Godzilla (1954)

Released in Japan on November 3, 1954, Gojira transformed atomic-age anxiety into cinema's longest-running film franchise. Special effects director Eiji Tsuburaya pioneered suitmation—with Haruo Nakajima inside a 100 kg latex suit smashing 1:25-scale Tokyo miniatures—while Akira Ifukube composed the unmistakable brass motif. Shot in stark black-and-white, the film treats Godzilla's Tokyo rampage like a documentary of war trauma, culminating in scientist Daisuke Serizawa deploying the Oxygen Destroyer at the cost of his own life.