Summaries

Synopsis

In the Indonesian port city of Surabaya, Fred Wilson, a spokesman and promotions specialist for a huge oil conglomerate, Petrox, is preparing a voyage aboard one of the corporation's exploration ships. As the ship sets sail, a stowaway steals on to the boat and hides under the canvas cover of a life boat.

The ship makes its way through the stormy south Indian Ocean. Wilson gathers the crew for a meeting to tell them where they're going, saying he couldn't risk telling them anything until they were far out of port. Wilson shows them a pair of photographs of an innocuous fog bank. One picture was taken in the 1940s by a US Navy vessel. The second was taken a few weeks prior to their departure from Surabaya. Wilson also shares another photo, this one taken by a US satellite that went off course and was armed with spectrographic instruments. The readings from the satellite, explained by Wilson's geologist, Roy Bagley, show that an island may exist behind the fog bank and that it may have petroleum deposits on it. Wilson is very excited, believing that, with the oil and gas shortage causing economic problems for Petrox back in the States, that the island will be a rich source of oil for the company.

At that moment the meeting is interrupted by the same man who stowed away in the life boat. The stranger identifies himself as Jack Prescott, a primate paleontologist, who had snuck aboard the ship specifically because it was going to the island. He talks about the island's other secret: that a large beast inhabits the island, is the dominate life form there and is worshipped as a god by the local native tribe. Jack also talks about a strange wedding ritual the natives follow to placate the beast; that a beautiful woman must be "wed" to it to satisfy it's temper.

Wilson believes Jack is a spy and orders him detained until they can run a check on his credentials. While they lead him away on the main deck, Jack spots a life raft floating some distance away. When the raft is salvaged, they find a beautiful blond woman unconscious, but alive. She's brought a aboard and revived by Jack. She identifies herself as "Dwan" and tells everyone that she'd been a guest aboard a yacht that sank after a fire that had occurred during the storm they'd sailed through the day before (the captain remembers that they'd received a faint distress call during the storm). Dwan had been on the deck because the party's host had wanted to show the movie Deep Throat & she refused to stay in the viewing room.

Dwan quickly wins the hearts of the crew. Jack is allowed to join the voyage as a photographer. The ship arrives at the fog bank and a landing craft is launched with Jack and Dwan accompanying the party. After sailing for a bit in the fog bank, it lifts and the mysterious island is visible. They land on a beach and begin to trek inland. They stop at a huge wall, built of giant timbers and chinked with mud. Wilson believes the wall was left behind by an ancient civilization but Jack points out that repairs consisting of mud have been done recently. He's also certain that the wall was built to protect the village from something dangerous lurking on the other side. The party hears drumming in the distance and finds a small village at the edge of the wall where the island's human inhabitants are in the midst of a ritual. One of the tribe's women is being dressed in ceremonial garb while a priest wearing a carved gorilla mask dances in front of her. Wilson speculates that the man in the mask will be the groom, however Jack suggests that the real groom is beyond the wall's huge gate the village is centered around. Bagley spots a small pool of black fluid in the village and tells Fred that it could be oil.

Suddenly the priest spots the landing party and halts the ceremony. He walks straight to the party and shouts angrily, quite plainly furious that their ritual has been witnessed by strangers. When he spots Dwan, he demands they trade her for six women from his village. When Jack refuses the offer, the natives advance and Jack orders the men to fire their guns in the air to scare them off.

The party returns to the ship and makes plans to return to the island, pacify the locals and start their tests of the oil they spotted. Jack is highly critical, pointing out that Petrox is essentially invading the sovereign territory of an independent and primitive tribe and that the natives were shouting a strange word, "kong" during the ritual, insisting that there's more to the wall and the ritual that could endanger the lives of everyone. Wilson and his staff ignore Jack and he leaves. On deck, he gathers supplies and plans to steal a landing boat to return to the island and explore himself. Dwan finds him and talks him out of going -- she has a bad feeling that Jack will be harmed. She and Jack plan to meet in her state room and spend the night together. Jack agrees and leaves briefly. While Dwan waits for him, she's suddenly grabbed by a small gang of locals from the island and taken swiftly away in an canoe. Jack returns & finds a necklace that could have only belonged to one of the locals. He tells Wilson, who rallies his crew to go to the island and find Dwan.

On the island, the natives are preparing Dwan for the ceremony. She's dressed in their traditional garb and given a small amount of fluid from a seashell -- presumably a drug to calm her. She's taken to a sacrificial altar on the other side of the wall's giant gate and tied by the arms to two posts. The natives run back through the gate and close the bolt. They gather at the top of the wall, waving torches and beating ceremonial drums. Suddenly, their celebration is halted. From deep in the forest they hear the cracking of falling trees. As the noise becomes closer, a massive beast crashes out of the forest. Dwan looks up to see a giant ape standing in front of her, scrutinizing her carefully. Kong looks Dwan over, roars his approval and gently picks her up. He turns and walks back into the forest.

Jack, Wilson and the rest of the rescue party arrive in the village, firing flares to scare the natives away. They open the bolt and cautiously wander outside. Wilson stumbles into a large hole that everyone recognizes as an ape's footprint. Jack gathers several men and they begin following Kong's trail into the forest. Wilson stays behind to organize operations on the other side of the wall.

Pursuing Kong along his tracks and the trail of broken trees, the team pauses occasionally to plant seismic markers for Wilson. Though the workers don't feel the need to rush, they begin to quicken their work when Jack suggests Kong is headed their way. The team comes to a deep ravine, bridged by a downed tree. Jack makes his way across, showing the rest that it's safe. As the team crosses, Kong suddenly appears on Jack's side. Jack slides down the ravine wall on a vine while Kong seizes the end of the tree trunk and begins to tilt the crew off -- all of them except for one man, Boan, plummet to their deaths. Kong spends a short time trying to grab Jack who has hidden in a small crevice. Kong gives up and strolls off. Jack yells for Boan to make it back to the village and tell Wilson he's going to continue his pursuit of Kong.

