Species: Human Nationality: American Occupation: Producer, engineer, fighter pilot Related to: Unnamed father (deceased), unnamed mother (deceased), unnamed younger brother (deceased), unnamed younger sister (deceased). First Appearance: The War in Space (1977) Played by: David Perrin (The War in Space), Carl Craig (Gamera vs. Viras), Jamie Bell (King Kong 2005)
Jimmy From NASA (or Jim Crane) is, as Nathan calls him, the “intrepid producer” of The Monster Island Film Vault podcast.
Biography
Before the War in Space (MIFV)
He is originally from New York City (OCR123).
He may or may not have been the Jimmy seen in King Kong (2005). If that’s the case, he knows how to dance, among other things. How that could’ve been him in 1933 when he was born over two decades later has yet to be explained (S1E12). When asked about it, he said it was a “trade secret.” He also says he knew the famous burlesque dancer Gypsy Rose Lee (S1E12).
He says he once flung a caterpillar at his teacher as a kid like in Rebirth of Mothra II. Nathan called him a “fiend” and warned him not to do it again on the Island because there are “policies” against that (S1E18).
Jimmy spent some of his childhood in Japan in the 1960s. He joined the Scout Association of Japan. His best friend in Scouts was Masao Nakaya. In 1968, he and Masao helped Gamera defeat the monster Viras (Gamera vs. Viras). He mentioned/hinted at this a few times on Twitter, including addressing “Heisei_Gamera” by saying, “Remember when Masao and I helped you save the world from a giant space squid? Good times.” Gamera replied by saying he’d be happy to have a rematch on the submarine race. Jimmy said he’d talk to Masao and get back to him (@NasaJimmy, etc.). It all came to light when the podcast Monsters vs. Men featured Gamera comic book writer Josh Bugosh on an episode, and he theorized the Jim in Viras grew up to become Jimmy in War in Space. Jimmy commented and confirmed, much to Nathan’s shock (@NasaJimmy).
He can testify to the “grit and slime” of the 1970s because he lived through them (S1E8).
He says he didn’t hang Christmas lights for Christmas 1973 because of the energy crisis (S1E8).
Jimmy says he was trained by Glenn, the World Space Authority astronaut who discovered Planet X and was later Earth’s ambassador to the planet, as a young man at NASA. He admires him greatly (Twitter: @NasaJimmy).
He tried to work at JAXA, the Japanese space agency, but they wouldn’t take him despite him having Japanese friends who could help him (S1E15).
He says he’s an “international man of mystery,” and there are whole countries he’s not allowed into anymore (MIG2).
He says he has dropped his “fair share” of muffin baskets onto people’s yards using his drones. His says fruit baskets are “elementary.” “You’d be surprised how many baskets I’ve dropped,” he says (MIG2).
He says he knows where Capt. Jinguji and the Gotengo were at the time of Rebirth of Mothra II. Nathan says he’s jealous the Gotengo isn’t in his garage (S1E18).
The War in Space
He worked as a NASA engineer on the spacecraft Gohten and as a fighter pilot in 1988 during the “(in)famous War in Space.” His entire family was killed during the aliens’ attack on New York, which he was not told about until they were well on their mission to Venus. During a battle with the Messiah 13 Aliens on Venus, he was shot down and presumed dead when the planet exploded. Miraculously, he survived and found his way to Monster Island. He refuses to explain how any of this happened. Nathan jokingly attributes it to “the power of the retcon” (The War in Space, S1E1). (Equally as miraculous, Venus is still around).
After the War in Space
At some point, Jimmy played chicken against Dagahra while flying the Gohten. Koji wasn’t happy with him (JN).
The Monster Island Film Vault
Eventually, Jimmy found his way to Monster Island in the 2010s. Curiously, he doesn’t look any older than he did in 1985. He refuses to explain how he survived his crash and the destruction of Venus and simply paraphrases Mark Twain by saying, “The reports of my death were greatly exaggerated.” He also won’t explain why he’s working at the Island not for NASA. Nathan attributes it to “the power of retcon” (S1E1, @NasaJimmy, etc.).
