King Kong (RKO)
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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!
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— Carl Denham (King Kong) |
King Kong is a giant ape monster that first appeared in the 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film, King Kong.
Revered as a god by the people of Skull Island, Kong was encountered by a film crew who traveled to the island in 1933 to shoot Carl Denham's next picture. The crew's leading lady, Ann Darrow, was kidnapped by the islanders and offered as a sacrifice to Kong, who accepted his new "bride" and carried her off into the jungle. There, Kong would defend Ann from the other savage denizens of the island, such as a meat-eating dinosaur, a cave serpent, and a Pteranodon. Once Ann was rescued by Jack Driscoll, Kong followed them back to the village on the island, tearing down its protective wall and rampaging before being knocked out by gas bombs. Denham decided to bring Kong back to New York and put the beast on display, only for Kong to become enraged and break free from his chains, going on a rampage through the concrete jungle. After kidnapping Ann once again, Kong climbed the Empire State Building, where he was engaged by several Curtiss F8C Helldiver planes and fatally wounded. After succumbing to his wounds, Kong fell from the top of the skyscraper and plummeted to his death in the streets below. While Kong was dead, Denham would return to Skull Island shortly afterward and encounter his albino son, Kiko. Guilty for causing his father's death, Denham would befriend Kiko and brave the perils of the island with the young monster's help. When Skull Island was destroyed in a catastrophic earthquake and sank into the sea, Kiko gave his life to save Denham from drowning.
Name
King Kong was named by Merian C. Cooper who, after consulting with his friend W. Douglas Burden, decided upon the name "Kong" due to his liking of single-syllable film titles with peculiar sounds and liking of the hard 'K' sound. The prefix "King" was later attached to the original film's title, and by extent Kong himself, after a complaint from executives at RKO who refused to accept the title due to it having "a Chinese sound" and being too similar to the name of Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1927 film, Chang. Prior to King Kong being decided upon, the titles "The Eighth Wonder" and "The Beast" were considered,[1] the former of which would be extended to The Eighth Wonder of the World and used as a nickname for Kong within the film.
Development
Merian C. Cooper had been fascinated with gorillas ever since he was a child and while filming The Four Feathers in Africa, he encountered a family of baboons, which inspired him to create a film involving a giant gorilla.[2] [3] Cooper specifically developed the ending first before anything else in the story, a giant gorilla fighting warplanes atop the Empire State Building, as it was the tallest building in the world at the time. There are rumors that Kong would've been portrayed as a live-action gorilla fighting Komodo Dragons, and while there isn't much evidence to support this rumor, Cooper was inspired by the Komodo Dragon and wanted Kong to fight dinosaur sized beasts.
When the film was greenlit by RKO, so came the time to design the monster. Cooper specifically stated in a 1930 memo that, "His hands and feet have the size and strength of steam shovels; his girth is that of a steam boiler. This is a monster with the strength of a hundred men. But more terrifying is the head—a nightmare head with bloodshot eyes and jagged teeth set under a thick mat of hair, a face half-beast half-human". [4] Animator Willis O'Brien created an oil painting depicting a gorilla menacing a hunter and jungle heroine for Cooper. It's interesting to note that the gorilla in the painting isn't particularly giant, or at least not as big as Kong would turn out to be. However, when the time came to sculpt the stop motion animation model for Kong, both O'Brien and animator Marcel Delgado had a difficult time creating the look for Kong; due to creative differences between Cooper and O'Brien. Cooper wanted Kong to look completely like a gorilla, while O'Brien wanted to gain sympathy from the audience by looking more human-like, specifically instructing Delgado to make the ape "almost human." [5] The first model was laughed at by Cooper, saying that it looked like a mix between a man and a monkey with long hair. The second one had toned down the human features, however, the result was said to be a missing link. Cooper got the dimensions of a bull gorilla from the American Museum of Natural History saying that he wanted Kong to be "the fiercest, most brutal, monstrous damned thing that has ever been seen!".[6] Ultimately, O'Brien would incorporate aspects of another ape-like monster he created many years earlier, Wild Willie, from the 1915 short film "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link", into Kong's final model; he went as far as to call Wild Willie "Kong's ancestor". [6]. Finally, Cooper wanted Kong to walk upright to be more intimidating, specifically in the scenes in New York. [2]
Design
Kong is a colossal ape, standing approximately 50 feet tall. Superficially resembling a gorilla, Kong has the unusual habit of walking primarily upright on two legs like a human, though he occasionally knuckle-walks like a real gorilla. His skin is leathery in texture, and is entirely black like his short fur. Most art depicts Kong as brown, but the official colorized version of the film shows him as black with brown eyes.
Origins
While the original films left Kong's origin a mystery, the presence of his young son Kiko would seem to imply that Kong had a mate at one point, and that he was indeed part of a larger species of gigantic ape.
