“ | And now, my Mecha. It's not only Godzilla's equal, but his superior. The Apex Titan of my own hand. It's time to show the world what you can do. | „ |
~ Walter Simmons upon witnessing the full activation of Mechagodzilla. |
Walter Simmons is one of the two main antagonists (alongside Mechagodzilla) of the 2021 MonsterVerse film Godzilla vs. Kong and the overarching antagonist of the Apple+ television prequel series Monarch: Legacy of Monsters.
He was the powerful CEO of Apex Cybernetics and the father of Maia Simmons. Driven by a need to feed his ambitious ego, Simmons, in the face of the Titans' existence being revealed, sought to be the one to re-establish humanity as the sole "apex" species on Earth with his company on top. To that end, he opts to build Mechagodzilla after getting the psionic skull of Ghidorah's severed left head, masterminding a corporate conspiracy to use the machine to murder the heroic Titan Godzilla and usurp his status as King of the Monsters, after he's allowed his experiments to galvanize Godzilla into rampaging in two cities and threatening millions of people.
He was portrayed by Demián Bichir, who also played Marcos Mendez in Machete Kills and Marco the Mexican a.k.a Señor Bob in The Hateful Eight.
Biography[]
Background[]
Walter Simmons stated he was inspired to do what he did starting in 2014, when Godzilla and the M.U.T.O.s first emerged and Titans' existence was first revealed to him and the public. His goal was to make humanity the unquestioned dominant species of Earth over all the Titans, and moreso for himself and his company specifically to be glorified for being the ones to achieve this. His remark to Madison Russell about how "there can only be one Alpha" implies he intended to kill any and all Alpha Titans humanity encountered so they could be the sole apex species.
The novelization goes into further details about Simmons' past, confirming that he's the founder of Apex Cybernetics as well as its current CEO. Bernie Hayes at one point speculated that Simmons' goal was to enslave the Titans if possible and kill any Titans that he fails to enslave, so he can rule the world with humanity as the sole dominant species. In 2019, Simmons was involved in the creation of the Oxygen Destroyer for the military so they could kill Godzilla, and he bribed his way out of any involvement in the disaster following King Ghidorah's rampage. When Bernie Hayes' wife Sara discovered Simmons' involvement with the Oxygen Destroyer, Simmons had her assassinated in a car accident to cover up his tracks. He purchased the skull of Ghidorah's severed head (two skulls in the novel, though the origin of the second skull is unexplained) from a mysterious buyer who is heavily implied to be Alan Jonah, so that he could construct his own cybernetic Titan to combat the Titans; thus, beginning the development of Mechagodzilla.
Monarch: Legacy of Monsters[]
To be added
Godzilla vs. Kong[]
Five years later, in 2024, all Titans excluding Godzilla and Kong have gone back to hibernate all across the world. Godzilla then attacks an Apex facility manufacturing Skullcrawler eggs that are transported to the Apex headquarters in Hong Kong. During a test battle against a Skullcrawler and Mechagodzilla, the test is cut short due to limitations of the power supply. After learning of the Hollow Earth, Simmons intends to harness the raw energy of Hollow Earth to overcome Mechagodzilla's limitations.
Simmons recruits Nathan Lind to explore into the Hollow Earth and obtain a sample of the energy, using his daughter Maia as the leader of the Apex expedition. After having Mechagodzilla tested against a Skullcrawler, which is sliced in half with its proton beam, Simmons activates its signal from the Apex headquarters in Hong Kong, to lure Godzilla there and kill off millions of innocent people in his warpath before Simmons sics Mechagodzilla on him to kill him and have himself seen as a hero in the public's eye. As soon as Godzilla wreaks havoc in Hong Kong, Simmons watches on in glee and excitement, fully confident that his plan was going to work.
Apex soon finds an energy source and sends its signature back to the base, at which point Simmons impulsively orders the immediate activation of Mechagodzilla despite Ren's cautioning that they seriously need to test the energy source first. Simmons' guards also catch Bernie, Josh, and Madison and have them brought to him. When Madison calls out Simmons for using Ghidorah to create Mechagodzilla as the reason Godzilla rampaged, claiming hundreds to thousands of lives, he shows no remorse for his actions, and instead excuses his actions by claiming it's every sacrifice to be necessary to ensure humanity's survival. Meanwhile, the Hollow Earth energy-charged Mechagodzilla is going haywire, as the energy source causes the Ghidorah skull's lingering consciousness to crash the system and possess the Mecha for itself. Simmons can only look on in horror before Mechagodzilla swipes its claw straight through the Apex module, killing him instantly and putting an end to him.