Jimmy started as an intern on the Island filing OSHA paperwork. The Board of Directors never sees any of it because the interns take care of it (S1E12).
He may be working on a ball transportation system like at Jurassic World (DToT101).
In 2019, Nathan met Jimmy while vacationing at the Monsterland Resort. He’d heard there was a job opening for a curator of the Island’s film vault, and after acquiring the position, he visited the Island’s radio station, where Jimmy was working. They hit it off, and Nate asked him to help him produce a new podcast about the films in the Island’s Vault that featured the kaiju residents. He accepted. He played the episode on the Island’s PA system so all the monsters could hear it (it was only to be used to play soothing music), which attracted the attention of Kong, who climbed the mountain and roared to thank Nathan on the air. Nathan told Jimmy to use his drones to get him down since he “wasn’t fond of airplanes,” but the WiFi was out (S1E1).
Answered a phone call from the Island’s board of directors during a recording. They accused Nathan of going too long with the Godzilla anime trilogy coverage. Jimmy acted as a go-between for Nathan and the Board. Nathan said he didn’t violate anything because he covered three movies instead of one. He said Jimmy should get paid more for “practically being my agent.” He missed a credits cue, though, and Nathan did it himself (S1E3).
He operated the camera for Nathan during his unboxing video for the Criterion Godzilla set (“Unboxing Criterion’s Godzilla: The Showa-Era Blu-Ray Set”).
Since Tim forgot to bring his microphone to record, Jimmy flew him back to Indiana in the SY-3 to retrieve it (S1E4, @NasaJimmy, @TheMonsterIsla1).
He had to leave the studio while Nathan recorded with John LeMay since Kong and Godzilla were getting rowdy because King Kong vs. Godzilla was skipped in the podcast coverage. Nathan told him to use the ORCA to calm them down, but he’d yet to fix it. It still wasn’t by the time they finished, so Nathan had to go help him (S1E5).
When flying Nick in to record, he let Nick skydive onto the Island. Discussing this later gave him a flashback to the War in Space, which Nathan had to talk him through (S1E6).
He gave Ben Avery a tour of the Island after he discussed King Kong (1976) on the show. Ben wanted to see the hanger and the chapel (S1E8).
He had a short-lived conflict with John LeMay because he refused to give John a tour of his garage. John attributed this to them both being redheads (S1E10). However, this flared up again online, sparking the world’s weirdest flame war between the two since Jimmy is only on Twitter and John isn’t (@NasaJimmy, @TheMonsterIsla1, S1E13). Dallas Mora told him to end the war, but Jimmy said, “No.” Dallas said to “drop and get it over with,” and Jimmy replied that he was “working on one.” Nathan bemoaned having to due paperwork if John’s house mysteriously exploded. It may have been a joke? (S1E14).
Claimed he’d seen other monsters be resurrected with artificial hearts like Kong in King Kong Lives. Nathan teased him for being a NASA engineer who believed in “magic artificial hearts” (S1E10).
He says he “faced down Gorath,” so asteroids are “nothing” to him (@NasaJimmy, S1E19).
He has to stay on the Island to take care of the studio while Nathan goes to G-Fest. He would one day like to host a War in Space panel (S1E10, Jimmy’s Notes on S1E10).
