Mason Weaver

**Mason Weaver** is a character in the 2017 Legendary Pictures film, *Kong: Skull Island*.

## Description

A street-smart investigative photojournalist and self-described “anti-war photographer,” Weaver has seen the monster of humanity at war. Her suspicions sparked, Weaver’s curiosity about the mission’s true purpose drives her to maneuver her way onboard as team photographer. But once they cross over onto Skull Island, she is plunged into the biggest story of her life – one that will confront all her journalistic instincts and ethics.

## Personality

Mason is a confident and compassionate young woman with a strong connection with nature from her rural upbringing, believing no one can achieve peace through aggression. From growing up and working in a male-dominant environment, Mason learned to blend in and create boundaries. She also learned to take control of situations and assert herself so that men don't belittle her, and she can do her job. Mason also has a strong sense of intuition that helped expose many institutional lies, earning Mason her "anti-war" rep. Her strong intuition is what led her to worm her way onto the Skull Island expedition, correctly suspecting it of having an ulterior motive. She has a strong passion for exposing the truth at all costs even though it gets her into trouble with publications and the men in her photos who don't like the dark side of war displayed to the public. Mason carries a knife, but being a pacifist, she never uses it, nor does she ever wield a gun. However, regardless of her anti-war stance, she never shies away from dangerous places whenever there's a story to tell. As part of her job, Mason showed considerable bravery for accompanying soldiers on missions, and she's brave enough not to flinch and stare down an assault rifle pointed at her face at point-blank range.

Beneath her strong exterior, however, Mason has a deep sense of insecurity and desire to live in the background, traits instilled in her due to unintentional emotional abuse from her father when she was a child. These traits are what drove Mason to spent most of her life behind a camera and remove herself from the world, believing that by doing so, she's unable to fail anything as her father made her feel as though she were a disappointment. Mason also has some issues with her first name. She enjoys surprising people who assume her to be male; still, for the most part, the reactions Weaver gets from her name anger her as they stem from casual discrimination concerning stereotypical gender roles. She's a talented photographer as her work was impressive enough to be up for the cover of Time Magazine. Weaver will gladly live in the same set of clothes for weeks if it means getting the shots as it's all about the photos to her. Being someone whose sole purpose is to record and share, Weaver feels a duty to her photos but rarely to her subjects, and wants her pictures to prompt action and understanding from those who see them.

After meeting Lt. Colonel Preston Packard and hearing him blame "people like her" for costing America the Vietnam War, Mason disesteems him for scapegoating journalists and taking it out on her. Mason shows an empathetic and considerate side to her as she befriends James Conrad, with the two becoming close enough for him to confide in her about his father. She also shows a dry sense of humor and often tries to be a voice of reason. Mason starts as a background character only interested in taking photos but becomes more hands-on and involved in the action as things progress. Mason shows that she can hold her own and pull her weight alongside the men, despite being armed with only her determination and wits. In the end, she may have begun hoping to get a big scoop and gain more awards and notoriety, but Mason relents after coming to understand the bigger picture and see Kong as something that should be protected and kept secret.

## Relationships

### Mr. Weaver

Mason describes her father as a good man who wanted the best for her, but he was hard to please. Despite having the best intentions, he made Mason feel as though nothing she did was good enough. For instance, if she did poorly on a test, he would blame her school, but Mason would hear underlying blame in his voice directed at her, regardless of whether or not it was there. Mason believes that in her father's honest quest to shape his only daughter into the adult he wanted her to be, he instead tried to mold her into the type of person he wished to be himself. However, she could never impress him nor live up to his expectations, and he forgot to consider what she wanted.

### Preston Packard

Mason's interactions with Packard are antagonistic. Since he blames media personnel like her for the war's outcome, she doesn't think much of him regardless of his highly-decorated reputation. As Packard becomes irrational and insane in his quest for revenge against Kong for killing several of his men earlier in order to defend his territory, Mason tells him to get a grip and see that war isn't the answer to everything, only for him to disregard her completely.

### James Conrad

When they first meet, Mason and James start sizing each other up while acknowledging each other as outsiders compared to the rest of the expedition. They respect each other despite being suspicious of the other's motives but grow close as they survive the perils of Skull Island and look out for each other since no one else is.

### Kong

Through her interest in and respect for nature and her desire for peace, Mason connects with Kong.

