GODZILLA x KONG: The New Empire

*CUT TO THE CHASE*

NOTE: This spoiler was submitted by Jeremy

The film opens somewhere in Hollow Earth. Kong is seen running from beasts called Wartdogs before making it to the edge of a cliff. The great ape then lures the creatures into his trap, sending one plummeting to its death and then tearing another one in two to force the others to run away. As Kong tries to feast upon his kill, he finds that he has an infected tooth preventing him from eating. He then hears a loud bellowing noise, believing it to be coming from another ape, but it’s just a frog creature making the noise. Kong then resigns himself to his solitude.

On the surface, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) has been working with Monarch to keep Godzilla and Kong separate from each other. Godzilla maintains dominance over other beasts by going to kill them whenever they cause problems. In Rome, the monster Scylla is causing mayhem until Godzilla charges his atomic breath and sends it down Scylla’s throat before making the Colosseum his new bed.

At an outpost facility in Hollow Earth, the researchers begin to detect heavy energy readings coming from Kong’s territory, causing a sinkhole in the earth where Kong killed the Wartdogs. Ilene is alerted to the information by a Monarch colleague, Director Hampton (Rachel House). Meanwhile, Ilene has adopted Jia (Kaylee Hottle), who is starting public school for the first time. Jia is experiencing visions connected to the Titans, and she unintentionally makes drawings similar to the energy readings detected by Monarch. Jia tells Ilene that she doesn’t feel she belongs in this new world. Later, the outpost facility is destroyed by an unknown Titan.

Ilene travels to Miami to find Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) for his help in figuring out the connection to Jia’s visions. He agrees to help on the condition that he gets to go with her into Hollow Earth.

Another energy surge occurs, one which even Godzilla senses. He leaves Rome and begins making his way toward the source. At the same time, Kong emerges from Hollow Earth to find Ilene and Jia, showing them his rotting tooth. Ilene contacts her old friend, a Monarch veterinarian named Trapper (Dan Stevens). He uses a large piece of his tech to pull out the tooth and give Kong a metallic replacement. Afterwards, Bernie tells Ilene that a distress signal has been detected from Hollow Earth. Ilene, Bernie, Trapper, Jia and a pilot named Mikael (Alex Ferns) start following Kong on his way back down.

Godzilla makes his way to a nuclear power plant in France, where he starts to absorb the radiation to charge himself up. Jets start swooping in to try and shoot him down, but Godzilla swats them like flies. Hampton then sees that Godzilla is making his way toward another Titan called Tiamat, located in the North Pole. The researchers determine that if Godzilla kills Tiamat, he will become supercharged.

The crew in Hollow Earth comes upon the Monarch outpost and finds it destroyed and the researchers dead. They find a bloody paw print on the stone walls up above, which Trapper says is meant to be a call for war. Elsewhere, Kong finds the sinkhole and comes upon a subterranean realm. He walks with his axe until he comes upon another figure and is stunned to discover that it is a smaller ape called Suko. While Kong tries to approach her peacefully, Suko bites him and summons three other apes to attack Kong. One of them almost kills Kong with his axe until he frees himself from the other apes’ grasp and beats them up, even using Suko as a club against them and killing one. Another ape almost falls off a cliff, but Kong grabs him and pulls him up to safety…only for the ungrateful ape to try and stab Kong, leading him to kick the ape to his death. The third ape retreats while Kong has Suko guide him.

The crew starts flying again until another energy surge causes their ship to crash. Trapper and Bernie sense danger, but Mikael attempts to take the lead, which gets him eaten by a tree creature. The others run until they come upon the ruins of an old temple dedicated to Mothra. Jia activates an entrance, leading them through a protective veil into the subterranean realm.

Suko brings Kong to a watering hole to drink from, until a gigantic serpent monster emerges and tries to take Kong out. Kong fights back and uses his axe to turn decapitate the serpent. Kong takes the serpent’s remains and eats it, even sharing some with Suko, who remains surprised despite having led Kong into a trap.