When Nathan went to the States to appear in Kaiju Weekly, the podcast’s co-host Michael Hamilton flew to Monster Island not knowing Nathan was on his way there. Then due to coronavirus quarantine, Michael had to call in using old Monarch equipment from the 1970s to record that episode from a quarantine bubble (KW18, @TheMonsterIsla1, @NasaJimmy, S1E14). They also sabotaged the old Monarch equipment Jimmy provided to Michael Hamilton when Nathan guest hosted on Kaiju Weekly (KW18). Jimmy kept him in a 10’x10’ box downwind from Monster Island’s aviary, so Michael had to smell what Rodan and the flying monsters had for dinner. (He later said this was nothing compared to when the Board fed the overabundance of overripe bananas to Kong. Everyone had to wear gas masks for three days [@NasaJimmy]). He also heard Jimmy tinkering in his garage (workshop) all night, which kept him up. If he tried to ask him a question, he was met with, “Uh-huh.” Jimmy has a copy of The Offcial Godzilla Compendium with extensive notes on MOGUERA, which Michael “borrowed” (without permission (@NasaJimmy, KW19). This led to yet another flame war, this one with Michael (@NasaJimmy, @TheMonsterIsla1). This flame war continued for over a month on Twitter. Jimmy attempted to recover his book during Kaiju Quarantine by sending his pteronadon-bot to retrieve it from Michael’s house. Michael caught on and replaced the book with a Hanna-Barbara Godzilla coloring book (KQ1, @NasaJimmy). Nathan voiced concern that Jimmy’s notes in the book would be dangerous if they fell into the wrong hands (S1E15). This culminated with Jimmy and Michael seemingly burying the hatchet when Michael was invited to join Jimmy to test a new “jungle attraction” being implemented by the Board of Directors. He flew there and dropped off on the west side of the Island by Jimmy—after possibly slipping him a drugged soda—with nondescript directions. He attempted to call Nathan while he was on Kaiju Weekly discussing Night of the Lepus to get directions but was cut off by bad cell phone signal (@NasaJimmy, @TheMonsterIsla1, KW24).
He also has the pteronadon bot from Godzilla vs. Mechagodzilla II in his garage. He flew to Ohio to pick up Daniel DiManna to be on MIFV and transported him to the Island on it. Danny says he held on for dear life and almost whispered, “I hate sand,” in his ear (S1E12).
He fell asleep watching The Three Treasures with Nathan, which annoyed Nathan to the nth degree (S1E13). He claims he was tired from working in his garage all day (JN S1E13).
Admitted he once slipped in a vacation photo during a slideshow briefing. Dallas Mora said he heard that story and was surprised Jimmy “could wear that.” So was Nathan, who called it “frightening” and wondered why the Island’s beaches were decontaminated again (S1E14). Jimmy later said he wouldn’t release the image because “the Internet couldn’t handle it” (JN).
Jimmy picked up Luke Jaconetti on a small unnamed Mediterranean island south of Sardinia. It is owned by Luke’s boss of ten years, Dufo DiMonzo. Thanks to strange extradition laws, Jimmy was able to pick up Luke in SPIP there during the coronavirus travel ban. It helps that it wasn’t technically in Europe. DiMonzo’s attorneys were there and only spoke Italian. Luke only knew a few words in Italian. They told him, “By the way, you never saw me.” Nathan was confused as to where the SPIP had been kept in Jimmy’s garage, and was surprised to learn he kept it “in the back” in a secret compartment. Nathan wasn’t sure he wanted to know what else was back there, and while Luke offered to give him a hint, Nathan said to tell him off the air because “the wrong people might be listening” (S1E15). (Dufo DiMonzo is the “reclusive weirdo” from Milan who owns the Two True Freaks podcast network. He’s made a career out of ripping off Dino DeLaurentiis). They had to take an alternate flightpath over Malaysia to get back to the States (S1E15). He briefly described their trip like this:
Luke and I had a good time in Malaysia. We stopped at this little “hole in the wall” restaurant in Kuala Lumpur where he tried some teh tarik and nasi lemak. We had to hightail it out of there because of…local trouble. (There are reasons I said during Nathan’s stream Friday that I’m not allowed some countries…). (JN)
He sent a Vulture mech to pick up Bex in Indiana to bring her to the Island to discuss Rebirth of Mothra on the show. He included instructions to apply Houtoua powder “liberally” to avoid nanometal and coronavirus. He also flirted with Bex on the air, which earned him ire from Nathan. He reiterated that he doesn’t chase married women (S1E16).
He and Nathan still don’t know what all the buttons in their studio do (OCR123).
He used a teleporter (that may or not be Kilaak tech) to bring Bex to the Island to discuss Rebirth of Mothra II. She told Jimmy to check its calibrations because her Monster Island souvenir shirt grew when she arrived. Nathan grilled him to make sure it was the shirt and not Bex whose sized was altered. He reminded him of the transporter accidents on Star Trek and told him to test it further before using it again.
