Story:

An illegal nuclear waste dump slowly pollutes a Polynesian island with radiation poisoning, mutating the plant and animal life on the island. Further ravaging the ecosystem, the company responsible for the dump site also clear-cuts the island's forests. A tropical typhoon hits the island, causing landslides, one of which exposes a gigantic egg, which is carried out to sea.

News of the gigantic egg which is drifting toward Japan causes a sensation and many investigators descend on the ravaged South Seas island to try and learn where the egg came from. One of the investigators is a Japanese man named Murakami. While on the island, he encounters a tiny fairy-like woman, who speaks to him. Her name is Mana and the egg is that of Mothra. She hopes to warn humanity of the dangers the egg may pose if it is allowed to hatch away from the island. However, before any warning can be given to the government, the egg washes ashore in Japan and hatches.

True to Mana's story, the grub-like larva of Mothra emerges from the egg, but it is not alone. A second creature emerges, a twisted and horrible creature, a mutation of Mothra poisoned by the radiation that had seeped into the island's soil. It is Gigamoth. Violent and savage, the Gigamoth seems a mirror twin of the peaceful and reserved Mothra. Meanwhile, Murakami returns to Japan, bringing Mana with him. Too late to warn the authorities about the egg, the psychic fairy begins to try and locate where the two insect creatures have gone now that the egg has hatched. But as she reaches out with her sense, Mana detects an all together different creature. Godzilla has sensed Gigamoth and is coming to confront the creature.

Gigamoth rampages across the Japanese countryside, shedding its skin as it proceeds, emerging from each discarded husk larger and more powerful than before. Near a nuclear power plant in the Kanto area, Gigamoth and Godzilla meet and a terrible battle ensues. At last having found the twisted insect monster, Murakami and Mana watch the battle unfold. Manna projects her spirit inside Gigamoth, trying to control the monster and lead it to victory over Godzilla. Gigamoth combats Godzilla with an acid mist that eats at his hide, then cocoons Godzilla in a blanket of silk, pushing the trapped Godzilla into the ocean. With Godzilla defeated, Gigamoth advances on the nuclear power plant, wrapping the structure in a cocoon and consuming the nuclear energy from the reactors. Mana, unable to fully control the hideous monster, projects her spirit out of the beast. JSDF forces arrive to freeze Gigamoth as the monster sits in a stupour, draining the energy from the reactor. However, the plan to freeze the cocoon fails and Gigamoth emerges from his feeding, now matured into an adult form and sporting massive wings. Unable as yet to use its new wings to fly, Gigamoth scuttles away, advancing toward Tokyo.

Godzilla returns, having freed himself from the prison of fibres and attacks Gigamoth in Atami. During the battle, Godzilla uses his radioactive ray on his foe. Instead of harming Gigamoth, the insect absorbs the energy of the beam. The insect sheds its skin once again, emerging as a fully matured adult. Flapping its now fully formed wings, Gigamoth takes to the sky and leaves his puzzled foe behind.

Murakami works on an anti-nuclear bacteria that might overcome the mutant power of Gigamoth and neutralize its powers. At the same time, Mana reveals her projection ability to Murakami, hoping that he may be able to control Mothra while she controls Gigamoth. Helping the scientist to project into Mothra's body is fruitless, however, as the man is unable to control the monster. At the same time, Murakami realizes that he is falling in love with the tiny fairy.

Godzilla catches up with Gigamoth in the vicinity of Mt. Fuji, where Gigamoth has laid its own egg. As the monsters face off for a third time, JSDF fighter planes attack them. Firing rockets armed with warheads filled with Murakami's bacterium, the jets make several attacks on the two leviathans. The bacterium seems to work on Gigamoth, as the insect becomes noticeably weaker, however Godzilla remains unaffected. Before Godzilla can attack the weakened Gigamoth, however, Mothra, now evolved into her own adult form and controlled by the projected spirit of Mana, arrives and attacks Godzilla with her poisonous pollen. Godzilla is paralized by the pollen, but manages to mortally wound Mothra with one of his radioactive beams. The dying Mothra manages to fly over to Gigamoth. The two siblings stare at one another for a moment, then Gigamoth rears forward and plunges its horn into Mothra's body. As Mothra's ichor covers Gigamoth, the monster and its egg rapidly begin to dissolve. As the mutant fades away, a dense golden gas forms, enveloping both monsters. When the gas dissipates, a new monster is revealed, a true form of Mothra, devoid of any taint from the radioactive waste, just as Mana hoped would result from the combination of the two monsters and the bacterium of Murakami.

Mana appears before Murakami one last time before projecting herself back into Mothra. She refuses Murakami's request that she take his spirit with her into the monster, telling him that one day he will find true love. Returning to Mothra, Mana guides the monster in battle against Godzilla, encasing the reptile once more in a cocoon. Mothra carries the giant away from Japan and both creatures fall into the sea. A search fails to turn up either monster on the sea bed and both are assumed to have perished.

Some time later, Murakami returns to the Polynesian island where he first discovered Mana, hoping that he might find her again. Instead, he meets a woman on the beach, a research oceanographer who looks amazingly like Mana. True to the fairy's prophecy, the two fall quickly in love.

History:

This script was developed following the release of Godzilla vs King Ghidora in 1991. Eager to duplicate the successful box office result of pitting Godzilla against one of his classic foes, Toho decided that Mothra should re-enter the fray. The result was 'Godzilla vs Gigamoth' which again offered a classic foe as well as a mutation of that adversary to confront Godzilla. The script was later scrapped, although elements of this story and 'Mothra vs Bagan' were to factor heavily in the creation of 1992's Godzilla and Mothra: The Battle for the Earth. Most noticeably, the character of Gigamoth was to form the basis for the creation of Battra, the black anti-Mothra.


Special Thanks to James Webster for scans of the storyboards!!!