Godzilla (2014)

In 1954, the United States military witnesses a nuclear test. An atomic bomb is detonated at the moment a giant creature emerges from the ocean. In 1999, Project Monarch scientists Ishiro Serizawa and Vivienne Graham investigate a colossal skeleton of an unknown species unearthed in a collapsed mine in the Philippines. They find two spores; one dormant, one broken open and a recently-made trail to the sea. In Japan, the Janjira Nuclear Power Plant experiences unusual seismic activity. Supervisor Joe Brody sends his wife Sandra and a team of technicians into the reactor. While the team is inside, the reactor is breached, releasing radioactive steam. Sandra and her team are unable to escape and the plant collapses into ruin.

Fifteen years later, Joe's son Ford, a US Navy explosive ordnance disposal officer, returns from a tour of duty to his family in San Francisco but has to immediately depart for Japan after Joe is detained for trespassing in the Janjira quarantine zone. Determined to reveal the disaster's true cause, Joe persuades Ford to accompany him to their old home within the zone to retrieve vital data. They successfully retrieve the data but are captured and taken to a secret facility within the plant's ruins. Inside, a giant winged creature emerges from containment and escapes, destroying the facility. Joe is severely wounded and later dies. The incident is reported around the world as a major earthquake.

Serizawa, Graham and Ford join a US Navy task force led by Admiral William Stenz on the aircraft carrier USS Saratoga to search for the creature, dubbed "Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism," ("MUTO"). The scientists reveal how a 1954 deep sea expedition triggered the appearance of Godzilla, a prehistoric alpha predator; how early nuclear tests were really attempts to kill him; that Project Monarch was formed secretly to study Godzilla; and that the MUTO caused the Janjira destruction. Ford reveals that Joe had monitored echolocation signals that indicated the MUTO was communicating with something.

The MUTO is found feeding off the wreckage of a Russian nuclear submarine it deposited in a forest in Hawaii. The military attacks and the battle shifts to Honolulu International Airport where Ford is waiting for a flight home. Godzilla arrives, causing a tsunami that devastates Waikiki. After briefly fighting Godzilla, the MUTO flies away, and Honolulu is left in ruin. Meanwhile, at a Nevada nuclear waste facility, a second, larger and wingless MUTO, emerges and devastates Las Vegas. The scientists deduce that the second MUTO is female, the two were communicating and will meet to breed.

The task force follows Godzilla, projecting that the monsters will meet near San Francisco. Over the scientists' objections, Stenz approves a plan to use nuclear warheads to lure the monsters to a safe distance from the city and then detonated to destroy the monsters. Ford returns with the military to California and joins a team delivering the warheads by train. The female MUTO destroys the train and devours one of the warheads. The remaining warhead is airlifted to the city and is activated, but the MUTOs capture it and take it to a nest in the downtown area, where the female deposits her eggs.

After the military fails to stop Godzilla when he arrives at the Golden Gate Bridge, Stenz accepts Serizawa's advice and orders the military to withdraw to allow the three monsters to fight. While they battle, soldiers, including Ford, enter the city by HALO jump to find and disarm the warhead. Unable to disarm the warhead at the nest, they put it on a boat for disposal at sea. Ford blows up the nest before the MUTO eggs can hatch, causing the female to leave the battle. Godzilla then kills the male, using his tail to crush the MUTO against a building. The female finds and kills the team on the boat but Ford is saved when Godzilla kills the female by firing his atomic breath down her throat, thus decapitating her. Godzilla then collapses from injury and exhaustion after roaring in victory. Ford pilots the boat out to sea, and is rescued before the warhead detonates.

The next day, Ford finds his family at an emergency shelter. In the city ruins, Godzilla, thought to be dead, suddenly awakens and returns to the ocean hailed 'King of the Monsters".