the 1966 Godzilla film "Ebirah, Horror of the Deep" begins with a dance contest and a boat heist. So perhaps Devlin was merely tapping into filmmaker Jun Fukuda's Godzilla instincts. Godzilla ...

which presumably pays off in the long run because Godzilla isn't the only kaiju in the neighborhood: Ebirah, horror of the deep, is also on scene, and he's a little more overtly hostile toward Dave.