King Kong (MonsterVerse)

SPOILER WARNING: This section may contain major plot and/or ending details. Proceed at your own discretion.

“	That’s Kong. He’s king around here. He’s god to these people.	„
— Hank Marlow describing Kong’s origins to Conrad and Weaver (Kong: Skull Island)

“	That is Kong’s cry– The-Mountain-Who-Thunders-Death goes to battle, we’re saved!	„
— Ato hears Kong coming to the rescue (Skull Island: The Birth of Kong)

“

I know Jia’s only a child. But she’s the only one he’ll communicate with. And we need Kong to find that power source. The world needs him.

„

“	Home.	„
— Kong’s only seen word, via sign language. (Godzilla vs. Kong)

“	Cloaked in mist, far out at sea, lies an island of mystery. Here between the cliffs and sand, a mighty Titan rules the land. Fists like boulders, roar like thunder. All who see him gasp in wonder. He horrifies the bravest men. His name is Kong… he is my friend.	„
— Jia (Kong and Me).

King Kong (キングコング?), also dubbed Titanus Kong or simply Kong, is the titular main kaiju protagonist (alongside Kingu KonguGodzilla) in the MonsterVerse franchise, and a giant simian daikaiju created by Legendary Pictures who first appeared in the 2017 film, Kong: Skull Island.

Kong faced off against Godzilla before teaming up to defend against Mechagodzilla in the 2021 film, Godzilla vs. Kong.

Kong is set to return in the animated Skull Island series, taking place during his life on Skull Island, and the upcoming sequel, Godzilla and Kong.

Name

Kong was named by the Iwi inhabitants of Skull Island. The name corresponds to the Congo, an African country known for its gorilla population. The name also corresponds with that of Sun Wukong, the legendary Monkey King of Chinese mythology.

Design

2017 design

Kong removes a crashed helicopter that had trapped a Sker Buffalo in Kong: Skull Island.

VFX designers spent eight months making Kong a powerful and sympathetic anti-hero with an element of humanity. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts drew inspiration from the 1933 film’s design while ensuring Kong was iconic enough to be immediately recognized. Famed creature designer Carlos Huante borrowed from the 1933 film, imbuing Kong with orange-brown fur, a small crown, a huge brow, an exaggerated muzzle, and a wide-eyed roar. VFX supervisor Jeff White designed Kong to be 104 feet tall so that “a human will look like a speck in the shadow of this colossus.”[12] Kong’s upright posture is an intentional departure from the hunched-over posture of the silverback gorilla, like in the 2005 film’s incarnation, or of a generic “big monkey.” Kong’s arms are disproportionately longer than his legs, which gives him a distinctive silhouette. Kong was designed to instill divisiveness in the audience, who may view Kong as a threat, a savior, or a god.[13]

Kong has a rounded head and several scars (three of them running diagonally from his left pectoral to the right side of his torso, and several more on the palm of his right hand after attempting to grab the rotating blades of a helicopter). Kong has a muscular physique, with defined abs and large biceps.

2021 design

Kong in Godzilla vs. Kong.

Kong’s height has more than tripled to 337 feet by the time of Godzilla vs. Kong. Sections of Kong’s fur are a now a darker shade of brown along with a few gray hairs. He has also grown beard-like facial hair. By this time, Kong’s head is 50 feet wide.[14] Additionally, Kong often stands in the hunched knuckle-walking posture commonly seen in gorillas and other apes.

Portrayal

Kong is portrayed with CGI aided by Terry Notary’s motion capture performance. Reference facial animation is provided by Toby Kebbell.[15] With the blessing of previous Kong actor, Andy Serkis, Notary completed the motion capture for Kong in only three days.[16]

Vogt-Roberts opted for keyframe animation, primarily due to Kong’s size. This choice enabled Vogt-Roberts to work closely with the animators and get his desired performance.

For the film Godzilla vs. Kong, the filmmakers sought to create a more “human” Kong, one that was said to be recognizable as the same character from Kong: Skull Island, but older and wiser. They chose to go more minimalistic with the character’s movements, and bringing him down to a level where he could interact with human characters such as Jia. Motion-capture for Kong was provided by Allan Henry, using some of the same technology used for the film Planet of the Apes.[17] Along with Allan Henry, Eric Petey who aided Kong’s motion capture performance.

Roar

Supervising sound editor/designer Al Nelson oversaw the design of Kong’s roar. Nelson visited Washington D.C.’s National Zoological Park and Walt Disney World’s Animal Kingdom to record lion roars as a starting point, since the original 1933 Kong’s roar was produced by reversing the sounds of a tiger and lion. He then mixed and matched gorilla and monkey sounds to create additional layers to Kong’s roar.

To fully capture the desired “island-shaking” levels, the sound team set up speaker systems at Skywalker Sound and played Kong’s bellows and roars through a 5.1 channel system.

In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong’s roar was created by Erik Aadahl, and was adapted from lions, tigers, leopards, gorillas, bears, boars and elephants. It is also amplified to sound louder and more aggressive. There are some instances in the film where Kong emits very unique sounds, some of which are shrill, and high-pitched like his 1976 incarnation, but filtered to sound somewhat modernized. During his battle against Godzilla in Hong Kong, he also briefly made a sound similar to that of his Toho counterpart. When Kong lifted his axe to strike Godzilla on the head, he made a sound that was recycled from a video of an elephant roaring in pain while undergoing medical treatment, and he occasionally emits a shrill scream, which was from a video of a gorilla charging at a glass window in a zoo. Additionally, when he grabs one of the HEAVs, he produced a sound that was used for the werewolves in the MTV series Teen Wolf. One of these roars can be heard on Space Jam: A New Legacy and Jungle Cruise; in the latter, it was emitted by the jaguar Proxima.

