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60 free Godzilla trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
57 free Godzilla trivia questions with answers. Godzilla has been stomping through cinemas since 1954, and this quiz covers the whole reign: the original nuclear-allegory film from Ishirō Honda and Eiji Tsuburaya, the increasingly heroic Showa sequels, the Heisei and Millennium reboots, Shin Godzilla, the Oscar-winning Godzilla Minus One, and Legendary's Monsterverse from the 2014 film through Godzilla x Kong. The early questions are ones any monster-movie fan can answer: what the atomic breath is, who Mothra and King Ghidorah are, which studio makes the Japanese films. Then it gets into the lore that separates fans from tourists: how Akira Ifukube built the roar out of a contrabass, how much the first suit weighed, which schoolchild designed Jet Jaguar, why Roger Ebert has a mayor named after him, and what Shinjuku ward made Godzilla in 2015. Every answer was checked against film histories and production records and carries a linked source, so it holds up for a movie night, a pub quiz round or an argument about which era was best.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01In which year was the original Japanese Godzilla film released?
1954
It premiered in Nagoya on October 27 and went wide in Japan on November 3, a date fans now celebrate as Godzilla Day.
Q 02Which Japanese studio has produced and distributed every Japanese Godzilla film?
Toho
The company was founded in 1932 by the Hankyu Railway's Ichizō Kobayashi as the Tokyo-Takarazuka Theatre Company.
Q 03Godzilla's signature weapon is a beam of nuclear energy fired from its mouth, commonly called what?
Atomic breath
The studio has rendered it with everything from gas-powered flames to hand-drawn animation and CGI over the decades.
Q 04The Japanese name Gojira is usually explained as a blend of the words for gorilla and which animal?
Whale
Legend says it was a nickname for a burly Toho employee fond of whale meat; director Honda's widow called that a tall story.
Q 05Which giant moth, accompanied by two tiny twin fairies, is Godzilla's most famous ally?
Mothra
She began in a 1961 serialized novella before her own film that year, and her design borrows from silkworms and giant silk moths.
Q 06Godzilla's three-headed golden dragon archenemy is called what?
King Ghidorah
Producer Tomoyuki Tanaka took the idea from the Lernaean Hydra and Japan's eight-headed serpent Yamata no Orochi.
Q 07Which 2023 film became the first entry in the franchise to win an Academy Award?
Godzilla Minus One
It took Best Visual Effects at the 96th Oscars, the first non-English-language film ever to win that category, on a reputed $10 million budget.
Q 08Which American studio produced the Monsterverse films beginning with Godzilla (2014)?
Legendary Pictures
Warner Bros distributed; the 2014 film grossed about $529 million on a $160 million budget.
Q 09Which director made the 1998 American Godzilla starring Matthew Broderick?
Roland Emmerich
Jan de Bont had been attached first but left over budget; the film premiered at Madison Square Garden, where the monster nests in the story.
Q 10Which real 1954 event, a Japanese boat dusted by H-bomb fallout, helped inspire the first film?
The Lucky Dragon 5 incident
Producer Tanaka conceived the film on a flight home from Jakarta after a Japanese-Indonesian co-production collapsed.
Q 11Which director helmed the original 1954 Godzilla?
Ishirō Honda
He directed 46 features and later came out of retirement to serve as Kurosawa's right-hand man on his last five films.
Q 12How did the effects team originally want to bring Godzilla to life, before settling on a man in a suit?
Stop-motion animation
Eiji Tsuburaya was inspired by King Kong, but deadlines and a lack of experienced animators made suitmation more practical.
Q 13How was Godzilla's famous roar created for the 1954 film?
Rubbing a resin-coated glove along a contrabass string
Q 21Rodan, Godzilla's flying ally, is an irradiated giant version of which prehistoric creature?
Pteranodon
The Japanese name Radon is simply a contraction of the animal's name; the character debuted in its own 1956 film.
Q 22Godzilla vs. Hedorah (1971) pits Godzilla against a monster spawned from what?
Pollution
Director Yoshimitsu Banno slipped a flying-Godzilla scene into the film while producer Tanaka was in hospital.
Q 23The robot hero Jet Jaguar in Godzilla vs. Megalon (1973) came from a design contest won by whom?
An elementary school student
Composer Akira Ifukube produced it and slowed the playback; the footsteps came from striking an amplifier box.
Q 14Which actor wore the Godzilla suit in 12 consecutive films from 1954 to 1972?
Haruo Nakajima
A judo black belt, he spent a week at Ueno Zoo studying elephants and bears before shooting the first film.
Q 15Roughly how much did the original 1954 Godzilla suit weigh?
100 kg
Two men were needed to help Nakajima into it; the rubber, plastic and latex were hard to source in postwar Japan.
Q 16In the 1956 American re-edit of the first film, which actor was spliced in as reporter Steve Martin?
Raymond Burr
He acted opposite body doubles so it looked like he had been in the Japanese production all along.
Q 17Which weapon does scientist Serizawa use to kill Godzilla at the end of the 1954 film?
The Oxygen Destroyer
He burns his notes and dies with the monster so no superpower can force him to build more.
Q 18Which monster did Godzilla fight in the 1955 sequel Godzilla Raids Again?
Anguirus
The film was rushed into production so quickly that Ishirō Honda was replaced by Motoyoshi Oda in the director's chair.
Q 19Which creature fought Kong in Willis O'Brien's outline that became King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962)?
A giant Frankenstein's monster
Producer John Beck handed the outline to Toho behind O'Brien's back, and Godzilla replaced the monster.
Q 20What milestone did King Kong vs. Godzilla (1962) mark for both monsters?
Their first film in color and widescreen
It was also the first Toho-produced Kong picture and became the second-highest-grossing Japanese film ever on release.
The winning drawing was of a robot called Red Arone; the film later got a second life on Mystery Science Theater 3000.
Q 24In its 1974 debut, Mechagodzilla was built by which villains?
Aliens from Black Hole Planet 3
Tanaka took inspiration from Mechani-Kong in King Kong Escapes and the then-booming robot anime genre.
Q 25Godzilla's adopted son, introduced in 1967's Son of Godzilla, is properly called what?
Minilla
His breath weapon is a feeble atomic smoke ring, and his egg was cracked open early by giant mantises.
Q 26In Destroy All Monsters (1968), where are Earth's monsters kept before aliens set them loose?
Monsterland
The preserve sits in the Ogasawara island chain, and the invaders are the Kilaaks.
Q 27Godzilla vs. Biollante (1989) merges Godzilla cells with the cells of a rose and what else?
A scientist's dead daughter
The plot came from a public story-writing contest and set the Heisei-era pattern of enemies that mutate into stronger forms.
Q 28Which 1995 film was publicised by Toho as featuring the death of its title monster?
Godzilla vs. Destoroyah
Godzilla's heart, a living nuclear reactor, goes into meltdown; it was the last film scored by Akira Ifukube.
Q 29Which 2004 Godzilla 50th-anniversary film brought back dozens of old monsters and premiered in Los Angeles?
Godzilla: Final Wars
The 1998 American monster reappears in it, renamed Zilla, and Godzilla received a Hollywood Walk of Fame star before the premiere.
Q 30Which two directors, known for Neon Genesis Evangelion and Attack on Titan, made Shin Godzilla?
Hideaki Anno and Shinji Higuchi
They went on to make Shin Ultraman and Shin Kamen Rider; the film won seven Japan Academy Prizes including Picture of the Year.