Apple TV “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” continues the world-shattering story introduced in the MonsterVerse movies. Season 2 delves deeper into the secret history of the mysterious Monarch organization and its connection to the Titans—especially the giant radioactive one with the million-dollar smile known as Godzilla.
As demonstrated on the show and movies, when Godzilla strikes, the world feels the rumble, with poor San Francisco finding out the hard way in its 2014 outing. It’s a destructive event that rivals an alien invasion or an asteroid strike. So, to celebrate the arrival of “Monarch” Season 2, we spoke to some of the world’s leading scientists and experts to ask the question: If Godzilla attacked, could we survive? And could we coexist?
A big problem
“Godzilla’s presence would definitely be a biome-destroying event,” monster researcher and “Monstrum” host Dr. Emily Zarka tells Space.com about what would happen if Titan went through the rift and stomped into our world. “Because of the size of Godzilla and the other kaijuwould there be physical effects. I think it would completely change life as we know it.”
Dr Hans-Dieter is the plaintiffsenior research geologist and curator of vertebrate paleontology at the National Museum of Natural History at the Smithsonian Institution, believes that Godzilla’s existence would have a major effect on the environment. “If Godzilla existed, its greatest impact would be the enormous damage caused by occasional forays onto land,” says Sues.
“If it happened frequently, vegetation would favor plant species such as ferns that can quickly repopulate affected regions. Although Godzilla has enormous teeth and claws, the standard version lives only on radiation. However, some versions have it eating large amounts of marine animals while spending time in the ocean. That could lead to a local or regional ocean food chain.”
Today’s Shipping Alert: Godzilla
To Dr Deby Cassillassociate professor in the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of South Florida, Godzilla’s presence may also affect maritime travel – but not as drastically as one might imagine. “Maritime disturbances will be real, but localized,” says Cassill.
“Whales are already rerouting ship routes. We’re rerouting vessels around their aggregations, spawning grounds and seismic zones. Assuming Godzilla has radioactive elements, we could track it—not quite with the same radar we use now, but it’s a trackable source of energy. If he was in a deep environment, we wouldn’t need draft, because our ship doesn’t need draft. There wouldn’t really be a question of collisions, unless he was in the shallows the areas.”
Cassill adds that there are already a number of previously undiscovered biological creatures, such as the 500-year-old Greenland shark, that live in the deepest and darkest parts of the ocean. As a result, it would be entirely possible for Godzilla to also be down there and not fail anyone.
The experts agree that, unless provoked, most of the damage that Godzilla will cause will be accidental. This would not come from a place of hostility, but because of his clumsy trailing tail. Still, Sues believes there is only one solution when the Titan arrives on land. “The only effective response would be to quickly move away from the direction Godzilla is traveling and hope it doesn’t change course,” says Sues. “Stay away from Japan, especially the Tokyo region!”
No one disagrees here. Seeing Godzilla requires quick knee-to-chest movements, not casual strolls. “If, hypothetically, there was some kind of early warning system, obviously following those warnings would be effective,” Zarka says. “But I would say, yeah, run as fast as you can in a perpendicular direction. That’s usually the best bet that works for a zombie apocalypse, and it works in any kind of panic situation.”
Still, this terror may not last as long as the first act of James Cameron’s “Avatar” films. “If he’s powered by radioactive furnaces, a creature that big can’t move that fast for a long time,” says Cassill. “As we know from Chernobyl, if the radioactive part of a nuclear power plant is not cooled and has a way of dissipating heat, it erupts, which is hugely dangerous.” Given how much time he spends in the ocean, it stands to reason that this is how Godzilla cools down, and he’ll likely need regular falls to keep his temperature down.
A living nuclear weapon
This weakness gives people an opportunity to flee the danger zone and figure out their next move. “Godzilla’s not going to go on an hour-long rampage because it might explode,” Zarka says. “Also, considering the size of Godzilla and the other kaiju, many of them are partly inspired by dinosaurs and real carnivores. From what I understand as a non-paleontologist, for dinosaurs of this size, their sheer volume and mass would make them unlikely to be fast, and for a sustainable period, unlikely. we see that this would be something in the god, and would definitely be a hibernation in the monster. and the other kaiju take small naps.”
