021, more brief footage was included in a preview for HBO Max.[99] That same month, the first teaser poster was released online, along with confirmation of the trailer's release date.[100] The first full trailer was released on January 24, 2021.[101] It became Warner Bros' biggest trailer debut, earning 25.6 million views in 24 hours on YouTube; 15.8 million from Warner's channel and an additional 9.8 million views from the studio's secondary channels.[102] The film had its first official NFT art release in collaboration with a major studio.[103] On April 7, the professional wrestling show AEW Dynamite (airing on WarnerMedia-owned channel TNT) held a special Godzilla vs. Kong-themed match.[104]

Meanwhile, Madison and Josh find Bernie, who recognizes Madison as Mark's daughter and becomes part of their investigation, believing Apex had something to do with Godzilla's change in behavior. Together, they sneak into the wrecked Apex base, only to find that the "eye" Bernie had described and seen earlier is now gone. As they discover a secret facility deep underground, the group are inadvertently locked and transported in an antigravity transport vehicle carrying Skullcrawler eggs all the way through an underground tunnel to Hong Kong. There, the three disembark and find themselves inside a huge dark chamber, but stumble upon 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 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 suddenly 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. It is then revealed that Walter intends to harness the power of the Hollow Earth's energy to overcome Mechagodzilla's limitations. Madison realized that Mechagodzilla is the reason why Godzilla attacked in the first place: Apex activated the mecha which sent out signals that provoked him into becoming hostile so they would manipulate mankind that he has turned against them while also secretly planning to get rid of him and all the Titans so that humans can become the Earth's dominant species. While trying to find an exit, Madison and the others suddenly come upon a room where Ren is sitting inside the skull of Ghidorah's severed head, which has now turned into a biological supercomputer and cockpit for Ren to control Mechagodzilla through radio waves after Apex acquired it from Alan Jonah since Godzilla previously tore it off during his battle against Ghidorah off the coast of Isla de Mara five years ago.

Inside the Hollow Earth after passing through a vortex, Kong and Nathan's team find an ecosystem similar to Skull Island. While roaming the landscape, they are suddenly attacked by a pair of Warbats, who destroy one of the HEAVs. Luckily, Kong was able to save the group by killing the first Warbat and swings its corpse into the other one which staggers it, but the creature recovers and constricts itself around him. Before the Warbat can suffocate Kong, the beast is bombarded by missiles from Nathan's team in their HEAV, allowing Kong to break free and violently beats his assailant to death before feasting on the dead Warbat's remains. Afterwards, Kong and Nathan's team resume their journey, eventually reaching their destination at a huge stone temple. As they enter and explore inside, they find remains of an ancient war with Godzilla's kind while Kong finds an ancient war axe created from a dorsal plate of a deceased member of Godzilla's race before sitting upon a giant throne. Suddenly, the axe begins to glow blue and Kong sees a depression in the ground in the shape of it. He places the weapon into it next to several other axes, causing the floor to glow and pulse with energy, revealing the sought-after energy source. Now that the energy source has been found, Maia and the Apex team use spider-like drones to harvest it and send it back to their Hong Kong base for Apex to upgrade Mechagodzilla, but Ilene protests that Apex cannot simply take the find of the millennium. Maia refuses to listen before ordering her guards to aim their guns at Nathan's team, but before they can shoot, Kong intervenes by bellowing at Maia and her group in defense of Jia upon seeing her in danger. Meanwhile, Mechagodzilla sends a signal to Godzilla, who senses the machine's activation and makes his way to Hong Kong. There, Godzilla heads straight into the heart of the city and, upon sensing Kong's presence in the Hollow Earth, he drills a shaft to the ecosystem with his atomic breath, causing the temple to collapse. While Kong and Nathan's team fight off a flock of Hellhawks, Maia and her team try to escape in their HEAV, only for Kong to grab it on their way out and instantly crush the aircraft in his hand after peeking inside to make sure that Jia and the others aren't in there, killing Maia and her personnel inside.

Back in the Apex base, Walter excitedly orders Ren to send out Mechagodzilla to kill Godzilla. Though Ren warns him against using the new Hollow Earth energy source without testing, Walter refuses to listen and coldly orders him to activate the mecha. At the same time, Bernie, Madison, and Josh are caught by security for infiltrating Apex headquarters and taken to Walter. There, Madison accuses Walter of provoking Godzilla into war and for causing all of this in the first place, though he confidently explains that he accepted the responsibility for giving mankind a chance to fight back against Godzilla and the Titans. Unbeknownst 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 getting electrocuted in the process. Now possessed by Ghidorah's consciousness, Mechagodzilla breaks free from the Apex facility underneath Victoria Peak Mountain and rampages through the city, only to be confronted by Godzilla, who senses the presence of Ghidorah inside the machine. Quickly coming into contact with Godzilla, Mechagodzilla engages its organic counterpart in battle.

While Josh and Bernie unsuccessfully try to deactivate the rampaging robot remotely and Madison tries to call up Mark for help, Godzilla and Mechagodzilla battle, at one point both fire their energy beams at each other which lock together, only for Mechagodzilla to gain the upper hand, knocking Godzilla over and burning him due to the fact that he has already grown weary from his earlier battle against Kong. While Mechagodzilla continues to overpower Godzilla, Nathan, Ilene, and Jia approach an unconscious Kong, where Jia senses that he is dying as his heartbeat is starting to slowly shut down. Ilene explains that they can't produce a charge big enough to restart Kong's heart, but Nathan, having remembered what Maia said earlier about the HEAVs producing a charge powerful enough to "light up Las Vegas for a week", flies the remaining HEAV onto Kong's chest and sets it to self-destruct, detonating the craft and releasing a huge electrical charge which instantly revives Kong. After Kong regains consciousness, he awakens in time to witness Godzilla getting beaten up by Mechagodzilla before reuniting with Jia, who convinces Kong that Godzilla isn't really his enemy. Though Kong doesn't believe her at first as he continues to watch Mechagodzilla overwhelm Godzilla, Jia reveals the truth to him that the robot is the "real" enemy, not Godzilla. After a moment, Kong, realizing that he made a mistake, finally accepts and, after fixing his dislocated arm, heads into battle to help Godzilla, who is now at Mechagodzilla's mercy.