Character page for King Kong (2005). The page for the other versions is here.
open/close all folders
The 8th Wonder
Kong
King Kong
Played By: Andy Serkis
- Adaptational Badass: His impressive feat of defeating a T. rex in the 1933 original is upgraded to him taking down three evolved Tyrannosaurs at once in the 2005 remake, all while carrying Ann in one hand. In general, he is far stronger, tougher and nimbler in this version of the story, partly because of advances in special effects technology.
- Adaptational Heroism: While the 1933 version was just a straight-up possessive, vicious monster; this Killer Gorilla is given a lot more emphasis on his emotional state, emphasizing his loneliness and how he comes to view Ann as a friend or even a surrogate family member. Even during his rampage in New York, whereas the original Kong threw the "fake Ann" to her death, this one is shown tossing the women he mistakes for Ann in the street aside fairly gently.
- Adaptational Sympathy: In large part due to
Science Marches On, this version is portrayed far more tragically than before due to the knowledge of real life gorillas as Gentle Giants. While the original film just has him a largely mindless rampaging beast, this version emphasizes that Kong's the Last of His Kind, and he's a highly intelligent, social animal that's been forced to live alone for much of his life. His relationship with Ann is revamped as well; rather than simply being a passive Damsel in Distress who is constantly terrified of Kong, here she eventually recognizes Kong is not a monster, he's just lonely, starts to pity him and despairs at his death. - Beast and Beauty: The Beast to Ann's Beauty.
- Berserk Button: Ann Darrow. Don't touch her, don't hurt her, don't impersonate her, and definitely do not stand between her and Kong.
- Big Damn Heroes: To Ann as he saves her from both the Tyrannosaurs and from falling to her death from the Empire State Building when the airplane guns down the ladder she was climbing.
- Combat Pragmatist: In battle, Kong ferociously exploits any weakness he can find and uses whatever he has at his disposal to his advantage.
- Death by a Thousand Cuts: In the climax, Kong is attacked by a contingent of military planes. While a few bullets aren't enough to kill him, repeated strafing runs eventually take their toll even on a giant gorilla, and he dies.
- Dies Wide Open: As Kong looks at Ann one last time, the lights literally go out in his eyes as he succumbs to his wounds.
- Dire Beast: Kong looks very similar to a common gorilla, but is much much bigger than any living or extinct primate.
- Doomed by Canon: As this is still an updated remake of the original classic, his fate atop the Empire State Building is a Foregone Conclusion.
- In the game, it is possible to save him from the planes and return him to Skull Island, but since the novelization reveals that the island eventually sinks, Kong dies either way.
- First Injury Reaction: During the Empire State Building showdown, Kong is clearly shocked to find out airplane bullets left a gaping hole in his chest, a clear sign he won't get out of there alive.
- Go Mad from the Isolation: This may explain why he's so attached to Ann, and why he took it very personally when Ann at first made him feel welcome in her heart but then angrily lashed out at him for playing with her too rough. It may also explain why he kills his sacrifices and was going to do the same to Ann had she not fought herself free at the last minute; gorillas, like humans, are social animals, so the lack of meaningful communication with his or any other sentient species caused him to go insane.
- It's Personal: He certainly had it out for Jack Driscoll, as he was the one who was "stealing" Ann from him toward the end. He halted his rampage in the theater and in New York's city streets the second he saw Jack, who would have been a goner had Ann not appeared.
- Last of His Kind: It is implied that Kong is the last giant ape on Skull Island: the most telling evidence is a shot of him entering his cave and walking past multiple skeletons of giant gorillas, probably his direct kin. This loneliness, along with the hostility of Skull Island's environment, accounts for both his ferocity and his need for company, which Ann Darrow supplies. Furthermore, as stated in the background materials, Skull Island's entire ecosystem is dying because the island is submerging due to geological activity. Only a few years after the events of the movie, a final earthquake buries Skull Island under the sea.
