The Ending Of Godzilla X Kong: The New Empire Explained
Contains spoilers for "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire"
Godzilla. Kong. If you know anything about the MonsterVerse — the name given to this kaiju-centric universe — you know that these two are often at odds. After all, they're both Alpha Titans. When Kong was taken off Skull Island, which has a cloak on it that leaves it undetectable, Godzilla and Kong fought to the death in "Godzilla vs. Kong." At least until some smart scientists figured out that Godzilla could rule the surface of the Earth and Kong could rule the Hollow Earth, a strange area in the middle of the planet that humans can't normally access.
That's where we left Godzilla and Kong when we last saw them. Now, something else is happening with these two, as the "x" between their names in "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" indicates. Even though the "x" is silent, per CBR, seeing it in the title is a powerful reminder that when a threat from the Hollow Earth resurfaces, Godzilla and Kong come together to take it on. This is a kaiju-fest of the highest order. You not only get Godzilla and Kong, but also Skar King, Mothra, Tiamat, Shimo, and a whole mess of big apes, all clashing to see who will come out on top. This is the ending of "Godzilla x Kong" explained.
What you need to remember about the plot of Godzilla x Kong
"Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" begins with Godzilla and Kong in their separate corners of the world. Godzilla defends the people of Rome against a giant spider, then takes over the Colosseum and has a nap. Kong, meanwhile, is still looking for others like him in the Hollow Earth but comes up empty.
Kong has a cracked tooth and goes to the surface to get people to fix it. While the veterinarian Trapper (Dan Stevens) repairs his mouth, Dr. Ilene Andrews (Rebecca Hall) is worried about having Kong on the surface too long, lest Godzilla gets wind of it. While Kong is there, Bernie Hayes (Brian Tyree Henry) shows up to tell Ilene about the meaning behind the strange drawings her adopted daughter Jia (Kaylee Hottle) is making. Bernie has figured out that these are distress signals from the Hollow Earth. So when Kong goes back there, Ilene, Jia, Trapper, and Bernie tag along.
In the Hollow Earth, Kong goes down to the Subterranean Realm, where he finds cowering apes ruled by the Skar King. But who is the Skar King? He's an enormously powerful and not especially nice ape. Kong fights him and almost wins. But then, Skar King calls Shimo, a kaiju he controls who breathes ice. Shimo forces Kong to retreat. Meanwhile, Godzilla consumes massive amounts of radiation, even killing the kaiju Tiamat in the Arctic Ocean, as a way of powering up to confront the threat.
Godzilla vs. Kong ... again
The humans in the Hollow Earth, meanwhile, have come upon a tribe of Iwi, the tribe of which Jia was thought to be the only survivor. King Kong, whose arm is hurt, goes to the tribe, whose territory can be seen for the first time because the humans from the surface uncovered it. Trapper augments Kong's arm with advanced tech, which also puts his arm in a position to heal. Meanwhile, Skar King has set out to get Kong. Kong, knowing time is of the essence and understanding he can't take on the Skar King alone, goes to the surface to try to recruit Godzilla to his cause.
Kong takes one of the portals in Iwi territory and surfaces in Egypt. Godzilla finds him there, but instead of listening, he starts to fight. Kong has no choice but to fight back. The destruction is terrible, destroying the ancient pyramids. But then Jia appears with Mothra, and Godzilla pauses long enough to understand what Kong and Mothra want. Godzilla roars in agreement as the other two kaiju join in.
Skar King is already in Iwi territory when Godzilla and Kong come through the portal. The Iwi, who have the power to manipulate gravity, have turned it off for a few minutes. As a result, Godzilla and Kong can't take on the Skar King and Shimo the way they planned. Instead, they're all floating around as they fight. Then gravity resets and everyone falls to the ground, except Skar King and Shimo, who get pulled through a portal and end up in Rio de Janeiro.
What happened at the end of Godzilla x Kong?
