Invasion of Astro-Monster
1965 film by Ishirō Honda
Invasion of Astro-Monster (Japanese: 怪獣大戦争, Hepburn: Kaijū Dai-sensō; lit. 'The Great War of the Monsters') is a 1965 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya. It is the sixth film in the Godzilla franchise and Shōwa period. The film was a Japanese-American co-production; it was the second collaboration between Toho Co., Ltd. and UPA. The film stars Akira Takarada, Nick Adams, Kumi Mizuno, Akira Kubo, and Yoshio Tsuchiya, with Haruo Nakajima as Godzilla, Masaki Shinohara as Rodan, and Shoichi Hirose as King Ghidorah. In the film, aliens plead with humanity to borrow Godzilla and Rodan to defeat Ghidorah, only to betray the humans and unleash the monsters on the Earth.
Invasion of Astro-Monster was theatrically released in Japan on December 19, 1965, to mixed reviews from critics. It was followed by a theatrical release in the United States on July 29, 1970, by Maron Films as Monster Zero, on a double bill with The War of the Gargantuas.
The film was followed by Ebirah, Horror of the Deep, released on December 17, 1966.
Plot
In the year 196X, two astronauts, Fuji and Glenn, are sent to investigate the surface of the mysterious "Planet X" recently detected on the far side of Jupiter. There they encounter advanced and seemingly benevolent human-like beings called the Xiliens and their leader, the Controller.
The public source identifies “Invasion of Astro-Monster” as 1965 film by Ishirō Honda. This brief keeps that definition visible, then builds a research path around Invasion, Astro-Monster and film.
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Attribution, date and provenance are strongest when supported by the original work, a catalogue record and documented transmission. The source revision retrieved here is dated Jul 19, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q814166. 3 of 3 selected statements include explicit references; 3 carry qualifiers and 0 use preferred rank. The first chronological checks are 1965, 1970 and 1966.
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This entry incorporates text from “Invasion of Astro-Monster” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.