In 1933, an overambitious filmmaker coerces his cast and crew to travel to the uncharted Skull Island to finish his movie. There, they encounter a prehistoric world forgotten by time and a colossal ape who develops an unlikely bond with the film's leading lady, setting the stage for a tragic collision between the wild and civilization.
Information |
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Language |
English |
Country |
United States New Zealand Germany |
Premiere date |
December 14, 2005 |
Running time |
187 minutes |
Genre |
Action Adventure Romance |
Budget |
$207,000,000 |
Box Office |
$562,318,080 |
Crew |
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Directed by |
Peter Jackson |
Produced by |
Jan Blenkin Carolynne Cunningham Fran Walsh Peter Jackson |
Written by |
Fran Walsh Philippa Boyens Peter Jackson |
Music by |
James Newton Howard |
Cinematography |
Andrew Lesnie |
Edited by |
Jamie Selkirk |
Production Co. |
Universal Pictures WingNut Films |
Distributed by |
Universal Pictures |
Top Cast |
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Official Trailer |
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The Plot
Desperation in the Depression
In 1933 New York City, the Great Depression has gripped the metropolis. Ann Darrow, a vaudeville actress, finishes a lively performance only to return the next morning and find the theater boarded up. Her stage partner, Manny, advises her to audition for a play she had been eyeing, but she arrives to find the role already cast. Out of pity, the producer directs her toward a burlesque theater. Elsewhere in the city, film director Carl Denham is growing desperate. He pitches a group of bored producers on the idea of charting a course based on a mysterious map to an uncharted island for his next location shoot. The executives, tired of Denham’s reckless spending, refuse to fund the expedition and decide to scrap his picture entirely, intending to sell his existing footage as stock.
Refusing to let his artistic vision die, Denham decides to steal the film reels and leave that night. He instructs his assistant, Preston, to prep the Venture for immediate departure. However, Preston reveals that their lead actress has quit. Denham rushes out into the city streets to find a replacement. He spots Ann Darrow reflected in the glass door of a burlesque theater and follows her. Desperate and starving, Ann attempts to steal an apple from a fruit stand but is caught. Denham steps in, pays for the fruit, and takes her to dinner. He offers her the lead role in his film, and while she is initially hesitant, she agrees upon learning the screenplay is being written by her idol, Jack Driscoll. They rush to the docks where the Venture awaits. Denham bribes Captain Englehorn to cast off immediately, just as the police arrive to arrest the director. Safely aboard, Denham traps Driscoll on the ship by stalling him until the vessel leaves the harbor.
The Voyage to the Unknown
As the Venture steams across the ocean, Driscoll settles into his unexpected journey, slowly getting to know Ann during the filming process. The crew, however, becomes restless when they discover they are not heading to Singapore as Denham had claimed. Crew members Ben Hayes, Lumpy, and young Jimmy warn the director against seeking Skull Island, citing a story from a mad castaway discovered seven years prior who spoke of a giant wall and a beast. Despite the ominous warnings, romance blossoms between Ann and Jack; one night, while reviewing a stage comedy Jack is writing, they share a passionate kiss.
The atmosphere shifts abruptly when Captain Englehorn receives a telegraph ordering him to divert to Rangoon and turn Denham over to the authorities for theft and evasion. Denham tries to protest, but Englehorn is resolute and orders the ship turned around. However, the ship’s navigational equipment begins to malfunction, and the crew finds themselves enveloped in a thick, unnatural fog. Suddenly, the ship runs aground on a hidden carving jutting from the water. Through the lifting mist, Denham spots a colossal wall in the distance. He knows he has found Skull Island.
The Sacrifice
The following day, Denham leads a landing party to the coast, discovering an ancient, ruined city inhabited by a hostile civilization. The encounter turns violent immediately; the natives attack, killing two members of the film crew. Englehorn and the sailors arrive just in time, using firearms to drive the natives back and rescue the survivors. Englehorn orders an immediate evacuation, commanding the crew to lighten the ship by throwing everything overboard to float it off the rocks. Amidst the chaos, a native infiltrates the ship and clubs Jack in the head. Jack wakes up to find a necklace left by his attacker and discovers Ann’s cabin ransacked and the actress missing.
On the island, the natives forcibly drag Ann toward the massive wall. By the time Jack and the armed rescue party arrive, the natives have lowered Ann across a drawbridge to the other side of the wall. Their rhythmic chanting and thundering drums summon the island’s god. From the jungle darkness, a colossal ape, Kong, emerges. He snatches Ann and disappears into the treeline just as the sailors reach the wall. Determined to save her, the crew ventures into the primordial wilderness.
Terrors of the Lost World
The rescue party tracks the beast to a boneyard, following the path of destruction Kong left in his wake. A short way into the jungle, the group becomes spooked by noises in the brush and fires wildly into the darkness until Hayes orders a cease-fire. Hayes lights a flare, illuminating a Ferrucutus charging from the undergrowth. The armored beast flails violently, threatening the group until Hayes manages to kill it with a precise volley of shots to its head.
Deeper in the jungle, the group pauses in a narrow valley. Their presence disturbs a pack of predatory Venatosaurus, which in turn spook a massive herd of grazing Brontosaurus. The dinosaurs panic, triggering a deadly stampede toward the rescue party. The sailors are forced to run for their lives, dodging crushing feet and snapping jaws. While many are trampled or eaten, the survivors manage to climb a steep ledge to safety. Bruce Baxter and a few sailors choose to return to the shore, but Jack, Denham, Hayes, Lumpy, and Jimmy press on.
