-= Giant Monster Varan (1958) / Varan the Unbelievable (1962) =-

Spoilers Ahead - this post contains the plot for Giant Monster Varan (1958) and Varan the Unbelievable (1962).

( Giant Monster Varan is the original Japanese version, while Varan the Unbelievable is the heavily Americanized cut, so they will each have a separate section on this page. )

The film begins with the shot of a rocket liftoff, and a narrator explains that humanity is on the brink of the space age, which is funny and true bc this was right around the time men first stepped onto the moon, less than 10 years later. We find ourselves in Professor Sugimoto's biology class, where the professor is showing his class pinned butterflies that were supposedly only ever found in Siberia-- but a young boy found one there in Japan on his summer vacation, so Sugimoto wants to find out if more are nearby. Two of his students go to the Kitagami River, the 'Tibet of Japan', to try and look for more. They are shown driving through the area through really rough terrain, where they eventually come upon Iwaya Village, where the villagers do not seem too fond of outsiders. The two take note of a wooden carved sign that reads of an entity called Baragadi, seemingly a local myth of the region. Continuing on their bumpy drive, one is scared because it seems like there's a sudden soft earthquake, which would make anyone in a mountain region nervous. His friend reassures him with a smirk to not worry, that

"It's too early for monsters."

They then find this beautiful mountainous area with lots of strange smoke, and one explains that it's a gas that is specific to that region. There is another large rumble, and as they pause to examine their car after the small quake, they spot the exact type of butterfly they were looking for, so they follow it. As they retrieve the butterfly, they hear what sounds like an unfamiliar roar. The two are knocked over by something large, and the film makes a quick cut, where we see newspapers being mass-printed with headliners that read: "Who Killed Them? Baradagi?" Which is who the villagers seemed to have mentioned on that warning sign.

Back in the professor's office, we see him and the students looking over the newly-printed papers, finding them hard to believe. Yuriko, the sister of one of the two men who died, comes to retrieve whatever her brother left behind in the classroom. She asks the professor what killed them, and he says he's not sure, but the police said their jeep was "crushed like a paper toy". One man says that it definitely couldn't be a landslide because of the pattern of damages on the vehicle, but the professor also isn't superstitious-- he says that they know nothing about the biology of the area, mentioning the local myth Baragadi. He says they think it may be just be that the villagers are superstitious, but the people living there fully believe it is real-- so Yuriko is determined to figure out what exactly it was, since she is apparently a reporter in addition to wanting to know what happened to her brother, calling it the mystery of the 20th century. Some of the students bicker about it being too dangerous for her, so they finally decide to accompany her to 'keep her safe'. They take a bus and get as close to Iwaya village as possible, following the same path the other two had, yet without a vehicle this time as they make the trek. One guy complains about wanting to rest, but Yuriko and the other guy look at the map and she's like "oh it's only 2 kilometers away, let's keep going!"

The area is very mountainous and wooded like we had seen prior, very very pretty and clearly untouched by humanity. They hear a loud bird, and the scaredy guy gets scared by it. The more protective guy, acting all brave and knowledgable says he hears footsteps. Initially scared of the unknown cause of said footsteps, they quickly come across a young kid who is wearing a scary mask who warns them not to go any further. The tougher guy asks him what's up with the mask, to which the kid tells them its a mask of Baradagi- and that he's from Iwaya village and his father is a priest there. There's another scary unfamiliar roar sound again, to which the kid tells them it's Baradagi and he'll eat them if he sees them, so he leads them away. We cut to the village and the father is chanting, begging the God of Baradagi to spare them, saying they (meaning the two students who were killed) didn't mean to invade his privacy. The group walks up onto the chanting, which abruptly stops as the villagers notice the outsiders.

They tell the priest they come from Tokyo to explore, and the priest angrily tells them that the two men who died were also from Tokyo, what a coincidence. The braver student then explains to him that they knew the two students, they don't think the deaths came from Baradagi, and that "it's ridiculous to believe such a thing ever existed," which... is so obviously going to offend them, which it does. The priest angrily forbids them from continuing, and as he's chastising them, we hear the roar again. Chibee, the child Gen's dog, runs away, and he goes to chase after him with no regard for any danger. His mother wails, begging him to come back, but the priest says he's condemned and he's a goner for leaving the village when it's so dangerous. However, not afraid of Baradagi, the students resolve to go rescue Gen.

