The two heavyweights of MonsterVerse, Godzilla and King Kong, shared the big screen after nearly six decades of individual adventures and we can’t help but wonder—who is the stronger one?
Nearly 60 years ago in 1962, King Kong and Godzilla squared off in Japan, and King Kong shoved a giant tree into Godzilla’s mouth. The two would engage in a back-and-forth battle that featured atomic breaths and lightning strikes, and King Kong would ultimately leave the grueling brawl victorious. However, the 2021 movie Godzilla vs. Kong did not end with a clear winner after we saw the two titans unite against a third enemy.
That said, the movie still fleshed each titan in great detail for us to have a good comparison of their powers.
Godzilla—the King of the Monsters—proved to be stronger than Kong in terms of raw power and could even plummet Kong with an axe in a face-off match. However, Kong’s ability to bond with other beings and work in tandem proves to be much more powerful, saving even Godzilla’s dragon ass in the movie.
1. How Strong Is Godzilla—the King of the Monsters?
With an armor-plated skin and devastating atomic breath, this lizard-like being is closest to Komodo dragons and dinosaurs in his built. There isn’t a kaiju left in the MonsterVerse that he has not defeated, pinning down even Kong at least twice in the film.
The Gojira is a lone wolf who has managed to survive on his own for thousands of years. All those years of battles and mutations have rendered him the most powerful being on earth.
Starting with his massive, serrated tail that serves as the best long-range weapon and his spiked dorsal plates that can slice through metal, to ice-blue atomic breath that is as destructive as it is aesthetic—Gojira is almost undefeatable.
According to paleontologists, scaling up from the power of dinosaur tails, Godzilla’s tail could yield a force equivalent to 2,000 tonnes of mass. His conical teeth and chunky jaws imply a phenomenal bite, generating around 900kg per square centimeter worth of force—enough to severe body parts and fracture the strongest bones. Add to that his ability to fight on both land and water.
As for his biggest strength, it has to be the atomic breath at 900,000 degrees Fahrenheit. He used it to literally blast thousands of miles into the earth, creating a tunnel, in one of the most epic moments of Godzilla vs. Kong. In doing so, Godzilla puts up powers matching the Death Star on display, in terms of destroying the Earth itself if he wanted to!
However, Godzilla met his match in the AI-powered Mechagodzilla, who had all those powers and more. Big G was nearly destroyed by his metallic nemesis, if not for Kong.
2. How Strong Is Kong—the King of the Jungle?
“Kong bows to no one.”
Built like a giant gorilla, Kong’s primary kingdom is on the hard earth. Besides being phenomenally strong, he is a protector of all those loyal to him. In fact, Kong’s biggest strength turned out to be the fact that there is a softer side to all the beastliness. Kong’s bond with the little girl from the tribe in Skull Island, Jia, literally saved the world. He is not called the King of the Jungle for no reason.
Not that I am underestimating his brute strength. Kong is able to lift objects that are at least as heavy as he is and throw massive punches as well. The fact that each of his arms is over 70 meters long make him extremely dangerous up close. Add the ability to wield an ax and his powerful bite (9100 kg per square centimeter), and you have a formidable battle opponent you want no messing with. In addition, he is also fast, agile, and can leap and run.
In one of the many big money shots from Godzilla vs. Kong, the King of the Jungle chops off the Mechagodzilla’s limbs with his magic ax and then rips his head off, holding it up like a proud head hunter! Kong sure comes with all the drama and emotions needed to become a king.
However, it is his intellectual capacities that ultimately give him the edge over any other kaiju, even if they are built superiorly. It allows him to plan ahead, modify his behavior, and adapt to unfamiliar situations more than is typical for other kaiju. In Skull Island, we see Kong’s ability to construct clubs from trees, and even use human-made objects like chains and propellers in defeating his enemy. In GvK, it translates into the wielding of the magic ax—also thanks, opposing thumbs!
3. Who’s the New Alpha Predator of MonsterVerse?
Going by theoretical comparisons of the two titans, Godzilla could seem the more powerful one when compared to Kong. He can fight on land and water is his home, his mutations make him a much more dangerous version of primate dinosaurs, and that spiked skin is nearly impermeable. All of these combined easily overpowers Kong’s larger brain-to-body ratio—his biggest strength.
However, the key difference between Kong and Godzilla is that when faced with a more powerful enemy, Godzilla crumbled but Kong managed to survive against both Godzilla and Mechagodzilla. How? Because of his ability to connect with other beings, which meant they had their back when he was down. Godzilla on the other hand had no one to watch his back.
After being defeated by Godzilla, Kong was down and was losing his pulse very fast. Jia, who could sense his heartbeat besides being the only person to communicate with the gorilla, got help from other adults. Kong was given an emergency upheaval so he could return to fight Mechagodzilla and also save Godzilla.
Mechagodzilla was a failed human experiment that could have destroyed the whole planet. But in teaming up with humans and Godzilla, Kong proved his mettle in his own way. It would not be a stretch to say that Kong broke Godzilla’s rage by getting him on his side and fighting against Mechagodzilla like a team.
Godzilla and Kong parted ways as rivals on the same side, agreeing to respect each other’s boundaries, and ready to defend the planet against any future dangers. In that way, the movie went back on its original premise that there could only be one alpha predator by giving us two of them, each in his own realm.
4. About Godzilla vs. Kong
Godzilla vs. Kong is an American kaiju-action movie. It is a sequel to Godzilla: King of Monsters and Kong: Skull Island and is the latest entry in the WB-Legendary Monsterverse. The film stars Alexander Skarsgard, Millie Bobby Brown, Rebecca Hall, Brian Tyree Henry, and others.
Godzilla vs. Kong took in $285 million in just 12 days in theatres. As of now, it has grossed over $400 million, becoming the most successful movie in the pandemic era to date.
Humans have captured King Kong from Skull Island to help him find his true home. With them is Jia, a young orphaned girl with whom he has formed a unique and powerful bond. But Kong’s return comes just in time for Godzilla cutting a swath of destruction across the globe. As the fearsome monsters square off in an epic battle for the ages, humanity looks to wipe out both of them and take back the planet once and for all.
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