Personality

“	Kong’s a pretty good king. Keeps to himself, mostly.	„
— Hank Marlow

During his adolescence as seen in Kong: Skull Island, Kong is initially shown to be extremely territorial, reclusive, and defensive. As the guardian of Skull Island, he fiercely protected its wildlife from any threats, chiefly the invasive Skullcrawlers and the 1973 Monarch expedition team. Despite not yet fully grown, he was a capable combatant, and could effortlessly trample the majority of Skull Island’s predatory fauna. Despite this reclusive and aggressive behavior, Kong was also shown as having a softer side and ultimately was a very lonely creature that strived for social contact. During the 1973 expedition, Kong notably doted upon Mason Weaver after the latter had affectionately touched his face while standing on a cliffside. This simple act visibly affected Kong, whos eyes welled up with tears. Kong would ultimately risk his life to protect Weaver and her company from the awakened Skull Devil, and ultimately disemboweled the creature after refusing to let it swallow the woman. The novelization of Godzilla vs. Kong reveals that, at some point during his adolescence, Kong had developed a habit of launching the trunks of tree towards the sun, with the goal of one day actually hitting it. Terry Notary played Kong as a lonely, burdened “14-year-old that’s trapped in the life of an adult” who is growing into his protector role.

By the time of Kingdom Kong in 2021, Kong had grown slightly more tolerant of humans and continued his role as guardian of Skull Island. At one point, Kong attempted to rescue a wounded Sker Buffalo from a flock of Psycho vultures, and was visibly saddened after failing to do so. After his battle with Camazotz, Kong rescued pilot Audrey Burns from her destroyed fighter jet and briefly recognized the pilot’s efforts to help combat Camazotz.

By the time of Godzilla vs. Kong in 2024, Kong had reached adulthood and had become significantly less aggressive towards humans, notably forming a bond with the young Iwi girl Jia. In secret, Jia taught Kong basic sign language, though he would only use it to communicate specifically with her. Despite his friendship with Jia, Kong’s loneliness persisted into his adulthood. When removed from Skull Island and placed on a barge in the Tasman sea, Kong repeatedly signed to Jia that he was sad and wanted to go back home. After being transported to a Hollow Earth vortex in Antarctica, Kong was lured into the vortex after Jia explained that others of his kind could still be alive on the other side. The urge for contact with another of his species ultimately drove Kong throughout his journey in the Hollow Earth. During his final battle with Godzilla in Hong Kong, Kong refused to submit to the Alpha Titan even after being beaten physically, and instead roared in defiance. Despite their feud, Kong assisted Godzilla in defeating the mechanized anti-Titan machine known as Mechagodzilla, and afterwards formed an uneasy peace with Godzilla despite not submitting to him, showing a capacity to overlook grudges while also preserving his own sense of pride.

Kong roaring at the helicopters

Kong is shown to be primarily carnivorous, as he is seen feeding on numerous animals that he has killed. While on Skull Island, he frequently hunted and ate numerous Mire Squid. While on the barge in Tasman sea, he was fed hundreds of large fish. While in the Hollow Earth, Kong killed two Warbats and ate the innards of one’s head. The Godzilla vs. Kong novelization reveals that, at one point, Kong had tried to eat a Skullcrawler he had killed, but was ultimately disgusted by the vile taste of its meat.

Most notably, Kong is shown to have near human-level intelligence. Aside from having complex emotions, Kong is shown to be readily able of crafting weapons, such as a flail-like weapon using the propeller from a shipwreck, and a club-like weapon using a tree trunk. He quickly mastered the use of his ancestral axe and discovered it could be charged using Hollow Earth energy. Aside from Mothra, Kong is shown to be the only other Titan that can directly communicate with humans via sign language, and frequently uses this skill to talk to Jia.

Due to his status as an Alpha Titan, Kong is shown to have the ability/willpower to resist the authority of other Alpha Titans. He notably rejected Ghidorah’s alpha call during Godzilla: King of the Monsters, and further rejected Godzilla’s authority afterwards. Even after being defeated in combat by Godzilla, Kong still refused to submit.

Origins

“	Standing over 100-feet tall, the beast they call Kong is a primate of such size and ferocity that his very existence rewrites every chapter of evolutionary theory. More mountain than mammal, he walks upright on two legs, his towering form shaking the ground with each thunderous step. It is hard to say how long Kong has existed, but initial analysis of bone structure and teeth suggests the creature is an adolescent. He’s still growing. While sharing a common ancestry with apes, Kong is an entirely new superspecies beyond any existent categorization of life on Earth. Worshipped as a god by the Iwi, Kong has inspired a culture of reverence among the indigenous peoples of Skull Island. Across the sweep of his natural domain, his history has been memorialized through a series of sacred monuments. Intricately painted petroglyphs and tomes chart Kong’s god-like rise to power. And that power has come at a terrible price. The emergence of a new breed of apex predator – the Skullcrawlers – challenged Kong’s kind, threatening extinction in an evolutionary war that has waged for millennia. The island is strewn with the bones of his fallen ancestors. His family. How long can it have been since he last gazed upon another like himself?	„
— Monarch Creature Profile

Kong is a member of a prehistoric, simian superspecies that evolved in the Hollow Earth, a lush ecosystem of gigantic creatures located beneath the surface of the Earth. While the species shares a common ancestry with modern-day apes, it is considered to be an entirely new categorization of life. Unusual in apes, the species walked upright instead of knuckle-walking, giving them a humanoid appearance. Based on the appearance of Kong’s parents, the species exhibited some examples of sexual dimorphism. Males appeared to be slightly larger, leaner, and possessed a sagittal crest and beard-like growths along the face.