Skar King is initially ecstatic to find himself on Earth's surface, a place he hasn't been in a long time. But his happiness is short-lived: Godzilla and King Kong soon come after him through the same portal, and their fight is back on. As they brawl, destroying large swathes of Rio de Janeiro, the little ape named Suko — or Baby Kong, whom King Kong had befriended — goes through the portal with Kong's weapon, a sort of battle ax.
He surfaces in time to see Skar King disarmed of his weapon, a whip made of an enemy's backbone with a blue crystal attached to the end of it. The crystal is what Skar King uses to control Shimo. Every time he touches it, Shimo does what he says. Suko, knowing this, destroys the crystal with Kong's ax, freeing Shimo from Skar King's mind control. Shimo turns on Skar King, freezing him. Kong then takes the frozen Skar King and smashes him to pieces.
With their victory, the two Titans go back to their respective realms. Godzilla goes back to the Colosseum and takes a nap. Kong goes home to the oppressed apes in the Hollow Earth's Subterranean Realm with a newly freed Shimo and declares himself their new leader. In addition, Jia tells Ilene that she plans to stay with her instead of her tribe in the Hollow Earth.
What the end of Godzilla x Kong means
Although Godzilla and King Kong have teamed up, the ending of the movie makes it seem unlikely that they will continue to be allies. After all, now that they've vanquished Skar King, they've gone back to their separate territories. The fact is, though, that Godzilla and Kong work well together and could very well team up again in the future. For now, though, everyone will continue as they have. Godzilla will rule the Earth's surface, Kong will rule the Hollow Earth, and the humans will try to help both of them on an as-needed basis, presumably while trying to limit the damage to human lives and property.
Perhaps the biggest outstanding question is: What will Jia do now that she knows her tribe still exists in the Hollow Earth? She's chosen to stay with Ilene, her adoptive mother, but she has a profound connection to the Iwi. What that could mean for the future is anyone's guess, but whatever it means, it will undoubtedly bring Kong, and most likely, Godzilla into the fray, as well as Mothra, which we learn from the Iwi's carvings is their protector in the Hollow Earth.
How long has the Skar King wanted to get to the surface of the Earth?
In a sequence in the film, Ilene and the other humans from the Earth's surface find themselves in a room in the Iwi's temple that tells the story of Skar King in hieroglyphics. Fortunately, Ilene can read these glyphs and tell his story. Skar King lived on the surface of the Earth in ancient times. He was cruel and wanted to take over the Earth, but Godzilla wouldn't let him. Godzilla banished Skar King to the Hollow Earth where he's been ever since. So Skar King has wanted to get back to the Earth's surface for a very long time.
It would be fair to assume Skar King became a dictator to his people over time, but the truth seems to be that Skar King has been a cruel leader in Hollow Earth since the beginning. He's oppressed his fellow apes, who are too scared of him to rise and take the crown from him. He's also managed to capture Shimo and control her. So if he manages to get back to the surface of the planet to rule, he will inevitably be a dictatorial force. That's why King Kong and Godzilla are needed to take him down.
Why do the Iwi stop gravity from working?
The Iwi's power is to manipulate gravity, so when Skar King and Shimo start to attack, the Iwi decide to turn off gravity for a couple of minutes. Their goal is to bring together two pyramids, one in the sky and one on the ground, to prevent Skar King from going through the portals that are in their territory. Skar King has always wanted to get back to the surface of the Earth, and the Iwi know this. But because Mothra hid their territory, Skar King never found their portals. Now that their territory has been opened up by the people from Earth's surface and Skar King is looking for King Kong, who went to the Iwi for help, the Iwi need to do something to cover their portals so Skar King can't get through one of them.
Bringing the pyramids together is their way of doing this. Unfortunately, Skar King arrives before they can complete the procedure and he orders Shimo to blast the pyramids with her ice breath, preventing them from coming together as planned. So while gravity is still turned off, leading to an epic Zero-G fight between Skar King and Shimo and the just-arrived Godzilla and Kong, the portals stay open. This is how Skar King and Shimo end up being sucked into one of them when gravity is turned back on. It's an unfortunate mistake. But luckily, Godzilla and Kong are there to follow Skar King and continue the fight.
Why isn't time different on Hollow Earth and Earth's surface like in Monarch: Legacy of Monsters?