## History

Mason picked up her first camera at the age of 6. Her father was a demanding but well-meaning man who loved her despite being unconsciously emotionally abusive to her. According to Mason, her father ran their home like a "benevolent dictatorship," but by the time Mason was old enough to realize the damage her father's controlling actions could do to her, it was too late. He died when she was 16, and she felt like a ghost during his funeral as none of the mourners during the wake at her house saw her go from room to room seeking comfort that wouldn't come since she was an only child.

Six months after her father's death, Mason went off to college, but ever since her father passed away, Mason has been searching for a thing and place that she couldn't find. She would only feel close to finding them when looking through a camera. Over the years, as she worked on assignments as an independent contractor, Weaver helped expose many institutional lies and built a reputation as an "anti-war" photographer. During the Vietnam War, she spent two years in the country embedded with the Command & Control South detachment of MACV-SOG in Ban Me Thuot.

### *Kong: Skull Island*

While she is in a darkroom developing her photos, Weaver gets a call from her contact, Jerry, who tells her that she got the job to join the expedition to Skull Island. Jerry asks Weaver why she's doing a mapping gig when Time magazine might feature her work. She says that after hearing three different sources tell her the same thing about it word for word, she has a hunch that the "expedition" is really a shady military operation connected to Vietnam and therefore plans to expose it. Arriving at the ship's location, the *Athena*, in Bangkok, Weaver meets Lt. Colonel Packard. Despite being impressed with Weaver's credentials, Packard says it's because of "people like her" that the soldiers lost stateside support for the war since media coverage showed its horrors and vilified the troops. She disputes him for blaming people without guns for losing the war. Though Packard says a camera is more dangerous than a gun and America abandoned the war instead of losing it, Weaver scoffs at the notion and boards the ship.

After attending the mission briefing, Weaver finds James Conrad in the cargo hold checking out the seismic charges for the expedition. She asks Conrad why a "geological mapping mission" would need explosives and whether he believes it to be a geological survey. Then Weaver tells him about meeting Packard and finding him to be wound too tight. Conrad says that is to be expected with a decorated war hero and asks Weaver why she's part of the mission. Weaver says people's opinions can be influenced by the right photo, though Conrad thinks it can also win her a Pulitzer. Then she asks Conrad how he got involved since he's a British SAS officer. Conrad tells her he left the service and was paid to join the mission. Weaver tells Conrad he doesn't strike her as a mercenary, and he says the same about her as a war photographer, with Weaver correcting him by referring to herself as an "anti-war photographer."

The next day, Weaver takes pictures of preparations for the mission, with some of Packard's men posing for her. Then she boards a helicopter with Conrad, and Packard's military convoy takes the team through the storm system surrounding Skull Island. Enthralled by the island's beauty, Weaver takes photos of its landscape before she and Conrad watch uneasily as the troops bombard the island with the seismic charges. When one of the choppers goes down, Weaver and the others are shocked by the sight of Kong. After the military engages Kong, most of Packard's men die in the assault, and the survivors get stranded on different parts of the island. Stranded in a group of non-military personnel and Reg Slivko with Conrad taking charge, Weaver tells him that she hopes he's worth the money that Randa paid him.

As the group tries to find the others, they encounter a Sker Buffalo. After a tense standoff with the creature, Weaver takes a picture of it, and it peacefully goes on its way. The group moves on and eventually finds some ruins. As Weaver takes more photos, she's surprised by a pair of eyes opening from a person camouflaged into the ruins. The Iwi natives surround the group, and they meet Hank Marlow, an American soldier stranded on the island for 28 years. They all go to the Iwi village and enter their temple, where Marlow tells them about Kong. He says Kong only attacked them because their bombs woke up some Skullcrawlers, ravenous predators that live underground. Marlow also says the Skullcrawlers made Kong the last of his kind, and if he weren't around, the still-dormant Skull Devil would show up and lay waste to everything.

While Marlow and the others work on his makeshift boat, Weaver bonds with the natives as she takes their photos. Then she hears a strange sound and follows it outside the giant wall protecting the village to a Sker Buffalo trapped beneath a downed helicopter. Weaver tries in vain to free it, but then Kong arrives and saves the buffalo. She and Kong briefly stare at each other until Kong leaves Weaver unharmed. That night, while trying to take a long-exposure photo of the aurora, Weaver bonds with Conrad as he lends her his father's RAF lighter and tells her about his father going missing in World War II.