Ancient humans who later became the Iwi revered them as gods and protectors, building large shrines and structures in their name. In the distant past, the creatures and the Iwi’s ancestors waged war against Godzilla’s kind for dominance after the Titanus Gojira species became capable of using their Atomic Breath. Due to the Gojira species having this advantage, the Titanus Kong species crafted axe like weapons forged from the dorsal plates of fallen Gojira members to battle against them better. However, the war costed both sides greatly and they are were unable to defeat them, resulting in Kong’s species to dwindle in number.

When Skull Island came into existence, living members of the species migrated there via an opening from the Hollow Earth. They ruled over the island peacefully until the Skullcrawlers, an invasive species from the Hollow Earth, infested the island. The feud between the two species lasted for centuries, with casualties on both sides. Eventually, the Iwi migrated to the island and witnessed the feud. However, the apes on Skull Island soon died off from the conflict until only two were left alive. The two of them perished after being overwhelmed by Skullcrawlers but not before the female gave birth to Kong. As the last known member of his species, Kong patrolled the island and hunted the creatures responsible for the extinction of his species.

History

Kong: Skull Island

“

This is his home. We’re just guests here… Kong’s the last of his kind, but he’s still growing.

„

In the 1944 prologue, Kong first appears rising over a ledge where Marlow and Gunpei Ikari are fighting.

In 1973, he makes his first proper appearance as Preston Packard and his crew drop seismic bomb charges on the land below to map it. Enraged, Kong attacks the helicopters, swatting them out of the air and killing many of Packard’s men, to which Packard swears vengeance against Kong. Following the conflict, Kong reappears at a lake, heavily wounded from the earlier fight. As he washes his wounds and drinks from the lake, a Mire Squid attacks Kong, but he manages to kill the creature by stomping on its head and proceeds to make a meal of the giant cephalopod.

Later, Kong is seen jumping from one mountain to another as he looks over the island. Kong finds a dead Sker Buffalo being eaten by a Skullcrawler near a large underground vent. As he is about to engage the creature, another one ambushes Kong from behind. He kills them by throwing one to the ground, breaking its neck, and stomping the other’s head. Some time later, Weaver tries and fails to save a Sker Buffalo trapped under a downed helicopter outside the Iwi village. Kong appears and rescues the buffalo. He encounters Weaver for the first time and looks at her curiously before leaving her be. Later that night, he is seen sitting atop a mountain, somberly watching the aurora.

The following night, Kong sees both Weaver and Conrad on the top of a tall ledge through a blanket of fog and approaches them. While frightened at first, Weaver sees no signs of aggression. She touches his face, and he visibly weeps before retreating. Immediately aftwerwards, Kong is drawn to a distant explosion, which happens to be a napalm trap set by Packard. Kong is lured in and set on fire by Packard. Several of Packard’s men get crushed in Kong’s ensuing rampage, but the fire renders Kong unconscious, and Packard then prepares to kill Kong with explosive charges. However, Conrad, Weaver, and Marlow intervene, creating a standoff between them and Packard’s men. In the midst of the standoff, the largest of the Skullcrawlers, the Skull Devil, emerges from the swamp. Everybody flees except for Packard, who is crushed by the awakened Kong moments before he can set off the charges. Kong attempts to fight the monster, but the Skull Devil manages to overpower him.

As the morning comes, the Skull Devil turns its attention onto the humans and chases them into a marsh. Kong returns and saves them by smashing a giant boulder against the Skull Devil’s head, giving the humans the chance to get to safety. The fight continues with Kong managing to get the upper hand by wielding a tree trunk as a bat at one point. However, the Skull Devil uses his tail to throw Kong into a shipwreck, where he becomes tangled in its chains. As the Skull Devil prepares to deliver the killing blow, the humans distract the giant monster long enough for Kong to free himself.

Using a ship’s propeller attached to a chain like a flail, Kong manages to snag and pull the Skull Devil towards him. Kong throws the Skull Devil against the cliff Weaver is standing on, causing her to fall into the water. He fights and seemingly kills the Skull Devil when he slashes the giant reptile’s throat with the propeller. However, as Kong rescues Weaver, the Skull Devil springs back to life and attacks. The Skull Devil wraps his tongue around Kong’s arm where Weaver is enclosed and pulls it down his throat. Kong violently tears out his opponent’s tongue, finally killing his enemy for good and avenging the deaths of his parents as well as his species.

Kong gently sets Weaver down. As Conrad reunites with Weaver, Kong looks back at them before wandering off. As the humans depart from the island in the rescue helicopters, Kong beats his chest and loudly roars, proclaiming himself the King of Skull Island.

Skull Island: The Birth of Kong

On August 7, 1995, 22 years later, Aaron Brooks, the son of Houston Brooks and San Lin, leads a team of five Monarch operatives on a secret mission to Skull Island to uncover answers about Kong. Following an attack by Psychovultures, the operatives’ pilot crash-lands on the west of the island in their V-22 Osprey while they parachute down to a cliff overlooking the island. Almost immediately, a pack of Death Jackals attacks them and kills survival expert, Helen Karsten. The Death Jackals pursue the remaining humans into a cave and corner them. Before the humans are finished off, Kong appears and saves them by crushing the Death Jackals in his hand and beneath his foot. Then Kong briefly stares at the cave entrance before walking away.

In July the following year, the remaining Monarch operatives, led by an Iwi boy named Ato, embark on a pilgrimage to uncover Kong’s past and eventually meet with him. When a Sirenjaw by the wreckage of an old Dutch ship attacks the humans, they hear Kong’s roar as he goes to fight it, and Aaron leads the others in Kong’s direction. When Aaron and his team arrive at the scene, they see that Kong has already killed the Sirenjaw and left. The carcass eventually attracts Psychovultures and Death Jackals. The team then reaches the Boneyard and hides from a pack of Skullcrawlers in a cave. Riccio then experiences another vision and sees that the day of Kong’s birth was when he lost his parents to the Skullcrawlers. Kong’s mother hid her son in a cave by sealing its entrance with rocks while Kong’s father fought off the Skullcrawlers. Kong then watched the Skullcrawlers kill his parents, creating the anger and hatred he had for the bipedal reptilians. When the Skullcrawlers left in the night, Kong walked towards his parents’ bodies and cried in grief.