A "Godzilla x Kong" spoiler fixes a big MonsterVerse complaint, but another one has opened up — or so it seems. In "Godzilla x Kong" and all the MonsterVerse movies, there isn't a difference between time on the Earth's surface and time in the Hollow Earth. In this movie, for instance, there is a station on Hollow Earth, and no one there seems to be aging slower than those on the surface of the Earth.
This may come as a surprise to anyone who saw the TV show "Monarch: Legacy of Monsters." Though some may need the Godzilla show's confusing timeline explained, one undeniable thing is that on the show, time in the Hollow Earth moves much slower than time on the Earth's surface. Characters who spend just a few days in Hollow Earth return to the surface and discover that years have passed. In fact, the slower time on Hollow Earth is a major plot point in the show.
There's a reason for this, though: The people in "Monarch" aren't making it all the way to the Hollow Earth of the movies — instead, they've gone to a region of the Hollow Earth called Axis Mundi. Unlike other parts of the Hollow Earth, people on Axis Mundi experience time faster than people on either the Earth's surface or other parts of the Hollow Earth. This is due to Axis Mundi's gravitational distortions. So while it might seem like a plot hole, it's not.
What does director Adam Wingard have to say about the future of the MonsterVerse?
Adam Wingard, the director of "Godzilla x Kong: The New Empire" as well as "Godzilla vs. Kong," told Armando Tinoco and Natalie Sitek from Deadline, "Ever since I was a little kid, I was obsessed with monster movies." So when he got a chance to make this second monster movie, he said, "I knew that I needed to stylistically do something that I've never seen before, which was tell a film from that monster POV that I'd always wanted to see, and that's what we did."
When asked about where he goes in the MonsterVerse from here, he told Brian Davids from The Hollywood Reporter, he spoke positively about how the franchise lends itself to allowing filmmakers to put their own creative spin on each individual movie. Winguard explained, "As a director, it would be exciting because I would take an even different approach next time."
Is there a sequel in the works?
Not right now, but it's hard to imagine there won't be a sequel in the works at some point soon. After all, our Looper critic said "Godzilla x Kong" is a roaring spectacle of kaiju carnage, and the movie is set to open big. Wingard told Deadline that he would love to make a third movie in the MonsterVerse, after "Godzilla x Kong" and "Godzilla vs. Kong." "I think the seductive thing as a filmmaker when you've done two movies is to complete it as a trilogy — that's always what everyone expects."
Still, there has to be interest for the next one to get greenlit and Wingard says the Powers That Be are not comfortable approving it yet. "We'll see. It really depends on how the movie does," Wingard explained. "I think that there's a lot of really cool ideas we have [about] where we could go with it. I'm open to it and excited for what the future brings." So while a sequel hasn't been given the go-ahead yet, it sounds like Wingard and his team could get one up and running quickly, which is promising for fans who want to see another film in the franchise hit theaters as soon as possible.
What the end of Godzilla x Kong could mean for the franchise
Godzilla and King Kong are part of a major franchise. So it's hard to imagine that Legendary and Warner Bros. would want that to end. Still, they've seen what happens when other franchises, like the Marvel Cinematic Universe, get too complicated. As a result, their wait-and-see approach to future films is prudent. After all, it's hard to imagine where the franchise could go from here.
The legendary Godzilla has battled Kong, whose backstory is explained here, in "Godzilla vs. Kong," and then teamed up with him in this one, so they've covered all their bases. While the pair could fight or team up again in future movies, it seems that this could lead to diminishing returns over time. "Godzilla x Kong" had a relatively small cast of humans and whole swaths of dialogue-free scenes where we stayed exclusively with King Kong, so it's possible that future installments could reduce human involvement even more and focus on Kong or Godzilla to see what they're up to when humans aren't there.
However, what the story could be after this installment is anyone's guess. "Godzilla x Kong" ends with Kong finding a family of sorts, but Godzilla doesn't factor into this and the two Titans still rule their separate realms. As a result, it's hard to predict what would bring them back together — although next time hopefully Godzilla will ask Kong for help.