Dr. Rick Stanton is a scientist character who first appeared in the 2019 MonsterVerse film, Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
Personality[]
- Mark Russell: "Open the shields."
- Rick Stanton: "Oh, yeah, sure, let's bring him in for a beer. You out of your goddamn mind?!"
- ―Mark Russell and Rick, about Godzilla[src]
Rick stands out among his peers for his cynicism and sarcastic sense of humor. He's also implied to be alcoholic, frequently drinking. He tends to make snarks and quips most of the time when speaking, often exercises a laid-back demeanor when being negative, and he even has a "Not yours" label on his coffee mug. However, this demeanor often fades as he becomes more serious when circumstances get particularly grave and dire. He was notably soft-spoken after the Oxygen Destroyer launch injured Godzilla without fazing Ghidorah. He showed a much softer side when he and Ilene were seeing Serizawa off before the latter's suicide mission.
Though it would be an exaggeration to call Rick a naysayer, he tends to be the voice of negative reason in discussions due to his cynicism. Unlike Serizawa and Ilene, Rick is initially skeptical that the Titans are capable of benevolence and believes them all being freed would only bring destruction; although unlike Mark Russell, Rick didn't protest to Monarch being willing to let the Titans stay alive. This attitude was seen with his assumption that Mothra would be "meaner" once she reached her imago form, his visible reluctance to lower the shields when Godzilla approached Castle Bravo, and when he believed releasing all the Titans would cause a "dead, charred world overrun by monsters". Rick's attitude notably ebbed by the time of the Oxygen Destroyer's launch at Godzilla and Ghidorah, vocally rooting for an injured Godzilla to pull through, and continuing to do so during the fight against Ghidorah in Boston.
Rick is quite openly and unabashedly a proponent of Houston Brooks' Hollow Earth theory in front of his colleagues and other associates despite Chen's skepticism of the theory. He was also very ecstatic and happy in front of everyone when he realized they'd discovered hard proof that verified the theory.
Relationships[]
Ilene Chen[]
Rick and the more optimistic Ilene seem to have something of a friendly rivalry over such subjects as whether or not Mothra's imago form will be aggressive once it hatches. Rick was also happy to briefly rub his victory in Ilene's face when the Hollow Earth theory was proven true, prompting Ilene to tell him to shut up. He showed Ilene a softer side when they were seeing Serizawa off before the latter sacrificed his life, squeezing her shoulder as they both watched him leave.
Ishiro Serizawa[]
Serizawa seems to trust Rick's audio and sonar skills based on his immediate consultations of Rick about such matters. When Rick was seeing Serizawa off before the latter entered the Hollow Earth ruins to sacrifice himself, Rick was visibly saddened the entire time, and he sincerely told Serizawa it was an honor working with him and shook his hand.
History[]
As brilliant as he is high-strung, Rick would much prefer to be alone in a lab than in a room full of people that don’t have the necessary perspective to understand his brilliance. He began his career as a communications engineer for SETI before joining Landsat as a satellite mapping technician in the 1980’s, an experience he credits with giving him a “god’s eye view of the world.”
Becoming increasingly intrigued by company whispers of a covered-up mission to Skull Island in 1973, he reached out to one of the rumored Skull Island project leads, Dr. Houston Brooks, and the two like minds soon became close friends. Brooks introduced him to Dr. Serizawa who knew a true believer when he saw one, and shortly after Stanton was offered a position at Monarch. To most, the idea of Titans sounded like a crazy conspiracy theory. To Stanton, it sounded like a dream job opportunity.
Dr. Stanton oversaw the Monarch Sciences satellite tracking system until he was offered a field assignment on Monarch’s underwater surveillance team at Castle Bravo and jumped at the opportunity. As a longtime proponent of Dr. Brooks’ Hollow Earth theory, being stationed underwater puts his ear to the wall of what he believes is a vast and unexplored ecosystem deep within the Earth.
His dedication to his work has put strain on his personal life, and he’s been divorced three times as a result. Said Stanton: “I can measure the distance between sub-aquatic splinter pulses ten miles apart without using a harmonic density amplifier, but I apparently can’t detect a woman’s heartbeat.” He remains married to the insanity of his job, and it’s truly the happiest he’s ever been in a relationship.
With a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Michigan and a Ph.D. in Audio and Communication Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University, Rick Stanton's career started as a communications engineer for SETI. Then in the 1980s, he worked as a satellite mapping technician for Landsat. Company whispers of a covered-up mission to Skull Island in 1973 piqued his interest so Rick reached out to Dr. Houston Brooks, one of the rumored leads on the project, and they became close friends. Shortly after Brooks introduced Stanton to Dr. Serizawa, Rick was offered a position at Monarch and later activated on May 24, 1989.