He knows how Dagahra deploys the Barem from his stomach—and he wishes he didn’t know. Nathan wondered if it had something to do with the teleporter (S1E18).
While not a Christian, he was shocked by Bex’s sudden conversion to Mothrianity, much like Nathan (S1E18).
Skills
Jimmy is a NASA engineer and an adept fighter pilot (The War in Space).
He’s proficient with drones. He uses them to keep the kaiju on Monster Island in check. Nate told him to use aerial drones to get Kong down the mountain after the big ape interrupted a recording session. Unfortunately, the WiFi was out (Episode 1: Welcome…to Monster Island).
When not producing the show, he’s endeavoring to repair the ORCA, a device developed by Monarch to communicate with kaiju (S1E5-6), and reassemble Mechani-Kong to dig new caves for the kaiju on the Island to live in (S1E6). He has the remains of both versions of Moguera as spare parts for this project (S1E9).
He writes a blog series called Jimmy’s Notes, which are posted on the weeks between podcast episodes. They offer corrections, leftover notes, and riffs on Nathan and his guests (MIFV website, etc.)
He says he never forgets his passwords…except “that one time,” and he doesn’t talk about that (MIG2).
He agrees with Nathan that they can say whatever they want about the Board of Directors because there’s no clause in their contracts that says they can be fired for sharing negative opinions about them. However, Nathan did theorize that Jimmy’s internet issues during his second livestream may have been the Board throttling him (MIG2).
He put Mothra webbing in the popcorn while Nathan and Bex watched Rebirth of Mothra. Nathan theorizes that’s why Dallas loved the popcorn (S1E16).
Nathan joked that Jimmy doesn’t sleep. Bex theorized he had a time-warping device. Jimmy replied that if he told them he’d have to kill them (S1E18).
Chris Cooke asked Jimmy to build Mecha-Mothra in his garage (OCR124).
He can say “Cap ‘n’ Crunch” in Japanese (OCR123).
(To be continued…)
Personality
He has a dry, deadpan sense of humor akin to Joel Hodgson.
His catchphrase is, “We shall overcome!” (The War in Space, S1E1, etc.)
He says actor Nick Adams is his “spirit animal” (Twitter: @NasaJimmy, etc.) He once got so excited at Nick Adams and Glen being mentioned, he did the Shie dance (S1E15). Monster Zero is his favorite Godzilla film (KQI). He also loves the P-1, and jumped up and down in his producer booth when it was mentioned by Luke Jaconetti. It’s the one ship he can’t get in his garage (S1E15).
He and Nate have an R2D2/C3PO sort of relationship: antagonistic but friendly. He fact checks Nate and the guests, often interrupting recording sessions, and injects his own thoughts. He does this to keep Nate “honest” (Episode 1: Welcome…to Monster Island, etc.)
Daniel DiManna calls him “Jimbo,” which annoyed him at first, but he has grown to appreciate it (@NasaJimmy, S1E12).
He’s quite snarky, especially on Twitter (KW18).
He suffers from PTSD thanks to his experiences in the War in Space, which are most often triggered by reminders of his family dying. He goes into a corner and cries when this happens. However, bingeing a few episodes of The Mandalorian will bring him out of it because “baby Yoda fixes everything” (@TheMonsterIsla1, @NasaJimmy, S1E12, S1E14).
He was weirdly generous with No-Prizes while Bex was on the show (S1E16, S1E18).
Personal Life
Jimmy enjoys both Star Trek and Star Wars, though he is more partial to the latter despite the former being popular with his NASA colleagues (@NasaJimmy). He’s not fond of The Phantom Menace and hates Jar-Jar Binks, agreeing with Joe Metter that that character is, as Joe said, “the Antichrist of the Star Wars universe” (Episode 2: The Tourists vs. King Kong [1933]). He watches The Mandalorian every week with Nathan and often goes to the movies with him (@NasaJimmy).
He is a fan of transhumanism, much to Nathan’s chagrin (S1E3).