- Lightning Bruiser: Along with his incredible strength came with terrifying speed and agility to where he's able to move very quickly in his fight with the V. Rex pack.
- Made of Iron: His truly massive bones allow him to withstand bites from a V. rex without them snapping his bones more than once.
- Murder the Hypotenuse: Kong makes it clear that he does not like Jack for snatching Ann away from his grasp. Jack is able to use this to New York's advantage in the climax.
- Mysterious Past: The supplementary material notes how weird it is there's a giant ape on an island of otherwise Mesozoic Era fauna and has been isolated from the rest of the world long before hominids evolved, and there's no fossil record of his species known on the mainland. It's speculated that perhaps Kong evolved from the Indonesian Gigantopithecus and were perhaps brought over from the mainland by the original colonizers of Skull Island, although it is pointed out even this explanation has holes (Gigantopithecus was big, but nowhere near Kong-sized, and for it to have gotten that big, it must have done so in an exceptionally short evolutionary timespan).
- Primal Chest-Pound: When he defeats the last snaggle-toothed Vastatosaurus, Kong stands triumphantly over its corpse and gives out an almighty roar of victory while pounding his chest. All hail the King. He does it again during his last stand against the military airplanes, albeit with defiant desperation in his body language rather than triumph.
- Rasputinian Death: After being pock-marked by dozens upon dozens of machine gun rounds, Kong plummets to his death. However, the bullets did him in before the fall.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Goes on one in New York because he's angry at the humans for chaining him up and supposedly stealing Ann from him. As in the original film, Kong is mainly just confused and terrified of the unfamiliar surroundings, as well as irritated by all the humans gawking at him. Then he goes after Jack (who deliberately challenging him to a chase so as to lure him out of the city where there's civilians). He does calm down when Ann runs to him.
- Spared by the Adaptation: It's possible for the player to do this in the alternate ending to the tie-in game, where Kong is saved by Jack and Englehorn and returned to Skull Island.
- Tragic Monster: More so than the original, there is much more evidence to suggest Kong is lonely from being the Last of His Kind.
- Uncanny Valley: The fact that, for all intents and purposes, Kong is what he looks like; a giant gorilla. The realistic proportions and behaviour he exhibits contrasts with his absurd size, despite the fact such an appearance, through real-world evolution at least, should not have been possible. Really, it's easier to believe that Kong is something that just so happens to look and function like a giant gorilla rather than accept he is one.
- Unstoppable Rage: Don't piss Kong off. You'll instantly regret it.
- Victory Pose On Person: Just after killing the last V. rex, King Kong places his foot on the corpse and does a Primal Chest-Pound.
Denham's Film Crew
Carl
Carl Denham
Played By: Jack Black
A film director who obtained the map to Skull Island. Due to his debts, Carl starts to lose his moral compass and obsesses over his film to the point that he disregards safety.
- Adaptational Badass: His counterpart from the 1933 original was a typical bean counter manager who just sat back and let the grunts do the dirty work (though it gets subverted in the sequel Son Of Kong where he takes the role of adventure hero). Jackson's version has his handson into the danger and even being a capable fighter who survives the bug incursion and faces Kong straight face to face during the capture scene rather than hiding away and throwing bombs from a distance.Definitely a big leap over the 1976 version who was a Corrupt Corporate Executive.
- Adaptational Jerkass: A compulsive liar and manipulator. While the original movie's Carl was certainly an ambitious director and hungry businessman, he was honest about his agenda from the start and didn't BS his way into the expedition. Nowhere near as bad as the 1976 incarnation's greedy oil man but more blatantly deceitful than the 1933 black and white Carl. Doesn't help that there's not a Son of Kong to give a redemption arc.
- Aesop Amnesia: The novelization makes mention that one of his previous projects had a disastrous location shooting and Herb was crippled as a result, mauled by an animal while trying to get a take. So the events of the film — the Skull Island expedition to begin with, then capturing Kong when his film is ruined — shows that he's suffering from this twice over.
