Who doesn’t love a good giant monster movie? There’s something special about seeing an enormous monster on the big screen, wrecking its way through a city street while tanks and fighter jets worthlessly shoot all they’ve got at it in a tragic attempt to slow their inevitable destruction. Films that feature these kinds of monsters are often referred to as Kaiju movies. Kaiju usually refer specifically to Japanese giant monsters, but for this list it will be a bit more fun to open that definition up to any other giant monster that rampages through our favorite movies.
These include not only Kaiju like those featured in the Godzilla franchise but those from the Star Wars and Dune universes. All of these monsters are incredible to behold but the only question to ask is which one is truly the most giant? Here are 14 of the largest Kaiju of all time, ranked by size.
15 The Original Godzilla (50 meters)
Toho
What better place to start than with the most famous Kaiju of all time?! That would be the titular monster from the classic Japanese movie Godzilla. Even though this version of GZ is only 50 meters tall, the movie’s presence still looms over the franchise. In many ways, this is still the scariest Godzilla of them all.
14 Zilla from Godzilla (60 meters)
Centropolis Entertainment
Of course, not all Godzillas are equal. The first big budget American Godzilla movie featured a 60-meter monster that looked too computer generated to scare even Matthew Broderick. This version of the monster scored so lowly with audiences that he lost the “God” from his name. He’s now referred to only as Zilla.
13 Kraken from Clash of the Titans (60.9 meters)
Warner Bros.
For a while, Krakens were all the rage in Hollywood. Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and Clash of the Titans both featured the giant underwater creatures of myth. The one from Clash was much larger though. This one really is big enough to terrify even Greek gods at a height of 60.9 meters. Sam Worthington probably still has nightmares about it.
12 Lizzie from Rampage (60.96 meters)
New Line Cinema
There are three massive monsters at the center of Rampage. The largest of which is by far Lizzie, the enormous crocodile monster. It is 60.96 meters in total. As a fun fact, this is almost as big as Dwayne, “The Rock”, Johnson when he reveals his final form. Audiences just aren’t ready for it yet.
11 Clover from Cloverfield (76 Meters)
Paramount
One of the monsters that made Kaiju a big deal in the United States was the creature at the center of Cloverfield. The creature is 76 meters tall. He rips through buildings like they’re made of marshmallows. There have been several films in the Cloverfield franchise since the first film, but none of them feature a monster as terrifying as this one.
10 King Kong Godzilla vs Kong (102 Meters)
Viewers who watched Kong: Skull Island were confused about how that version of Kong was going to be able to fight the much larger Godzilla. Well, it turns out that Kong hit puberty in between that movie and Godzilla vs. Kong. He grew from 30 meters to over 102 meters. That’s still a little shorter than Godzilla, but big enough to pummel him a few times.
9 Shin Godzilla from Shin Godzilla (118.5 meters)
The American Godzilla seemed like the scariest version of the creature for a few years. Then Japan came back with a rebooted Shin Godzilla. This version of everyone’s favorite Kaiju may have been ever-so-slightly shorter at 118.5 meters, but he may be the most frightening take on Godzilla in the 21st century.
8 Godzilla from Godzilla vs Kong (119 meters)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Hollywood decided to redeem itself by going at Godzilla once more. This take on the creature was much much better than the original version. This one was also much larger, standing at whopping 119 meters in length. He didn’t walk among the skyscrapers, he towered over them. This is a lot more like it.
7 Dweller in the Darkness from Shang-Chi (130 meters)
Disney
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has its fair share of giant monsters. Of course, they tend to be closer to the size of the Hulk. So when it came time for Shang-Chi to introduce a personification of evil with the Dweller in the Darkness, they had to go bigger than normal. This creature was over 130 meters in length. Thankfully, Simu Liu had The Great Protector on his side at roughly the same size.
6 Chitauri Leviathan from The Avengers (133 meters)
What kind of threat would be big enough to threaten all The Avengers at once? While Loki certainly represented a big enough moral threat to the team, they needed a literal giant threat to punch. They found that in the giant space-whale creature known as a Chitauri Leviathan. The team gathering to take this creature down made for quite the group photo and an iconic moment in cinema history.