The dog just keeps barking and running, so Gen just keeps following him, with the three students not far behind. They come upon a heavy fog as they trek through the heavy foliage, and they all become separated. The two men find one another, but they can't find Yuriko. We just now are told by Yuriko as she calls out for them that the two men are Kenji, the braver one, and Horiguchi, the one a little less brave.

Kenji and Horiguchi return to the village since the fog is too thick, and the priest explains that Baradagi is angry, hence the fog-- to which Kenji insists that it's just superstition, and Horiguchi tells the village folk that "see, even a young boy went to go find his dog, so there isn't anything to fear." Several villagers hear this and it actually manages to convince them, so, emboldened, they agree to go with them to look for Gen and Yuriko (and Chibee).

But suddenly, Chibee comes back with a note on his collar that says "the boy is safe, we'll stay at the lake until the fog clears," before running back through the fog. Determined to follow the dog to Gen and Yuriko, the villagers, Kenji, and Horiguchi quickly go after him, the fog miraculously begins to clear. Chibee leads them back to Gen and Yuriko just as the lake begins to stir. They are frightened, saying it's Baradagi-- and we then see a big reptilian head poke up out of the water and make way towards them. They all run as the monster wades through the water, and then through the trees. They reach the village, perhaps believing they'll be safe, as the priest waves his wand around praying that Baradagi stays away. It seems as if where this strange spiked monster goes, he brings high winds with him.

The priest is smashed as the villagers hurry away, the monster clearly not regarding him in the slightest. Horiguchi states that it looks like a big lizard, and Kenji, as he looks through his binoculars at it, states that it "could be a Varan. But it's unbelievable that Varan can still be alive after millions of years." Yuriko instantly knows that it's Varan that killed her brother, and they all fear the havoc it could wreak if it made its way to a big city. We see him rummaging around and smashing through houses in the village, kicking up dust and dirt as he does so.

We then cut to more newspaper headlines that read "Varan, the Prehistoric Monster" and "Varan Annihilates a Village" as we return to the classroom, where the biology professor Sugimoto states to his students that

"We have ample evidence to assume that Varan is a Varanopode. And to my knowledge, Varanopode lived about 185 million years ago... It ranges from the Triassic period to the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods."

(Just say the Mesozoic my guy)

A man named Mr. Majima enters, introducing Sugimoto to two other men who are officers in the Defense Agency, Kusama and Katsumoto. They consider this a very serious case and seek to learn as much as they can, but unfortunately Sugimoto says they don't know much about Varan-- but they do know that they must not ever let him enter the cities. The Defense officers ask Sugimoto to accompany them and their troops to the location Varan was last seen at, in an attempt to learn more and hatch a plan.

As we see shots of them driving to the village, we see high winds blowing across the fields as tanks are brought in not far behind them. They get to the infamous lake where Kenji says Varan returned to, and there are Chemical Squadrons on their way there to try and lure Varan out of the water. More tanks are brought in, and the way they move you can clearly tell they're miniatures, lol. Guess most of the budget went to the Varan costume.

The men get to their positions, load their cannons, and take aim. They got the whole 9 yards; howitzers, cannons, heavy artillery, etc, as the civilians have been evacuated. The officers believe that Varan is sitting at the bottom of the lake, so they have the entire place surrounded-- new weapons are brought in that are said to have shells that "contain chemicals which will dissolve in water" and take effect within 20 minutes, luring Varan out.

On the officer's mark, they bombard the lake with chemicals, and we see shots of the shells as they sink to the bottom and dissolve. Everyone waits, keeping an eye on the lake surface with binoculars. 25 minutes pass, and nothing. Suddenly, Yuriko points out that many of the fish in the lake are dying and floating up to the surface Oxygen-Destroyer style. Varan then surfaces angrily, and the Defense Force fires on him. Pissed off, Varan rears up as he gets closer to land and begins to walk bipedally, which really tells you he means business. People begin to flee, and some of the reporters are like "wait I just want to get a quick picture!!" which same.

