The Hollow Earth Theory That Has Godzilla Vs Kong Fans Scratching Their Heads

One of the major focuses of Godzilla vs. Kong is fleshing out the existence of the Hollow Earth. This second ecosystem located deep beneath the Earth's crust is the home of the Titans, and a major setting for the movie, as King Kong leads a human expedition to his ancestral homeland in search of a groundbreaking new power source. Much of the time leading up to this expedition is dedicated to explaining how the Hollow Earth works.

Unfortunately, even with all that explanation, Hollow Earth still doesn't make a lot of sense. From the time the humans first pass through the gravitational barrier that separates the surface from Hollow Earth, viewers have to start suspending their disbelief a bit more than usual. Even now, only a short time after the film's initial release, fans are already scratching their heads trying to make sense of the movie's absurd Hollow Earth shenanigans.

Barring the fact that the movie never quite explains how Kong can survive the trip to Hollow Earth when the gravitational inversion between the two ecosystems supposedly crushes any other living thing that passes through, the fact that there is somehow sunlight inside of Hollow Earth is even more puzzling. Shouldn't a massive underground cavern be pitch black? Well, fans have taken to Reddit with their own theories on the issue.

"They don't say this but I'm guessing they're doing a Journey to the Center of the Earth thing," one user wrote. "In that universe I think there's so much bioluminescent lichen that it winds up looking like a sky."

Another Redditor suggested a theory based on the real-world Hollow Earth theories of the past, wherein there is a second sun that provides light to the Hollow Earth ecosystem. Finally, the most simple answer given suggests that it is simply energy from the earth's core. This might be the most believable of the three, as antagonist Walt Simmons establishes that the existence of Titans is due to the mysterious energy source found below.

When Kong and the human characters in Godzilla vs. Kong finally reach Hollow Earth, they are awed by its incredible vastness and diversity of strange, new life. However, Kong is not so easily impressed, and begins moving out with no hesitation. Members of the expedition point out that it seems as if he knows where he's going. This is proven true when Kong leads them to a massive palace carved into one of Hollow Earth's many mountains. The architecture of the stone palace is incredibly precise, and even includes a throne for the King of Monsters to rest upon. The only question is, who built all of this?

"I assume it was some smarter, larger species that preceded Kong that built all that stuff," one Redditor suggested. However, given the amount of Godzilla and Kong-related symbols inside the palace, this seems unlikely. Another likely explanation is that it was prehistoric humans who somehow found a way into Hollow Earth and worshipped the Titans as gods. It also could've been Kong's species themselves. The axe he wields is a subtle clue that Kong's species might have had some type of civilization before most of them got wiped out.

The trip to Hollow Earth seems plausible enough at first. The gravitational inversion seems believable to begin with, especially since the humans needed to create a special craft to travel there. There's even a massive, glowing barrier (assumedly caused by the inversion) that you need to break through in order to make it to Hollow Earth. This is ignored for the rest of the movie, however. After Kong discovers his palace and charges his axe with energy from the planet's depths, Godzilla senses the familiar surge of power below and fires his atomic breath straight down. This drills a whole straight into Kong's palace and provides him with a convenient entrance to the surface in order to fight Godzilla. 

Of all the confusing details regarding Godzilla vs. Kong's Hollow Earth, this is the one fans seemingly cannot answer. How did Godzilla's breath breach the massive gravitational barrier? How can Kong just climb back up? Wouldn't the sudden appearance of a massive hole deeper than the Mariana Trench have horrible geological side effects? These matters are mostly brushed aside to make room for the final fight, but it still seems hard to swallow. Even in a movie about a giant monkey fighting a giant lizard, the Hollow Earth might be too much to believe.