10 Classic Movie Monsters With Unexpected Origins

9. Godzilla Was Based On The Rhedosaurus From The Beast From 20,000 Fathoms

You'd be forgiven for assuming that Godzilla was an entirely original creation for Toho's classic 1954 monster movie Gojira.

However, its design was actually based heavily on the gigantic, carnivorous dinosaur known as the Rhedosaurus from an American monster movie released the year prior, The Beast from 20,000 Fathoms.

If you're gonna steal, you may as well steal from the best, and with the Rhedosaurus having been designed by legendary stop-motion artist Ray Harryhausen, who better to pilfer from?

Better still, Rhedosaurus was originally supposed to have atomic breath, yet this was cut due to budgetary restrictions and ultimately used instead in Gojira, where it's been one of the monster's defining characteristics ever since.

Godzilla has of course undergone several makeovers over the last 65 years - some good, many bad - but the creature's original DNA resides in an American monster movie, which given that Gojira is a thinly-veiled criticism of the American nuclear program, is pretty ironic.