Monarch tracks Godzilla’s path until he manages to reach Tiamat. The underwater Titan emerges from her slumber and battles Godzilla. Despite Tiamat wrapping herself around him, Godzilla turns her into sushi and absorbs her radiation energy before returning underwater to get himself ready.

The crew is found by warriors of the Iwi tribe, who quickly recognize Jia as one of their own. The leader of the tribe telepathically communicates with Jia and brings her forward. They touch hands, which allows them to share visions and flashbacks of the Iwi tribe, as well as Jia’s own personal memories. Ilene realizes that the distress beacon they received was coming from the Iwi. The crew are guided further into the Iwi’s temple where Ilene translates for them their history. Long ago, the Great Apes were humanity’s protectors, but a ruthless leader known as the Skar King led an army of the apes to try and attack the surface world in a war against Godzilla and his species. The mighty dinosaur stepped in and trapped the Skar King and his army within Hollow Earth to prevent them from escaping. It is also said that a direct descendant of the Iwi (Jia) will be the one to reawaken Mothra.

Kong follows Suko to where the other Great Apes are located, to Kong’s huge surprise. They are forced into hard labor by Skar King. Kong sees one of Skar King’s enforcers antagonizing another ape. Kong steps in and has the enforcer try to get in his face, only for Kong to sucker punch him and knock him down. Skar King then shows up to meet Kong, laughing at him with the other apes for his metal tooth. Skar King attempts to come down on Suko, only for the surviving ape from earlier (the ones that attacked Kong) to defend Suko. This causes Skar King to kick the ape into a pit of lava in retaliation, causing Suko to wail in agony. Kong and Skar King engage in a duel, with Skar King utilizing a whip made from another Titan’s spine. While Kong almost overpowers Skar King, the evil ape summons his secret weapon, an ice Titan named Shimo (said by Ilene to have been the cause of the last Ice Age) that is controlled by Skar King using a crystal that causes her pain. He makes Shimo breathe ice toward Kong, who attempts to deflect it with his axe, but the blast is powerful enough to envelope Kong’s arm in ice and cause his arm to get frostbite, weakening him. Kong starts to flee with some of Skar King’s apes pursuing him, but he leads them into one of their traps, killing all except the ape that he punched out since he used another ape to shield himself from falling rocks.

The crew spends more time with the Iwi, including Jia finally being around her own people again. Bernie tries to document his findings while Ilene tells Trapper she just wants what is best for Jia. The Iwi then open the veil into their world as Suko brings the injured Kong to them. They see his arm and find him in bad shape. Kong signs with sadness to Jia that he lost his home. Trapper tells Ilene that the best thing for Kong is some tech of his from his project, “Operation Powerhouse”, which was done to create an augmentation to Kong in the event of another major Titan attack, but they were shut down. Trapper manages to locate the B.E.A.S.T. glove from the destroyed Monarch outpost and applies it to Kong’s arm, allowing him to regain mobility and strength. He then starts to head out to the surface world to get Godzilla’s attention, even though the others know Kong stepping onto his turf could lead to deadly consequences. Meanwhile, Skar King rides Shimo and leads the other apes towards their conquest.

Godzilla reawakens after being fully charged by Tiamat’s power, causing his dorsal plates to glow a bright pink color. Kong enters the surface world through a portal in Cairo, while Godzilla hears his roar in Gibraltar and makes his way over. Big G is none too pleased to see Kong again, so he charges toward him despite Kong making an attempt to convince Godzilla to join him (as well as the monsters can communicate), but he tackles Kong as they get into another big fight, destroying the pyramids. Kong puts his new glove to good use to punch Godzilla a few times. Down below in Hollow Earth, the Iwi undergo their ritual with Jia, ushering in the rebirth of MOTHRA! She makes her way to the surface to intervene in the fight. Godzilla is stunned to see his old ally once more, and it is enough for him to put aside his mess with Kong to join forces as he and Kong roar in unity.

