A colossal egg has washed up on Nishi Beach, attracting the attention of an entrepreneur who plans to build a theme park around it. When Godzilla wakes from his muddy slumber, a judicious reporter turns to the dying insect-god Mothra for help, and a battle to rescue the egg—and Japan—begins.

Ishirō Honda brings the gargantuan lepidopteran into the franchise fold for one of the greatest entries in the Godzilla canon. Emblematizing hope in the face of her irradiated nemesis’ untrammeled rage, the ailing Mothra lends a singular poignancy to the film’s epic battle of good versus evil.