- All There in the Manual: The companion book The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island reveals he evaded charges for Kong's rampage by blaming the company that made the chrome steel restraints. Denham would go on to lead a several scientific expeditions to Skull Island before it eventually sank.
- Berserk Button: Two. He loses his temper when asked if his films will include nudity, and snaps after his camera is destroyed.
- Despair Event Horizon: Has one when his camera is destroyed in the log scene.
- Detrimental Determination: He's determined to make a film on Skull Island and while he mourns the loss of his team, saying he will complete the film and ensure their families are financially supported through the film's success, he really should have just left Skull Island at the behest of the more experienced sailors and adventurers. When he realizes that his camera broke when he and the team fell into the insect pit, Carl mentally shuts down before attacking the insects with rage and reckless abandon. At that point, Carl realized that his friends and team have ultimately died for nothing and there's nothing he can do to atone or compensate their families.
- The Determinator: "Defeat is only momentary!", he says early in the film, and goes on to prove it by trying to finish a film that he stole from the studio he was fired from because he didn't liked Executive Meddling, dealing with all kinds of obstacles along the way. The plot shows that it is more of a Fatal Flaw, however, and for many other people it proves rather literal.Jack (talking to Preston): He destroys everything that he loves.
- Heroic BSoD: Falls into one over his destroyed camera, only to break out of it to destroy some bugs attacking the crew. He ends the film suffering a second one, considering the way he sees Kong's dead body, says "it was beauty killed the beast", and walks away.
- It's All About Me: Denham is driven to complete his film in accordance with his vision. Even the eulogies he gives for Mike and Herb circle back to Denham finishing the picture, thus coming across as very disingenuous.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: While he does lack in ethical morals, he is completely against the thought of having nudity shots of women in his film when a studio executive makes a request for them, showing he does have a few standards when it comes to filmmaking.
- He also gives two rousing speeches when two important members of his crew die, declaring that he would finish his film for them and donate the proceedings to their families. Seemingly subverted when it turns out both speeches are almost identical, word for word, implying he is not truly concerned about their deaths and is merely using them as pieces for self-motivation.
It gets even more complicated when it also turns out he made his first speech while drunk, which would make one wonder if his second speech was just him subconsciously repeating the first one.
- He also gives two rousing speeches when two important members of his crew die, declaring that he would finish his film for them and donate the proceedings to their families. Seemingly subverted when it turns out both speeches are almost identical, word for word, implying he is not truly concerned about their deaths and is merely using them as pieces for self-motivation.
- My God, What Have I Done?: He's horrified when Kong escapes and also melancholic when Kong dies too.Denham: It wasn't the airplanes. It was beauty killed the beast.
- One-Man Army: Boy howdy, a pack of Weta-rexes come close to overwhelming Jack. Carl turns his fight with them into a Curb-Stomp Battle, beating down a few Deinocrida (giant crickets larger than he is) for good measure.
- Pet the Dog: A deleted scene revealed that Carl took Preston in because the latter failed law school and Carl felt sorry for him. He's also genuinely disturbed by Herb's death and attempted to save him - his insistence on the tripod is because he wanted to use it to pull Herb up.
- Plucky Comic Relief: He is played by Jack Black.
- Too Dumb to Live: Carl has several of these moments, which end up getting others around him killed. For instance, trying to entice someone else's child with candy if the parents don't already know you would be asking for trouble in most civilized communities, never mind an village populated by feral natives.
Ann
Ann Darrow
Played By: Naomi Watts
A struggling vaudeville actress who is desperate for work. Carl first meets her when she tries to steal an apple from a fruit stand. Further into the voyage, she falls in love with Jack and forms a special relationship with Kong.