Sues finds it more difficult to categorize or compare Godzilla to other creatures due to the fact that the Titan’s physical makeup is affected by another factor. “Godzilla is a unique type of being,” Sues said. “Given the extremely high radioactivity, it cannot have ordinary DNA, which could potentially combine with any other DNA.”
Essentially, this raises serious questions: What would be the effect of encountering a living, breathing nuclear reactor? And does everyone have to start wearing hazmat suits? according to Professor Eric C. Schirmer from the Institute of Cell Biology at the University of Edinburgh, it all comes down to whether Godzilla has shielding within himself to protect himself – and us – from nuclear radiation.
“Godzilla has to have some kind of shielding around the reactor in order for him to sustain himself,” says Schirmer. “This shielding should similarly protect the people around him, except to the extent that the fire he spews would also be highly radioactive. In his wake, he would leave entire areas with enough radiation that humans, who were directly exposed to it, could suffer significant radiation damage. If human populations did not move away from the areas where he has damaged buildings with his radioactive fire, it would receive a lower level of radiation, so the long-term radiation level would be lower. is maintained, and will likewise suffer radiation damage.”
It’s probably a terrible idea to even attempt to stop or kill Godzilla, since a nuclear apocalypse could materialize and doom us all to a greater world of pain and suffering. But as Cassill explains, humans will inevitably try at some point. “Anything that moves and looks threatening triggers fear in people,” says Cassill. “It’s a survival strategy.”
Godzilla in spaccccceeeeeee!!!!
The military could try to blow up the monster with non-nuclear weapons. However, even the most intense firepower and aerial attacks seem to be ineffective against Godzilla. However, what did work in one of the older films was Oxygen destroyer device, which effectively suffocates the creature. Now, whether any of these actual devices exist in the real world is another story. Maybe the only option is to strap him to some rockets and send him into space.
Doing some napkin math here and sending the King of Monsters into space would be no mean feat. The highest payload capacity rocket we currently have is SpaceX’s Starship, which can carry a theoretical maximum payload 250 tonnes into low earth orbit. According to Legendary Pictures, Godzilla weighs 90,000 tons in the 2014 film, so we’d need at least 360 Starship rockets to put him into orbit (if we ignore the myriad of other problems associated with attaching 360 rockets to a giant lizard).
We don’t know exactly how much each Starship rocket costs, but at estimates of $100 million per launch, it would cost $36 billion to put Godzilla into low Earth orbit. Realistically though, we want to send him further than that; we don’t want him crashing back to earth in a few years.
Maybe not such a good idea then, especially since he can survive in space too, as shown by several adaptations. But at least that will make him the universe’s problem and no longer Earth’s. A problem blasted into the cosmos is a problem halved – that’s what they say, right?
Putting God in Godzilla
The only other reasonable and sensible option here is coexistence. The solution would be to figure out smart and non-confrontational ways to survive. “Humans would have to adopt ways of living where they would be unlikely to encounter Godzilla,” says Sues. – They could, for example, live deep under large mountains.
For Cassill, the ability to live in harmony rests more in humanity’s camp than Godzilla’s, explaining how most conflicts arise because humans cannot accept that other species’ priorities differ from ours. Godzilla doesn’t want to eat us, so he’d probably leave us alone, but would we be able to resist the urge to stab the monster? “To coexist with Godzilla would not require taming him,” says Cassill. “That would require us to stop provoking him, and we have a terrible track record of that.”
While Zarka believes that we can learn from our historical relationships with other apex predators and not interfere with them to ensure our survival, there is another possibility that may arise. “When it comes to long-term effects and coming from a folkloric perspective, we have to think about how our worldview will change when it comes to understanding non-human life and intelligence, as well as how these giant creatures change spiritual practice,” says Zarka.
“We are watching this a bit Mothra that she is worshiped as a goddess and protector. I don’t think we would necessarily worship kaiju per se – although I think that could happen – but it would just force a lot of people to think about life and the world around us in a completely different way than we have.”
To kill or to pray to; it’s an interesting perspective to think about. Since the former isn’t really an option and Godzilla is already the King of Monsters, he might take Jack Dawson’s title as King of the World next. All hail the Titan, we guess…
“Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” roars to Apple TV on March 27, 2026.
