5 Times Godzilla and King Ghidorah Threw Down in Movies, And Who Won Each Battle — Explained
King Ghidorah is about to become Godzilla’s problem again. Toho’s Godzilla Minus Zero, the sequel to the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, confirmed the three-headed dragon’s presence in the latest trailer, with Ghidorah’s unmistakable screech promising a rematch fans are never tired of watching. While we still don’t know how he fits in the story, King Ghidorah’s return to a mainline Toho film comes after over two decades of absence, promising to revive a rivalry that has driven some of the franchise’s most important storylines. In fact, across six decades and several competing continuities, King Ghidorah has proven to be one of the only kaiju capable of matching Godzilla blow for blow, which helps explain his popularity.
Since his 1964 debut, King Ghidorah has appeared in nearly every stretch of the franchise’s history, missing only the most recent run of films that includes Shin Godzilla and Godzilla Minus One. Ghidorah debuted as an extraterrestrial conqueror, became an alien tool, was reimagined as a genetically engineered creature, and even became a reality-bending god. Through all of it, the three heads and hatred for Godzilla have never changed, leading to iconic battles.
5) Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster
Ishiro Honda’s Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster hit Japanese theaters on December 20, 1964, introducing the three-headed dragon as a spacefaring destroyer who had already annihilated the civilization of Venus before setting his sights on Earth. The film catches Godzilla and Rodan mid-brawl over territory when King Ghidorah’s meteor cracks open near Mount Fuji.
In the movie, a still-larval Mothra intervenes, using her limited ability to communicate with the other kaiju to argue that none of them can beat Ghidorah alone. Godzilla and Rodan reluctantly set aside their feud, and the three Earth monsters direct their attacks at Ghidorah. The fight is chaotic and close, since Ghidorah’s three heads let him engage multiple targets simultaneously, but the joint assault eventually forces him into retreat toward space. Ghidorah, the Three-Headed Monster also marked a turning point for the franchise itself, recasting Godzilla as a reluctant protector of Earth instead of a force of uncontrolled destruction, a shift rarely reversed afterward.
4) Invasion of Astro-Monster
Released in Japan in December 1965, Invasion of Astro-Monster brought King Ghidorah back for a rematch after his first defeat to Godzilla and his allies. The movie kickstarts the Monster Zero mythology, while also painting the dragon as a menace so severe that the alien Xiliens of Planet X ask to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to drive him off. The two Earth monsters make quick work of Ghidorah in their first encounter, tackling him to the ground within moments of the clash beginning. The twist arrives when the Xiliens reveal their real plan, mind-controlling all three monsters and sending them to attack Earth instead.
Once human resistance fighters jam the aliens’ control signal, Godzilla, Rodan, and Ghidorah revert to their instincts and get on a second, briefer round of their brawl. Godzilla and Rodan pummel Ghidorah until he flies off into space, tumbling into the ocean as the fight ends. Invasion of Astro-Monster amounts to one of the shortest Ghidorah confrontations in the franchise, though the stakes stay unusually high given that Earth’s fate hinges on whether Godzilla and Rodan can be trusted once freed from alien control.
3) Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack
Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack flips the franchise’s usual dynamic by making Godzilla the villain once he becomes possessed by the vengeful spirits of Japanese war dead. Meanwhile, King Ghidorah fights on the side of humanity as one of three ancient Guardian Monsters alongside Baragon and Mothra.
Godzilla makes short work of Baragon before Mothra and a young Ghidorah arrive in Yokohama to intercept him. Godzilla overpowers both guardians with ease, using his atomic breath to destroy Ghidorah, which only fails when Mothra throws herself in front of the blast. Mothra’s sacrifice transfers her energy into Ghidorah, aging him instantly into the fully grown dragon familiar from earlier films. The empowered Ghidorah gives Godzilla real trouble, shielding himself from the atomic breath and dragging the fight underwater, but Godzilla eventually turns Ghidorah’s gravity beams against him, absorbing the energy and unleashing it back in a blast that wipes the dragon out entirely. Giant Monsters All-Out Attack marks the only point across the franchise where King Ghidorah dies fighting for humanity’s side, and the only time Godzilla’s victory doesn’t feel like something to be celebrated.
2) Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah
Anyone who follows the classic Toho films knows things can get… weird. That’s the charm of them. Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah, for example, follows time-traveling operatives from the 23rd century who visit Lagos Island and secretly swap the dinosaur destined to become Godzilla for three genetically engineered creatures called Dorats. The Dorats fuse and mutate into an adult King Ghidorah a decade later when they are exposed to the Bikini Atoll hydrogen bomb test that originally births Godzilla. The operatives then unleash their creation on Godzilla to destroy the King of Monsters.
Ghidorah’s aerial mobility and gravity beams give him an edge for most of the fight, at one point constricting his necks around Godzilla’s throat. Once resistance fighters sabotage the device controlling Ghidorah, Godzilla frees himself with a nuclear pulse, knocks his opponent down, and fires a supercharged atomic ray that severs Ghidorah’s middle head entirely. Believing the threat resolved, the film pivots when an operative returns from the future with Ghidorah’s corpse rebuilt into the cyborg Mecha-King Ghidorah, sent to subdue Godzilla’s subsequent rampage through Tokyo. That machine briefly overpowers Godzilla and hauls him out to sea, but Godzilla breaks free and drags the wrecked cyborg down with him, silencing the threat for good. Godzilla beats the character twice in a single film, leaving no question of who’s the superior beast.
1) Godzilla: King of the Monsters
Godzilla: King of the Monsters, the third movie in the MonsterVerse take on the mythology, stages the most drawn-out Godzilla-Ghidorah rivalry the series has given fans, splitting their battle into three rounds. First, eco-terrorists free Ghidorah from Antarctic ice early in the film, and his first clash with Godzilla ends without a clear winner. Their second encounter goes worse for Ghidorah, as Godzilla tears off one of his three heads. However, the King of Monsters still takes a beating, even before a human-deployed Oxygen Destroyer interrupts the fight and forces Godzilla into retreat.
Weakened and presumed dead, Godzilla is revived when Dr. Ishiro Serizawa (Ken Watanabe) sacrifices himself in a nuclear detonation that raises Godzilla’s radiation levels. Ghidorah, meanwhile, drains a power plant to fuel a final assault. The resulting battle briefly turns in his favor as Godzilla struggles under the damage sustained throughout the movie. Mothra intervenes one last time, giving her own life to transfer energy into Godzilla and trigger his Burning Godzilla form, a state introduced decades earlier in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah. Supercharged, Godzilla overwhelms Ghidorah and finishes him off, reclaiming his position as Earth’s apex Titan.
