"Axis Mundi"
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"Axis Mundi" (世界軸／アクシス･ムンディ Sekaijiku / Akushisu Mundi, lit. "World Axis / Axis Mundi") is the ninth episode of Monarch: Legacy of Monsters. Directed by Andy Goddard and written by Matt Fraction, it premiered on Apple TV+ on January 5, 2024.
Plot
1962: Bill Randa and Lee Shaw linger in Bill's Kansas trailer before a mission. They say their goodbyes to Hiroshi Randa, Lee admitting that he's about to do something dangerous, but it's for the good of the world, and he promises to be back soon. He loans Hiroshi his lucky pocketknife to keep safe until he's back.
As they walk to the test site, Shaw tells Bill he's raised Hiroshi well and wishes Keiko could be there to see it. They think back fondly but sadly on her brilliance before reaching a pod positioned over a portal to Hollow Earth. Bill tries to talk Shaw out of joining the crew, but he responds that he can't ask anyone to do something he wouldn't do himself. General Puckett arrives, introducing a group of military officials and politicians to Operation Hourglass, which he says will allow them to explore the world beneath their feet well before humanity reaches the Moon. Shaw and the three other crew members pose for a photo before entering the pod. He lingers to exchange salutes with Bill.
Puckett explains further that they believe Titans travel underground, and while the nearby portal is normally too unstable to enter, drawing a Titan partway through the portal will temporarily stabilize it and allow them to pass through. Dr. Suzuki activates his gamma ray simulator, quickly attracting the attention of the Ion Dragon. He then cuts the signal, causing it to lose interest. The pod plummets to applause from onlookers. The portal produces an intense vortex, however, and begins to suck in everything nearby as the observers and Monarch personnel evacuate. Shaw desperate tries to contact Bill as the pod begins to implode, a flying shard of glass killing one of his crewmates. The portal briefly generates a tornado before returning to normal. Puckett demands an explanation, but Bill has none. That night, Bill returns home to Hiroshi, who is still holding the knife Shaw gave him.
2015: Kentaro Randa awakens in a Tokyo hospital. Monarch Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo and Tim inform him that Shaw successfully imploded the rift, causing the nuclear power plant in Kazakhstan to collapse on itself. Tim recalls Michelle Duvall dragging him to safety, allowing him to avoid being arrested by local officials. Cate, May, and Shaw are all presumed dead. Kentaro refuses to accept this, determined to continue Shaw's work and find them, but Verdugo informs him that his time in Monarch's world is over and advises him simply to live. They depart, allowing Emiko to enter and mourn with him.
Shaw regains consciousness in a forest surrounding by dazzling light. He calls for Cate, initially failing to notice May nearby as she picks herself up. Electricity gathers on the ground around her, and Shaw tackles her to safety just before a bolt of lightning shoots into the sky. He navigates her through the lightning field as they evade bolt after bolt. Once they leave the field, he explains that when a rift closes, it leaves a residual electrical charge—which he learned on his last mission here, to part of the Titans' realm. May is stricken with guilt to realize that Cate fell into the portal while running back for her, but Shaw reassures her that he fell with her and they will find her. They explore the forest, calling for her as strange insects fly overhead.
1962: Randa sits shaken at his desk before he is called into a meeting with Puckett. The general informs him that due to the loss of life caused by Project Hourglass and Monarch's inability to explain the cause, the Department of Defense will be cutting the organization's funding. Bill asks how they can determine the cause without funding and whether the DOD thinks NASA will succeed in its own mission without casualties. Puckett responds that his superiors understand space, but not Hollow Earth, and will be unmoved without an imminent threat like Godzilla. Bill darkly responds that with the gamma ray simulator, they could call up another Titan themselves to prove that the danger is real, but Puckett is unwilling to risk an even deadlier monster emerging. Randa is determined not to let Monarch go; Puckett reminds him that Hiroshi has already lost a mother as well as Shaw, who he considers an uncle.
2015: Shaw explains to May that, based on his last trip here, they have deceptively little time to find Cate, leaving her confused.
The past: Shaw awakens in an isolation tent. Three people in hazmat suits enter and pepper him with questions; still weak, he asks for Bill. After he refuses to eat for a week, one of the nurses offers him a Christmas cookie, but while her back is turned, he takes her hostage and marches through the facility, continuing to demand to see Bill. He pauses when he passes a room with a television set showing the Space Shuttle lifting off. A man in a suit approaches, telling him that Bill is dead, they are in a Monarch medical facility, and 20 years have passed since he disappeared during Operation Hourglass. He holds up the knife, revealing himself to be Hiroshi, now a Monarch agent in his own right. Tears in his eyes, he welcomes Shaw home. Shaw is stunned, collapsing against a wall. Later, Hiroshi apologizes to the nurse Shaw took hostage, offering her flowers. She says she understands his desperation, given his circumstances. He admits that he is reluctant to talk to Shaw, who he felt abandoned by and had already mourned. She replies with a smile that Shaw seems to have kept his promise to return.
