The War of the Gargantuas (Japanese: フランケンシュタインの怪獣 サンダ対ガイラ, Hepburn: Furankenshutain no Kaijū: Sanda tai Gaira, lit.

'Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira') is a 1966 kaiju film directed by Ishirō Honda, with special effects by Eiji Tsuburaya.

[6][7] The film stars Russ Tamblyn, Kumi Mizuno and Kenji Sahara, with Yû Sekida as Sanda and Haruo Nakajima as Gaira.

In the film, scientists investigate the sudden appearance of two giant hairy humanoid monsters that culminates in a battle in Tokyo.

Since its release, the film has been regarded as a cult classic, drawing admiration from artists such as Brad Pitt, Hajime Isayama, Guillermo del Toro, Quentin Tarantino and Tim Burton.

The press picks up the story and interviews Dr. Paul Stewart and his assistant, Dr. Akemi Togawa, who once had a baby Frankenstein in their possession for study five years before.

The green Frankenstein attacks Haneda Airport, eats a woman and returns to the sea after the clouds clear.

Stewart and Akemi try to convince the military that only Gaira should be killed while Sanda should be spared, but the army ignores their pleas, unwilling to risk letting either monster live.

Gaira escapes with Sanda pursuing and heads towards Tokyo, no longer deterred by the city lights as they now alert him to the presence of food.

Majida informs Stewart and Akemi that the monsters' deaths could not be confirmed due to the intense heat, but stresses that nothing could have survived the eruption.

[9] Honda shot the film's dramatic footage between May 9 and June 4, with Tsuburaya's special effects crew finishing in mid-July.

[9] The American version had Honda shoot additional scenes and UPA had Toho release the negatives, outtakes and other footage such as sound and music elements.

[2] In 2010, Toho released the film on Blu-ray, which includes special features such as an audio commentary by Kumi Mizuno, outtakes, trailers and behind-the-scenes photo galleries.

In 1998, film historians Stuart Galbraith IV and Steve Ryfle named Frontier Enterprises, a Tokyo-based company, as the studio that dubbed the international version.

[15] Co-producer Henry G. Saperstein commissioned a separate English dub from Glen Glenn Sound, a Los Angeles-based company, for the film's American release.

[4] In 1997, filmmaker Shusuke Kaneko stated that when planning his Gamera trilogy with screenwriter Kazunori Itō, he aimed to model it after The War of the Gargantuas.

[20][21] In 2011, manga artist Hajime Isayama cited the film's titular monsters as an inspiration for the Titans in his best-selling manga series, Attack on Titan, stating: "When I was in the lower grades of elementary school, I happened to watch a film called Frankenstein's Monsters: Sanda vs. Gaira [sic] on a TV at a public hall during an evacuation drill.

[23] In 2012, American actor Brad Pitt cited the film as his inspiration to pursue acting at the 84th Academy Awards.

[30] In August 2019, Michael Dougherty, director and co-writer of Godzilla: King of the Monsters, expressed interest in rebooting and adapting the Gargantuas for the MonsterVerse.