Myth Explorer: The Quest for Kong (web 2016)
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Myth Explorer: The Quest for Kong was a 2016 viral marketing campaign for Universal Studios Orlando's Skull Island: Reign of Kong attraction, centered on a website and accompanying five-episode web series. The series is presented as the latest season of the fictional Myth Explorer documentary series starring Erin Ryder, real-life host of Chasing UFOs. She and her crew journey to what remains of Skull Island, which wasn't fully destroyed by the events described in The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island. While the website is now defunct, the episodes remain on YouTube.
Description
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World-traveling adventurer Erin Ryder leads a thrilling expedition to find the truth about Skull Island—the legendary home of King Kong. Erin and her team journey across the South Indian Ocean and come face-to-face with dangers that the classic story claimed were destroyed nearly a century ago. If Skull Island still exists, does that mean Kong does too?
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Episodes
"The Quest for Kong"
Erin Ryder introduces Skull Island, which is known mainly as a lost world discovered by Carl Denham in 1933. Only a few expeditions to the island took place between 1933 and the outbreak of the Second World War in 1939, and when they returned to the island in 1948, Denham claimed that it had sunk beneath the waves due to the volatile earthquakes that had created it, as recorded in The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island. Ryder, however, has come into possession of evidence that there had been expeditions to the legendary isle that predated Denham's, which occurred as late as May of 1932. Following the sighing of a strange weather phenomenon on infrared satellite footage, directly over Skull Island's former location, Ryder began to believe that Denham may have been lying about its destruction. She prepares a voyage to seek answers about the island and the legend of King Kong.
"Journey to Skull Island"
After taking a plane to arrive at the research ship BIO Hespérides, she introduces her crew: Jessica Stapleton, the tech supervisor whose high-tech monitoring equipment includes 360-degree cameras; Cesar Ruiz, the researcher; and Mike Murray, the cameraman.[1][2] After a smooth journey, they arrive at Skull Island. She leaves Jessica and Cesar on board for support, and heads ashore with Murray. Due to technical difficulties that also affect the camera, the two are forced to wade to shore, where they plan to set up a base. It is unclear if they lost their landing craft. As they walk inland, they encounter a strange spiderweb coated in slime. Neither of them can identify what might have made it. After setting up camp, the two explore deeper into the island's interior. Just as Ryder is wearing out from all the bushwhacking, she sees a strange metal object on the jungle floor, which turns out to be a steering wheel. She cannot see any indicators of its make or model, and takes photographs to send back to Cesar for analysis. While taking photos, she sees more wreckage in the distance, and discovers part of the door to a vehicle emblazoned with the logo for "Eighth Wonder Expedition Co," deepening the mystery.
"The Lost Expedition"
Ryder then sees what she believes to be the remains of a road, and begins following it. As they tread through a swamp, Murray discovers an old chest covered in debris. Ryder deduces that it must have been aboard the destroyed vehicle, and forces its lid open with her knife. Inside they find various supplies alongside a store of 16mm film canisters. As she continues to dig through the trunk, she finds a satchel carrying the diary of Kate McCaffery, and professes a desire to have them taken to the ship for research when they are extracted that night. Back at camp, she checks her computer to find that Cesar had already gotten back details on the vehicle. He sent her a copy of a patent filed for an "Elevated Opel Blitz," drafted by an "HP Sembler." She is shocked at the size of the vehicle, and wonders what could have happened to it to leave only a door behind. That night at camp, she flips through McCaffery's journal and finds her employee ID card, photographs of some crew members, and a crew manifest bearing the name "W. Denham," which piques her interest. At the start of the fourth day, Ryder and Murray set out from camp and encounter a game trail through the bush which leads them to the fresh carcass of some kind of bird. She leaves one of the 360-degree cameras staked in the ground to try and get footage of whatever killed them. As they continue through the jungle, they spot a menacing and mysterious creature in the sky. A similar if not identical creature is later spotted by the camera.[3] She later makes an update video showcasing she and Murray's base camp, and reflects on the journal and other items, which she had sent photos of to Cesar for analysis.[4]
"We are Not Alone"
With the flying creature gone, the pair continue alongside a stream in search of a safe place to cross. While looking, Ryder discovers a decomposing bat-like wing in the shallows. She realizes that it is roughly the same size as whatever they had seen earlier, and has claws on the ends of its digits. They leave the wing behind as they push deeper into the jungle, and into a dense fog. It is not long before they come upon another foul-smelling, maggot-like corpse reminiscent of drawings in Kate's journal. She leaves a 360-degree camera at the site and the two move on.
At the start of their sixth day of exploration, back at base camp, Ryder reveals some of Cesar's findings. He was able to identify Ryder's "huge-ass slug monster" as Carnictis sordicus, and the likely culprit for their aerial attacker as Terapusmordax obscenus. However, for that day, they choose to follow a hand-drawn map found in the back of McCaffery's journal, which led them to cross a river on a fallen tree. On the other side they find a steep bank with three human skulls embedded within it, which Ryder takes as having been intended as a warning. She climbs up the bank, and quickly exclaims to Mike that they are not alone.