Back on the beach, Bagley returns to tell Wilson the test results he'd gotten from a sample of the oil. Though it is pure crude, it hasn't gone through enough of the natural process to make it a grade suitable for refining. Wilson is crushed, having already radioed Petrox that he was going to be bringing in a huge find. However, another idea strikes him and he calls for a cargo air drop.

At the wall Wilson preps for Kong's return: he's brought a bulldozer ashore and along with several dozen barrels. He has his crew dig a deep hole near the gate and lays electrical cable. While he watches from the top of the wall, he spots Boan. When he asks his man where the rest of his crew is, Boan only answers by making a slashing gesture across his throat.

In the forest, Kong continues his trek, grasping Dwan. He stops at a large clearing and puts Dwan down, sitting back and watching her eagerly. She tries to crawl away a few times but Kong stops her with a simple gesture. When she tries to run, he roars and stops her again, pounding the ground near her when she falls into a mud patch. He picks her up again and stalks off. At a giant waterfall, she holds her under the curtain to clean off the mud. Later, Kong arrives at a mountain bluff where he begins to curiously pick at Dwan's clothing. At one point, Dwan becomes angry, pounding on the ape's nose. Just then, a giant rattlesnake slithers out of the brush and attacks Kong. Kong wrestles with the snake, which quickly coils itself around him. As he struggles, Jack finds Dwan and they run off. Kong is enraged and kills the snake by ripping it's jaws open. He takes off after Dwan and Jack.

Dwan and Jack are able to stay just ahead of Kong -- they leap from a tall cliff, landing in a river. Kong chases the exhausted pair back to the wall where Wilson's men quickly open & close the gate for them. Wilson orders the bolt drawn back halfway to allow Kong the chance to enter. Kong smashes the wall open, stumbles through the wrecked gate and falls directly into the camouflaged hole Wilson's crew prepared. Wilson uses an explosive device to dump hundreds of gallons of chloroform into the pit. Kong thrashes for a bit and then falls unconscious. The natives fall to their knees in front of the pit.

A few days later, a large Petrox tanker is sailing on the ocean. Kong is housed in one of the giant tanks. Wilson tells Jack and Dwan that they're both being given lucrative entertainment contracts. A tour of the USA featuring Kong as Petrox' new mascot is being readied. Dwan accepts immediately but Jack is scornful, calling it a grotesque farce. Eventually he gives in. That night, while Jack and Dwan kiss on the bridge, Dwan's scarf slips from her neck and drifts down into Kong's holding cell. When he smells Dwan's scent, he flies into a rage and begins beating the sides of his tank, waking the crew. Dwan goes to the grating on the top of the tank and tries to calm the beast when the captain threatens to flood the tank with sea water. He leaps up to try and catch Dwan -- he misses and the impact rocks the ship, causing Dwan to fall. Kong catches her safely and puts her on the floor. She then climbs out.

The Kong tour begins at Shea Stadium. Jack visits Dwan and Wilson before the show, saying he's abandoning his contract and donating the money he earned to a fund that will send Kong back to his island. At the show, Jack watches the gaudy and grandiose pageant where Dwan is lashed to a platform similar to the one on the island and Kong is brought out, caged, shackled and wearing a horrid crown. When the media moves in to take a statement from Dwan, Kong believes she's being threatened and almost effortlessly breaks his shackles and rips apart his cage. He begins a rampage that destroys part of the stadium and crushes several people under his feet, including Wilson himself. He spots Jack taking Dwan out of the parking lot in his car but they're forced to run when the fleeing crowd is too thick. Kong breaks out of the stadium and follows them through the city. Believing he's spotted Dwan on an el-train, he smashes it open, tossing aside the screaming woman when he sees it isn't her.

Jack and Dwan make it to Manhattan and find it mostly deserted. Dwan wants Jack to buy her a drink at an abandoned bar. Jack is more concerned with Kong finding them, but Dwan reminds her that apes don't like water and he can't possibly make it across the East River to Manhattan. Jack suddenly remembers that the World Trade Center towers look very much like two rock spires in Kong's mountaintop hideout on his home island. He calls the military &, after gaining their word that they'll try to capture Kong rather than kill him, tells them that they should let Kong climb the World Trade Center towers. The military agrees. Meanwhile, Kong, in seeming defiance of Jeff's theory, wades across the East River and onto Manhattan when he sees that the nearest bridge is being watched by the Army.

Moments later, Dwan is captured by Kong when he finds them in the bar. He stomps away toward the WTC, being given a clear path by the military. When he arrives there, he climbs one of the towers with Dwan clutching his shoulder. When he reaches the top, he's suddenly set upon by men wielding flame throwers. Kong leaps from his tower to the other. He rips up various rooftop objects and hurls them at the men, finally finding a gas tank that explodes, killing both men. Jack is helpless to aide Dwan, watching from the observation deck on the other tower.

Kong and Dwan hear helicopters in the distance. The choppers close in and are ready to open fire, waiting for Kong to release Dwan. Though she pleads with Kong to hang on to her for his own safety, he gently brushes her away and the Hueys open fire. Despite being able to knock two of the choppers out of the sky, he is still gravely injured by the gunfire. He grows weak and falls prone on the roof. Dwan approaches him and reaches out to touch him when he rolls over & falls off the tower, crashing into the plaza below. On the ground, Dwan approaches the ape and listens as his heartbeat slows and stops. She's immediately surrounded by a mob of reporters and government officials. Sadly, she calls out Jack's name, however Jack does nothing.