Kong: Skull Island

**Kong: Skull Island** is a 2017 film starring Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, John Goodman, Brie Larson, Tian Jing, Toby Kebbell, John Ortiz, Corey Hawkins, Jason Mitchell, Shea Whigham, Thomas Mann, Terry Notary and John C. Reilly, directed by Jordan Vogt-Roberts, written by Dan Gilroy, Max Borenstein and Derek Connolly and produced by Alex Garcia, Jon Jashni, Mary Parent and Thomas Tull.

The film was a financial failure as it generated a loss of $86 million.

## Plot

In 1944, two World War II fighter pilots, American pilot Hank Marlow and Japanese pilot Gunpei Ikari, parachute onto an island in the South Pacific after a dogfight and engage in close combat, but the fight is interrupted by a giant ape.

In 1973, U.S. government agent Bill Randa hires former British Special Air Service Captain James Conrad, a skilled tracker, to guide an expedition to map out a recently discovered island known as Skull Island. They are escorted by Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard and his subordinates. Packard, angered by the end of the Vietnam conflict and the men he's lost, accepts immediately in an effort to find a purpose. The group is joined by anti-war photographer Mason Weaver, who believes that the expedition is a secret military operation, and intends to expose it.

Arriving at Skull Island, Packard's men begin dropping seismic explosives, developed by Randa's seismologist Houston Brooks, to map out the island and prove Brooks' Hollow Earth theory. However, the air unit is attacked by the same ape from 1944, scattering the survivors across the island. Packard regroups with some survivors, including Randa. After being confronted by Packard, Randa reveals his affiliation with the secret government organization Monarch, and its plan of using the expedition to prove the existence of monsters. Packard's group begins making their way to Major Jack Chapman, Packard's right-hand man, whose helicopter crash-landed elsewhere. While Packard claims it's a rescue mission he also intends to use the arms in the helicopter to kill the ape. Meanwhile, the other group of survivors, led by Conrad, try to reach a rendezvous point to meet a resupply team arriving in three days.

Conrad's group eventually encounters the local Iwi natives and an older Marlow. Marlow reveals the ape is Kong, the island's guardian, worshiped as a god by the natives for protecting them from many predators, including two-legged, lizard-like subterranean monsters dubbed "Skullcrawlers". He informs them that Kong attacked and destroyed the air unit because their bombs brought some to the surface; the Skullcrawlers are responsible for killing Kong's ancestors, leaving him as the last of his kind. The Iwi believe that when Kong dies the most powerful Skullcrawler, or "The Big One" as Marlow calls it, will awaken and ravage the island. Marlow reveals that he and Ikari became friends, but Ikari was killed by a Skullcrawler some time ago. As Chapman is ambushed and devoured by a Skullcrawler, Conrad's group helps Marlow complete a boat built from parts of Marlow and Ikari's downed planes. They ride down the river, and manage to secure communication with Packard's group. They regroup with Packard, who insists on searching for Chapman. Marlow leads them through a mass grave but they are attacked by the same Skullcrawler that killed Chapman, killing Randa and others before dying in a flammable gas explosion triggered by Weaver. Learning about Chapman's death, Packard reveals his plan to kill Kong and avenge his fallen men. Marlow and Brooks attempt to explain killing Kong would lead to the Skullcrawler's running rampant, but Packard, has become obsessed with killing Kong and refuses to listen.

The group parts ways, with Packard's group retrieving the weapons from Chapman's chopper and laying a trap for Kong at a nearby lake, while the non-military personnel head back to the boat. While scouting the path ahead, Conrad and Weaver encounter Kong up close and, seeing his true peaceful nature, they resolve to save him. Packard's group lures Kong with the remaining seismic charges and incapacitates him with ignited napalm. Conrad, Weaver, and Marlow arrive and after a standoff, persuade the other soldiers to spare Kong, but the insane Packard refuses. "The Big" Skullcrawler emerges from the lake and Packard is crushed by Kong. The Skullcrawler fights and overpowers Kong but with the humans' help, the ape emerges victorious in the end. The survivors reach the rendezvous point and leave the island as Kong watches.

During the credits, Marlow returns home, reuniting with his wife, meeting his son for the first time, and watching a Chicago Cubs game on television. In a post-credits scene, Conrad and Weaver are detained and recruited by Monarch. They are informed by San Lin and Brooks that Kong is not the only monster king to roam the world and are shown archive footage of cave paintings depicting Godzilla, Rodan, Mothra, and King Ghidorah. As the screen cuts to black, Godzilla's roar can be heard.