Kong makes his full appearance when a group of Mother Longlegs attack the Iwi settlement. Kong quickly kills all of the giant arachnids and crushes Riccio with his fist. Then he comes in contact with Aaron Brooks and spares his life. As Kong came and saved everyone when they needed him most, Aaron realizes that Kong has the instinct to protect human life.

Godzilla: King of the Monsters

In 2019, 24 years later, Kong makes a brief appearance on Skull Island that is only fleetingly shown on monitors, as one of the few Titans who ignored Ghidorah’s call. The film’s novelization explains Kong ignored Ghidorah wanting nothing to do with the Titans and the world beyond Skull Island and wanting them to have nothing to do with him, before making sure no Skullcrawlers leave the island after they also hear Ghidorah’s call.[18]

Kingdom Kong

In 2021, Kong shows up to rescue a team of Monarch soldiers that are being attacked by a Spirit Tiger, killing the beast after breaking its neck. One day while on his walkabout amongst Skull Island while being observed by Houston Brooks from an aircraft Kong comes upon a pinned Sker Buffalo as he attempts to free it he is attacked by numerous Psycho Vultures however using a broken tree Kong manages to get one to light it on fire and kill a majority of the swarm while causing the remaining ones to flee. Unfortunately the Sker Buffalo was killed in the conflict leaving Kong in a notable sadness. Later Kong explores a cave which tells the Iwi prophecy of the Titan Camazotz who according to Iwi lore will trap Skull Island in a realm of eternal darkness. Kong eventually comes face to face with the Camazotz when he intends to take over Skull Island with his swarm when the latter is awakened by the Monarch team trying to dig into Hollow Earth. During their battle, Camazotz proves to be a great challenge for Kong due to his sonic screech and aerial capabilities. Kong is slowly weakened after Camazotz lifted him up before dropping him hundreds of feet from the air several times. Before Camazotz can start feeding on Kong’s blood, Audrey Burns flies her jet directly into the Titan’s face, disorienting him. Kong uses the opportunity to put Camazotz in a chokehold and repeatedly punch him. The incapacitated Camazotz is unable to fight back, allowing Kong to drag and throw him into the hole where he crawled out from. As Audrey ejects from her jet, Kong catches her in his hand, assuring her safety and with a simple snort thanks her for her assistance, which Burns accepts. Later at night, Kong observes hieroglyphs of a battle between a member of his kind and Godzilla.

Godzilla vs. Kong

“	I spent ten years on that island studying him. I know this for sure: Kong bows to no one.	„
— Dr. Ilene Andrews regarding who will bow to who between Godzilla and Kong. (Godzilla vs. Kong)

In 2024, three years after his battle with Camazotz, Kong wakes up and begins his morning routine. After standing underneath a waterfall, he finds a tree and yanks it out of the ground before shearing its leaves and branches off, fashioning it into a spear. Kong is then greeted by the Iwi orphan Jia, who presents him a doll that she made to resemble him. After checking on Jia, Kong throws the tree into the sky and watches as it shatters the biodome Monarch had built to contain him, prompting him to roar in anger.

Later Monarch decides to move Kong, deciding that Skull Island is no longer stable enough to sustain him and allow him to survive. Chaining Kong to a massive barge, Kong, Jia, scientist Ilene Andrews, geologist Nathan Lind, and Apex Cybernetics Executive Maia Simmons depart along with military escorts to take Kong to Hollow Earth where he will be able to thrive. One night an upset Kong pulls on his chains and shackles. Jia arrives and the two touch fingers gently, calming the Titan. As Ilene communicates with Jia through sign language telling her Kong does not understand they are trying to help take him to a new home, Kong shocks everyone and uses sign for “home”, revealing that he is capable of communication with humans.

On their way, they are attacked by Godzilla who capsizes the carrier they are on nearly drowning Kong as well as the others inside the carrier. Fortunately Nathan manages to unlock Kong shackles allowing him to fight off Godzilla long enough to swim to the surface and flip the carrier back on its head, saving everyone inside from drowning. Kong then jumps to the next aircraft carrier to keep Godzilla from destoying the ship Jia is on and to challenge Godzilla, who climbs aboard ready to do battle. Kong strikes Godzilla with a blow to the head staggering him, only for Godzilla to knock him on his back with a swipe of his claws. Godzilla then prepares to fire his atomic breath at Kong but the fighter jets distract Godzilla long enough for Kong to punch Godzilla hard enough to stagger him back even further, and then and push Godzilla back into the ocean.

Godzilla, however, fires his atomic breath from beneath the ocean at the carrier. Kong realizing this manages to jump off and evade the blast just in time. However, this puts Kong at a disadvantage as Godzilla begins to drown Kong as the ape fights to get air only for Godzilla to drag him back down. Fortunately, before Godzilla can drown him, the military fires depth charges that distract Godzilla enough for Kong to make it to the carrier again and catch his breath. Exhausted from the sedation and from nearly drowning, Kong lays still as Godzilla, convinced that he had won due to the convoy shutting down all of their weaponry, leaves. Realizing that Godzilla will return as soon as they move again, the group decides to airlift Kong with helicopters for the rest of the way. Landing at an outpost in Antarctica that holds the entrance to Hollow Earth, Kong is unwilling to go even with Jia’s insistence. Realizing Kong can’t survive the cold and that they can’t return him to Skull Island, Nathan suggests telling Kong that the rest of his kind could possibly be down there.

A Warbat is thrown into another Warbat by Kong.