Immediately after the death of Walter, Mechagodzilla had gone on a rampage, destroying most of Hong Kong and killing several other citizens in the process, Walter was indirectly responsible for the incident, which had led to Mechagodzilla's rampage, in the first place, before it was taken down forever, by the combined force of both Godzilla and Kong simultaneously.
Due to the fact that, Walter's crimes were exposed to the public, by Bernie Hayes, Josh Valentine and Madison simultaneously, because Apex Cybernetics was associated, with Mechagodzilla to kill Godzilla and his fellow Titans, which was in violation of the United Nations' orders to leave the Titans alone and not to do anything to provoke them.
As a result, the company was likely shut down, by the world's governments, and it's employees were obviously arrested and sent to prison for aiding and abetting Walter in his crimes. Because the public is now aware of the reason, why Godzilla was attacking major human settlements, particularly facilities belonging to Apex Cybernetics, Godzilla's reputation had be repaired and the entire human race trust the Titan once again.
Personality[]
At first, Walter seems like a well-spoken, charismatic and compassionate man with a flare of bravado who seeks to better mankind and help the world become a safer place, although he expressly distrusts Godzilla and considers him a threat to mankind rather than a savior. In actuality, this façade veils an obscenely reckless, narcissistic, ambitious, and obsessively ruthless man who justifies his actions by claiming he is giving humanity a way to fight back against the Titans, but whose actions really amount to inflating his own pride by being the one to topple the Titans rather than actually making the world a better place for anyone besides himself. He exhibits absolutely no empathy for the millions of innocent civilians whom he callously, and above all knowingly, puts in Godzilla's warpath so that he can make himself and his company falsely look like mankind's saviors; an act for which Simmons expresses no remorse at all when Madison Russell directly calls him out on it, even going so far as to call the destruction he's instigated "providence". It's hinted he considered it all a necessary sacrifice in the name of pursuing his warped idea of the big picture.
Despite his apathy for the damage, Simmons doesn't see himself as a villain and considers himself a patriot to his species, believing that if mankind is to survive and thrive, they must always triumph over all their adversities including the Titans via technological innovation and ambition such as that which characterizes his company. He visibly enjoys playing God whenever his Mecha is about to be activated. Simmons seems to be cognitively incapable of comprehending the mere notion that his plans might in any way go wrong right up until the moment he's staring death in the face; most glaringly shown by how he thought nothing of using the still-telepathic skull of Ghidorah as Mechagodzilla's brain, and by how he rushed through uploading the Hollow Earth energy to Mechagodzilla as soon as he obtained it without performing even basic testing first (the novelization explicitly points out that there were more pragmatic alternatives to this course of action available which would have bought Apex more time to perfect Mechagodzilla's upgrade without them being attacked by Godzilla in Hong Kong, but Simmons' inability to perceive his own limitations prevented him from entertaining them).
In addition to being a narcissist, Simmons shows signs of being a high-functioning sociopath, which is especially shown in the novelization. He's able to feign empathy to manipulate others but seems to completely lack it; he has an inherent lack of impulse control when he obtains the Hollow Earth energy formula; he's superficially charming; he possesses an already-overinflated ego which he's driven to feed ever further, and he shows no signs of being fazed by his daughter's death if he's made aware of it before he goes the same way.
All of the above having been said, Simmons expresses a degree of respect for Nathan's late brother as "a true pioneer" for his first effort to launch a manned expedition into the Hollow Earth. Although due to Simmons being a passive-aggressive egomaniac who is willing to deceive anyone to help him with his endgame goal, and him briefly looking at a newspaper with David's info clipped off of it, it's more than likely that this was a manipulation tool to get Nathan to extract the Hollow Earth energy source to power-up Mechagodzilla, and/or Simmons simply respecting a noteworthy contributor to his warped perception of human pioneering; and it doesn't change that he committed horrific actions with entirely selfish motivations.
Relationships[]
Godzilla[]
Simmons publicly expresses distrust of Godzilla, labeling him a threat to mankind rather than an ally. As Godzilla is the reigning King of the Monsters, Simmons evidently perceives Godzilla as his ultimate adversary or obstacle to be destroyed so that Simmons can sate his own sense of self-importance, and he takes glee in modeling the Mecha he intended to usurp and replace Godzilla within Godzilla's likeness.
Nathan Lind[]
???
Ren Serizawa[]
Ishiro Serizawa's son and Walter's right-hand man. Due to Ren's talents with technology and position as Apex's chief technology officer, the two work closely together on the Mechagodzilla project. They're frequently seen together or at least in the same Apex building, and they approach Dr. Nathan Lind together with their proposal that he helps them reach the Hollow Earth. Ren is something of a voice of reason to Simmons' overconfidence, openly contemplating the possibility that Maia, Lind, and Andrews will fail in their mission to deliver the Hollow Earth's energy formula to them, and also protesting when Simmons impulsively wants the energy formula uploaded to Mechagodzilla immediately without proper testing due to them having no idea how it could affect the Mecha or the Ghidorah skull. However, still Ren submits when Simmons impatiently orders Ren to "get in the goddamn chair".