5 King Ghidorah from Godzilla: King of the Monsters (158 Meters)
Sony Pictures
There’s no shortage of supplementary Kaiju in the modern Godzilla franchise to choose from. Muto, Mothra, and Rodan all made appearances in Godzilla: King of the Monsters. None of them had anything on King Ghidorah. This three-headed alien monstrosity is the only Titan so far to really make Godzilla sweat over whether he was going to win a fight. At 158 meters in total, there’s no wonder Godzilla got a little nervous.
This creature has three heads, has electric powers, and is apparently pure evil. It takes all of that to be Godzilla’s top villain. Sorry, King Kong.
4 Slattern from Pacific Rim (181 Meters)
Legendary Pictures
Like the Godzilla franchise, the Pacific Rim franchise features a ton of giant monsters worthy of recognition. The greatest of the Kaiju from the first movie was without a doubt Slattern. This final boss of the first movie was by far the most threatening creature of them all. One that nearly destroyed the world as we know it. This beast is one of the biggest in movie history with a height of 181 meters. It practically made Gypsy Danger look like an action figure in comparison.
Unfortunately, the Pacific Rim franchise seems to be all but done. So it’s unlikely that anyone will see a greater monster than this one set in that universe.
3 Shai-Hulud from Dune (400 Meters)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Shai-Hulud, otherwise known as the giant sand worm, is one ot the most famous giant monsters in all science fiction literature. The latest Dune adaptation definitely did justice to this god of Arrakis. Though most of the creature is hidden behind the titular sand dunes, Shai-Hulud is big enough to swallow most movie monsters whole. It is 400 meters long. Thankfully, this is one monster the Avengers will never have to deal with. A Hulk punch and a group pose would not be enough to handle Shai-Hulud.
While it was definitely cool looking in the first Dune, the sequel will see Shai-Hulud really getting a place to shine. Once we see Paul learn how to ride one of these babies, its permanent role as a movie monster icon will be sealed forever. That’s certainly more than David Lynch’s Dune was able to pull off.
2 Exogorth from Empire Strikes Back (900 Meters)
While the Star Wars universe is full of monsters like Rancors, Krayt Dragons, and Acklays, none of them are Kaiju-sized, even if they are pretty terrifying. There is one monster that is so large that the Millennium Falcon crew didn’t even know they were inside of it until it was almost too late. The enormous Exogorth is a giant space worm that lives inside an asteroid. As such, this creature is unbelievably large. Even though we only see a bit of the creature, like Dune’s Shai-Hulud, its full size is said to be around 900 meters in total.
What makes the Exogorth a little less terrifying is the behind the scene footage from The Empire Strikes Backshows that the Exogorth is a fake, thrown together creature. Like most of these monsters, it’s better to leave reality behind you.
1 Cthulhu from Underwater (Hundreds of meters)
20th Century Studios
Godzilla might be the King of the Monsters, but that’s only because it doesn’t exist in the same universe as the primordial, Eldritch terror known as Ctulhu is perhaps the greatest giant monster ever created. H.P. Lovecraft’s most famous creation is literally so horrifying to behold that any mortal that gazes upon its true form goes incurably insane. Most of the time it is described as an enormous aquatic creature with Octopus-style tentacles coming out of its face. As far as size goes, the creature is able to alter its size at will, meaning that it could be incomprehensibly large. Most of the time it is comfortable being hundreds of meters tall.
Most of its appearances are in literature, largely because most attempts to adapt Lovecraft’s works for the big screen have failed miserably. There was one surprise cameo in the Kristen Stewart scifi horror film Underwater. In that film, Stewart and her crew of underwater drillers accidentally drill into Cthulhu’s secret lair deep beneath the Earth’s surface. It awakens and destroys the drills that are the size of skyscrapers. Stewart manages to incapacitate him by destroying the underwater drill in a massive explosion. Still, anyone who has read any of his stories knows there’s taking Cthulhu down for good.
