Of course, the expansion film and characters at the beginning of the film tell us that since the 1940s, there have been military operations against Godzilla, including nuclear bomb attacks. But the problem is that all actions have failed to achieve verifiable success, and what is even more puzzling is that, as the male protagonist questioned the scientist: why not destroy the new MUTO when there is still a chance, but let it go Does it absorb energy to grow up?
Of course, the answer cannot be "to the effect." If you understand the origins of Godzilla, you will know that this image was born from nuclear fear. The crisis of the Cold War is that both sides stand on the edge of destroying the earth, but no one believes that the earth will really be destroyed. The same belief continued into the ecological crisis of the post-Cold War era. This is exactly what Zizek described, “I know that the situation is serious, but I don’t believe it will happen...” This is a kind of Mechanism, it rejects the dangers of the real world from entering symbolic beliefs. It's like "if we believe it won't happen, then it really won't happen". Didn't the nuclear war really not happen? But monsters still appeared, so what about the ecological crisis that destroys the earth?
The more interesting paradox is that when things get worse and we finally decide to do something, we find that what we do will only make things worse. The attack on Godzilla resulted in civilian casualties, and the nuclear bomb that was going to destroy Godzilla and MUTO was used by the female MUTO as an energy source for spawning and became a real danger to human life. And Godzilla, this seemingly most terrifying threat, finally saved mankind.
The key to understanding this problem lies in "not all" (not all), which is the paradox proposed by Freud. From the perspective of humans (in the process of watching a movie, "humans" are equivalent to audiences with empathy), Godzilla is a huge threat and the worst existence. But this is based on a wholeness, that is, all the factors we know. But this is not all. If you take into account additional factors other than integrity (in the movie, there are two MUTOs who are eager to mate and reproduce, one of which is the resurrected lascivious maternal superego), there is a dimension beyond this integrity. Think about it, Godzilla becomes less bad.
For this reason, Lacan asks us to "put the bet on the worst side", because when Godzilla is "not all", comparing it with other factors, Godzilla becomes the best one. —— It not only defeated two MUTOs in the end, but even dived to avoid damage when passing by the aircraft carrier. This was exactly what Dr. Serizawa suggested to the military, but it was not adopted. In fact, let us think about it, if we adopt the "do nothing" strategy, the problem will be solved satisfactorily (or even more smoothly!), all military casualties can be avoided, and there is no danger of nuclear bomb explosions.
But the reason why Dr. Serizawa suggested this strategy is that "the natural world has its own laws." Such a reason is actually not convincing, because it is not nature itself that causes disasters, but human activities. If there is a so-called balance in nature, it would have been broken by humans a long time ago.
Of course, the purpose of the movie is to establish a reality, not to let us encounter the chaotic nature of nature. In a dark space, carefully crafted illusions provide us with a soothing reality. This is the meaning of the movie's existence.
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