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| “ | Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here tonight to tell you a very strange story, a story so strange that no one will believe it, but, ladies and gentlemen, seeing is believing. And we, my partners and I have brought back the living proof of our adventure, an adventure in which twelve of our party met horrible death. And now, ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you any more, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was a king and a god in the world he knew, but now he comes to civilization merely a captive, a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, look at Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World. | „ |
| ~ Carl Denham introduces Kong. |
| “ | It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast. | „ |
| ~ Carl Denham about Kong's downfall. |
King Kong, or simply known as Kong, is the titular protagonist of the King Kong franchise, serving as the main kaiju protagonist of the 1933 classic film of the same name.
He is a legendary giant prehistoric ape who dwells in Skull Island, an tropical remote island inhabited by bizarre creatures and is known to be the last of his species, leaving him as the sole survivor on the island. Kong's enemies are often creatures such as carnivorous dinosaurs that live on Skull Island and the United States military, although neither are actual villains since the Skull Island beasts only attack because they are just wild animals who hunt for food and the Army with the Airforce were only attacking Kong out of fear of his rampage. Kong is also worshiped as a god by the natives who live on the island, who often sacrifice women to him, whom he accepts as his "brides."
Biography[]
King Kong (1933)[]
King Kong was first discovered on Skull Island by an American film crew led by Carl Denham. The natives on the island kidnapped Ann Darrow, the crew's leading lady, and sacrificed her to Kong, who carried Ann off into the jungles of the island. At one point, Kong left Ann on a tree and wandered off to deal with the rest of the film crew, who were pursuing him.
As the crew attempted to cross a chasm on a crude log bridge, Kong lifted the log and twisted it, causing much of the crew to fall to their deaths in the abyss below. Jack Driscoll survived, and crossed the chasm to rescue Ann. Meanwhile, a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered Ann on the tree and attempted to eat her. Kong arrived and battled the T-Rex, and killed it by breaking its jaw. Kong took Ann to his home in a cave on a mountain, where he was attacked by a giant cave serpent. Jack reached the cave and reunited with Ann, and the two managed to escape from Kong while he was distracted by a Pteranodon. Enraged, Kong followed the two to the native's village, tearing down the wall and wreaking havoc. Using a store of smoke bombs he brought on the voyage, Carl and his crew managed to knock Kong unconscious and subdue him.
Denham brought Kong back to New York on board the crew's ship, the Venture, intending to profit from showing Kong to the public. Denham arranged a show at a theater in New York, where he publicly showed the captured Kong to an audience, accompanied by Jack and Ann. When photographers began taking pictures of Ann, Kong believed they were attacking her and broke free from his chains, destroying the theater in a fit of rage. Ann, Jack, and Denham escaped unharmed, but Kong broke free from the theater into the streets, where he overturned cars, stomped on fleeing citizens, and destroyed a train.
Kong began to scale buildings looking for Ann. He eventually found her in a hotel room that she fled to, and abducted her again. Finding himself pursued and attacked by police, Kong climbed the Empire State Building to escape. The military sent a fleet of biplanes armed with machine guns to stop Kong and save Ann. Atop the Empire State Building, Kong swatted down and destroyed several of the planes, but was mortally wounded by machine gun fire. Kong set Ann down gently and fell off the building to his death, plummeting into the streets below. As crowds gathered around Kong's dead body, a bystander remarked that the airplanes finally got Kong, to which Denham replied that "It was beauty killed the beast."
King Kong (1976) & King Kong Lives[]
- Main article: King Kong (De Laurentiis)
King Kong (2005)[]
- Main article: King Kong (Peter Jackson)
In other media[]
The LEGO Batman Movie[]
King Kong was imprisoned in the Phantom Zone along with other notorious villains of the LEGO multiverse. He was one of the villains freed by the Joker as part of his plan to enact revenge on Batman and destroy Gotham City. Kong was defeated when Robin crashed the Batmobile into his face, knocking him unconscious.
