Petrox island

After hearing of a potentially massive hidden oil well located underneath a gigantic fog blanket in the Pacific Ocean west of Indonesia, Petrox Oil Company executive Fred Wilson prepared to lead a surveying expedition to find it. After the expedition's ship, the Petrox Explorer left New York, a stowaway primatologist named Jack Prescott was discovered on board. Wilson was convinced that Prescott was a spy from a rival oil company, but Prescott explained he had stowed away on the ship to see the hidden island that presumably contained the oil well himself. Prescott revealed that throughout history, there had been accounts of ships traveling into that fog blanket and discovering "the beach of the skull," where they reported seeing a gigantic ape-like creature. Prescott explained that he wanted to see just what exactly those explorers had seen. After some convincing, Wilson decided to allow Prescott to stay on the expedition as its official photographer. Along the way, the ship picked up a castaway named Dawn, an aspiring young actress who had been on board a yacht that suddenly exploded. When the ship reached the fog bank, it passed through and found a large island. Believing he had found the "big one," Wilson ordered a landing party to come ashore. Prescott and Dawn accompanied the party and landed on the beach. After traveling inland, the party discovered a gigantic wall. Wilson said the island was uninhabited and the wall must be ancient, but Prescott noted that the wall looked to be constantly maintained, meaning natives must live on the island. The party passed through the wall and found a village filled with natives, who were performing a religious ritual. The natives were upset at being disturbed, claiming they were preparing to offer a human sacrifice to their god, "Kong." However, the witch doctor saw Dawn and believed she would make a superior offering to Kong and offered to buy her from the crew. When they refused, the natives prepared to take her by force, but were scared off by the party's guns. The team returned to the Petrox Explorer, but a group of natives followed them and kidnapped Dawn.

Dawn was taken back to the village and adorned with native jewelry and tied to a pedestal outside the wall. The jungle shook as a giant ape, Kong himself, emerged from the jungle and grabbed Dawn before carrying her away. Kong brought Dawn to a clearing and set her down. Believing Kong was going to kill her, Dawn begged for her life, only to eventually realize Kong meant her no harm and was actually infatuated with her. Meanwhile, Prescott and several members of the expedition followed Kong into the interior of the island in an attempt to rescue Dawn. When they reached a fallen log spanning a chasm, they attempted to cross it, only for Kong to appear and throw the log into the chasm below. Only Prescott and another crew member named Boan survived. Prescott told Boan to return to the village, where Wilson had set up a base camp, while he continued his pursuit of Kong. Kong brought Dawn to his lair and prepared to undress her, only to be attacked by a giant boa constrictor. While Kong battled the boa, Prescott rescued Dawn and the two ran back to the village. Kong noticed and quickly tore the snake's jaws, then proceeded to chase after his bride. Once Prescott and Dawn reached the village, Wilson and his men set up a trap behind the wall: a pit filled with chloroform. When Kong reached the wall, he smashed the gate down and entered the village, only to fall into the pit and be knocked unconscious. The natives surrounded their fallen god and bowed. Since the oil deposits found on the island were of such low quality they were essentially worthless, Wilson decided to bring Kong back to New York and use him as an advertising gimmick for Petrox. Kong was loaded into the Petrox Explorer's cargo hold, and the ship set sail for New York.

Later, after King Kong began his rampage through the city, he started to make his way towards the World Trade Center. Prescott theorized that this was because the plaza's North and South Towers resembled a natural rock formation on Skull Island that was familiar to Kong.