- Adaptational Badass: She is a vaudeville performer with strong personality when pushed. Entertaining Kong with some dancing and cartwheeling and putting her foot down when he literally pushes her around asking for more when she stops because she's tired is why he comes to like her so much.
- Adaptational Heroism: In subtle ways, is far more outgoing and direct than her more Neutral Female counterpart from the original 1933 movie.
- Adaptational Skimpiness: Downplayed to her counterpart in the in the 1976 film, but played straight with her original 1933 self, while her 1933 self does get the left side of her top ripped off showing off the sleeveless top underneath, it still covers her right side, however her 2005 self loses her first layer of clothing entirely, leaving her in just the sleeveless top she wore underneath.
- The character iterations on the film tie in media such as the video game has her without her robe from the get go or in the case of the comic book adaptation its lost off-panel in-between the scene where Kong captures her and her waking up in his cave, thus having her run around in the jungle of skull island in nothing but a silk nightgown.
- Adaptational Relationship Overhaul: In both the original and 70's remake, Kong and Anne's relationship was defined by obsessive possession and the threat of implied sexual violence. Here, thanks to greater understanding of Gorilla behavior, their relationship evolves to one of platonic friendship to where Anne feels safe enough to sleep in his presence and willingly goes to Kong to calm him down following his escape.
- Barefoot Captives: She is kidnapped by the islanders as she was getting ready for bed, and thus is trapped in her bare feet for the rest of her time in the jungle.
- Beast and Beauty: The Beauty to Kong's Beast, which is a large theme that does not go unnoticed within the film.
- Beauty Is Never Tarnished: Played with. Anne is extremely filthy, has torn clothes, and a scratch/scrape here and there, but considering the abuse she takes in the jungle, it's still pretty light.
- Clothing Damage: Downplayed compared to her 1933 version, as Ann also loses her robe, but this time her slip only suffers a few rips on the lower side.
- Fallen-on-Hard-Times Job: Early in the film, the show she works for is closed down, forcing her to accept Denham's offer. The events of the film have her nearly getting killed repeatedly, but overall is less denigrating from the actual example of this that Denham saved her from — almost dancing in a burlesque house.
- Fluffy Tamer: She is the only human that Kong really comes to like.
- Foot Focus: Ann is barefoot for her whole stay on the island, which includes running through jungles and over rocky terrain. Several closeups of her bare feet heighten the tension of specific scenes.
- Giving Them the Strip: In a blink and miss moment, Ann gets her dressing gown torn off by a Terapusmordax when Kong gets attacked by the giant bats.
- Hair of Gold, Heart of Gold: Ann is blonde-haired and is probably the kindest and most moral character in the 2005 movie.
- I Did What I Had to Do: Ann justifies that she isn't comfortable with stealing an apple, but that she's desperate and hasn't been paid for a month now.
- Losing a Shoe in the Struggle: Ann gets kidnapped as she was getting ready for bed. Consequently, her shoes get left behind, and she spends the entire time in the jungle barefoot. By all accounts, her feet should've been ripped to shreds by the rough terrain, especially in the jungle itself, long before Kong started carrying her from place to place, but she doesn't get so much as a thorn or a blister.
- Ms. Fanservice: Ann spends all of her time on Skull Island in her bare feet, while wearing both a nightgown and a robe, she's down to just her nightgown by the end of her stay on the island after she loses her robe when Kong is attacked by giant bats.
- Compared to her film counterpart who spends a good portion of the movie wearing a robe thus covering her arms and shoulders for most of the movie before she loses it, her counterpart in the video games, comic adaptation and othe tie in media ditches the robe entirely thus having Ann run around in the jungle just her pink silk slip.
- Pajama-Clad Hero: As she was kidnapped as she prepared to sleep, she pretty much spends her time at the jungles of Skull Island in her nightgown without shoes.
