Rodan (空の大怪獸 ラドン Sora no Daikaijū Radon, lit. Giant Monster of the Sky Rodan) is a 1956 tokusatsu kaiju film produced by Toho. The film was released to Japanese theaters on December 26, 1956, and to American theaters on August 6, 1957. The first film to feature Toho's famous kaiju Rodan, the film begins with a series of savage murders taking place in the coal mines beneath Kitamatsu, Kyushu. The authorities soon learn the murders are the work of giant prehistoric dragonfly nymphs called Meganulon. A mission to exterminate the creatures causes engineer Shigeru Kawamura to become trapped in a huge underground cavern, where he witnesses the titanic pterosaur Rodan hatch from its egg and feed on the Meganulon surrounding it. When Rodan begins a supersonic campaign of destruction around the Far East, the JSDF scrambles to find countermeasures against the beast. But the situation becomes even more dire when a second Rodan appears and joins its mate in an assault on Fukuoka.