With this, Kong charges ahead as Jia, Ilene, Nathan, and Maia follow him in aircrafts made to withstand the gravity of the Hollow Earth. Landing relatively safety Kong leads the group through the terrain where they encounter Warbats. Fortunately, Kong manages to kill the creatures before feasting on them. Continuing their journey, they make their way to a fortress that seemingly was the home of Kong’s ancestors as Kong discovers a handprint of one of his kind on the entrance. Inside the fortress, he finds an axe embedded in the corpse of an unknown Titan. Picking it up, Kong notices what appears to be a throne and sits on it, establishing and accepting the Hollow Earth as his new home and kingdom. Suddenly, the axe starts to glow and Kong instinctually lies it down on the ground, revealing powerful energy within the fortress. However, when Jia, Ilene, and Nathan find themselves threatened at gunpoint by Maia and her personnel, Kong angrily roars and prepares to defend them when Hellhawks begin to descend from the ceiling of the fortress and a hole is burnt into it by Godzilla sensing the energy spike. As the fortress starts to collapse, Kong notices Maia’s aircraft and grabs it and after peeking inside to make sure that Jia wasn’t inside, he crushed it when the latter attempts to shoot him to escape, killing her in the process. Kong hears Godzilla’s roar, issuing the ape another challenge, which an angered Kong accepts and proceeds to make his way up to the surface of earth with his axe in hand. Arriving in Hong Kong and face to face with Godzilla, the two Titans prepare for their final battle.

Kong picks up his axe and leaps at Godzilla, who dodges the strike. While trying to take his axe out of the building it is stuck in, Godzilla attacks lunges after Kong, biting the simian Titan and rag-dolling him into buildings. Kong wrestles himself free, landing several decisive blows on Godzilla before knocking him back and retrieving his axe. As Godzilla attempts to fire his atomic breath, Kong rams the handle of his axe down the Titan’s throat, blocking it. Godzilla knocks Kong back and tries again, but this time Kong uses his axe to not only block the energy, but seemingly absorb it. Godzilla attacks again, knocking Kong down, who in turn slams the axe into Godzilla’s thigh, leaving a deep wound. Godzilla removes the axe and throws it away and continues his attack. Separated from his weapon and vulnerable to Godzilla’s atomic breath, Kong proceeds to evade the Titan’s ranged attacks by using the buildings of Hong Kong and his superior agility to dodge. Using the environment, Kong fashions a makeshift shield to get close enough and retrieve his axe, before, leaping off a building and bringing down the now charged-up axe down on Godzilla’s head, knocking the reptilian Titan out and incapacitating him, giving Kong the win in round 2.

As Godzilla recovers and gets up, Kong ambushes him from above, using a crane to distract him. Placing Godzilla in a chokehold, Kong proceeds to brutally pummel him from behind. Godzilla manages to clamp his jaws down on Kong’s arm, yanking it out of its socket and throwing him off. Now on the defensive, Kong backs away as Godzilla viciously crawls at him on all fours. After clawing and stomping on Kong, Kong punches Godzilla’s wounded thigh hard causing Godzilla to roar in pain and stomp on him once more. Godzilla finally manages to subdue the ape Titan and roars at him in a show of dominance. Kong, defeated, but still showing no fear and unwilling to yield, roars back in defiance. Godzilla, as if impressed by Kong’s resilience and prowess, shows mercy and spares him, thus rewarding Godzilla his victory. Godzilla leaves Kong alive after getting off his chest, but the huge ape is left close to death.

Later, as Godzilla is battling the unleashed Mechagodzilla, Nathan, Ilene, and Jia approach Kong’s body. With his heartbeat growing weak, Nathan uses the Hollow Earth Aerial Vehicle to jumpstart Kong’s heart, saving him. As Kong awakens, he reunites with Jia and is convinced by the girl to help Godzilla defeat Mechagodzilla. After resetting his dislocated arm against a skyscraper, Kong heads back into battle. As Mechagodzilla prepares to fire a fatal blast down Godzilla’s throat, Kong intercepts by jumping on top of the Mecha and diverts the blast away from Godzilla, saving him. Now working together, Kong and Godzilla battle against the Mecha. However, Mechagodzilla proves to be stronger than their combined might, easily throwing Kong aside before overpowering Godzilla again. Seeing his axe among the wreckage, Kong retrieves it and lands several blows on Mechagodzilla moving him around and even knocking him clear off his feet. However, the axe is ineffective against Mechagodzilla’s armor, and the machine prepares to fatally stab the ape Titan with his tail as Kong grabs the tail and is holding it off. Godzilla then fires his atomic breath at Kong’s axe, charging it up and allowing Kong to push the tail back enough to cut it, Kong then stops Mechagodzilla’s punch with his left hand and cuts its right arm off, then he proceeds to finish dismembering the Mecha before tearing off his head pulling the spine out with it and roaring in triumph.

Exhausted and battered, Kong sits down, but his rest is interrupted by the roar of Godzilla, who approaches him. Kong retrieves his axe, and prepares to continue the fight, but Godzilla doesn’t attack, and merely stares him down. Understanding that the true enemy has been defeated, Kong drops the axe, signaling an end to the feud between their species. The two then briefly regard each other as equals and allies before Godzilla returns to the ocean.

After having parted with Godzilla on good terms, Kong withdraws to the Hollow Earth, embracing it as his new home and kingdom. Nathan, Ilene, and Jia continue to watch over Kong in a newly established Monarch Hollow Earth outpost.

Abilities

Agility

In Kong: Skull Island and Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong has extraordinary agility and climbing abilities, as he is capable of scaling massive cliffs and mountain faces with relative ease. Kong utilizes this skill to great effect in his battle against Godzilla in Hong Kong, using the surrounding buildings to avoid Godzilla’s atomic breath and maneuver around him.

