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. Ann signs on when she learns her favorite playwright, Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody), is the screenwriter. As their tramp steamer SS Venture sails to the remote and mysterious Skull Island, Ann and Jack fall in love. Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) begins having second thoughts about the voyage, prompted by crew speculation of trouble ahead.
Deep in the southern seas, the Venture receives a radio message from its owners informing Englehorn about an arrest warrant for Carl and instructing him to divert to Rangoon. Despite his attempt to comply, the ship is lost in fog and runs aground on rocks encircling Skull Island. Carl and his crew explore the island to film and are attacked by vicious natives. 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", a 25 ft. (8 m) tall gorilla.
Englehorn and his crew break up the attack and return to the ship. They lighten their load to float off the rocks and carry out repairs, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped. On the island, Ann is hung from a drawbridge on the side of the wall. The crew returns armed but is too late as Kong takes Ann into the jungle. 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. Englehorn, Baxter and the rest of the crew save the last three members of the rescue party from a pit of giant insects, and 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, in the early winter of 1933, Carl presents a chained Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann has become an anonymous chorus girl. Camera flashes from photographers enrage Kong, who breaks free from his chrome-steel chains. Kong chases Jack in a taxi across town and knocks him out by stopping his taxi and flipping it, then encounters Ann again. Kong and Ann share a moment on a frozen pond in Central Park until the army attacks. Kong climbs with Ann onto the dome of the Empire State Building, where he fights off a flight of six Curtiss Falcon fighter planes, downing three. Kong is hit by several bursts of gunfire, and gazes at Ann for the last time before dying and falling from the building.
Ann is greeted by Jack as reporters gather around Kong's corpse. Carl takes a last look and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast."