Initially, Dr. Stanton supervised the satellite tracking system for the Monarch Sciences network. Then he was offered a field assignment on Monarch’s underwater surveillance team at Castle Bravo and, being a longtime supporter of Brooks' Hollow Earth theory, Stanton lept at the chance to be close to the vast, unexplored ecosystem hidden within the Earth. Now as Monarch's leading early warning specialist, Dr. Stanton is in charge of managing a global network of sensor arrays and analyzing the sounds made by Titans to predict their behaviors, recording everything, and cataloging Monarch's extensive Titan audio forensics database dubbed "the Ark".[1]
Godzilla: King of the Monsters[]
In Castle Bravo, Stanton and the rest of Monarch are informed on the ringleader of Emma Russell and her daughter Madison’s abduction: a former British colonel turned eco-terrorist named Alan Jonah. Stanton believes that Jonah and his group plans to sell Titan DNA in the black market for militaristic and pharmaceutical purposes. He also knows that Mothra will eventually undergo a metamorphosis from a larva into something more powerful.
Not long after the conference, Castle Bravo is shaken by Godzilla’s suddenly erratic behavior until he swims away. Stanton projects Godzilla’s path to Outpost 32 in Antarctica.
Stanton joins the team in rescuing Emma and Madison, but things get complicated when Emma unleashes Monster Zero from the ice as Godzilla arrives to fight it. Several Monarch agents, including Vivienne Graham, are killed in the chaos.
The day after Monster Zero’s awakening, Emma contacts Monarch about her plan to use the ORCA to free all of the Titans. Stanton argues that humans will be overrun as Emma explains their benefits. As the USS Argo flies to Isla de Mara, Emma uses the ORCA to awaken Rodan as Monster Zero approaches the island. Mark Russell gives the idea to lure Rodan away from the population and towards Monster Zero. The plan works as Monster Zero dispatches Rodan before Godzilla ambushes him and decapitates one of his heads. The U.S. military then fires the Oxygen Destroyer to finish off the Titans Monster Zero emerges from the ocean as Stanton tries to read Godzilla’s vitals. When the line flattens, Stanton sadly concludes that Godzilla is dead.
On Isla de Mara, Monster Zero regenerates his missing head and awakens all of the slumbering Titans. This makes Stanton comment on how Monster Zero violates the laws of the natural world. Ilene Chen supports the idea when she discovers that Monster Zero is an alien and is also called "Ghidorah". Stanton believes that Ghidorah intends to have the Titans reshape the planet into a suitable habitat.
When the team regroups at Castle Bravo, a fully-matured Mothra arrives and reveals that Godzilla is still alive deep beneath the ocean. Stanton, Chen, Mark, and Ishiro Serizawa ventures into the depths on the USS Scorpion. When they realize that they have entered the Hollow Earth, Stanton is overjoyed that his theory is confirmed. They then view a sunken city engraved with murals of the Titans on their structures when they find Godzilla resting and healing near a radioactive area. Because the submarine’s launching mechanism is damaged, Serizawa decides to sacrifice himself by activating the nuclear warhead manually. Stanton bids his colleague farewell as he and the others return to the surface.
When Stanton, Chen, and Mark return to the Argo, they discover that Emma combines Godzilla’s bioacoustics with that of humans for the ORCA’s frequency. They trace the signal to Fenway Park, Boston, as Godzilla and Mothra battles Ghidorah and Rodan. Stanton warns the others that Godzilla’s radiation level is becoming too hazardous and that they have little time to find both the ORCA and Madison before all of Boston is destroyed. As Emma sacrifices herself by luring Ghidorah away, Stanton and his colleagues aid the wounded as Godzilla uses his thermonuclear pulses to destroy Ghidorah. Stanton is relieved that Godzilla is on the humans’ side for the moment as the other Titans gather around to bow to their new Alpha.
Trivia[]
- Michael Dougherty loosely based Dr. Stanton on the Rick and Morty character, Rick Sanchez.[2]
- Stanton's official Monarch profile states he has a son and daughter-in-law[1], which seems to contradict his remark in the film that he "still want[s] to have kids someday".
List of appearances[]
Films[]
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters (First appearance)
Novels[]
- Godzilla: King of the Monsters - The Official Movie Novelization
- Godzilla vs. Kong - The Official Movie Novelization (Mentioned)
References[]