Carnivorous Diet

Kong regularly preys on and consumes meat (such as Mire Squids and Warbats). While on route to Monarch’s Antarctica base, he is shown eating fish caught for him by the handful.

Durability and stamina

Kong is tough and resilient and has shown great recuperative powers. His stamina remains high even in an injured state, able to remain in full-fledged battles with other Titans lasting several minutes. As a juvenile, Kong was able to withstand bullets from attack helicopters and wounds from Skullcrawlers, though he was still injured by these attacks. Despite being temporarily knocked out from oxygen depletion from a napalm explosion, Kong could still briefly defend himself and awaken moments later to continue fighting against the Skull Devil. Kong showed no signs of exhaustion after his arduous battle with the Skull Devil. In Kingdom Kong, Kong can survive a fall from thousands of feet twice after being airlifted by Camazotz and later in Godzilla vs Kong he survives another fall from possibly thousands of feet when he enters the Hollow Earth from the Vile Vortex. During his battle with Godzilla in Hong Kong, despite being bitten, clawed, and tail whipped by the Alpha Titan, Kong was able to withstand these attacks and the only injuries that actually affected him were his dislocated shoulder and bodily shock following the battle. Kong has also survived Godzilla’s atomic breath though he was visibly hurt by it. Kong can also survive Gravitational Inversion, a planet’s worth of gravity reversed in a split second.

Intelligence

After a brief and engaging struggle, Kong manages to figure out how to disembowel the Skull Devil.

Kong’s most distinctive feature is his near human level of intelligence. More so than any other Titan, Kong has shown an ability to learn and adapt to changes in battle; utilizing the environment to his advantage and being able to improvise and craft weaponry from his environment. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong is seen using the corpse of a Warbat as a weapon by slamming it into another attacking Warbat. Kong is particularly adept with his battle axe, using it to great effect in his battle against Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.

Communication

By the time of Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong has learned sign language from Jia, making him the first and to date only Titan capable of actively communicating with humans. Jia is currently the only human he trusts with this knowledge to the point he avoided using it when anyone else was around to see him do so. Kong is even able to speak a single word out loud: “Home.”

Senses

Kong’s senses are keen and powerful. At one point, he sensed a Mire Squid lurking near him while drinking water from a lake and even heard the cries of a trapped Sker Buffalo struggling to break free from the wreckage of a helicopter. His vision is also strong enough to notice people standing on a cliff through the dead of night. While on route to Antarctica, he was able to sense Godzilla approaching well before the radar systems could detect Godzilla.

Sharp teeth

Like all apes, Kong has sharp canine teeth that grant him a lethal bite. This was seen when he bites and tears off the tentacles of a Mire Squid after killing it. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong is briefly shown piercing Godzilla’s neck very hard with his teeth during their underwater fight, showing that his bite did hurt Godzilla quite a bit.

Strength and combat

Kong is enormously strong and has tremendously powerful arms, possessing sheer feral strength.[19][20] As an adolescent, he was able to throw a boulder around half his own size, uproot large trees and throw them a great distance at flying targets with accuracy, fight off a Mire Squid and kill it using his own muscles and also able to rip off Skull Devil’s powerful tongue when it latched onto him, killing the alpha Skullcrawler. His punches can incapacitate smaller Skullcrawlers and can wrestle and pin the alpha to the ground by using sheer force. He was also capable of casually lifting a crashed helicopter off of a trapped Sker Buffalo with just one hand. Kong was even strong enough to break free from the anchor chains of a wrecked ship. By 2024, he possesses the strength to take on Titans as powerful as Godzilla.

Kong’s punches are strong enough to make Godzilla stagger, and have been stated to be comparable to 4.2 magnitude earthquakes. Despite waking up from 100% sedation due to being laid on his back in a very cold environment, Kong was able to fight and kill two Warbats (with some human assistance) before running over a thousand miles to reach his ancestral home shortly after. In their battle, Kong subdued Godzilla several times, utilizing his momentum to grapple and throw Godzilla around. Later, Kong made Godzilla visibly roar in pain when he punched the latter’s thigh so hard it damaged the inside of the Titan’s bones. Furthermore, Kong was also able to rip the head of a Warbat clean off (without its spine intact). During the final fight with Mechagodzilla, after Godzilla charged Kong’s axe, Kong was able to easily stop an incoming punch directed at him from the mech with a single arm, when beforehand he was struggling to hold Mechagodzilla’s tail back. After slicing off MechaGodzilla’s limbs, Kong proceeded to rip the robot’s head off, pulling the entire spinal cord out with it.

Kong can effectively utilize melee and ranged weapons in and out of combat. Kong’s most valuable weapon is the massive dorsal fin axe he discovered in the Hollow Earth. In their final battle, Kong’s fully-charged axe had been overcharged and made a nuclear pulse which was powerful enough to knock both him and Godzilla back. Godzilla voluntarily charged the axe later when he and Kong battled Mechagodzilla, enabling the ape to quickly dismantle the machine.

According to the film’s novelization, Kong can enter a berserk rage once he has finally had enough, increasing his strength.[21]

Weapon proficiency

Kong has the capacity to wield any type of object which he can use as tools or weapons on opponents. In Kong: Skull Island, he was able to use a stripped tree trunk as a baseball bat to swing it against Skull Devil’s face, use a ship’s propeller attached to a chain as a flail to wound and pull the creature back toward him and even used the propeller as a saw blade to slice Skull Devil’s throat open. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong used a stripped tree as a spear to destroy a biodome Monarch had built to contain him and even used a radio dish as a shield to block Godzilla’s atomic breath during his fight with him in Hong Kong. Kong is also capable of using a battle axe in combat, seen during his fight against Godzilla and Mechagodzilla.

Weaknesses

Freezing Temperatures

Kong is unable to survive in colder climates like the Arctic, as he would eventually freeze to death. When airlifted to Antarctica by Apex Cybernetics, Kong was visibly uncomfortable, with Nathan Lind postulating that he would not survive long.

