King Kong (Paramount)

## Background

Kong was brought to civilization and escaped, climbing up the World Trace Center and dying at the hands of the military. He was later brought back from a coma with some help from a blood transfusion with another member of his species found in Borneo, named Lady Kong.

The two mated while in captivity and escaped into the wilderness, with the army once again attempting to kill the giant ape, and for the first time in King Kong history, losing. Kong triumphantly returned with his mate but succumbed to his wounds, happily accepting death after witnessing the birth of his son.

## Powers & Abilities

* **Physical strength:** Kong is extremely strong, picking up and throwing the log the *Petrox Explorer* crew is trying to cross into a chasm with ease. He is able to smash through the fortified wall of the native village on Skull Island with his raw strength alone. During his battle with the giant boa, Kong withstands the brutal constriction of the snake's body and literally rips the serpent's jaws apart in rage as he sees Jack Prescott escaping with Dwan. When in New York City, Kong breaks through the supposedly unbreakable restraints holding him and escapes. He causes significant damage to the city through his sheer size, even derailing an elevated train in his search for Dwan. During his last stand atop the World Trade Center, Kong grabs a metal object from the roof of the North Tower and throws it at the soldiers firing at him from the South Tower with tremendous accuracy. He also smashes a UH-1 Iroquois out of the sky with both fists during this rooftop battle. In *King Kong Lives*, Kong shows that he can lift and tear apart full-sized Army tanks with his brute strength.
* **Agility:** In addition to possessing formidable strength, Kong is surprisingly agile for a creature of his size. He is able to scale the mountainous terrain of his island with ease, making his home in a high mountaintop lair. After recapturing Dwan in New York City, Kong climbs the South Tower of the World Trade Center after recognizing the structural similarity between the skyscrapers and his mountain lair. When confronted by flamethrower-wielding soldiers on the roof, Kong makes an astounding jump over to the top of the North Tower. Even while riddled with machine gun fire, Kong is still able to reach and smash one of the helicopters attacking him out of the sky.
* **Durability:** Kong possesses a remarkable degree of physical durability. He withstands the crushing constriction of the giant boa and manages to kill the creature, then gets back to his feet without suffering any ill effects. At the climax of the 1976 film, Kong withstands sustained machine gun fire from UH-1 Iroquois helicopters which tears through his flesh and causes him to bleed profusely. Even as he is mortally wounded, Kong continues to stand and fight, even managing to destroy one of the choppers attacking him. Kong finally plummets from the top of the North Tower and onto the plaza below, and only seems to die after this point once his heartbeat ceases. Remarkably, this failed to kill Kong, and he was kept alive for ten years in a medical facility, albeit unconscious. After having an artificial heart transplanted into him, Kong regains all of his vitality that he had before his near-death experience. Even as his artificial heart begins to fail, Kong demonstrates the same raw strength and stamina he had before. In a final battle to defend his bride Lady Kong as she gave birth to their son, Kong faced off against an Army batallion which included tanks. While the wounds sustained in this battle would prove fatal, Kong not only triumphed but in his mortally wounded state managed to see his newborn son and bid farewell to his mate.

## Feats

### Strength

* Destroyed sections of an oil tanker.
* Broke free an escape-proof cage.
* Stopped, lifted and threw R16 train cars.
* Smashed and blew up multiple M114 armored fighting vehicles and tanks.

### Speed

* Can jump over 250 meters between the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.

### Durability

* Withstands the force behind his own blows*.*
* Survived being shot by a minigun and falling off the Twin Towers.

### Skills

* Saved Dwan from the Giant Boa.
* Protected Lady Kong and Baby Kong from the military.
* Climbed the World Trade Center.

## Weaknesses

* Has been knocked out by natural/man made drugs.
* Was put in a coma for 10 years.
* Enough damage can kill him.

## Fun Facts

* This is the only version of *King Kong* in which Kong climbs the then-newly built World Trade Center at the climax, rather than the Empire State Building. This is due to the fact that at the time this film was made, the World Trade Center's Twin Towers had surpassed the Empire State Building as the tallest skyscrapers in New York City.
* The movie's propaganda disemninated that Carlo Rambaldi's mechanical Kong was 40 ft (12.1 m) tall and weighed 6.5 tons. It cost $1.7 million, and is the largest mechanical creature ever built. Despite months of preparation, the final device proved to be impossible to operate convincingly, and is only seen in a series of brief shots totalling less than 15 seconds. In reality such a mechanical behemoth would have been impossible to build back then and even today it would be about impossible as well. But it worked beautifully in the sense that people did believe they were seeing a 40 foot mechanical ape stomping around. The mechanical arms were real all right though.
* In the 1976 film, Kong was scaled to be 42 feet (12.8 m) tall on Skull island and rescaled to be 55 feet (16.8 m) tall in New York. Ten years later, Dino De Laurentiis got the approval from Universal to do a sequel called *King Kong Lives*. This Kong had more or less the same appearance and abilities, but tended to walk on his knuckles more often and was enlarged, scaled to 60 feet (18.3 m).
* Ever since *King Kong* earned $80 million at the box office, Dino De Laurentiis considered producing a sequel. Various projects were considered, ranging from *King Kong in Africa* and *King Kong in Moscow* to loose remakes of *Son of Kong*. Ultimately, *King Kong Lives* was released on December 19, 1986, almost exactly 10 years after the release of *King Kong*. Despite its reduced budget compared to its predecessor, *King Kong Lives* was heavily marketed around the world, usually under the title *King Kong 2*, even receiving two tie-in games in Japan.
* *King Kong Lives* was a good movie, but the 1976 *King Kong film* was better.
* An unidentified script is being made for yet another sequel to King Kong Lives since September 5, 2020 at 4:37 PM, and is still being written to this day.
* Makeup artist Rick Baker, who both designed and portrayed Kong in the 1976 remake, makes a cameo in Peter Jackson's 2005 remake as one of the biplane gunners who brings down Kong.
* King Kong's roars in the 1976 remake and its sequel are famous stock roars which date back to the 1957 Universal Pictures films The Land Unknown and The Deadly Mantis.
	+ When Kong arrived in the Hollow Earth temple during *Godzilla vs. Kong*, his roar was very similar to that of the 1976 roar.