His favorite authors include Arthur C. Clark, Isaac Asimov, and Kurt Vonnegut (S1E3).
Admits he has played the Kiko drinking game while watching Son of Kong (take a shot every time he scratches his head) (S1E4).
He is rebuilding Mechani-Kong from the pieces recovered from Tokyo Tower (S1E6).
He is also trying to repair the ORCA, but it was smashed by Madison Russell when she and her farther, Dr. Mark Russell, were inspecting MONARCH Outpost 83 on the Island. Without this, it was impossible to counsel Godzilla and Kong to resolve their latest conflict. It’ll take until Nov. 2020 to fix it (S1E6).
He is a huge fan of Star Wars, although he is a classic Prequel hater (S1E2, S1E6, @NasaJimmy). He’s a huge fan of The Mandalorian and sometimes binges the show to cope with the loss of his family. He says Baby Yoda makes everything better. Nathan thinks he needs help (@NasaJimmy). He credits it for keeping him from becoming a cynic in the 1970s (S1E8).
He has copies of Jinguji’s blueprints for the Goten-go. He got into an argument with a random tweeter over the pronunciation of the “-go” suffix in relation to the Gohten (@NasaJimmy).
Jimmy became a Patreon supporter for Daniel DiManna so he would start a novelization of Monster Zero to make a cameo in that novelization (S1E12).
He said on Twitter that he isn’t scared of the coronavirus because he survived the War in Space (@NasaJimmy).
He has read all the MonsterVerse comics three times (S1E14).
He attempted to leave commentary on his favorite Godzilla film, Monster Zero, during Kaiju Quarantine, but the Island’s internet went out inexplicably halfway through. He settled for commenting during Godzilla vs. King Ghidorah the next day. He frequently voiced that time travel should be banned given how dumb the Futurians are, although he’d make an exception for M11 (KQ1). However, he says dimension hopping is a whole other matter. Nathan replied that he was splitting hairs (S1E16). He upgraded his computer’s OS to Windows M11 afterward. He wouldn’t let Nathan have the upgrade, though (@NasaJimmy, @TheMonsterIsla1).
He claims he, much like Batman and Robin in the unmade Japanese treatment for Batman Meets Godzilla, ran nude through a Japanese bathhouse once (S1B2).
He follows all of the NASA Twitter feeds and frequently voices his disappointment that they seem to have forgotten about the Gohten (@NasaJimmy, S1E15).
Bex described him as a “good-looking guy” after he tried to flirt with her on the air, which caught Nathan’s ire. He didn’t realize she was a happily married woman (S1E16). He doesn’t chase after married women (S1E2, S1E16).
He finds the movie Kung Pow! Enter the Fist! to be more traumatic than the War in Space (S1E16).
His music tastes are eclectic, including blues and gangster rap. He played rap while flying Michael to Monster Island. Having grown up in both New York and Japan, he enjoys East Coast rappers, most notably the Wu-Tang Clan because they like Asian culture. However, he enjoys “classics” of gangster rap like “Gangster’s Paradise” (and it’s Weird Al parody, “Amish Paradise”) (KW25, @NasaJimmy). (His favorite blues artist is Eric Clapton).
He says, “Shadow of the Colossus rocks!” He says that “upstart” Danny (DiManna) is a big fan (MIG2).
He is a sucker for space monsters (S1E16).
He has insisted that Godzilla be kept away from his garage to keep the rejected “Godzilla vs. Mechani-Kong” script from happening while he’s still repairing the giant robot ape (S1E18).
Nathan joked that Jimmy could’ve fixed Garugaru up better for Belvera, but he probably would’ve refused the work because she’s “Rita Repulsa’s cousin” (S1E18).
He approves of Nathan’s family having a cat named Obi-Wan (S1E18).
He wanted Chris Cooke to bring him Sour Skittles from Canada (OCR123).
Chris said Tom Cruise would play Jimmy in a modern remake (of The War in Space) after hearing about his exploits. Jimmy said he would talk with the right people in Hollywood to get the next Mission: Impossible filmed on Monster Island. Chris said Chris Farley would probably play him if Farley was still alive (OCR123-124).