- Playing Against Type: In-universe. Carl tells Ann "you're the saddest girl I've ever seen" and chooses her to be his lead because she evokes The Woobie so well. Ann responds to this by telling him that she's a comedian who makes people laugh for a living.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Ann does not seem to express even the slightest hint of discomfort despite running on rough terrain in her bare feet. In fact, she even appears to be more comfortable, free-spirited, and nimble when she’s barefoot.
- Screw the Money, I Have Rules!: When she first sees the burlesque venue a producer referred her to, Ann turned away in disgust despite already being broke and on the cusp of starving. She later turns down Carl's offer (at first) for a movie role because of his intend of having her play a tragic heroine, to which Ann firmly declares that she acts to make people laugh and smile.
- Sweet Polly Oliver: When we first see Ann during the intro of the 2005 film, she's performing on stage in male drag.
- Tom Hanks Syndrome: Invoked in-universe. Ann is a vaudeville clown who gets cast as The Ingenue lead in Carl's adventure film.
Jack
Jack Driscoll
Played By: Adrien Brody
A screenwriter (and part-time theatre actor) who falls in love with Ann. Coincidentally, she was an avid fan of his writing. He unwittingly becomes part of the voyage when, while delivering a script to Denham, he is delayed before he can get off of the Venture.
- Adaptational Badass: The original Jack Driscoll was a badass from the start, being a hardened sailor who single-handedly braves Skull Island to rescue Ann after nearly everyone else with him is killed off. Here, he's a bookish screenwriter who does the same and then tops even that by leading a rampaging Kong away from others in New York.
- Adaptational Job Change: The first mate of the venture in the original 1933 film, a playwright and screenwriter in this remake.
- Action Survivor: Jack probably directly survives the most dangerous events in the film outside of Ann; he's forced to run among the Venatosaurus, is directly targeted by the Piranhodon, survives being mobbed by Weta-Rexes, and has several close encounters with Kong.
- Badass Boast: Carl is dismayed by him only giving him the beginning of his script (due to the short notice). Jack points out that they're good.
- The Cynic: Jack is rather derisive of movie actors despite the rising prevalence of the film industry, possibly indicating that he's dealt with a lot of haughty egoists like Bruce Baxter.Jack Driscoll: [scoffing] Actors. They travel the world, all they ever see is a mirror.
- Determinator: Nothing will stop him from rescuing Ann. Not the savage natives, not the prehistoric beasts, not giant bugs, not even the great ape itself.
- Fat and Skinny: The skinny to Carl's fat.
- Money, Dear Boy: In-Universe and Played With. Even though Carl tells him that film is a more economically viable industry than theatre, Jack claims he's not in it for the money, he just enjoys theatre. Jack's already wealthy and he did not want to go on an excruciatingly long boat journey to some island. Though Carl did stall him long enough to stay on the boat and finish the screenplay (plus script) by writing him a series of bad checks.
- The Rival: He becomes this to Kong over Ann's affections and is able to use this to draw Kong away from a crowd of panicking New Yorkers. It's possible he and Ann became a couple after the U.S. Army Air Corps shoot down Kong.
- Took a Level in Badass: Goes from being a playwright to managing to survive a trek across Skull Island...twice. A good part of it without any protection.
Preston
Preston
Played By: Colin Hanks
Denham's neurotic but honest personal assistant.
- Action Survivor: He's one of the only four survivors of the original rescue crew alongside Jack, Jimmy and Carl. When Kong flipped the log into the ravine, he grabbed a hold of a vine just in time, preventing him from falling into the pit and getting eaten by the bugs.
- Death by Adaptation: Although he survives in the movie, he's consumed by a dinosaur in the video game adaptation.
- Non-Action Guy: While he does survive, he never dishes out any action of his own. As mentioned above, he grabbed on the vines when the log fell, meaning he didn't have to fight for his life in the infamous insect scene.
- Only Sane Man: Downplayed, since he helps Carl out with taking the camera gear along with little hesitation, but he's the most likely of the film crew to protest.
