King Kong (Universal)

## King Kong

Eighth Wonder of the World

King of skull island

God of skull island

King of the apes

Venatosaurus

Venture crew

**King Kong** (キングコング *Kingu Kongu*?) is a giant ape kaiju created by Universal Pictures that first appeared in 2005 film, *King Kong*.

## Design

### Appearance

Despite his species canonically being more closely related to *Gigantopithecus*, Kong resembles an adult male western lowland gorilla with most of his body covered in thick, matted black hair and some patches of grey fur. Unlike his previous incarnations, he only walks on all fours like a regular gorilla, but is seen standing upright. Being the sole surviving member of his race, Kong is considerably larger with a misaligned lower jaw and notable scars all over his body (the most prominent seen on the right side of his face near his right eye) from what he received during a consistent clash with *Vastatosaurus rexes* and other creatures on Skull Island that he fought in his lifetime. Like all gorillas, Kong has sharp canines with one appearing to be broken.

### Portrayal

For the 2005 film, Kong is portrayed by Andy Serkis via motion capture.

### Roar

In the 2005 remake, Kong's motion-capture actor Andy Serkis provided vocalizations for Kong that were then lowered in pitch to match those of a real gorilla, and then mixed with various other animal sounds such as lions, tigers, leopards, horses and walruses.

## Personality

In all of his appearances, Kong is portrayed as a tragic and sympathetic monster. Kong lives a very solitary and difficult existence, constantly being attacked by the vicious giant creatures that live on his island.

Kong rarely attacks unless provoked, and is capable of causing mass destruction due to his size and strength, which causes human beings to fear and attack him. Kong has a soft spot for human women, and will do anything to protect a woman that he likes, whether it be battling against another monster or battling military forces.

Kong demonstrates at least semi-sapience in all of his film appearances. He frequently utilizes environmental objects while fighting, and learns over the course of a battle.

In the 2005 film, Kong repeated the sign for "beautiful" to Ann Darrow, who had shown it to him earlier, showing just how intelligent he is.

## Origins

In the 2005 remake, Kong is the last living member of a giant species of ape that lives on the mysterious Skull Island, which is inhabited by other giant creatures as well as a tribe of natives that worship him as a god.

Supplementary materials for the 2005 film reveal that Kong is the last member of a species called *Megaprimatus kong*, which likely descended from *Gigantopithecus*, the largest primate to ever live, rather than gorillas.

## History

In 1976, a federal judge ruled that the character and film rights to King Kong (aside from the 1933 film, which belonged to RKO, and the 1976 film and its sequel, which belonged to De Laurentiis and Paramount) belonged to Merian C. Cooper's estate, and the majority of the rights to King Kong reverted to Cooper's son, Richard. Cooper almost immediately sold all of his rights to Universal Pictures, who retains them to this day.

Universal considered producing their own remake of the 1933 film in the late 1990s, but the releases of a remake of *Mighty Joe Young* and *Godzilla* in 1998 caused them to postpone it. Universal finally produced a remake in 2005, which was financially and critically successful. In 2014, Universal entered a legal partnership with Legendary Pictures, and the two companies began production on a new film, *Kong: Skull Island*, set for a 2017 release, however in 2015 Legendary moved the production from Universal to its previous partner, Warner Bros.

### *King Kong*

Kong, possibly the sole survivor of a species of gigantic prehistoric apes called *Megaprimatus kong*, was living on Skull Island in 1933, when a film crew led by Carl Denham arrived on a ship called the *Venture* to shoot a film. The natives of the island did not take kindly to the film crew's presence, and attacked them when they set foot on the island, killing a member of the expedition. The crew returned to the *Venture* and remained on board, debating whether or not to return to the island and continue shooting. At night, the natives used small boats to get onto the *Venture* and kidnapped Ann Darrow, the leading lady. They brought her back to their village on the island and attempted to sacrifice her to their god, Kong. Kong soon emerged from the jungle and grabbed the terrified Ann, then took her away into the jungle, where they stopped at a rock ledge in which Ann witnesses the other sacrifices Kong has killed in the past. The film crew ran onto the island to rescue Ann and followed Kong into the jungle.