The bombardment clearly isn't working, so all of the students and reporters hurry away, followed shortly by the soldiers who quickly pack up their armaments. Kenji remains behind to try and get a photo, and Yuriko wants to stay with him, but he urges her away so she can get to safety. Varan continues on bipedally, angered by the bombardment, and we get a nice look at him. He seems to have webbed toes in some shots which is a nice touch if true. We see the humans continue to hurriedly evacuate, and the remaining villagers scream to one another about how it's Baradagi, fueling their fear even further. His roars sound almost exactly the same as Godzilla's sometimes, yet are just slightly different enough. He continues his pursuit, and a tree falls onto Yuriko's leg, trapping her. She calls for Kenji, but he's too far away to hear her for now.

The Defense Force is debating on calling in reinforcements, but Professor Sugimoto says that it's no use, since it seems like Varan is indestructible-- he says that to kill Varan, they're probably going to have to do something drastic. Horiguchi sees Kenji return to the village, but Yuriko is not with him. Realizing this, without hesitation, Kenji hurries back out to go find her. Eventually, he does, and despite her being exhausted and still trapped, he is able to get the tree off her leg and helps her walk as Varan continues to roar and stomp around dangerously close by. He knocks over an abandoned artillery transport vehicle, causing it to explode from the live shells still attached to it. The two find a cave, and Kenji brings Yuriko inside as they're pursued directly by Varan, who is luckily too big to get inside.

The soldiers and some villagers go out to attempt and look for them, and we see that a forest fire has started due to the exploded truck. Varan is trying to dig them out as everyone else (the soldiers and villagers) stumble upon the scene. Knowing that the two will die if they remain in the cave, Sugimoto thinks of a plan to use the flares they have to distract Varan and get him away from the entrance. They shoot the flares towards the mountain, which does succeed in getting Varan's attention. He heads over in that direction, and Yuriko and Kenji are successfully rescued as he leaves the cave unblocked. The fire rages on as Varan climbs up the mountain, and once he reaches the summit, spreads his gliding membranes, surprising everyone. Everyone hits the deck as he takes off and kicks up large winds, and he zooms away and it's really silly looking, but what do you expect from a late 50's film.

He flies off and we pan back to Tokyo, where an Anti-Varan HQ has been erected. The Japanese army and navy have been alerted and are on the hunt for the monster, unaware of his whereabouts. They don't use miniatures for the ships so those look really good. We see military leaders meet and discuss what to do, and one of them mentions how "He really is a monster, he can even repel the 36mm cannon."

A man present named Dr. Fujimura is optimistic however, saying that sure, cannons can't hurt Varan, but they still have other weapons they haven't used that can penetrate steel-- and surely, Varan being an animal, doesn't have skin stronger than steel, right? Sugimoto is more reserved about it, saying that Varan is unpredictable. Another man agrees with the professor, suggesting that maybe

"It isn't the hardness of the skin that repels the shells. Maybe it's the flexibility of the skin that causes it."

Which would be a nice explanation for his biology, given that he's got the flexible gliding membrane anyway.

Some fishermen out on the ocean are having bad luck, and we suddenly see the reason for that -- Varan's spikes and head poke out of the water nearby. He swims towards them, effortlessly destroying their fishing boat. A nearby ship radioes in, alerting everyone of where Varan is, which allows nearby units to head over there immediately. They locate him and commence the rocket bomb attack, where we are shown cool overhead shots of some aircraft as they bombard him. The music that plays is cool, I enjoy it. He attempts to reach up and grab a plane, but they're able to evade him- until he finally smacks one out of the sky a few minutes later. He submerges again, and the humans are hopeful that maybe it's because he's injured. There's a really sad shot of him hiding behind an undersea rock as a ship passes by, which they reuse several times that I like a lot.

The sonar pings on one of the main navy vessels, and they seem to have found him. He emerges again and we get cool shots of the ships readying their cannons. They fire on him, making contact as Varan heads straight for land. Yuriko, back in Tokyo, is trying to call for a helicopter so she and Horiguchi can go take pictures of it for their reports, and Kenji is like "are you crazy? All of the airports are closed right now." which was a funny moment to include.

The ship The Uranami is doing a decent job of attacking it, and the men back home decide that depth charges, which they use to sweep for underwater mines, would be the best weapon to use against Varan since not much else is seeming to work. As they discuss, another ship radios in about the monster entering Tokyo Bay-- so the officers decide to put their plan quickly into motion.

