How Godzilla vs. Megalon Became a Cult Classic

A nuclear test triggers seismic activity that disrupts Godzilla, Anguirus, and Rodan, causing the island to collapse. As the chaos unfolds, Megalon awakens from his subterranean kingdom of Seatopia, prompted by nuclear damage, and emerges to wreak havoc on the surface. With the help of Jet Jaguar, a robot created by inventor Goro Ibuki, the two battle Megalon, who is later joined by Gigan. After a fierce struggle, Godzilla arrives to aid Jet Jaguar, and together they defeat the two kaiju, forcing Megalon to retreat back to Seatopia. The Seatopians end their war, and Jet Jaguar gains his own free will.

It may sound bizarre to some of my non-western viewers but “Godzilla vs. Megalon” is a cult classic here. A major reason for this is because of a clerical error and legal problems. Let me explain. After its 1976 theatrical run under Cinema Shares, a clerical error in the late 1980s caused the film to fall into the public domain. Suddenly, it was everywhere—VHS bargain bins, gas station movie racks, and late-night TV syndication. The sheer volume of cheap, low-quality transfers (often sourced from pan-and-scan TV broadcasts) made this one of the most visually degraded Godzilla films available for years. To honor this trend, I’ve elected to use a garbage VHS rip that someone from this time would have absolutely owned back in the day. Ironically, this only enhanced its mystique, turning it into a kind of sacred VHS artifact of bad cinema.

Then came Mystery Science Theater 3000, which took Godzilla vs. Megalon and immortalized it in season two. MST3K had already skewered multiple kaiju films (especially Gamera), but this one hit differently. The awkward human scenes, the overlong car chases, and Jet Jaguar’s deeply unsettling smile provided a goldmine of riffing material. And like all great MST3K episodes, it mocked the film and rightfully so, but it also made people weirdly attached to it. When you spend 90 minutes laughing at something, you start to feel nostalgic for it, and suddenly, Godzilla vs. Megalon wasn’t just a bad Godzilla movie—it was the bad Godzilla movie, an essential rite of passage for monster movie fans. Even though most Godzilla fans nowadays in the year of our lord 2025 would argue it’s nowhere near the worst of the bunch.

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