Accompanied by Marlow, the group repairs his boat and leaves the Iwi settlement the following morning. They finally manage to get in contact with Packard and find the other group's location via flare, but lose Victor Nieves to a flock of Leafwings in the process. Reuniting with Packard's group, the colonel reveals his intention of going after his missing right-hand man, Jack Chapman, despite Marlow's objections. Weaver insists that they should listen to Marlow given his knowledge of the island, but Packard ignores her and convinces Conrad.

Everyone travels to the Boneyard, where the remains of Kong's family lie. Soon the group is stalked by a Skullcrawler that eats William Randa. Then it begins its attack and chases Weaver. She runs and takes cover inside a ribcage, but the Skullcrawler closes in on her. Packard has one of his men torch the crawler with a flamethrower, enabling Weaver to escape. It continues its onslaught, killing several of Packard's men, and causes a flock of Leafwings to descend upon the humans. After Conrad rescues Slivko from a toxic gas cloud, the Skullcrawler races toward them. Weaver saves them by tossing Conrad's lighter into a nearby flammable vent, causing an explosion that incinerates the Skullcrawler.

The remainder of the group leaves the Boneyard and goes into a forest, where Conrad reveals to Packard that the Skullcrawler killed Chapman. However, Packard still insists on going to where Chapman's chopper crashed to retrieve the weapons it has to kill Kong and avenge his men, ignoring Marlow and Houston Brooks's objections. When Weaver warns the fired-up Packard that he will get them all killed, he aims his assault rifle at her, but she stands her ground. Conrad gets between them and resolves the situation. Packard leaves with his men while Conrad leads the others back toward the boat. Weaver goes with Conrad to find higher ground to see the river where the boat is.

By nightfall, Weaver and Conrad climb a tall ledge and find the river. Then they see Kong approach them from the fog. Weaver steps toward Kong and touches his face, with both her and Conrad mesmerized and emotional as they watch Kong become teary-eyed, realizing his true benevolent nature. Then explosions sound in the distance, and Kong goes toward them. Knowing that Packard is luring Kong to his doom, Weaver and Conrad run back to the others. Conrad tells Brooks and San Lin to head for the boat while he and Weaver, joined by Marlow, go off to save Kong.

The three of them race to Packard's location, where he has incapacitated Kong with a napalm trap. A standoff ensues with Weaver and Conrad standing between a downed Kong and Packard, who's holding a detonator for the bombs his men placed by Kong. Weaver tells the colonel that war isn't the only thing in the world that matters, but he snaps at her and orders Slivko to remove her. Slivko turns on Packard, with the other soldiers following suit. Then the Skull Devil emerges from the nearby lake. Everyone except Packard runs, and he is smashed by Kong when he awakes. Weaver tries to take a picture of Kong and the Skullcrawler fighting, but when it overpowers Kong and sees her, Conrad pulls Weaver away.

By the time dawn comes, the humans reach a marsh at the island's edge. Instructed by Conrad, Weaver climbs some tall rocks to send up a flare for Brooks and San to find them while he and the men buy her time. Conrad and the other men distract the Skull Devil until Kong reappears. Weaver reaches the top of the rocks and fires a flare guiding Brooks and San to their location in time for them to stop the Skullcrawler from delivering the final blow to Kong. When the Skull Devil turns its attention to the survivors on the boat while the trapped Kong frees himself, Weaver shoots a flare into the crawler's right eye, blinding it. Kong resumes fighting the Skullcrawler and throws it against the cliffside Weaver stands on, causing her to fall into the marsh.

After presumably killing the Skull Devil, Kong scoops Weaver from the water and tries to protect her from the still-alive Skullcrawler trying to eat her. It wraps its tongue around Kong's arm and pulls his hand, with Weaver held inside, down its throat. Kong kills the Skullcrawler by yanking his arm and pulling its guts out. Kong ensures Weaver is safe and gently lies her down on the bank. Conrad revives Weaver, they share a final look with Kong before he leaves, and she and Conrad embrace each other. She and the other survivors continue toward the end of the island on the boat. Though Conrad tells her the word about Skull Island will get out, Weaver assures him they won't say anything, swearing herself to secrecy, and is later rescued by helicopters along with the others.

In a post-credits scene, Weaver and Conrad are taken to Monarch headquarters and detained in a room, with her threatening to tell the Russians about Skull Island unless she's released. When Brooks and San enter the room, Brooks says Monarch has recruited Weaver and Conrad. Then she and Conrad are briefed on the existence of Godzilla and three other monsters.