Godzilla can bring to mind either great (think original 1954 version) or not so great (1998 installment) movie memories.
But did you know that the 1954 version was inspired by, and serves in part as a warning against, nuclear warfare?
According to Turner Classic Movies, eight months to the day before Godzilla (known as Gojira back then) premiered, the U.S. exploded the first Hydrogen bomb. Warnings went out that there was going to be testing, but a fishing boat crew thought they were going beat the other fishermen, and trying to get their catch.
They did, but it was bad timing, they were all exposed to the fallout and eventually succumbed.
But the even worse news was, they sold their catch before realizing how sick they really were. The people of Japan were testing their fish for contamination. They came to relize that their entire country was contaminated with fallout from Russian nuclear testing.
On Nov. 1, 1954 Japanese audiences saw a science fiction move that seemed more true than fiction. According to IMDB, the classic movie even contains scenes of a fishing boat being destroyed by a nuclear blast, the same blast that reanimated and mutated a long-dead dinosaur into the mighty Godzilla.
While in Tokyo, the movie served as a warning; across the world, it has turned into a classic monster flick with many incarnations over its 60 years, introducing or combining characters like Mothra, King Kong, and even a Godzilla baby.
In the latest Godzilla (2014), hitting the big screen this week, stars like Bryan Cranston, Juliette Binoche and Ken Watanabe try their hand in resurrecting the the movie monster.
Will it be a classic like the 60-year-old version? Only the box office totals will tell.
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