French nuclear testing mutates a marine iguana into a colossal reptile that surfaces in New York, and as the creature burrows into Manhattan to nest, a scientist and a ragtag group race the military to destroy it before its offspring overrun the world. Roland Emmerich's American reinvention of the Japanese icon trades atomic dread for blockbuster spectacle, drowning the city in rain and rubble. Loud, glossy and largely hollow, it strips the monster of its mythic weight in favor of chase-movie mechanics. A commercial juggernaut that fans of the original have never forgiven, it endures mostly as cautionary spectacle.