2015: Kentaro returns home on crutches. He is sharp with Emiko when she tries to help him sit down and explains that he doesn't want his old office job back. He is consumed with guilt that he couldn't save Cate and May and feels he should have joined them. Emiko encourages him to ignore Verdugo's pronouncement and find another way to them. At Monarch headquarters, Dr. Barnes detects a message embedded in the gamma ray signal coming from one of the Hollow Earth portals.
1982: Hiroshi visits Shaw, who asks why Monarch is treating him like a prisoner. Hiroshi responds that they have to be sure he's not contagious or radioactive. They also want to know how he survived the past 20 years without even aging. Shaw recounts what happened: they crash-landed near a forest and the Ion Dragon returned to attack them, killing another crew member, while another was struck by lightning from the ground. After the Ion Dragon flew into another portal, however, he was sucked in after it and found himself back on the surface—in Japan. He reassures Hiroshi that Bill was right about everything, but Hiroshi scoffs, telling him that Randa "lost himself" after Operation Hourglass. He adds that Monarch will be moving Shaw to a facsimile retirement home for observation and study. Shaw tries to convince Hiroshi to help him plan a return to Hollow Earth, but he refuses, believing Shaw and his parents erred in disturbing Titans who otherwise seemed content to leave humanity alone. Shaw persists, describing Monarch as Hiroshi's legacy, but he views it instead as "the madness that devoured my childhood," and if it wasn't madness, it was a choice, which might be worse. Monarch moves Shaw to the retirement home, where he sinks into mindless routine—until 2014, when he watches Godzilla battle the male MUTO in Honolulu. He immediately crumples up the cup containing his pills.
2015: Shaw finishes telling his story to May. He doesn't think of his experience as losing years, and believes it will be worth it if he can get her home before the same amount of time can pass for her. In Tokyo, Hiroshi finds Kentaro in his office, rifling through his papers. He asks how Kentaro and Cate found him in the desert, to which Hiroshi responds that they were looking for him. He also tells him that Cate is dead. Hiroshi falls to the floor in grief as Kentaro blames him for setting into motion the events that led to her death with his double life.
Cate awakens in the forest. Night has fallen. Before she can get her bearings, she spots a Brambleboar watching her. The beast advances on her as she scrambles backwards, then charges, only to be shot in the eye by an arrow. It flees, and Cate turns to see her grandmother, Keiko, the same age as she was in 1959.
Cast
Actor's name on the left, character played on the right.
- Anna Sawai as Cate Randa
- Kiersey Clemons as May Olowe-Hewitt
- Ren Watabe as Kentaro Randa
- Mari Yamamoto as Dr. Keiko Randa
- Anders Holm as young Bill Randa
- Joe Tippett as Tim
- Wyatt Russell as young Captain Lee Shaw
- Kurt Russell as Colonel Lee Shaw
- Elisa Lasowski as Michelle Duvall
- Takehiro Hira as Hiroshi Randa
- Mirelly Taylor as Deputy Director Natalia Verdugo
- Qyoko Kudo as Emiko Randa
- Christopher Heyerdahl as General Puckett
- Leo Ashizawa as Dr. Suzuki
- Jess Salguiero as Dr. Barnes
- Kelton Sakamoto as young Hiro
- Isaac Keoughan as Ben Brandt
- Lisa Chandler as Grace Burke
- Jonathan Vellner as Jorgen Hest
- Mamie Kakimoto as Dr. Davis
- Charlie Karumi as Dr. Udekwu
- Justin Lacey as Monarch tech
- Sayo Onishi as nurse 1
- Mei Uritani as nurse 2
- Sean Hara as doctor
- Taz Vanrassel as VIP
- Frank Crudele as Stan
Appearances
Titans and superspecies
Other monstersCharacters
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Weapons, vehicles, and organizations
Locations
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Gallery
Promotional stills
Screenshots
Trivia
- The name of Operation Hourglass references the series' working title, Hourglass.[2]
- The Operation Hourglass scene evokes The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, with Lee Shaw traveling to another realm amidst a tornado in Kansas.
- Bill Randa asks General Puckett, "[The Department of Defense] really think[s] NASA's getting to space without losing some people?", foreshadowing the Apollo 1 disaster in 1967 and numerous pilots killed during NASA test flights from 1964 to 1967.
- The pocket knife that Shaw lends to Hiroshi is a Higonokami manufactured by Nagao Kanekoma Factory. Its engraving reads "Registered trademark: Higonokami Sada Kanekoma" (登録商標 肥後守定かね駒).[a]
- This presents a minor inconsistency with real life, as Shaw possesses the knife in 1962 while the aforementioned trademark was not filed until 1990.[3]
Notes
- ↑ The かね駒 (Kanekoma) portion is stylized as a character that cannot be typed on a computer.
References
This is a list of references for Axis Mundi (episode). These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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