New York, New York. Its a Kaiju Town.

A lot of people would say that New York is the heart of America. Some have even called it the center of the known universe. Whether you feel that way or not, there is no denying that New York gets a lot of attention in fiction.

It seems that whenever American filmmakers produce a new monster movie, the monster rampages through New York City. Godzilla (the Ferris Bueller version), King Kong (like every version), Cloverfield (the only version) and even Ghostbusters all have their monsters rampaging through New York City (including the Statue of Liberty in the second Ghostbusters film). Cloverfield got me thinking as to why American monsters take to New York. I came up with four points.

1) New York City has a great skyline with lots of famous buildings to knock down, giving the audience an easy attachment to what’s getting destroyed. The dense population adds to the terror factor as all those people run screaming!

2) Many filmmakers and screenwriters make New York their home. You write what you know. Faulkner wrote about the South and James Joyce wrote about Ireland. When you live in a place or you grow up there, you tend to think of that place as the center of the universe because, essentially, it is the center of your universe.

3) The Kong Factor. There is a deep-seated love between filmmakers and King Kong. Jon Peters was looking for a scene in Superman Returns that paid homage to King Kong’s reveal, and you only need watch the credits of Peter Jackson’s King Kong to see how much he loved the original. King Kong is known for rampaging through New York City as the original Gojira is known for tearing up Tokyo. When filmmakers set a monster movie in New York, they are paying those respects to King Kong whether they intend to or not.

4) Techno-guilt. This phrase sort of sums up how people feel nowadays. New York City arguably represents a pinnacle of human technology and civilization, not only in America but also in the world. When monsters attack New York, it is as if they are striking at the heart of humanity and avenging humanity’s use of nuclear technology, pollution, and other side effects of our culture. Thus, the juxtaposition of something so untamed and terrible as a giant monster attacking a towering achievement of mankind (New York City) creates the most desirable and dramatic contrast any storyteller could hope for. This is a similar approach to some of the criticism of Gojira; some say that Gojira is analogy for the use of nuclear weapons, or that he represents the backlash from the use of those nuclear weapons.

Much as I enjoy seeing monster stomp New York, it does not satisfy my desire to see other famous buildings and skylines crushed under the foot of a 20-story space invader. Chicago has a great skyline and the tallest building in the United States with the Sears Tower. Los Angeles has a respectable skyline, and watching monsters duke it out in the coliseum would be the best action the coliseum has seen since the Raiders made it their home! San Francisco has the Golden Gate Bridge, and that Transamerica Pyramid is made for maximum monster damage. That new American Gladiators commercial even recognized that. Even Seattle, with its skyline made famous by the show Frazier, would be a great candidate for smashing. We need the monster movie directors to let go of the past and venture out into new cities for their tales of destruction and human perseverance.

One of the refreshing things about Monsterpocalypse is that the story takes place all over world. The monsters in the story represent a global threat that is answered with a global response. The forthcoming comic from Across the Pond Studios will have action that moves around the planet. With the variety of maps and buildings in the first set, you can imagine the monsters rampaging through any city you choose. That said…watch out New York!

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