rewrite this content and keep HTML tags Cate Randa, the protagonist of “Monarch,” is crossing the Golden Gate Bridge on a school bus when Godzilla attacks.Courtesy of Apple TVSan Francisco is ruined. Downtown’s streets, once vibrant, are eerily still. Empty storefronts line the sidewalks. Looters barge into unwatched buildings, snatching up whatever merchandise they please. No, I’m not talking about today’s San Francisco. I’m talking about the city as it appears in “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” one year after Godzilla rips through the Golden Gate Bridge and smashes up downtown, turning the city into a permanent evacuation zone. “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters” takes place in the MonsterVerse, the cinematic universe spawned by Gareth Edwards’ 2014 “Godzilla” reboot. The alternate universe is almost exactly like real life, except that Titans — enormous cryptids like Godzilla and Mothra — walk the Earth. In the MonsterVerse, Titans remained unknown until “G-Day” — a fateful day in 2014 when Godzilla rose out of the Pacific Ocean and laid waste to San Francisco. AdvertisementArticle continues below this adIt wasn’t the “Monarch” team’s idea to make San Francisco the site of G-Day. In the 2014 “Godzilla,” the titan first makes landfall in SF; “Monarch” just takes place in the same canon. But the team’s special effects crew ran with the idea.Chris Black, executive producer of “Monarch: Legacy of Monsters,” told SFGATE that the city’s recognizability is part of the reason why it works.“We joke that in the films, you always see the monsters destroying the Pyramids or the Eiffel Tower or the Colosseum,” he said. “Now, I’m originally from Toledo, Ohio. You never see Godzilla stomping Toledo.”The wreckage of San Francisco one year after G-Day.Screenshot via Apple TVGodzilla vs. San FranciscoAdvertisementArticle continues below this ad“Monarch” takes place years after the destruction, in a world nervously adapted to the existence of Titans. At airports, bright yellow decals mark Godzilla evacuation routes. City governments strap missile launchers onto the sides of bridges, and city dwellers periodically crowd into subway stations for Godzilla drills.“Monarch’s” fifth episode, released on Apple TV+ on Friday, offers a glimpse of a post-apocalyptic San Francisco. The show sets the tone immediately when the trio of heroes arrives in Oakland airport. They’re greeted by an advertisement for Godzilla-proof underground homes, which flashes on a TV screen. “Who wants to live in a custom bunker?” someone asks.“Techbros,” another replies. “Only ones who can afford it.” Even in the MonsterVerse, the same basic truths hold.AdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe show’s heroes are shuttled to a FEMA housing camp on Alameda Point, a suburb of small, newly built homes where some displaced San Franciscans now live. Up to this moment, I had watched Godzilla wreck the Golden Gate Bridge and held my breath as humans fled from CGI ice-breathing monsters. But it was here that I remembered I was watching a fantasy; there’s simply no way the Bay Area could ever build a whole neighborhood in nine years.At this point, San Francisco is completely evacuated and cordoned off by the military, who shoot looters on sight. Stray cats outnumber the few remaining squatters. After sneaking into the city, the heroes duck into Powell Street BART Station, which is complete with a person in the trackway, to avoid capture. They climb the Transamerica Pyramid, which Godzilla was merciful enough to leave intact.Godzilla takes a first swipe through San Francisco’s Golden Gate Bridge.Courtesy of Apple TVGodzilla vs. VancouverKeen observers will note, though, that the scenery doesn’t exactly match the City by the Bay. The streets, while plausibly San Francisco-esque, don’t ring any bells. Powell Street BART Station just looks like a generic subway station, with none of BART’s many charms. AdvertisementArticle continues below this adThat’s because “Monarch’s” San Francisco scenes were actually filmed in Vancouver, a city that TV and film studios frequently substitute for San Francisco. The post-apocalyptic San Francisco is the fruit of impeccable set design and clever special effects. The show’s lifelike Transamerica Pyramid is actually a CGI phantom, and the scene where Godzilla smashes the Golden Gate Bridge was filmed in a parking lot.Godzilla vs. CivilizationIt’s true that San Francisco’s trio of landmarks — Golden Gate Bridge, Salesforce Tower, Transamerica Pyramid — make it easy to identify the city when Godzilla smashes it. But there’s a broader argument to be made here. It’s not just that monuments of this scale are recognizable; they’re symbolic. Building a giant landmark — whether a palace, a tower, a temple or a bridge — has always signaled to friends and foes that THIS civilization is powerful, important, long-lasting.So when a monster wrecks the pyramids, it’s proof that human greatness isn’t all that great after all. This brings us to the Salesforce Tower problem. AdvertisementArticle continues below this adWhen Godzilla attacks San Francisco, it bashes in the tip of the Salesforce Tower.Screenshot via Apple TVIn the MonsterVerse canon, G-Day takes place in 2014, four years before the Salesforce Tower was completed. But in “Monarch,” the tower, which was built to stand for two centuries, was already there in 2014, just in time to get roughed up by Godzilla. It stands tall among the wreckage, with its tip bashed in and chunks torn out of its sides. It’s possible that “Monarch” writers didn’t realize that the tower was this new, so maybe it’s just a simple oversight, but perhaps there’s something more intentional behind this alternate San Francisco skyline. What better marker of human hubris can Godzilla ask for than a thousand-foot-tall, phallic skyscraper, branded with the name of a multibillion dollar tech company?The city first received the Godzilla treatment in 2014, but in the nine years since, it means something different. The then-invincible tech industry is publicly imploding, and billion dollar startups go belly-up. Executives announce layoffs on a daily basis. Boom has turned bust. San Francisco can no longer pretend to be invincible.AdvertisementArticle continues below this adThe first time Godzilla arrived as a warning. Now it’s a smug reminder.
SF’s Salesforce Tower, downtown destroyed by Godzilla in new TV series
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