"Beyond the Skulls"
Mike follows her up the embankment, and deeper into the fog. Erin Ryder bids him to keep quiet, and they hear the low growling of an unidentified creature. Mike claims to see one looking at them, and they run away from multiple creatures. They take refuge in a cave, but all of Ryder's equipment has been damaged. She sets up Murray's camera to film a quick check-in in which she confirms that they are at risk of missing their extraction target if they do not make it back to base camp. The cave's native insects prove a nuisance, and prompt her to exclaim that she is "being eaten by bugs." With her bag soaked through, the duo are without a flashlight, a secondary camera, or replacement batteries for their main camera. With this in mind they decide to exit the cave and try to find their bearings, which proves difficult in the fog. But as they come to a clearing near a river, Mike spots the island's infamous wall. Erin is eager to go toward it, but Mike insists that if they go after the wall they will miss their extraction, and urges her to return to camp. Ryder refuses, insisting that they have come too far to turn back in the face of such a discovery, and Mike reluctantly follows her. The sun is setting when they arrive at the wall, and Erin searches for a way to the other side. Just as Mike again suggests they head back, Erin discovers a passage.
"Myth No More"
They find themselves in a catacombs, with many human skulls stacked around. Erin pranks Mike by calling for him to watch out when there is no danger. They pass under a gigantic skull-shaped carving before coming to a statue of an emaciated figure holding two snakes. Here, she pauses and listens to a rising sound just before a colony of bats flies through the cave. Eager to get to a less "disgusting" locale, they continue through the cave, and soon discover more carvings of bound, skeletal figures. Ryder detects a change in the air, and surmises that there must be another passage up ahead. Mike opts to stay behind and film the statues. As she continues in the darkness with only the light of her camcorder to guide her, she discovers the huge skull of a Megaprimatus. Further investigation reveals a complete skeleton, and its layout suggests to Ryder that it had not died at that position, but had rather been placed there intentionally. She has Mike stay to get more footage of the skeleton to send for analysis, and continues into the cave, not intending to be gone long. As she continues in the darkness, she becomes aware of a strange scent, and a low grunting sound. She soon comes face to face with a living Megaprimatus, and calls out to Mike to flee. As they rush back through the passages, she activates her emergency extraction beacon, and they make their way through the jungle in the night until they hit the shore. There she examines her blurry camcorder footage, which reveals some of the gargantuan ape. She then proclaims that the "legend of Kong" is "real." As the rescue craft approaches, Ryder expresses a need to return to the island with a bigger crew.
When they return to the ship, they discover that a few seconds of the 16mm film reels they had discovered had survived, and depicted a few moments of Kong, alive and well, beating his chest defiantly.
Appearances
Monsters
Characters
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Weapons, vehicles, and races
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Gallery
Screenshots
"The Quest for Kong"
Skull Island's location
An anomaly at Skull Island's location
Charcoal drawings of Kong
Information on Gigantopithecus next to a map of Skull Island
The jaw of an unknown predator
The Myth Explorer crew
A map of Skull Island surveyed in 1932
"Journey to Skull Island"
Evidence of the pre-Denham expeditions
Myth Explorer HQ
Erin Ryder seeing Skull Island for the first time
Erin before the slimy web
Erin finding the steering wheel
Erin finding the door
A screenshot of the episode as displayed on a mobile phone
"The Lost Expedition"
Erin finding the trunk
The bird carcass
A mysterious airborne predator
The ever elusive airborne predator
"We are Not Alone"
An unidentified spider spinning its web in the jungle
Erin discovers the wing in the water
Erin holds the wing
Erin poking a Carnictis
The wing's owner: a Terapusmordax
Kate McCaffery's employee ID
The Argo, a research ship used by Eighth Wonder Expedition Co.
Erin with McCaffery's map
A stick bug living on Skull Island
A flying bug that lives in the swamp, seen on the 360 degree cam
"Beyond the Skulls"
An unknown cave bug on Erin's shoulder, presumably eating her
Erin seeing the Skull Island wall
"Myth No More"
The bats from the cave
Erin and a Megaprimatus skeleton
Erin and a Megaprimatus
16mm footage of King Kong
16mm footage of King Kong
Site development
Site designer Joshua Hearn's sketch of the site's layout
An ad showing off work on Mythexplorer.com for Questus
A mockup of the site displayed on a laptop
Site assets
Website banner
Website banner on mobile
The Myth Explorer logo
The star chart used as the site's background
An overlay used on the footer, featuring a talon, coordinates, an unknown bug, and some topographical charts
A Myth Explorer logo displayed as the background of dropdown menus
A shot of Skull Island used on the site
A photo of the crew from the "about" page
The background used on the page for "Journey to Skull Island"
The background used on the page for "The Lost Expedition"
The background used on the page for "We are Not Alone"
The background used on the page for "Beyond the Skulls"
The background used on the page for "Myth No More"
The "Myth No More" background used on mobile devices
A video page background titled "Episode7 bkgd"
Videos
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Trivia
- While King Kong is understood to be a real creature and the events of the 2005 film are implied to have happened, in the second episode Ryder refers to Kong being a pop cultural icon and subject of movies, books, and an upcoming Universal theme park attraction. This could imply that King Kong media was released in-universe, but based on true events.
- Stock footage used to depict the crew's research vessel features the BIO Hespérides, a Spanish icebreaker used for research in Antarctica.[8] It is unknown why an icebreaker was chosen to ferry Ryder and her team through the Indian Ocean.
- In the fourth episode, Mike Murray focuses on a stick insect on a leaf. Despite them being on Skull Island, it is quite clearly a Anisomorpha buprestoides, or southern two-striped walkingstick. Given the species' native range (the southern United States) and the vegetation seen in the series, it is likely that it was filmed in or near Florida.
- The Myth Explorer website once hosted a wealth of exclusive content that has not been preserved, including pages of Kate McCaffery's journal, several species and videos not seen in the series proper, and interactive games and 3D models. They can be seen as a list of URLs archived by the Internet Archive, but are inaccessible.[5]
External links
References
This is a list of references for Myth Explorer: The Quest for Kong. 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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