Rodan: Infestation

## Release chronology

"*The fire demon meets the locust plague. It's kind of poetic.*"
―Sergio Huerta
***Rodan: Infestation*** is a 2021 monster film based on the Toho kaiju of the same name. A spin-off of *Godzilla II*, it is the 5th installment of the MonsterVerse. It was released on April 9, 2021.

The film introduces Megaguirus into the MonsterVerse.

## Synopsis

"*In the absence of Godzilla, Mexico and the Monarch must face a MUTO crisis on their own, with Rodan and Quetzalcoatl beside them.*"
―Warner Bros. and Legendary
## Plot

In 2021, A special military operation is underway in the jungles of Mexico, where the army has spotted a MUTO nest. As the army arrives, the eggs of the MUTO has started hatching and a shootout breaks out with the soldiers killing many of the nymphs and the nymphs eating many of the soldiers. The mother MUTO then arrives, destroying the helicopters and killing all of the soldiers.

A Monarch team was requested by the Mexican government and they arrived, led by Jane Whitehall and Alina Marquez, meeting with military officer Sergio Huerta. They devise a plan on how to stop an infestation of the newly named MUTO, Megaguirus. They explained how Megaguirus was an uncontained MUTO who was awakened by Ghidorah during his uprising. Huerta then asks if Godzilla is going to save them, with Jane telling him that it's unlikely since Godzilla is in a hibernation state and is not very happy with humanity. He then asks about the pterosaur MUTO that burrowed into a volcano in Mexico last year. Alina tells him that they would need to cause a volcano eruption in order to lure him out. The three of them then realize that there is another active MUTO still roaming Earth, Quetzalcoatl. Sergio tells them that there is a drug cartel that's interested in these MUTOs and that they have been targeting Quetzalcoatl.

On Chichen Itza, where Quetzalcoatl has been observed to visit often, the cartel has arrived and scares away the tourists. They set up a platform and uses speakers to lure the her into the site faster. They have studied her and knows that she could emit poisonous gas so they wear gas masks. When she arrives, they try to capture her using anaesthetics but fail not knowning that she is immune to it, and that's when Megaguirus appears once again and face off with Quetzalcoatl, they battled and Quetzalcoatl manages to escape, Megaguirus then looks over to the cartel group and massacres them with her swarm.

The next day, the Monarch team arrive to Chichen Itza and witness the dead bodies of the cartel members. The group is then alerted that the Crimson MUTO has appeared somewhere around the jungles, they quickly make their way to the location. Huerta calls upon another unit of soldiers to monitor the Crimson MUTO, where they suddenly hear a call of another MUTO in the distance. As the Crimson MUTO approaches, she is suddenly attacked by Megaguirus, who turns out has mimicked her voice. They fought, before the Crimson MUTO unleashes her electromagnetic pulse, which stunned Megaguirus, in turn, her offsprings suddenly appears and swarms the Crimson MUTO, eating away at her flesh before Megaguirus kills her and injects her eggs into the Crimson MUTO. The military then arrives with more weapons and starts going wild on the swarm, in the midst of the battle, Quetzalcoatl appears and fights Megaguirus. The military then focuses on killing Megaguirus' swarm as she fights Quetzalcoatl, Quetzalcoatl gets the upper hand and Megaguirus escapes by burrowing into the Earth. After they successfully kill all of the swarm they head over to the Crimson MUTO's corpse and set up detonations in order to prevent the eggs from hatching. The team then heads back to the city.

Sometime later at night, Megaguirus returns to the Crimson MUTO and finds that her eggs has been destroyed, realizing she has no more offspring, she cries into the distance.

A few weeks later, Jane, Alina, and Sergio is baffled at Megaguirus' absence. They decide to stay a bit longer and scour the jungles once again to make sure. When suddenly news broke out that a MASSIVE swarm of Megaguirus is attacking the city. They are hit with shock and quickly head to the city to help the military in helping the civilians. Megaguirus arrives to cause more havoc by emitting electromagnetic pulses and poisonous gas.

Later that day after the cities have been evacuated, the team devises a plan again, they also learn that Megaguirus has the power to replicate the special abilities of any MUTO she has contact with, and decides to **wake up the fire demon from his slumber** as he is immune to his own powers, fire, and that might just kill Megaguirus.

They head to the (fictional) Necuametl volcano and evacuates the nearby town. Using the speakers around the town, they play a mix of Ghidorah's call and Rodan's roar. As they wait for his emergence, the swarm arrives to the town and began attacking the Monarch team. Megaguirus also arrives and hears the active speaker, causing her to mimic the roar. As the team gets overwhelmed, Rodan emerges from the volcano. Megaguirus and her swarm halts their attack to witness the eruption and Rodan emerging. Megaguirus then orders her legion of swarm to attack Rodan, atop the volcano, Rodan gets swarmed and a battle occurs, Megaguirus manages to bite down on Rodan and replicate his fire abilities, Rodan then attempts to throw her into the flaming volcanic crater but fails as her swarm attacks him. Megaguirus and her swarm then flies away, which prompts Rodan to follow them, as he chases them, Quetzalcoatl joins in and the three of them has an aerial fight sequence. Quetzalcoatl emits her poisonous gas and Rodan fires a blast, causing explosions in the sky. Megaguirus is unscathed, and instead fires a large blast at the two which causes them to fall. On the ground, Megaguirus prepares to finish them off before the Mexican Air Force launches airstrikes on all three of them, Rodan reacts by protecting Quetzalcoatl under his wings and Megaguirus burrows underground, her swarm following suit. Rodan and Quetzalcoatl then flies into the sky.