With Skar King and his forces fast-approaching, the humans come up with a plan to create a gravity surge by applying Iwi technology to have their crystals create a reaction that will briefly be used to stop the evil Titans from escaping. Skar King has Shimo freeze the veil and break it down so that he may enter. Godzilla and Kong then charge into battle together, leaping toward Shimo and Skar King, respectively for the ultimate monster smackdown. The surge commences, with the two apes and two lizards duking it out mid-air, while Skar King’s enforcer tries to get in, and Suko joins the fight and sends the traitorous ape falling to his death. Mothra protects the humans trying to fly to safety. The four main Titans then fall through the portal through the surface world.

The Titans end up in Rio De Janeiro on a beach, scaring off the other patrons. Skar King then uses Shimo to unleash her ice powers upon the world, freezing several buildings and firing an ice blast into the sky. Kong gets a few more licks in against Skar King, but Shimo makes it hard for Kong to defeat him. Godzilla charges up his atomic breath against Skar King, who dodges the blast but gets the crystal ripped off the whip by Godzilla. As the Titans try to get to the crystal, Suko jumps through the portal with Kong’s axe and enters the battle to shatter the crystal with a swing of the axe, freeing Shimo from Skar King’s control. Now without his ultimate weapon, Kong tosses the evil ape towards Godzilla, who whips him back with his tail towards Kong like a volleyball. He then holds Skar King in the air as Shimo turns on her former master and freezes him into an apesicle. Kong then shatters Skar King into a million pieces. Godzilla uses his breath to undo the ice blast, setting everything back to normal.

In the aftermath, Godzilla returns to rest at the Colosseum. Mothra repairs the veil in Hollow Earth. Ilene believes that Jia is ready to part ways with her and stay with the Iwi tribe, but Jia signs to her that she will stay with Ilene wherever they go. The two then part ways with Trapper and Bernie.

Kong returns to the Great Apes along with Suko and Shimo, the latter who is now being treated much better thanks to Kong. He then stands before the other apes as their new leader, and he raises his axe to the sky with a mighty roar, which the other apes return with respect.

Kong has been making the most of his time in Hollow Earth, though he has begun to feel a bit lonely. With help from Dr. Ilene Andrews and Jia (who has been adopted by Ilene), plus conspiracy nut Bernie Hayes and Ilene's old friend Trapper, Kong is led to a subterranean realm within Hollow Earth that is home to a tribe of Great Apes like Kong. However, they are being led by the ruthless Skar King, an evil ape that sought to lead his army to conquer the surface world until Godzilla imprisoned them within Hollow Earth.

While Godzilla has been keeping other Titans away from the surface to maintain his dominance, he has picked up a distress signal from Hollow Earth and goes to kill a powerful radioactive Titan called Tiamat to absorb her energy and charge himself for the incoming threat. When Kong is led to the Great Apes by a smaller ape called Suko, he battles Skar King until he finds that he is controlling a powerful ice Titan named Shimo, who severely wounds Kong by causing his arm to get frostbitten. Suko leads Kong to safety and brings him back to the humans. Trapper uses an old piece of his tech to create a glove for Kong to use to regain mobility and strength.

The humans work together with the surviving members of the Iwi tribe, whom Jia is descended from, to resurrect Mothra with Jia's help. Kong goes to the surface world to get Godzilla's help, but the great lizard tries to fight him again since he sees Kong stepping onto the surface as entering Godzilla's turf. It isn't until Mothra intervenes that Godzilla knows they have to join forces. The Titans return to Hollow Earth together just as Skar King and his forces arrive with Shimo. The Iwi create a gravity surge to prevent Skar King from entering the surface world, but in the middle of his and Shimo's fight with Godzilla and Kong, they all end up going through the portal.

The final showdown takes place in Rio as Shimo's ice powers are unleashed upon the land. Godzilla and Kong continue to battle Skar King and Shimo until Suko shows up with Kong's axe and destroys the crystal that Skar King was using to control Shimo. No longer bound by her cruel master, Shimo assists Godzilla and Kong in Skar King's beatdown, ending with Shimo freezing him and Kong breaking him into pieces.

Godzilla returns to Rome to rest at the Colosseum while Ilene and Jia appear to stick together with the Iwi. Kong goes back to the Great Apes with Suko and Shimo to become their new leader.