However, in Russell Blackford's 2005 novel Kong Reborn, which serves as a sequel to the original film, but overlooks the events of Son of Kong, Kong's species is named Gorilla gigans, and his origins remain a mystery to the world. One theory proposed that he might just have been a one-off mutation in a regular gorilla that had simply never stopped growing. However, a 2009 expedition to Skull Island revealed an entire troop of giant gorillas living in the jungle. Despite this stable population, it is unknown why Kong lived separately from them.[7]
History
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 Denham 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, plummeting to 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."
Son of Kong
- Main article: Kiko.
After Kong's death, the lawsuits and damage fines that resulted from Kong's rampage were pressed onto the guilt-ridden Carl Denham, who escaped them by taking to the seas aboard the Venture. They eventually made their way back to Skull Island in search of the fabled treasure it held. There they found Kong's son Kiko, to whom Denham formally apologizes for what he did to his father.
Abilities
Kong is an incredibly strong and skilled combatant. He uses his overwhelming strength to lift objects like fallen trees or smash down the colossal wall surrounding the Skull Island village. His physical capabilities are demonstrated further in his battles against the creatures of the island. He is able to match the meat-eater's strength and eventually pin it to the ground before breaking its jaws. He withstands being nearly constricted to death by an Elasmosaurus before forcibly ripping the creature off of his body and killing it instantly by slamming it on the ground. He kills a Pteranodon by grabbing the creature out of the sky and crushing its body in his clutches. Kong's strength is so great he is able to break free from chrome steel chains thought to be unbreakable.
Kong is quite agile for his size, which allows him to dodge many of the meat-eater's strikes and avoid potentially deadly blows. Kong can run very quickly by dropping onto all fours and charging forward. Kong uses his agility to effortlessly scale buildings in Manhattan, and is even able to strike passing biplanes as they attack him while on top of the Empire State Building.
Kong demonstrates a fair deal of durability and stamina, as he shifts from battling the Venture crew to battling three of the beasts of Skull Island within a short span of time, winning each encounter. While Kong's durability is not limitless, he withstands a sustained amount of gunfire from the Curtiss F8C Helldiver biplanes before finally succumbing to his wounds.
Filmography
- King Kong (1933)
- Son of Kong (1933) [poster]
- Cloverfield (2008) [stock footage]
Books
King Kong (1932)
During a routine sacrifice ceremony by the natives of Skull Mountain Island, Kong was given Ann Darrow, an out-of-work actress from New York City. On being taken by him, she passed out and he began his trek back to his home in Skull Mountain. While carrying Ann in his great hand, Kong crossed a large asphalt flat, where three Triceratopses seemed to menace her. He put her down beside him and began to throw chunks of hardened asphalt at the beasts, forcing them back. However, one of them went raging back into the jungle, where Kong discovered the crew of the Wanderer crossing a fallen tree bridging a deep chasm, with a wounded triceratops menacing them from the other side. Kong left Ann in a tree and shook the pursuing sailors off the log before throwing it into the pit. He then grabbed for Jack Driscoll, the only survivor, who was hiding in a cliffside cave. Kong reached in for him but had his hand stabbed. Before he could retaliate, he heard Ann screaming. Kong rushed back to find her being menaced by a Meat-Eater. Kong engaged the beast in combat until he climbed on its back and broke its jaws. After a brief celebration of victory, Kong grabbed Ann and made his way through the jungle to his hideout at Skull Mountain, where he was forced to fight for his life against a water serpent that had hidden in his watering hole. That night, he slept with Ann in his great hand, however, Pteranodons attacked, and Driscoll stole Ann away. Kong gave chase, and arrived at the Skull Island Gate just behind them. He broke down the doors, crushing many villagers underneath them. He proceeded to destroy the village in search of Darrow, systematically tearing roofs off of huts until he caught sight of her. He ran toward the coast, where he was knocked out with gas bombs.
He was then caged, chained, and put on Broadway in a re-enactment of his capture. However, Kong became angered by the camera flashes and thought Ann was in danger. He then broke out of the theater searching for the woman. He climbed the hotel across the street and saw her in her room, and reached in and grabbed her. He then ran across the city in search of safety. His time alone on Skull Mountain lead him to search for the highest point in the city: The Empire State Building. He climbed to the top as Navy Airplanes flew in from South Jersey. He set Ann down at his feet and began to swat at the planes. He sustained machine-gun fire to the chest, which gave him a horrible cough. He looked down at Ann one last time before jumping off the building, swatting at a plane before falling to the ground below.
Kong Reborn
While there was an entire troop of Gorilla gigans living on Skull Island, Kong lived apart from them for unknown reasons.[7]
After Kong's death, his body was burned, however some of his blood remained on the Empire State Building for almost 80 years until it was discovered in 1999. It was then used by Denham's grandson Jack Denham to clone the beast and repatriate him to Skull Island as a sort of apology.
Comics
- King Kong (1933)
- King Kong (1968)
- King Kong (1991) [issues #1-6]
Gallery
- Main article: King Kong/Gallery.
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In Other Languages
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Japanese
References
This is a list of references for King Kong (RKO). These citations are used to identify the reliable sources on which this article is based. These references appear inside articles in the form of superscript numbers, which look like this: [1]
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