How we cite our quotes: All quotations are from Godzilla.
Quote #1
Sailors relax on the deck of a ship. The sea begins to glow beneath them, and the ship explodes in flames, killing everyone on board as it sinks into the ocean.
Well before the big baddie puts in an appearance, nature seems to turn against the sailors. The ocean has always been a place of mystery, outside the realm of humanity—we can't survive in it. Except for Tom Hanks at the end of Splash, but he's with a mermaid. Anyway, lots of mythological creatures have been imagined to exist in the ocean, and modern science is still finding larger-than-life animals in its depths.
Quote #2
OLD FISHERMAN: That's right. A giant, terrifying monster. Once it eats all the fish in the sea, it'll come ashore and eat people. In the old days, if the catch was poor for a long time, we'd sacrifice a young girl, send her drifting out into the middle of the ocean. This dance is all that's left of that exorcism ritual.
HAGIWARA: Godzilla, huh?
In order to make sense of a world that seemed large, mysterious, and dangerous to them, ancient peoples often connected natural phenomena to abstract concepts like gods or spirits. After all, if you lack a theory of planetary orbits, you still need an explanation for why the sun disappears every now and then. Why not assume the gods must be angry?
Godzilla receives its name from one such mythological creature (made up for the film, btw). The name's origin hints at the creature's mysterious nature, supernatural strength, and connection to the world beyond the human.
Oh, and there's the whole "god" part of its name. That's also a pretty good clue.
Quote #3
INADA: Oh, I forgot about that. We lost twelve cows and 8 pigs.
SHINKICHI: It's the truth. It was hard to see in the dark, but it was definitely alive.
HAGIWARA: I know it defies common sense, but the more I think about it, the more I'm convinced this wasn't caused by a typhoon. The damage to the houses and helicopter suggests they were crushed from above.
Godzilla or very nasty weather? This time the creature's hidden by a typhoon, foreshadowing its destructive power by paralleling it with a devastating natural occurrence.