However, Ann stabbed Kong's hand with spikes on her ceremonial necklace and made a run for it. Kong quickly recaptured her and brought her to an ancient ruin where, when she appeared to him to be sleeping, he sat down to eat some bamboo. On discovering that she had escaped, Kong made his way behind the ruins and slammed his muscular forearms down to block her escape attempt and he moved all around to prevent her from leaving. However, much to his confusion and eventual amusement, she began to do flips and tricks. When Ann needed rest, Kong simply knocked her down with riotous laughter. When Ann soon became tired and refused to perform anymore, Kong becomes enraged and hurled rocks and trees off the cliff in a frenzy of anger and confusion. However, he is suddenly struck across the neck by a falling boulder, knocking the wind out of him and causing Kong to calm down. After feeling sorry for himself of what he had done, Kong gave Ann one final look before retreating into the jungle and leaving her alone. Kong then encountered the search party crossing a log bridge spanning a ravine. Kong grabbed the bridge and twisted it, sending the party falling into the chasm below, where most of them were killed by gigantic insects. Jack Driscoll managed to escape from the pit and climb to the other side of the ravine, then continued pursuing Kong.

While Kong was gone, Ann tried to run away but found herself being pursued by a Foetodon, a giant lizard. Ann ran from it, only to witness the Foetodon being eaten by a Vastatosaurus rex, the modern descendant of the Tyrannosaurus. The V. rex then chased Ann and was joined by another member of its kind. Kong arrived just in time and tried to fight the V. rexes off. A third V. rex entered the battle and the odds were turned against Kong. Kong incapacitated one of the V. rexes, but the other two continued relentlessly attacking him and Ann. Eventually, Kong and the two remaining V. rexes fell over a cliff and into a thick layer of vines. Kong grappled with the V. rexes, causing one to become entangled and trapped in the vines. Kong grabbed Ann and fell from the vines to the ground. One of the V. rexes followed them and resumed its attack. Kong fought with the V. rex once again, and this time gained the upper hand. Kong restrained the V. rex and pried its jaws apart until they snapped, killing it. Ann, grateful for Kong saving her, allowed herself to be taken by Kong back to his mountain lair.

Kong set Ann down in his lair and sat on a ledge overlooking the sunset. Ann approached Kong and tried to communicate with him using sign language. Suddenly, they were attacked by a swarm of Terapusmordax, giant bats. As Kong fought the bats off, Jack arrived in Kong's lair and found Ann. The two of them began rappelling down a vine to escape, but Kong noticed and tried to grab them. Ann and Jack jumped from the vine into the water below. Enraged, Kong stormed off from his lair and tried to reach the water below. Jack and Ann retreated to the village, where Carl and the remaining members of the expedition were waiting. Kong arrived and broke down the wall. The crew used chloroform bombs to subdue Kong, knocking him unconscious on the shore. Denham decided to bring Kong back to New York and display him as "The Eighth Wonder of the World."

Kong was taken back to New York onboard the *Venture*, and was placed in chrome steel chains and put on display inside a Broadway theater. As the crowds were stunned by Kong and photographers aggressively took pictures of him, Kong became agitated. He broke free from his chains and grabbed the actress pretending to be Ann. Realizing she was a fake, he tossed her aside and tore through the theater, eventually emerging out into the streets of New York. Kong overturned cars and smashed lampposts in rage, searching for Ann. Witnessing the destruction Kong was causing because of her, Ann walked into the open near Kong and allowed him to pick her up again. Kong calmed down and took Ann to Central Park, where he slid on a frozen lake. As Kong began to regain his footing, he was thrown forward when a tank shell blasted the ice.

