With Godzilla vs. Kong being the culmination of the MonsterVerse, it featured a number of references to all corners of the franchise, while also incorporating unexpected Easter eggs, with director Adam Wingard recently confirming that seemingly no one caught the reference the film made to the Friday the 13th sequel Jason X. In the scene, Kong grabs a Nozuki and swings it around by its tail, smashing it into another Nozuki, before Kong pummels it on the ground, replicating Jason Voorhees‘ actions in the 10th Friday the 13th film. Godzilla vs. Kong is currently in theaters and streaming on HBO Max.
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“The big reference that I haven’t seen anyone pick up on is when Kong folds up and kills Nozuki (aka warbat) that was inspired by the holo deck murder scene in Jason X when Jason picks up the camper in their sleeping bag and smashes them around,” Wingard confirmed on Reddit.
In Jason X, the body of the iconic murderer is discovered and frozen for hundreds of years. When he’s thawed out on a spaceship, his body is revived and upgraded thanks to nanotechnology. While he’s in pursuit of his victims, they make quick use of holograms to depict a group of campers who loudly proclaim to be imbibing in drugs and premarital sex as a distraction, as Jason had always targetted such counselors, due to their proclivities for these activities resulting in him drowning as a boy. Despite the brutality of the scene, it also provides some comedic relief, as Jason proceeds to bash sleeping bags containing the victims against trees.
This wasn’t the only unexpected reference the film included, as audiences were quick to notice that Kong replicated a move demonstrated by Mel Gibson’s Riggs in Lethal Weapon 2. With the character known for his shoulder regularly becoming dislocated, resulting in him often smashing it against a wall to get it back into position, Kong replicated the move but on a massive scale.
“We had to give a thanks to, or a credit to, Lethal Weapon 2,” the filmmaker confirmed to CinemaBlend of the reference. “I can’t remember if it’s still in the film, or if they had to leave it in for legal reasons. But [Alexander] Skarsgard’s character used to drink out of a Lethal Weapon 2 mug in the movie. Actually, he used to wear a Lethal Weapon 2 t-shirt, but it was like a Japanese [version], so you would only know what it said if you spoke Japanese or read Japanese.”
Godzilla vs. Kong is in theaters and streaming on HBO Max now.
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