The Swamp and the Logs
The remaining group constructs makeshift rafts to cross a murky swamp. Midway across, they are attacked by large Scorpio-pedes, which they fend off, only to face a greater threat. A massive Piranhadon attacks from beneath the water, shattering the first raft and sending sailors into the water. Denham fires at the creature, but it devours a straggling sailor before disappearing into the depths. Shaken, the survivors reach land. As they continue through the brush, Jack pauses to listen to movement. A terrified Lumpy fires blindly, fearing the worst, only to discover he has killed a flightless Brutornis. He puts the creature out of its misery, and the tense group moves forward.
Elsewhere, Ann manages to escape Kong while he rests. When he catches her, he becomes enraged until she utilizes her vaudeville skills, juggling and dancing to entertain him. Kong is amused, but when she refuses to continue out of exhaustion, he grows bored and leaves her alone. Back with the rescue party, the sailors encounter a massive log bridging a deep, mist-filled chasm. Hayes crosses first but suddenly orders the men back. Kong emerges from the other side, kills Hayes, and violently shakes the log. The sailors lose their grip and plummet into the abyss below. Ann, hearing the gunfire, runs toward the commotion only to encounter a Foetodon.
Battle of the Titans
Ann escapes the Foetodon only to run straight into a Vastatosaurus rex. The dinosaur chases her, and just as she is cornered, its mother joins the hunt. Ann screams, and Kong roars onto the scene to defend her. The great ape engages the two V-Rexes, but the odds worsen when a third reptile joins the fray. In a brutal, gravity-defying battle, Kong smashes one V-Rex with a rock and wrestles the others over a cliff edge, becoming entangled in vines. He kills the second predator in the air, but he and the final V-Rex fall to the valley floor along with Ann.
At the bottom, a tense standoff ensues. Kong fiercely battles the final V-Rex, eventually ripping its jaws apart to secure victory. He notices Ann has fallen into a mud patch during the chaos. Realizing Kong has repeatedly saved her life, Ann’s fear dissolves into gratitude. Kong gently takes her to a cliffside waterfall, washing the mud from her and blowing huge gusts of warm breath to dry her clothes. He then carries her to his mountain lair high above the island.
The Pit and the Rescue
Jack awakens at the bottom of the chasm, barely surviving the fall. He finds Jimmy grieving over Hayes' body; the boy takes Hayes’ cap as a memento before they realize they are not alone. Monstrous insects and arachnids begin to emerge from the darkness. A Carnictis consumes Lumpy while he tries to defend a crewmate's body. Just as the Arachno-Claws corner the last survivors, Englehorn and Baxter return, raining machine-gun fire down into the pit to rescue them. While Denham, obsessed with the potential of the beast, convinces Englehorn to help capture Kong, Jack proceeds alone to find Ann.
Under the cover of night, Jack reaches Kong’s lair. He finds Ann asleep in the giant’s hand. She wakes up, relieved to see him, but their reunion stirs Kong. The beast attacks, furious at the intrusion. Suddenly, a swarm of Terapusmordax bats descends, distracting Kong long enough for Jack and Ann to grab a vine and escape. They reach the native wall, but the drawbridge is raised. With Kong in hot pursuit, jumping across chasms and tearing through the jungle, they are trapped. Preston defies Denham’s orders and lowers the bridge just in time. Jack and Ann cross, and Kong crashes against the massive gates.
The Eighth Wonder of the World
Kong smashes through the gate, roaring into the open. Englehorn initiates the trap, using grappling hooks and nets to drag the ape down. Sailors rush forward to break bottles of chloroform under his nose. Ann screams for them to stop, but Jack holds her back. Seeing Ann restrained, Kong breaks free from the nets in a rage. He chases the crew to the rocky shore. In the chaos, he crushes a sailor who shoots at him and wades into the surf after the fleeing boats. Englehorn harpoons Kong’s leg, anchoring him, while Denham smashes a final bottle of chloroform on the beast’s face. As Kong slumps into unconsciousness, Denham stands over the prize, declaring they will bring him to Broadway as "Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World."
Rampage in New York
Back in New York, winter has set in. Jack and Ann have lost contact, and Denham presents Kong in chains at the Alhambra Theater. Jack attends the show hoping to find Ann but discovers a lookalike in her role. The audience’s flash photography agitates the sorrowful beast. Realizing the woman is not Ann, Kong snaps. He shatters his chrome steel chains, tears through the theater, and bursts into Times Square. Chaos ensues as he wrecks cars and chases Jack, who attempts to lure him away in a taxi. Kong smashes the cab and throws it aside, roaring in triumph.
Meanwhile, the military mobilizes. An army sergeant gives a rousing speech to his troops in a truck, only to have the vehicle smashed and flipped by the oblivious ape. Ann, hearing the sirens, runs toward the danger. She walks calmly up to the raging beast, soothing him. They share a quiet moment on a frozen pond in Central Park, sliding on the ice, until military artillery forces them to flee. Kong leaps across rooftops and finds the highest point in the city: the Empire State Building. He climbs to the summit with Ann in his hand.
Beauty Killed the Beast
At the top of the mooring mast, Kong and Ann watch the sunrise over the city. The peace is shattered by the arrival of six Navy biplanes. Kong gently sets Ann inside the observation deck for safety and roars a challenge. He climbs to the very peak, swiping at the planes as they riddle him with machine-gun fire. He destroys several aircraft, but the barrage is too much. When a ladder pulls away from the wall, endangering Ann, Kong reaches out to save her one last time, taking a fatal volley of bullets in his back.
Mortally wounded, Kong gazes at Ann. He touches her face tenderly before the light fades from his eyes. He slips from the spire, plummeting silently to the streets below. Jack reaches the observation deck and embraces a weeping Ann. Down on the pavement, photographers and police swarm the massive corpse. A bystander remarks that the airplanes got him. Carl Denham, pushing through the crowd, looks at the fallen king and corrects him: "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty that killed the Beast."
