Post-Godzilla SF brought to life in AppleTV+’s ‘Monarch: Legacy of Monsters’

SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) — What happens after godzilla stomps your city?

In 2014, San Francisco was completely destroyed in a battle between titans — at least on the big screen. The city was home to the climactic battle at the end of “Godzilla” — an American reboot of the Japanese franchise — and the first installment in what would soon be known as “The Monsterverse.”

In the nine years since the movie’s release, the new cinematic universe grew, adding classic “Kaiju” creatures like Mothra, Ghidora and King Kong.

Now, with the series’ latest project, “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” we’re getting a deeper look at the destruction left behind by these strange beasts. The first shot we see of San Francisco in this Friday’s episode is from the Marin Headlands.

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The Golden Gate Bridge is nothing but a disconnected tower of twisted metal. The city’s skyline is in shambles, but suspiciously… Salesforce Tower is still there.

This is the city in 2015, one year after “G-Day,” which is what this universe calls the day Godzilla first made landfall. Flashbacks in the episode show San Francisco erupting into chaos as the monsters approach.

We see Godzilla crashing through the Golden Gate Bridge. His adversaries two “M.U.T.O.,” (massive unidentified terrestrial organism) are waiting to defend their nest in Chinatown.

One of the main characters in the show is a teacher. On the day of the attack, she and other teachers are frantically trying to get students on buses out of the city, or into BART stations being used as shelters.

We learn in the year after Godzilla’s devastation, the city is almost completely abandoned and heavily guarded by the government. Based on a map hanging in one character’s home, the Financial District, Chinatown, Tenderloin, and the Mission are pretty much destroyed. That’s the ominous “Red Zone.”

North Beach, Russian Hill, Nob Hill, Pacific Heights and Japantown are all in the “Blue Zone” on the map. Pretty much everything west of Divisadero is in the “Green Zone.”

The show does not explore much of the city outside the Red Zone, except for a meeting spot that could be in the Presidio. There are two scenes at this meeting spot – one dark – and one in the morning light.

The view of the Golden Gate Bridge is what you might expect to see from Fort Point, but the building the car is parked behind looks more like one of the old military buildings on the corner of Old Mason Street near Crissy Field.

Also, there rails in the street here for a non-existent cable car line.

This project was not actually filmed in San Francisco, so not all the scenery will be exact, but there’s one inexplicable addition that seems questionable: the inclusion of Salesforce Tower.

Salesforce, as mentioned earlier, is seen partially destroyed after “G-Day.” The problem is, Salesforce was only partially built in 2014. Given the state of the rest of San Francisco, construction probably had not resumed.

In the real world, Salesforce was not completed until 2018.

While the show may have some things wrong about the city, it did get some things right.

Housing is a problem in the show, and people are blaming the “tech bros.”

When the show’s three main characters first land at Oakland Airport, they catch an ad – promoting “a below ground multi-level luxury living galleria” for “uncertain times when unspeakable disasters strike without warning.”

“Tech bros, they’re the only ones who can afford it,” one character remarks.

For those who can’t afford it, Alameda Point is now one of the busiest neighborhoods in the Bay Area. That’s now the site of a temporary housing community set up by FEMA.

Still, some could not seem to tear themselves away from the City by the Bay.

In the main character’s journey into the “Red Zone,” they stumble across a sort of colony in the Powell Street BART station, but in something of a familiar sight, police come through and clear that encampment.

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