Atomic breath

Godzilla’s signature weapon is his distinctive atomic breath. The process is the following: Godzilla’s dorsal fins glow blue and white ominously, before he lets loose with a concentrated blast of radiation from his mouth. This power is commonly mistaken for breathing literal fire. Mothra, the Kamakiras, and Hedora were defeated by Godzilla’s lethal radiation beam.

Godzilla has been shown apparently being able to adjust the intensity of his ray, varying from a blast of superheated vapour (such as in the 1950s and 1960s), to a beam with explosive and kinetic properties, (in the 1970s and onward.) The ray is usually portrayed as being neon blue, though in Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus, it is a reddish orange.

In Godzilla vs. Megaguirus the ray was shown to have incredible incendiary properties and was powerful enough to destroy a miniature black hole, while in Godzilla: Final Wars, it possessed incredible range, amazing power and pin-point accuracy, able to hit a target in outer space and kill most kaiju with a single shot. In a memorable (and somewhat infamous) scene in Godzilla vs. Hedorah, Godzilla even used his atomic breath to fly by aiming it at the ground and lifting off like a rocket.

When Godzilla’s dorsal plates began to melt and his heart was nearing the meltdown stage, the radiation increased his breath’s power to the point that buildings that were near its path blew up.

This new red breath was used on Destroyah who took fatal damage. The red spiral atomic breath was used in the Heisei films Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II, Godzilla vs. SpaceGodzilla, Godzilla vs. Destoroyah and the Millennium film Godzilla: Final Wars. The orange atomic breath seen in Godzilla 2000 and Godzilla vs. Megaguirus which was as powerful as its blue counterpart is not the Red Spiral Atomic Breath, but a recoloring of the standard blue atomic breath.

A variation of the standard atomic ray in the Heisei series was the red “spiral ray” that he acquired as a result of absorbing the Rodan’s life energy. This ray was so powerful that only a few blasts of it were sufficient to completely destroy Mechagodzilla and SpaceGodzilla. However, Destoroyah was able to withstand several hits of the “spiral ray.”

Godzilla’s red spiral atomic breath appeared in times when Godzilla was under extreme duress. However in Godzilla vs. Destoroyah the spiral atomic breath completely replaced the normal atomic breath, due to the amounts of power his nuclear heart was giving off. It is so powerful that only one blast of it was sufficient to completely destroy Super Mechagodzilla and SpaceGodzilla, though Destoroyah was barely able to withstand several hits.

In MultiVerse’s Godzilla vs. Kong, Godzilla’s breath has grown more powerful. Like in other series, this breath was used to damage major human settlements as well as Kong. A point-blank atomic ray, however, had never damaged Kong’s battle axe. The breath is also shown, when fully charged, to be powerful enough to bore straight into the Earth’s core. In the official novelization for Godzilla vs. Kong, it is stated that Godzilla got his atomic breath from an energy source in the Hollow Earth. The Iwi called it eating a star and spitting its rays out. During the battle with Mechagodzilla, Godzilla’s atomic breath could match Mechagodzilla’s proton scream.