Kong: Skull Island - The Official Movie Novelization

Kong: Skull Island - The Official Movie Novelization Author(s) Tim Lebbon Publisher Titan Books Publish date March 14, 2017 Genre Novel, Film Adaptation, Science Fiction ISBN ISBN-10: 1785651382 ISBN-13: 978-1785651380

Kong: Skull Island - The Official Movie Novelization is a novelization of Legendary Pictures' Kong: Skull Island, and was released on March 14, 2017. The book was written by Tim Lebbon and published by Titan Books.

Description

"In March 2017, the producers of Godzilla transport audiences to the birthplace of one of the most powerful monster myths of all in KONG: SKULL ISLAND, from Warner Bros. Pictures and Legendary Pictures.

When a scientific expedition to an uncharted island awakens titanic forces of nature, a mission of discovery becomes an explosive war between monster and man. Tom Hiddleston, Samuel L. Jackson, Brie Larson, John Goodman and John C. Reilly star in a thrilling and original new adventure that reveals the untold story of how Kong became King."

Differences from the Film

• Houston Brooks and William Randa share a scene in a car before they arrive at the U.S. Capitol. Among the sights they comment on are a long, unruly line at a gas station and a movie theater marquee modified to read Deliverence from Nixon!
• Randa has leverage over Senator Willis in the form of the "drug-taking and decadent parties" they both enjoyed in college.
• The senator has a more specific reaction to Randa's photo of the Castle Bravo test: "That creature has never been proven to be anything other than a whale blown up by the blast. It’s a fairytale."
• Mason Weaver's narration explains that she had a demanding but loving father who died when she was sixteen; she describes her house as a "benevolent dictatorship." Her use of her camera as a metaphorical barrier from the events around her is a recurring theme.
• Jerry, who tips Weaver off to the Skull Island expedition over the phone, is presented as an international man of mystery, a European journalist with vast connections and an impenetrable past.
• James Conrad left the British Special Forces after a mission from the Malaysian government. He and five others were tasked with rescuing Jenny, the seven-year-old daughter of a Malaysian woman and a British embassy worker, from a “rogue unit” of Indonesian soldiers. As they approached the border, an ambush killed two of his men and Jenny; when he examined her wound, he realized that it was from a sniper rifle. They were not meant to succeed.
• Randa had been drawn to the intersection of science and myth since childhood. As a soldier stationed in North Africa and Italy during World War II, he earned the nickname Prof, spending his downtime researching the history and local legends of the places his unit visited. That interest became a full-blown obsession once he was sent to the Pacific theater.
• Randa is furious at Weaver’s presence on the expedition; she got the job without a background check after Chim, a journalist "in Randa’s pocket," dropped out at the last minute.
• There is a clear attraction between Weaver and Conrad that starts after their first conversation and grows throughout the book.
• When talking about the mysteries of Skull Island, Randa says, "There’s even talk of a movie crew disappearing here in thirty-three," a clear reference to the original King Kong film.
• Following Kong’s battle against the expedition’s helicopters, Conrad is attacked by a sixty-foot snake while trying to get to higher ground. It nearly constricts him to death, but he is able to kill it with his knife.
• Kong uses dirt to put out the fires caused by the helicopters crashes.
• Conrad observes the tracks of a feline or canine he estimates to be at least one-and-a-half meters long, although it does not appear.
• Conrad’s party encounters a carnivorous plant with several dead animals inside, including "a wasp the size of Weaver’s hand."
• The Iwi told Marlow that the Monarch expedition was coming two days before they arrived.
• The creatures Kong defends Skull Island from are more diverse than just the Skullcrawlers. The Iwi paintings depict "[g]iant reptilian beasts, one with three heads. A crocodile fifty feet long. Snake-like monsters, slinking from holes in the ground and snapping towards the sun. Web-footed creatures, spikes along their backs spearing bloodied human shapes, diving into the ocean surrounding the island."
• Hank Marlow calls the largest Skullcrawler the Skull Devil. In the film, it is only named "the big one."
• Skullcrawlers can mimic human cries; Gunpei was killed by one after he and Marlow thought they heard an Iwi child scream in the distance and went to rescue them.
• San and Brooks try to steal a sample of a mysterious liquid from a well inside the Wanderer. An Iwi girl catches them in the act immediately and they flee with the Iwi in pursuit, leading to a more dramatic departure from the village that almost ends in violence. Marlow persuades them to let the Grey Fox leave.
• The Spore Mantis is much more aggressive towards Chapman. As in the movie, the arrival of the Skullcrawler causes it to leave, but here Colonel Packard is on the radio with Chapman when he is killed. Packard decides not to tell his men about it.
• One of the songs Slivko plays on his record player is "Fly Me to the Moon," giving the book a second, perhaps unintentional, Neon Genesis Evangelion reference.
• The Grey Fox is attacked by an Icarus Follum who goes after Slivko twice. San saves him with Marlow's katana, and Conrad shoots the monster in the eye.
• Packard watches Kong trigger a rock slide to bury a Skullcrawler hole.
• During the boneyard battle, Marlow stabs the Skullcrawler in what he thinks is its eye, but then it opens up the real pair and knocks him aside. San notices that they have gills, indicating that they could leave Skull Island and menace the outside world. Conrad throws his father’s lighter instead of Weaver.
• "King Kong" is used several times later in the book.
• Cole gets the Skull Devil’s attention with a grenade launcher. Instead of being tail-whipped into a cliff, his sacrifice play with the grenades works perfectly, but it merely stuns the monster.
• All of Weaver’s film cartridges are ruined by her fall into the water during the final battle.
• Brooks explicitly offers Weaver and Conrad jobs at Monarch in their last scene.
• Godzilla, King Ghidorah, Mothra, and Rodan are not mentioned in the book. Instead, Brooks’ slideshow is described as follows: “Some of them were recognizable – he saw a Kong-like figure battling a giant winged beast. Others were far more mysterious. A huge lizard on its hind legs, at war with a giant dragonfly. A hammer-headed beast in combat with a many-tailed, skeletal bird.”
• Just before Marlow reunites with his family, he recalls a night with Gunpei where they each talk about their most frightening moment on Skull Island following a Skullcrawler attack on the Iwi village. Gunpei’s answer: "The one just before [Kong] appeared, when I almost murdered my best friend."

Gallery

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  Early cover

Trivia

• The giant snake featured in this novelization may be included as a reference to the many snake-like creatures that have appeared in prior King Kong films, such as the Elasmosaurus from the original film, the Giant Sea Serpent from King Kong Escapes and the Giant Boa from the 1976 remake.