Sometimes it feels like Godzilla just doesn’t carry that aura anymore. Like, he can’t be scary. Because after decades of movies, television shows, video games and increasingly enormous Hollywood crossovers, Godzilla is basically a walking Funko Pop figure at this point. But then one very special film came along. Directed by Takashi Yamazaki, the film takes the human cost and post-war trauma of something like Oppenheimer and combines it with the escalating monster terror of Jawsand the result was golden glory.
Set in devastated post-war Japan, Godzilla Minus One follows former kamikaze pilot Kōichi Shikishima, who returns home carrying enormous guilt over his cowardly actions during the war. As he tries his best to rebuild his life alongside Noriko Ōishi and an orphaned child, Japan faces another seemingly impossible disaster when Godzilla emerges and begins tearing through a country already reduced to almost nothing.
The movie stars Ryunosuke Kamiki (Your Name) as Kōichi Shikishima, Minami Hamabe (Let Me Eat Your Pancreas) as Noriko Ōishi, Yuki Yamada (Tokyo Revengers) as Shirō Mizushima, Munetaka Aoki (Rurouni Kenshin) as Sōsaku Tachibana, Hidetaka Yoshioka (Always: Sunset on Third Street) as Kenji Noda, Sakura Ando (Shoplifters) as Sumiko Ōta, Kuranosuke Sasaki (Samurai Hustle) as Yōji Akitsu and Mio Tanaka (Shin Godzilla) as Tatsuo Hotta.
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Made for a fraction of the cost of a typical Hollywood effects blockbuster, Godzilla Minus One grossed more than $110 million worldwide, becoming a major international success for Toho. Its critical reception was even more impressive. The movie holds a 98% critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes, and it made franchise history by winning the Academy Award for Best Visual Effects, becoming the first Godzilla movie ever to win an Oscar.
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Collider Exclusive · Sci-Fi Survival Quiz Which Sci-Fi World Would You Survive? The Matrix · Mad Max · Blade Runner · Dune · Star Wars
Five universes. Five completely different ways the future went wrong — or sideways, or up in flames. Only one of them is the world your instincts were built for. Eight questions will figure out which dystopia, galaxy, or desert wasteland you’d actually make it out of alive.
💊The Matrix
🔥Mad Max
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🌧️Blade Runner
🏜️Dune
🚀Star Wars
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01
You sense something is deeply wrong with the world around you. What do you do? The first instinct is often the truest one.
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02
In a world of scarcity, what resource do you guard most fiercely? What we protect reveals what we believe survival actually requires.
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03
What kind of threat keeps you up at night? Fear is useful data — if you’re honest about what you’re actually afraid of.
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04
How do you deal with authority you don’t trust? Every dystopia has a power structure. Your approach to it determines everything.
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05
Which environment could you actually endure long-term? Survival isn’t just tactical — it’s physical, psychological, and very much about where you are.
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06
Who do you want in your corner when things fall apart? The company you keep is the clearest signal of who you actually are.
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07
Where do you draw the line — if you draw one at all? Every survivor eventually faces a moment that tests what they’re actually made of.
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08
What would actually make survival worth it? Staying alive is one thing. Having a reason to is another.
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Your Fate Has Been Calculated You’d Survive In…
Your answers point to the world your instincts were built for. This is the universe your temperament, your survival instincts, and your particular brand of stubbornness were made for.
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The Resistance, Zion
The Matrix
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You took the red pill a long time ago — probably before anyone offered it to you. You’re a systems thinker who can’t help but notice the seams in things.
You’re drawn to understanding how the system works before figuring out how to break it.
You’d find the Resistance, or it would find you — your instinct for spotting constructed realities is the machines’ worst nightmare.
You function best when you have access to information and the freedom to act on it.
The Matrix built an airtight prison. You’d be the one probing the walls for the door.
The Wasteland
Mad Max
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The wasteland doesn’t reward the clever or the well-connected — it rewards those who are hard to kill and harder to break. That’s you.
You don’t need comfort, community, or a cause larger than the next horizon.
You need a vehicle, a clear threat, and enough fuel to outrun it — and you’re good at all three.
You are unsentimental enough to survive that world, and decent enough — just barely — to be something more than another raider.
In the wasteland, that distinction is everything.
Los Angeles, 2049
Blade Runner
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You’d survive here because you know how to exist in moral grey areas without losing yourself completely.
You read people accurately, keep your circle small, and ask the questions others prefer not to answer.
In a city where humanity is a legal designation rather than a feeling, you hold onto something that keeps you functional.
You’re not a hero. But you’re not lost, either.
In Blade Runner’s world, that distinction is everything.
Arrakis
Dune
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Arrakis is the most hostile environment in the known universe — and you are precisely the kind of person it rewards.
Patience, discipline, and political awareness are your core strengths — and on Arrakis, they’re survival tools.
You understand that the long game matters more than any single victory.
Others come to Dune and are consumed by it. You’d learn its logic and earn its respect.
In time, you wouldn’t just survive Arrakis — you’d begin to reshape it.
A Galaxy Far, Far Away
Star Wars
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The galaxy far, far away is vast, loud, and in a constant state of violent political upheaval — and you wouldn’t have it any other way.
You find meaning in being part of something larger than yourself — a cause, a crew, a rebellion.
You’d gravitate toward the Rebellion, or the fringes, or whatever pocket of the galaxy still believes the Empire’s grip can be broken.
You fight — not because you have to, but because standing aside isn’t something you’re capable of.
In Star Wars, that willingness is what makes all the difference.
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Will There Be a ‘Godzilla Minus One’ Sequel?
There will indeed. The film picks up in 1949, two years after the events of Godzilla Minus One, and continues the story of the Shikishima family as they face what’s being described as an all-new calamity. Kamiki said:
“I am beyond happy to be able to participate in a film set two years after Godzilla Minus One, which is one of the most important works of my life. I also feel proud to have been able to work with Director Takashi Yamazaki and everyone on the team once again. The pressure of participating in a Godzilla work loved by so many people remains the same as in the previous film, but I have done my absolute best so that everyone who watches it, and everyone who loves Godzilla, can enjoy it.”
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