Lack of bodily armor/Oxygen deprivation

Kong has very durable and resilient skin, though his skin seems to be not as tough as Godzilla’s scales, as they are incredibly thick and protect him from most attacks. This makes Kong susceptible to injury from heavy munitions and fast moving sharp objects, as seen when a helicopter’s rotor blades grazed and wounded his palm, and when artillery rounds severely wounded his arm. Kong was also knocked out by the napalm fire as it ate away the oxygen around Kong and burned him in a few places. He is not a strong swimmer and was nearly drowned by Godzilla when the amphibious Titan pulled him into the depths of the ocean, taking advantage of his own water-breathing capabilities. In Godzilla vs. Kong, Kong’s back was burned when hit by Godzilla’s atomic breath, creating a burn mark though it quickly fizzled out and didn’t seem to affect the ape Titan shortly afterward.

Poor Swimmer

Kong is not a strong swimmer, though he is able to swim well enough to make it back to the ships each time he goes under. Neither can he hold his breath underwater for very long periods of time. He will eventually drown if not able to surface for air.

Video games

Godzilla Battle Line

Kong’s default appearance

Kong appears as a selectable unit in Godzilla Battle Line. He is a 4 star melee unit who can hit multiple enemies at once with his fist. His special attack as a leader allows him to slam his axe down onto opponents while buffing his allies attack.

Equipment

Battle Axe

Kong’s primary weapon is an enormous battle axe with its blade made from what appears to be a dorsal plate from another one of Godzilla’s kind. When wielding his axe, Kong is capable of using it to absorb energy from the Hollow Earth, as well as Godzilla’s atomic breath. In their final battle, the fully-charged axe was overcharged and made an energy burst powerful enough to knock both Kong and Godzilla back. Godzilla voluntarily charges the axe again when he and Kong battle Mechagodzilla, allowing Kong to quickly dismantle the machine. Kong can swing the axe at a top speed of 62 miles per hour.

Trivia

• This is the largest incarnation of King Kong to appear in an American film, and the largest incarnation overall to date.
• Kong is referred to merely as “Kong” and not the usual moniker of “King Kong” (the official bio references this, stating the ‘story of how Kong became king’).
• The skeletons of Kong’s species (his deceased parents) are strewn along the ground of the Bone Graveyard (also known as the “Valley of Fallen Gods”).
• Kong seems to care for the native Sker Buffaloes, as he is enraged upon seeing one killed by a Skullcrawler and later helps another that got trapped under the wreckage of a helicopter.
• Some of Kong’s animation was portrayed by Terry Notary, who previously played the chimpanzee Rocket in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Fellow Dawn of the Planet of the Apes actor Toby Kebbell, who played Koba, provided some reference facial animation for Kong.
• Kong combines features of early hominids, the mythical Bigfoot, and perhaps some aspects of the Gargantuas instead of being a more “realistic” gorilla, as seen in the 2005 film.
• According to director Vogt-Roberts, an alternate opening would have taken place in WWII with soldiers fighting on a beach, when a massive ape (similar to the 2005 Kong) attacks them and is immediately gunned down. However, the real Kong then emerges, many times more massive and threatening. Unfortunately, the studio nixed the idea, telling Vogt-Roberts, “You can’t do that!”(Citation needed)
• This is the first American King Kong film where Kong does not die at the end: in King Kong 1933 and the 2005 remake, he was shot by aircrafts and falls to his death from a skyscraper, specifically the Empire State Building. In the 1976 film, he fell from a skyscraper, specifically the World Trade Center twin towers, but was put into a comatose state. In King Kong Lives, his artificial heart fails, and dies. In the 1998 animated remake, The Mighty Kong, Kong falls from the Empire State Building but this time, he survives his fall, and has an already deceased son in Son of Kong.
  • In contrast to the 1933 and 2005 incarnations who met their ends trying to fight off attacking airplanes, this incarnation of Kong makes his first significant appearance by successfully defeating a group of military aircraft.
• Kong is similar to Godzilla in several ways: both are the last of their kind, both have a vendetta against their natural enemies (the Skullcrawlers, the MUTOs, and Ghidorah) who have killed the rest of their species, and both are portrayed as morally-neutral apex predators who maintain order and have no personal quarrel with humans.
  • Another similarity between both Titans is that they had directly confronted humans in a bid to stop them from bringing back the great threat they vanquished; whereas Kong attacked Preston Packard and his crew to prevent them from further using seismic bomb charges knowing it will attract Skullcrawlers back to Skull Island, Godzilla laid waste upon Apex Cybernetics’ facilities because the company defiled Ghidorah’s surviving remains for a shady purpose.
• Like the 2005 incarnation, this Kong has numerous scars on his body, giving him a somewhat “battle-hardened” look.
• Like the traditional backstories for Kong, this incarnation is the last of his kind.
• In the novelization, Kong’s injuries from Packard’s napalm trap are more severe as his fur is left smoldering in places with some patches wholly burnt off, exposing the skin underneath. More instances of Kong’s intelligence are shown, such as using dirt to put out the fires made by the helicopter battle and Packard seeing Kong trigger a rockslide to bury a Skullcrawler.
• The outpost Kong lives on, Monarch Outpost 33, homages 1933, the year King Kong was released.
• According to Warner Brothers, in 2019, Kong was 270 feet tall. They provided his height for this height chart to Conan’s Studio for an unaired Skit, and it should be noted Conan’s team made an error and counted Godzilla’s dorsal fins towards his height of 355 feet, making him seem shorter than he actually is.[7]
  • S.H.MonsterArts has released scale models for Godzilla, Kong, and MechaGodzilla. Godzilla is scaled down from 393 feet and his height is official and unchanged. Using the same scaling method, it is found that according to S.H.MonsterArts, Kong is approximately 356 feet tall.
• When asked about Kong’s larger size compared to the other Titanus Kong members of Skull Island, Arvid Nelson, the author of Godzilla: Aftershock and Skull Island: The Birth of Kong, stated that species is able to grow to adapt according to the size of its available predatory range[22], and that they grow sort of similar to how goldfish will grow to the size of their environment.[23] Arvid also posited that the radiation from Hollow Earth would affect Kong’s growth, and he could rival other titans in size in the biome by the aforementioned principle.[24]
• Arvid Nelson has postulated that Kong is a “bad match-up” for MUTO Prime, as Kong’s raw power and blunt force would be critically effective against her armor.[25] Arvid had also said to ask Drew Edward Johnson, who has suggested that MUTO Prime’s strength, sonic, and seismic attacks would be too much for Kong to handle, and that he would need armor and weapons to even survive an encounter with her. [26]