Ready Player One[]
James Halliday, the creator of a popular virtual reality game called the OASIS, devised a series of challenges called Anorak's Quest to determine his successor after his death. In the first challenge, players raced through the streets of a simulated New York City, evading various obstacles. King Kong was the final hazard, leaping off the Empire State Building to attack the racers. Just before the finish line, Kong would crash through the racetrack itself and lurk out of sight, swatting any player who tried to drive over him. It is possible that Halliday programmed Kong to be impassible; the solution that Wade Watts discovered was to drive in reverse at the start of the race, revealing a hidden corridor that ran underneath the racetrack.
Space Jam: A New Legacy[]
King Kong joins numerous WB characters to attend the basketball stadium in the Server-Verse to watch LeBron James and the Looney Tunes take on Goon Squad.
Appearance[]
In all of his film appearances, Kong resembles an enormous gorilla with a humanoid physique and either light black or brown fur. He walks in a bipedal manner and stands upright like humans, although he occasionally knuckle-walks like his gorilla relatives, sometimes utilizing both forms of locomotion.
Personality[]
Kong is portrayed as a tragic and sympathetic animal and lives a very solitary and difficult existence, constantly being attacked by the ferocious giant creatures that live on Skull Island. He rarely attacks unless provoked, and is capable of causing mass destruction due to his large size and massive strength, causing humans to fear or attack him. Kong has a soft spot for women and will do anything to protect a woman (such as Ann Darrow) that he likes, whether it be battling against monsters or battling military forces.
Kong demonstrates at least semi-sapience in all of his film appearances. He frequently utilizes environmental objects as weapons while fighting, and learns over the course of a battle. In the 2005 film, Kong is able to communicate by using sign language, shown when he repeated the sign for "beautiful" to Ann, who had spoken it to him earlier, showing just how intelligent Kong really is.
Powers & Abilities[]
- Physical Strength: Kong possesses large amounts of immense physical strength partly because of his sheer size. He is able to fight against and defeat the island's dinosaurs, despite being outnumbered. Kong is also shown to lift and throw objects such as boulders and fallen trees and was strong enough to smash through the gate to the native village on Skull Island. While in New York City, he was able to break free from chrome steel chains thought to be unbreakable while being put on display and even destroyed some of the biplanes attacking him during his final stand atop the Empire State Building.
- Physical Agility: Kong exhibits impressive agility, as he can jump over great distances (such as 250 meters between the World Trade Center's twin towers) and land on his feet.
- Physical Durability: Kong demonstrates large amounts of durability when he is able to continue fighting against airplanes (helicopters in the 1976 version) and even destroy some of them after being riddled with bullets. In the 1976 film, Kong survives getting shredded by machine gun fire and falling from the top of the South Tower of the World Trade Center before falling into a coma. In the 2005 film, Kong can withstand bites from V. rexes without any apparent lasting injury and can even shrug off small-arms fire from the Venture crew, which seemingly serves only to anger him.
- Physical Stamina: Kong's stamina enables him to exert himself at peak capacity for very lengthy periods of time without tiring at all.
- Intelligence: Kong is remarkably intelligent as he makes use of environmental objects like trees or rocks when fighting, and even when overwhelmed by more powerful or more numerous opponents he can think on his feet and find a way to win.
- Senses: Kong's senses and hearing are quite powerful as he was able to hear Ann's screams a mile away.
- Communication: In the 2005 film, Kong is able to use sign language for communication, shown when he made the sign for "beautiful" that he remembered Ann explaining it to him earlier in his lair.
See Also[]
- King Kong (Showa)
- King Kong (MonsterVerse)
- King Kong (Peter Jackson)
- King Kong (De Laurentiis)
- King Kong (Kong: The Animated Series)
Audio Samples[]
1933[]
The Mighty Kong[]
Trivia[]
- He was created by Merian C. Cooper and Edgar Wallace and animated by Willis O'Brian.
- In the 80th Academy Awards opening, for a brief moment Peter Jackson's King Kong can be seen fighting against TriStar's Godzilla.
- 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.
- Some of the vocal effects used for Kong such as the roaring and growling actually came from lions, bears, elephants, horses, walruses, leopards and tigers. He also sometimes uses grunting and breathing from gorillas in the films.
- When Kong arrived in the Hollow Earth temple during Godzilla vs. Kong, his roar was very similar to that of the 1976 roar.
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