With the military pursuing him, Kong fled to the Empire State Building and climbed it. After reaching the top of the building, Kong sat and looked out over the sunrise. He looked at Ann and made the sign for "beautiful", showing that he understood and remembered the sign she showed him earlier. The peace was interrupted when a group of biplanes armed with machine guns flew near the building and opened fire on Kong. Kong set Ann down and roared defiantly at the planes. He swatted at them and managed to destroy some of them. Unfortunately for Kong, the gunfire was too much and he slumped over the top of the tower. A weakened Kong looked at Ann sorrowfully for the last time before finally succumbing to his wounds, causing his lifeless body to slide off of the building and plummet into the streets below. As crowds gathered around Kong's colossal corpse, someone remarked that the airplanes got Kong. Carl Denham sorrowfully said that it wasn't the airplanes, as "It was beauty killed the beast".

## Abilities

### Intelligence

Kong is remarkably intelligent. He makes use of environmental objects like trees or rocks when fighting, seen when he utilized rocks to crush a *V. rex's* thick skull with ease.

### Strength and combat

Due to his larger size, Kong has massive physical strength as was seen when he is able to defeat the island's predatory dinosaurs, despite being outnumbered and having to ensure Ann's survival at the same time. His punches can knock over V. rexes and was able to wrestle one to the ground with enough force before snapping apart its jaws.

Kong is also shown to lift and throw objects such as boulders and fallen trees and was strong enough to smash through the gate to the native village on Skull Island. While in New York City, he was able to break free from chrome steel chains thought to be unbreakable while being put on display and can toss automobiles aside like toys. Kong even destroyed some of the biplanes attacking him during his final stand atop the Empire State Building. He is also great at combat against the creatures of Skull Island that tried to attack him.

### Durability

Kong demonstrates an incredible degree of durability as he can withstand bites from the V. rexes without any apparent lasting injury and can even shrug off small-arms fire from the *Venture* crew, which seemingly serves only to anger him. While the machine guns mounted on the biplanes which attacked him on the Empire State Building did shred through his skin, it took a huge number of rounds to finally bring down Kong, who still managed to down some of the planes during the battle.

### Stamina

Kong possesses excellent stamina as he can remain physically active for long periods of time without any obvious signs of fatigue, seen when he fights the V. rexes, climbs up the Empire State Building and even fights against the biplanes during his last stand.

### Endurance

Kong's endurance is incredibly developed as he was able to take attacks from the V. rexes and machine guns from the biplanes and still fight back.

### Speed and agility

Kong is incredibly fast and agile, especially for a creature of his size as he is capable of leaping great heights and distances as well as effortlessly scaling buildings in New York City. He can even dodge many attacks from the V. rexes as well as bullets from the biplanes during his last stand atop the Empire State Building, despite getting shot and eventually succumbing to his wounds.

### Communication

Unlike his previous incarnations, Kong is able to use sign language for communication, shown when he made the sign for "beautiful" that he remembered Ann explaining it to him earlier in his lair.

### Senses

Kong's hearing is quite powerful as he was able to hear Ann's screams a mile away, even when she is attacked by the V. rexes.

### Climbing

Kong is shown to be a great climber (despite his size) as he is capable of scaling cliffs and mountains with relative ease. Kong is also shown to climb buildings such as the Empire State Building.

### Sharp teeth

Like all gorillas, Kong has remarkably sharp canine teeth which grant him a lethal bite. This is seen when he bites a V. rex's neck and even tore off the tongue of another.

### Longevity

Kong has lived for a very long time. He is said to be between 120 to 150 years old.

## Weaknesses

### Modern weaponry

Although Kong is enormously strong and durable, he does have his limits when he ended up being wounded and eventually succumbed to modern human weapon machine guns mounted on planes. Given the weapon's stopping power and penetrative ability, Kong was able to withstand a hail of bullets for long enough to destroy a few of the planes attacking him.

## Trivia

* Only at only 25 feet in height, this is the shortest incarnation of King Kong while all the others are at least 50 feet tall.