Plot: Big Spoilers Ahead!

A fisherman brings a strange tadpole to a marine biologist named Dr. Yano. While watching the news with his family, they see a monster destroy two ships. His son Ken identifies the monster as the same tadpole the fisherman gave to Dr. Yano to before. Ken and Dr. Yano go diving in the area where the monster was. The monster attacks both of them. Ken, while talking to the news with the rest of his family, names the monster "Hedorah." Dr. Yano later finds out that Hedorah is made of industrial waste. Also, each particle of Hedorah is a small tadpole, if they see another tadpole, they combine into a larger form.

Hedorah soon grows very large and reaches shore. He feeds off of some smoke stacks and grows larger. Later Godzilla comes ashore and both of the creatures fight each other for a while. Hedorah retreats. The next day, Hedorah turns himself into a flying form and releases a sulfuric acid mist that decreases anybody in his path, into skeletons. Godzilla shows up and tries to stop Hedorah again, but is knocked down from Hedorah's sulfuric acid mist.

Dr. Yano keeps trying to figure out how to kill Hedorah. Ken then suggests trying to dry him out since Hedorah is only made of sludge. Dr. Yano constructs "electroids" and tests it on a Hedorah tadpole. The electroids work. Dr. Yano asks the military to build a larger version.

Dr. Yano's teenage son Yukio decides to have a large festival on the bottom of Mt. Fuji so they can have as much fun as possible before Hedorah destroys all of Japan. Later on Hedorah shows up. Yukio and some of the teenagers at the festival take torches and throw them at Hedorah. Hedorah then shoots some of the sulfuric acid mist and kills Yukio and the other teenagers who threw the torches. Godzilla then shows up and takes Hedorah's mind off of the surviving teenagers. Hedorah then stuns Godzilla and carries him into a pit. He lets out acidic mud and pours it on Godzilla. Then Godzilla regains his strength and wrestles Hedorah down a hill. They both knock over a couple of power lines.

The military sets up Dr. Yano's electroids. After Godzilla and Hedorah knocked over the power lines, the power on the electroids go out. Hedorah, leaving Godzilla behind, shows up near the electroids. While the military fixes the power lines, they flash the headlights on their jeeps to attract Hedorah's attention. Hedorah then walks between the electroids and Godzilla shows up and uses his fire breath to start the electroids. Some parts of Hedorah dry out, but the rest of him escapes and flies away. Godzilla then uses his fire breath to fly (yes, that's is, fly), to catch Hedorah. Godzilla catches up with Hedorah, beats him up for a while, and takes him back to the electroids. He uses his fire breath to start them again, and Hedorah finally dries up, and dies. Godzilla looks around, observes the pollution for a while, and walks back into the ocean.

This movie is a very strange movie, yet I'd say it is one of the best in the classic Godzilla series. Actually I'd say this is the best non Ishiro Honda Godzilla movie (excluding the "Heisei" Series)! Godzilla vs. Hedorah was very the first Godzilla movie made in that very strange decade of the 1970's. It featured a new line of Godzilla foes, you might as well say. From this movie on, all of Godzilla's new enemies feature a beam of some sort as one of their weapons. In this case, Hedorah has a red lightning bolt type of beam that shoots out of his eye. This movie has a very well known reputation, in Godzilla fans, for three things. One is the Godzilla with the cool/annoying "Save the Earth" song, two is the Godzilla movie with many strange '70s type cartoons in between some sequences, and three as the Godzilla movie where Godzilla actually flies! At the end of the movie, after showing many different shots of pollution surrounding Godzilla, a caption shows up saying "And yet another one?" Originally, this movie was to have a sequel to it. Godzilla vs. Hedorah II obviously. Toho later trashed having a sequel, and instead made the next movie, Godzilla vs. Gigan. This movie was the first Godzilla movie made in the '70s, and I'd say, is the most 70's Godzilla movies of them all! (Sorry for the bad joke)0:-)

Photos above are from my own video capture.