The team drives away from the town and Huerta calls upon his superiors in the military that Rodan and Quetzalcoatl are not hostile. When arriving to the city, they are hit by the news of volcanoes in southern Mexico and its surroundings have erupted, thought to be caused by Rodan flying over them. The military then mobilizes to prevent more destruction by killing Rodan. Huerta strongly advises against doing this as it would only cause military casualty rather than the death of Rodan.

     As they engage, Rodan swiftly evades attacks and destroys most of the military aircraft. As they keep firing on Rodan, the Monarch team notices that Rodan begins to glow green cracks all over him, they posit that Quetzalcoatl has affected his body, and soon enough, Rodan fires a powerful fire blast at the military convoy attacking him, destroying its surroundings.

Huerta is angry as the military officers did not listen to his warnings and points out the possibility of Megaguirus returning and the military not having enough man power to fight her off. Later that day, multiple **grown** species of Megaguirus that she brought (presumably from the Hollow Earth) began appearing all over the cities along with her offspring swarm, the scene quickly turns chaotic as the military gets unbelievably overwhelmed. Back in the United States, General of the US Army is alerted by a request from the Mexican government to intervene and help them in fighting the infestation.

Rodan and Quetzalcoatl arrive in the city and is quickly met with an assault from the multiple grown Megaguirus, as they are attacked, Megaguirus shows up, the rest of the swarm halts their attack, Rodan then strikes Megaguirus, another aerial battle ensues. As they fight, Quetzalcoatl struggles against the swarm, releasing poisonous gas all over the place. The humans get the idea of igniting an explosion, fueled by the gas, they sent a military jet to fire a missile, the massive explosion took out most of the swarm, though Quetzal escaped from the blast in time.

The same jet was then intercepted and destroyed by Megaguirus, she then gets double-teamed by Rodan and Quetzal, before escaping and summoning her offspring swarm back. As they all come to the surface, the US military jets arrive to fight off the swarm, chaos ensues as Megaguirus tries to fight off both the military and Rodan. The Monarch team is then alerted by multiple incoming volcanic eruptions, and they concluded that Rodan caused them. As the battle seems to come to an end, Rodan takes a weakened Megaguirus miles above the sky, he chips one of her wing before sending her down to an eruption volcano, killing her, and emerges victorious from the volcano.

Quetzalcoaatl then returns to Rodan, and they both fly around the ashfall of Mexico's volcanoes, killing Megaguirus' remaining swarm.

In a post-credits scene, Godzilla is shown to have awakened from his sleep and is swimming by a cruise ship.

## Cast

* Pedro Pascal as Sergio Huerta, a military officer
* Eiza González as Alina Marquez, a Monarch researcher
* Jessica Henwick as Jane Whitehall, a Monarch scientist

## Appearances

### Benevolent MUTO(s)

RodanQuetzalcoatlCrimson MUTO †Godzilla (cameo)

### Malevolent MUTO(s)

Megaguirus and her offspring †
* King Ghidorah (mentioned)
* A large swarm of adult *Cimexmalum guirus* that Megaguirus summoned.

### Locations

* Earth
	+ Guatemala
	+ Hollow Earth (mentioned)
	+ Mexico
		- Chichen Itza
	+ Peru
		- Machu Picchu
			* Outpost 57

### Species

* Humans
* MUTOs
	+ *Cimexmalum guirus*
	+ Fire demon
	+ *Magna avem quetzalli*
	+ *Parasitus apexia*

## Trivia

* Godzilla is inactive and that is the reason given for his absence.
* The film is set 1 year before *Godzilla vs. Kong*.
	+ The events of this film is slightly referenced in *Godzilla vs. Kong*, which released a year before.
* Rodan is described as an anti-hero and doesn't care about the destruction he causes on human civilization.
* Megaguirus was an uncontained MUTO. Monarch couldn't have discovered ALL of the dormant MUTOs, so the filmmakers thougth there's gotta be some who are unknown to them.
* Since awakened by King Ghidorah, Megaguirus has multiplied and her spawns are terrorizing Mexico.
	+ The nymphs do not show any signs of growth in the film, as MUTOs usually take hundreds and thousands of years to grow into adulthood.
* Libiamo ne' lieti calici plays at the scene where Rodan and Quetzalcoatl flies together while eating Megaguirus' children after they killed her.