Intrigue

A greedy film producer assembles a team of moviemakers and sets out for the infamous Skull Island, where they find more than just cannibalistic natives.

Carl Denham needs to finish his movie and has the perfect location; Skull Island. But he still needs to find a leading lady. This 'soon-to-be-unfortunate' soul is Ann Darrow. No one knows what they will encounter on this island and why it is so mysterious, but once they reach it, they will soon find out. Living on this hidden island is a giant gorilla and this beast now has Ann is its grasps. Carl and Ann's new love, Jack Driscoll must travel through the jungle looking for Kong and Ann, whilst avoiding all sorts of creatures and beasts. But Carl has another plan in mind.—Film_Fan

At the height of the Great Depression, the visionary but hard-pressed filmmaker, Carl Denham, talks the down-and-out New York City Vaudeville actress, Ann Darrow, into following him to Singapore for his upcoming movie extravaganza. Instead--aboard a weather-beaten tramp steamer, along with the respected playwright, Jack Driscoll--the unsuspecting crew find themselves at the back of beyond, in the impenetrable jungles of the obscure Skull Island: the home of ferocious primaeval relics, and the mysterious land of Kong, the all-powerful eight-metre-tall silverback gorilla. Now, as the monstrous ape holds captive the flaxen-haired protagonist, a handful of valiant but insignificant defenders must fight tooth and nail with formidable adversaries and the isle's mighty ruler, as the manipulative director captures unbelievable raw footage. Can anyone escape from the wrath of the savage King Kong?—Nick Riganas

Set in the 1930s, this is the story of a group of explorers and documentary filmmakers who travel to the mysterious Skull Island (near Sumatra) to investigate legends of a giant gorilla named Kong. Once there, they discover that King Kong is a real creature, living in a massive jungle where creatures from prehistoric times have been protected and hidden for millions of years. As the explorers search for the great ape, their quest puts them up against both Kong and his dinosaur enemies. Ultimately, it is the attention of a beautiful human woman that soothes Kong long enough for him to be subdued by the explorers and shipped back to New York, where his bleak future involves being put on display in front of humans... but how long can even the mightiest shackles of man hold back an ape 25 feet tall?—bondish

In the spring of 1933, at the height of the Great Depression in New York City, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) has lost her job as a vaudeville actress but is hired by troubled filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) to act in his new film with actor Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler). Baxter considers himself to be a ladies man, who specializes in adventure films. Ann signs on when she learns that her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), is the screenwriter.

The owners of the studio had pulled funding from Carl after seeing the reels of his latest movie. Carl had not shot a single scene with Baxter and the leading lady and proposed to shoot the rest of the film on an island, which would require a lot more money to travel to. Carl tries to sell the studio owners on a map that he had discovered of an uncharted Island. Carl wants to shoot his picture in the ruins of an ancient civilization. Carl manages to leave before the decision could be communicated to him formally. He pretends that everything is on track as he assembles his crew on the ship at the New York docks and prepares to set sail.

Carl meets Jack on the hired ship to get the script from him. Jack was writing a script for Carl's movie. Jack gives Carl the first 15 pages of the script and says that he thought he had more time to finish it. Carl needs the middle and the end of the movie, but Jack was not interested to accompany Carl on his voyage. Carl observes that the ship is about to set sail and stalls Jack by pretending to pay him for the pages already delivered. Carl delays signing the check as the ship sets sail, and Jack is now stuck on the boat. The cops arrive at the docks just after the ship had sailed. Carl had no money, no permit and no visas, and yet convinces everyone that this is a legitimate venture, funded by the studio.

Filming takes place on the SS Venture, a small cargo ship belonging to the Dutch East Indies colony, anchored in Surabaya under Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann). Englehorn traffics exotic animals that he captures during his voyages and gets big money by selling them to zoos and circuses in America. Englehorn carries a large supply of Chloroform in the bowels of the ship.