Firing the depth charges, we see Varan behind his hidey rock as the shells explode around him under the surface. The navy soldiers release what looks like a long rope behind them as they sail, and they essentially wrap a long rope of depth charges around Varan, landing a direct hit. All seems quiet for a moment, and the humans are hopeful, until Varan angrily surfaces again. Now that it's clear he's still alive and dangerous, troops on land are sent to the harbor era to evacuate and mobilize. We see the officers speaking around a strategic map, and they used a dinosaur figurine to represent Varan which is really funny. All citizens on the coastline are evacuated as air and land troops close in on the area.

Dr. Fujimura apparently invented a powerful explosive he planned to use for dam construction, and while it isn't entirely ready and he doubts it will work, he explains that "it is designed to explode hard rocks from the inside" and that it won't have much effect if it explodes on the outside of something, bringing up a video to explain it to everyone present. As the film rolls, he explains to them that the explosive is "about the same size as a stick of dynamite, but 20 times as powerful". In the video, it shows a mountainside being effortlessly detonated. This brings up the proposition: it would be devastating if used against Varan, but they would have to detonate it inside of him. He is initially reluctant to try, but he is quickly convinced. At the harbor, all of the Defense Force is in position and ready-- and they all fire on Varan as he encroaches. We're shown lots of shots of tanks and other military machinery as they ready their defence of Tokyo Bay. Varan is reported to have passed by the local lighthouse-- meaning he's incredibly close to landfall. Tanks on land open fire on him, and like before, it doesn't seem to do much to dissuade or injure him.

Yuriko hurries off for some reason as the officers call in to see if Fujimura's bomb has arrived. Yuriko, Horiguchi, and Kenji all go out to find the transport for the bomg, and while the men driving the bomb are told to bring it over to the waterfront to set it up for Varan, the driver is like hell no, that's above my paygrade, because Varan is literally walking up onto land as they speak. Feeling brave as usual, Kenji decides to get up in the truck to drive it himself. He hands them the line to detonate it as he drives it straight towards the monster, dropping it off and fleeing as Varan fully makes his way out of the water. Kenji hurries back to where everyone is waiting with the detonator, he trips of course, but then he quickly gets back up and gets back to them. Varan, crawling out of the water on all fours, is right on top of the truck with the bomb as it's detonated. He unceremoniously collapses on top of it, but he shortly straightens back up again-- this time angrily getting up on two legs again as he continues his march inland.

We see shots of him destroying buildings as fighter planes zoom past him, shelling him to no avail. Our trio of protagonists meet up with the officers, where one of the scientists say that they shouldn't shock Varan too much, and that it'll just make him angrier. Personally, I feel like we're already past that point, but okay. Kenji, defeatedly, says Tokyo is doomed, then. Varan is blasted multiple times in the face by fighters flying past him, and he falls to all fours again, seemingly not able to take this assault as well as he had prior. He swings his tail, sending a parked plane flying, and we're shown a cool shot of it being thrown and exploding. I couldn't tell fully if it was a miniature or not-- it didn't look like it, and if it was, they did a great job on that shot specifically. He continues his rampage, plowing through buildings and roaring angrily up at the planes that fly past him.

We then see the humans again, and Sugimoto suddenly pipes up with an idea-- "We'll attack Varan from the inside." Which is what I honestly thought they were going to do with the bomb earlier, but I guess it's only just now being mentioned. This is because Varan is staring up at the flares that are shot near him, and he is snapping them up in his jaws and eating them as they fall, which the professor took note of. They decide to tie all of the remaining new explosives up around a flare and drop it near him so he'll eat it-- which they immediately proceed to set up. They discuss when the bomb should explode, since they don't have a detonator they can attach to it when it's in Varan's belly. The flare is dropped, and as expected, the monster finds it appetizing and he eats it up like a snowflake falling from the sky on his tongue. It's honestly really sad, lol.

Sad music plays as the bombs explode inside Varan's mouth and throat, and he struggles for a moment, clawing at a nearby building. He trudges weakly back towards the ocean, and one of the scientists reveals that there is one more bomb that hasn't exploded yet. As he makes his way back towards the water, our protagonists hurry to follow him to get a picture of him as he's dying. The final bomb goes off, and while we don't see Varan necessarily, we see an enormous underwater explosion. The narrator from the beginning pipes up again, saying that "after a desperate struggle, Man has now won another victory", and our ending card appears onscreen.

Americanized Version (Varan the Unbelievable) Coming Soon

-= Notes =-

The shots of Varan moving through the mountain paths during his first reveal actually look really good; not clunky and silly like Godzilla has in the past-- maybe it's because of the quadrupedalism, maybe the spikes on his back draw the attention away from the humanoid movement? But it looks awesome and I like his big eyes. I love that they used his flexible skin as a reasoning as to why heavy weaponry didn't have an affect on him-- biologically, it would make a lot of sense given that he's already got the flexible gliding membrane. I just really appreciate that they didn't just do the classic "oh big scary kaiju is just big and strong which is why we can't just shoot him easily" trope. I appreciate the biology they have going on for him-- the gliding reptile is a good deviation of the typical winged reptile we usually get (which, Rodan literally came out like two years prior so they couldn't really do another one similar to him immediately), and I also like the way they did the spikes on his suit. In several shots, we can see light shown through them, which is fairly accurate to similar true large spiked on extant animals like iguanas.

The fact that they specifically mention that his species, or taxonomic family, rather, is from the entirety of the Mesozoic (not their exact words of course, but if they were around from the Triassic through the Cretaceous, that would make them span the entire era) is an interesing point, and from a paleontological view would imply that his taxonomic family was incredibly successful evolution-wise. Not a single family existed for the entirety of the Mesozoic; either they would evolve into a new family/new families, or go extinct. I'd be interested to see what the Varanopode family would have been derived from-- perhaps something similar to Godzilla, since they're both (seemingly) mainly aquatic. Or, maybe more likely, they're related more closely to Anguiris, given their similar morphology. I guess maybe when Anguirus evolved to have more spikes, the Varanopodes evolved their gliding membrane.

Also, if I'm on my biology soapbox, I'd like to think that the reason that Varan likes to eat the flares is that maybe the prey he eats in that lake has some form of bioluminesence. Given that the area he's from is highly secretive and untouched, it would be very possible that some sort of weird freshwater fish or arthopod evolved bioluminesence, and the reason he likes to eat flares is because they look similar to the prey he normally eats. I mean, we didn't see him specifically eat any people, yet he did focus directly on Yuriko and Kenji when they were in the cave, so maybe he's used to pursuing glowing prey that hides in undersea rocks and crags.

One final design note, it's really cool that he's the first Kaiju to be a master of land, sea, and sky. We don't ever hear that mentioned, unfortunately, since Varan is decently forgotten among Toho fans, at least in my own experience.

In terms of human characters, I wish the ending had occured on a different note. Varan hadn't been hurting anyone and he had been minding his own business until the serenity of his home was interrupted. If he IS the Baradagi from the Iwaya legend, it sounds like he would sometimes come out and scare them and maybe hurt (or eat? it's unsure if that's true or just supersition) them, but he wouldn't just come out and terrorize them. To me, it sounds like he only became a true problem when someone else stepped on his turf, and even then, he didn't fully leave the lake area until the humans new to the area drew him out. It's just kind of really shitty in my opinion of them, and at least in the Godzilla movies we get scientists who want to protect him and learn from him. Even Sugimoto, a fucking biology professor, was like "nah don't let him get to the cities that he wasn't ever even trying to go to in the first place until we messed up his home with technology and stuff." I mean, why else would the narration have that part about humanity being in its space age if the movie wasn't a commentary on technology as a catalyst for disaster? But no, instead we get "humanity wins again yay :)" as the ending card. So that part is a bummer. Also, the human characters felt flat in this one to me. Yuriko clinging to Kenji felt a little forced, and it seemed as if they were all there just to be used as tools-- Yuriko is the helpless woman, Kenji is the badass who moves the plot along, and Horiguchi is the whimp. The first moment of this for me was when Yuriko showed up asking for her brother's things-- and then after that she didn't mention her brother more than one other time? She just seemed more interested in Varan an reporting on him than the fact that her brother was killed by it. But maybe that's just because I'm picking the movie apart and I'm feeling critical of a cast of humans who in my humble opinion just killed a big monster for kind of no reason. But that's just me.

Americanized Version (Varan the Unbelievable) Notes Coming Soon

12.8.2024