Giant Monsters of the Real World

In the post nuclear world of 1950’s Japan a new breed of monster began stomping around Japan tearing down power lines and smashing buildings with its massive fists.  The images are said to have been evoked from a fear of a creature so vast it could destroy civilization in its iron grip.  To many it was allegorical to the new concepts and challenges that faced the human race as complete nuclear devastation became a reality for the first time ever.  But what of the creature itself?  What would a real attack from such a creature be like and what effect would it have on the world?

Of course it’s monumentally unlikely that a creature such as this could have existed on Earth for so long without being detected by humans.  But enthusiasts of a giant monster attack scenario suggest that with 71 percent of the Earth’s surface being rendered a three dimensional habitat by water and the majority of the seas barely explored, the idea has not been disproved entirely.  And since the “bloop” signal was detected in 2001 there is a very real community of people that suggest such a creature is stirring in its sleep.  Images from the HP Lovecraft classic short story “The Call of Cthulhu” emerge from this quickly.  But what if something like this ever came ashore?

We would have to first look at where such a creature would emerge from the ocean.  Would it be near a city?  In the United States the Eastern coast is widely inhabited in one form or another with cities and coastal suburbs stretching along its edge like a vast wall.  The creature may leave the water, driven by an ecological disaster or even simple curiosity to the coast and begin travelling inland.  I use the term travelling as walking would be fairly unlikely for a creature existing in the highly pressurized deep waters of the Atlantic or the Pacific that have not been explored.  An upright figure like Godzilla would be unlikely.  More likely would be a sort of crawling creature with a massive toothless mouth for swallowing vast amounts of fish in a single gulp like many whales do.  Additionally it would have developed in order to survive underwater, and even if it could survive on land it’s unlikely such a creature would be able to stay on the surface long.  It may suffer debilitating tissue damage if its surface was not kept wet like many whales do.  If such a creature came ashore it would likely cause little damage and then return to the ocean where it would likely be tracked but not hunted by marine biologists working with the military.

This scenario seems unlikely, but it does raise an interesting question about the entertainment industry and its need to create stories surrounding creatures that don’t seem to be biologically feasible.  The 2008 film Cloverfield was born out of a similar cultural fear as that which birthed the Godzilla films, and there was even a brief where hoaxes began proliferating throughout youtube videos depicting massive creatures making themselves visible for a few brief seconds only to return to the ocean subsequently.  But the reality of a giant monster coming on land to wreak havoc would likely be far more damaged by life on the surface than entire platoons of armed soldiers shooting at it from the ground.