Carl claims the Venture will sail to Singapore, but in truth, he intends to film the mysterious Skull Island. One the crew hears Carl talk about it and also notices when Englehorn changes the direction of the ship on Carl's orders. Captain Englehorn begins having second thoughts about the voyage, prompted by crew speculation of trouble ahead. The crew says that a few years ago they rescued a sailor who spoke of an island hidden in fog and having a huge wall, 100 foot high and strong, so old that nobody knew who made it. The castaway spoke of a monstrous creature living behind that wall. During the voyage, Ann and Jack fall in love and they end up kissing.

The Venture receives a radio message informing Englehorn there is a warrant for Carl's arrest due to his defiance of the studio's orders to cease production, and instructing Englehorn to divert to Rangoon, but the ship becomes lost in fog. Jack notices a picture of a gorilla's face on the map that Carl had in his possession. The ship runs into a sea wall and rides the waves to sail over the man-made defenses around an uncharted Island and finally runs aground on Skull Island.

Carl and others, including his film crew consisting of cameraman Herb (John Sumner), assistant Preston (Colin Hanks) and boom operator Mike (Craig Hall), explore the island as Carl is determined to capture it on film. The crew reaches the wall and are attacked by natives who kill Mike and a crewman. The sound technician and one of the sailors are killed. Ann screams as she is captured, and a roar beyond the wall responds. The matriarch of the tribe vows to sacrifice her to "Kong", 25 feet. (8 meter) tall gorilla. Englehorn and his crew break up the attack and return to the ship.

Back on ship, Englehorn and his men lighten their load to float off the rocks and carry out repairs, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped from her room. As Jack notices Ann's disappearance, the crew returns to the island to rescue her. On the island, Ann is hung from a drawbridge on the side of the wall and the entire wall is set on fire to attract the attention of Kong to the ritual sacrifice in his honor. The crew returns armed but is too late as Kong takes Ann into the jungle. Carl catches a glimpse of Kong and becomes determined to film him. Ann wins Kong over with juggling and dancing and begins to grasp Kong's intelligence and capacity for emotion.

Englehorn organizes a rescue party led by first mate Hayes. The rescue party is caught up in a pack of Venatosaurus Saevidicus (dromaeosaur descendants, related to Velociraptors) hunting a herd of Brontosaurus Baxteri (massive, plant-eating sauropods), and the cameraman is killed along with three sailors. The rest of the rescue party come across a swamp where Bruce Baxter and two others leave the group. While making their way across a giant fallen log, Kong attacks the rescue party. Hayes is killed and the rest of the crew are shaken off the log into a ravine, and Carl's camera is destroyed.

Kong returns to Ann and rescues her from three Vastatosaurus Rex, descendants of Tyrannosaurus Rex, then takes her to his mountain lair. The remaining rescue party are attacked by giant insects in the ravine, resulting in the death of Hayes and most of the rescue party, but Preston, Carl, Jack, and Hayes' apprentice Jimmy are rescued by Baxter and Englehorn. As Jack continues searching for Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack goes to Kong's lair, inadvertently waking him. As Kong fights a swarm of flying Terapusmordax, bat-like rodents, Ann and Jack escape. They arrive at the village wall with the angry Kong following them, and Ann becomes distraught by what Carl plans to do. Kong bursts through the gate and struggles to get her back, killing several sailors in the process, but is knocked out by chloroform.

In New York City, around the Christmas season, Carl presents "Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World" on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann, who refused to take part in the performance, is played by an anonymous chorus girl. Agitated by the chorus girl not being Ann and flashes from cameras, Kong breaks free from the chains, wrecks the theater, and bursts out into the streets of New York in search of Ann, chasing Jack before encountering her again. The U.S. Army attacks, and Kong tries getting Ann and himself to safety by climbing to the top of the Empire State Building.

Six United States Navy biplanes arrive and Kong downs three of them but is mortally wounded from the planes' gunfire and falls from the building after he dies. As Jack reaches the top of the building to comfort and embrace Ann, civilians, policemen, and soldiers gather around the beast's corpse in the street, one bystander commenting the airplanes got him. Carl makes his way through the crowd, takes one last look at Kong and, before walking away, says sadly, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast".