Cognitive Dissonance in Godzilla vs. Kong

In the film Godzilla vs. Kong, we see a rivalry between two ancient beings that humans attempt to meddle with. At the beginning of the movie, Godzilla attacks a factory on the coast seemingly at random. What the audience finds out later on in the movie is that the facility he attacks actually is the site where the CEO of Apex Cybernetics is trying to build a robotic version of Godzilla so that he will be able to subdue the creature and maintain human control of the planet. His means of powering the Mechagodzilla comes from using the severed head of an old creature and utilizing neural connections to the head to control it telepathically. His ignorance and underestimation of the old creature’s head and his own creation would ultimately be his downfall.

Being ignorant is another way of saying that someone is avoiding dissonance. Cognitive dissonance can be described as, “the distressing mental state caused by inconsistency between a person’s two beliefs or a belief and an action,” (194). People can avoid cognitive dissonance in different ways. One way that I will be mostly looking at for this particular example is selective exposure, which is, “the tendency people have to avoid information that would create cognitive dissonance because it’s incompatible with their current beliefs,” (196). Our desire to avoid this dissonance can be viewed as, “basic as the need for safety or the need to satisfy hunger,” (194). We choose to avoid conflict and we surround ourselves with things that do not challenge our beliefs.

The CEO of Apex Cybernetics, Walter Simmons, is in the process of constructing the Mechagodzilla because he feels that humanity is the dominant race and that they should be in control of their own fate. However, his own creation becomes his downfall because right after he activates the robot and sets it loose, it overwhelms the mind of his colleague that is controlling it and becomes its own entity. Walter had not thought about the possibility of him making the Mechagodzilla so intelligent and weaponized that it would be able to break free of its captors. He surrounded himself with scientists that were being “yes” men for his project rather than pointing out the flaws in his work. This could be seen as selective exposure because he did not want to take no for an answer. Walter avoided any dissonance that came with creating a creature so powerful that it would subdue Godzilla and King Kong. Once a few people and a whistleblower find out about his creation, they go and try to get Walter to stop because they knew how dangerous his endeavor was. Another example of selective exposure is when a few employees of Apex Cybernetics are tasked with moving King Kong to Antarctica and they are having to transport him across the ocean. They were not fully aware of the gravity of the situation, so whenever King Kong began rocking the boat and causing problems, they were genuinely unsure of what to do and they were surprised he was acting this way. They had only listened to their bosses and all they were doing was trying to transport the giant creature as quickly and efficiently as possible without thinking about how it would feel or if it would retaliate. This theme spans across the entire film, and it ultimately climaxes when all three beings face off at the end.

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