List of appearances

Films

• Kong: Skull Island (First appearance)
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters (Stock footage and cave painting)
• Godzilla vs. Kong
• Godzilla and Kong (upcoming)

Television

• Skull Island (upcoming)

Comics

Novels

• Kong: Skull Island – The Official Movie Novelization
• Godzilla: King of the Monsters – The Official Movie Novelization
• Kong and Me
• Godzilla vs. Kong – The Official Movie Novelization
• Godzilla vs. Kong: Sometimes Friends Fight (But They Always Make Up)

Video games

• MonsterVerse
• Roblox
• PUBG Mobile
• Magic Domain
• LifeAfter/Day After Tomorrow
• World of Warships
• Godzilla Battle Line
• Call of Duty: Warzone
• Call of Duty: Vanguard
• Evony: The King’s Return

References

1. ↑ Playmets Toys (5 April 2021). Godzilla vs. Kong Basic Monsters TV Commercial. Youtube.
2. ↑ World of Warships Official Channel. Godzilla vs. Kong: Titans Clash in World of Warships.
3. ↑ Godzilla vs. Kong. He is the ultimate alpha.
4. ↑ Playmates Toys (5 April 2021). Godzilla vs. Kong Battle Roar Monsters TV Commercial. YouTube.
5. ↑ Playmates Toys (5 April 2021). Godzilla vs. Kong Mega Monsters TV Commercial. YouTube.
6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 Kong-Sized. kongskullislandmovie.com. Archived from the original on 15 December 2017.
7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Size Chart from Warner Brothers for Godzilla: King of the Monsters.
8. ↑ Marie Anello on Twitter. “I’d say whatever Legendary has confirmed to be his size is the correct one! In both those cases (Brooks in the script and me in the interview) those sizes are estimates meant to illustrate how huge his growth is, not necessarily be exact measurements.”
9. ↑ warnerbroshk (20 March 2021). 距離開戰倒數四日，先睇一睇數據 👀 究竟邊面贏面大啲呢？3月24日 世紀震撼大銀幕 2D / 3D / 4DX / D-BOX / IMAX / MX4D 同步獻映 購票即去 🔗 Link in bio #TeamKong #TeamGodzilla #GodzillaVsKong #哥斯拉大戰金剛. Instagram.
10. ↑
11. ↑ Keyes, Greg. Godzilla vs. Kong – The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. p. 210. April 6, 2021. ISBN: 1789097355.
12. ↑ Kong: Skull Island Production and High-Res Photos. SciFi Japan. Archived from the original on January 22, 2021. Retrieved on January 7, 2018.
13. ↑ Smith, C. Molly (November 10, 2016). Kong: Skull Island gives first look at movie monster. Entertainment Weekly. Retrieved June 27, 2017
14. ↑ Creating a More Human Kong in ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. Animation World Network (May 12, 2021).
15. ↑ Schaefer, Sandy (May 11, 2016). Kong: Skull Island – Toby Kebbell Provided Kong Facial References. Screenrant. Retrieved January 12, 2018
16. ↑ Shanley, Patrick (March 10, 2017). ‘Skull Island’: Kong Motion-Capture Actor on Sequel Plans and Seeking Andy Serkis’ Blessing. Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved June 27, 2017
17. ↑ Hogg, Trevor (May 12, 2021). 1Creating a More Human Kong in ‘Godzilla vs. Kong’. Animation World Network. Retrieved on May 14, 2021.
18. ↑ Keyes, Greg. Godzilla: King of the Monsters – The Official Movie Novelization. Titan Books. May 28, 2019. ISBN: 178909092X.
19. ↑ Wallace, Daniel. Godzilla vs. Kong: One Will Fall: The Art of the Ultimate Battle Royale. Insight Editions. p. 139. May 21, 2021.
20. ↑ HBO Max. Who has the brains, brawn, and experience? Take a look at these stats to see who will come out alive in the epic matchup of Godzilla vs. Kong, in theaters now and streaming exclusively on HBO Max. (Tweet).
21. ↑ Keyes, Greg. Godzilla vs. Kong – The Official Movie Novelization (pp. 260-261). Titan. Kindle Edition.
22. ↑ Nelson, Arvid (October 9, 2020). Arvid Nelson on Kong species (Tweet). Twitter.
23. ↑ Nelson, Arvid (October 9, 2020). Arvid Nelson on Kong’s growth (Tweet). Twitter.
24. ↑ Nelson, Arvid (October 9, 2020). Arvid Nelson on Hollow Earth (Tweet). Twitter.
25. ↑ Nelson, Arvid (June 15, 2021). Kong against Jinshin-Mushi (Tweet). Twitter.
26. ↑ https://twitter.com/Drew_E_Johnson/status/1438588867729260546?s=20&t=JpW9xcpLyco-isHHDbh08w

Kong: Skull Island

Film-based kaiju

Godzilla kaiju