The novelization reveals that despite Walter's respect for him, Ren actually is merely using Simmons to further his own agenda and sees Simmons as a mere stepping stone. Ren secretly views the petty egotist as a "chattering baboon" who is good at taking credit for others' inventions, and Ren is seriously considering disposing of Simmons the moment he no longer needs him. Simmons appears to be blissfully unaware of his right hand's true intentions, seeing as Ren would've been in the perfect position to seize control for himself when Mechagodzilla was empowered with the Hollow Earth energy, if not for Ghidorah hijacking the Mecha.
Maia Simmons[]
Maia is loyal to Walter, while Walter expresses high confidence in his daughter helping find the power source to power MechaGodzilla.
The novelization expands more on their relationship. Simmons is pleased when Maia succeeds in delivering the Hollow Earth formula to him. But it's also revealed that Simmons tends to set up mind games for Maia on her assignments to test her wits and see if she's worthy to inherit his corporate empire, such as keeping her in the dark about Kong's involvement in the mission to reach the Hollow Earth despite the dangers the mission presents to its participants' very lives.
Walter never found out about his daughter's death at the hand of Kong before he was killed himself by his own masterpiece Mechagodzilla.
Skullcrawlers[]
Walter sees them as nothing more than guinea pigs to show off MechaGodzilla’s power.
Alan Jonah[]
The novelization of the movie states that Simmons obtained Ghidorah's remains after being contacted on the dark web by a rugged-looking male international criminal who was heavily implied to be Alan Jonah. Despite their polar opposite ideologies regarding the Titans and humanity if this was indeed Jonah, Simmons allowed the criminal to privately meet with him at his Pensacola office to "do business". Simmons was briefly unimpressed when the man gave him a polaroid photo of his product; but upon learning that the product in question was Ghidorah's telepathic remains, Simmons immediately became all too eager to obtain it at any price. At this point, the criminal, having Simmons eating out of his palm, saw fit to abruptly leave with parting instructions that Simmons was to wire a satisfactory amount of money to several dummy accounts, a wish which Simmons almost immediately set about acquiescing to.
Mechagodzilla[]
Mechagodzilla was the focus of all Simmons' pride and dreams, as an artificial Titan of his own making and under his control with which he could topple the Titans and reaffirm his own grandiose sense of self-worth.
Brenda Holland[]
To be added
Quotes[]
“ | I love crazy ideas. They made me rich. | „ |
~ Simmons to Nathan Lind |
“ | There can only be one alpha. It seems to have been providence. | „ |
~ Simmons to Madison Russell |
“ | You see, ten years ago, when Gojira was first revealed to the world, I had a dream, and in that dream, I saw one thing, and that beautiful, amazing thing… was— (turns to see Mechagodzilla right behind him) Oh, shit. No! | „ |
~ Simmons' last words before he is killed by Mechagodzilla. |
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Walter Simmons is the third male human villain in the MonsterVerse franchise, following Preston Packard and Alan Jonah.
- Walter Simmons appears to be the embodiment of how Ishirō Serizawa perceives humanity's arrogance, in which he seeks to place humanity as the dominant species in the world and maintain the position by eliminating and/or enslaving the Titans via Mechagodzilla.
- Despite arguably being one of the evilest human antagonists in the MonsterVerse alongside Alan Jonah, Simmons and Apex have received a disturbing deal of sympathy from viewers, simply because Simmons' agenda on the surface involves building a weapon to fight Titans; glossing over or outright ignoring that Simmons and Apex deliberately engineer an untold number of deaths and endanger millions for no better reason than to make themselves look like saviors when they enact their plan, and that they fired the first shot which ended a peaceful and entirely beneficial coexistence between humans and Titans; on top of the film's implications (which are more explicitly confirmed in the novelization) that Simmons planned to use Mechagodzilla to take over the world for himself if Apex had succeeded in murdering Godzilla. It probably also helps that the film communicates Simmons' worst crimes quite subtly, with explicit confirmation of many of Walter's worst deeds and traits being reserved for the novelization; and that unlike his direct predecessor Jonah, who wanted to bring his own species to extinction and didn't truly care if the Earth's biosphere died along with us, Walter at least wants there to be a human race and a functioning society of some kind left for him to rule over.
- In the novel it said by Simon that he waiting Kong weakened Godzilla on purpose before sending Mechagodzilla to fight Godzilla when he is weakened.
External links[]
- Walter Simmons on the Godzilla Wiki
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