is a 2001 Japanese kaiju directed by Shūsuke Kaneko, with Makoto Kamiya. Distributed by Toho Co., Ltd and produced under their subsidiary Toho Pictures, it is the 26th film in the Godzilla franchise and the third film in the Millennium era. The film stars Chiharu Niiyama, Ryudo Uzaki, Masahiro Kobayashi, Shirō Sano, Takashi Nishina, Kaho Minami, Shinya Owada, Kunio Murai, Hiroyuki Watanabe, Shingo Katsurayama, Takeo Nakahara, Toshikazu Fukawa, and Hideyo Amamoto, with Mizuho Yoshida as Godzilla, Akira Ohashi as King Ghidorah, and Rie Ota as Baragon. In the film, Mothra, King Ghidorah, and Baragon defend Japan from Godzilla, who has been possessed by the souls of those that were killed during the Pacific War. Like the other films in the franchise's Millennium period, Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack serves as a direct sequel to the original 1954 Godzilla film, ignoring the events of every other installment in the series, minus a small reference to the 1998 Godzilla film. Godzilla was originally slated to face off against a revamped version of Kamacuras, but Kaneko ultimately decided to place Godzilla against three monsters representing elements of the Earth, Varan, Baragon, and Anguirus. Toho later convinced him to replace Varan and Anguirus with King Ghidorah and Mothra in order to make the film a box office success. Principal photography began on May 11, 2001, in Studio 1 at Toho Studios and wrapped on August 9, 2001. Godzilla, Mothra and King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All-Out Attack was theatrically released in Japan on December 15, 2001, as a double feature with Hamtaro: Adventures in Ham-Ham Land and earned . Plot During a briefing with the Japan Self-Defense Forces (JSDF) regarding Godzilla's first attack, Admiral Taizo Tachibana is alerted about an American nuclear submarine that went missing off Guam. Search and rescue units find the sub destroyed and capture footage of a giant creature's fins nearby. Tachibana's daughter, Yuri, films a docudrama with her production crew at Mount Myōkō, where a mysterious earthquake briefly occurs. It occurs again later that night, burying a biker gang and leaving one surviving trucker, who witnesses the monster Baragon, which he misidentifies as Godzilla. The next day, Yuri's colleague Teruaki Takeda supports her theory that a monster may have been the cause of the mysterious earthquakes and gives her a book called The Guardian Monsters. At Lake Ikeda, a Mothra larva attacks a group of teenagers