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Varan is a fictional monster, or kaiju, which first appeared in the 1958 film Varan the Unbelievable, directed by Ishirō Honda and produced and distributed by Toho. Varan is depicted as a giant prehistoric reptile capable of gliding flight, and would go on to appear in the 1968 film Destroy All Monsters, the ninth film in the Godzilla franchise.
In its first appearance in its self-titled film, Varan is depicted as a kaiju that lives in a saltwater lake within the Kunishiroshima valley, where it is known to the natives as the god Baradagi-Sanjin and identified by an entomologist as a "Varanopode", a fictional reptile said to have lived during the Mesozoic Era. Varan kills an expedition duo and destroys a nearby village before attacking Tokyo until it is tricked by the military into eating bombs. After several of them detonate in its stomach, Varan is mortally wounded and escapes into the ocean, where the final bomb explodes and destroys it.
Varan reappears in the film Destroy All Monsters, living on Monsterland alongside several of Earth's monsters until the alien Kilaaks enslave the monsters and send them to attack Earth's major cities. After an astronaut crew destroys the aliens' control device, the Kilaaks respond by sending King Ghidorah to kill Earth's monsters. While most of them fight and eventually kill the space dragon, Varan did not take part in either. Following this, Earth's monsters return to Monsterland to live in peace.