- Scars Are Forever: He gets nicked in the right cheek during all of the chaos in Skull Island and when he meets Jack in New York the scar is shown in a Face-Revealing Turn.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears when Kong breaks free and rampages throughout New York and is not seen for the rest of the film.
Bruce
Bruce Baxter
Played By: Kyle Chandler
An actor who specializes in adventure films.
- Becoming the Mask: He makes it clear that he's just an adventure movie actor, not an actual adventurer, and unfit to actually be part of a dangerous expedition. He nonetheless proves himself a capable hero when he pulls a Big Damn Heroes moment, swinging in guns-a-blazing to rescue the crew during their Darkest Hour.
- Big Damn Heroes: He saves Carl, Jack, and Jimmy when they are about to get eaten by the giant spiders by gunning down said spiders while swinging on a rope, firing one-handed.
- Changed My Mind, Kid: He apparently abandons the expedition to save Ann after the dinosaur stampede, but returns just in time with the ship's crew to rescue the remaining survivors from the swarm of giant bugs in the pit.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: The self-described "actor with a gun who's lost his motivation" turns out to be pretty handy with it and a rope.
- Dirty Coward: Subverted. Jack calls him this, but he willingly returns to save Jack and the others, and he doesn't exactly take a backseat to do so either.
- I'll Take That as a Compliment: When he discovers Mustache Vandalism on one of his movie posters, he's offended for about two seconds, then starts to approve.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: Downplayed. On the "Jerk" side, a lot of his more callous decisions come down to legitimate practicality (detailed below). On the "Heart of Gold" end, Bruce does return to save what remianed of the rescue team in the bug-filled ravine and later keeps Ann from escaping back to Kong at Jack's behest (he could have easily just let her go to stop Kong's angered pursuit).
- Jerkass Has a Point: After the Brontosaurus stampede, he's ready to give up on the search for Ann. While cowardly, said behavior is understandable.
- The search party only really survived the stampede due to sheer dumb luck and they would only encounter more threats during their search (the entire search party would've died in the insect pit if it wasn't for —ironically, enough— Bruce's Big Damn Heroes moment). Additionally, Ann's rescue would seem to be a lost cause, given the dangers of Skull Island and the unlikeliness that she would befriend Kong.
- He's also the least equipped to handle the dangers of Skull Island, as he's only an actor and has minimal knowledge on firearms, so he has among the lowest chances of survival. Considering all of this and the fact that they only have nine hours left to find Ann, it's hard to blame Bruce for becoming disillusioned at that point, however cowardly it may be.
- Non-Action Guy: While he plays action characters, he himself just wants to get off the island...until his aforementioned Big Damn Heroes scene.
- Reality Is Unrealistic: He claims that real heroes don't look like him. Turns out to be quite the truth in his case.
- Screw This, I'm Outta Here:
- After the dinosaur stampede, he gaps it for the Venture. Subverted, since he returns in a Big Damn Heroes moment.
- Played straight when he sees that Kong is about to break loose during the whole showcasing of Kong and silently skedaddles.
- Tuckerization: He’s named after the late Bruce Cabot, the actor who portrayed Jack Driscoll in the original 1933 film. One of the scenes he recites for Denham's film is even taken word-for-word from Cabot's dialogue with Fay Wray in the original.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: He disappears from the movie when Kong begins his rampage on New York, understandably gapping it as soon as he realizes Kong's getting pissed enough to break out.
Herb
Herb
Played By: John Sumner
Denham's loyal cameraman.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: Dragged down to be savaged by the Venatosaurus pack.
- Face Death with Dignity: When faced with the Ventosaurus pack and obviously fearing for his life, he still tells Denham to leave him while handing him his tripod.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He allows himself to get caught and eaten by Venatosaurus pack in order for the others to get away.
- Nerves of Steel: Downplayed; but when assisting in filming oncoming Brontosaurs he reacts surprisingly calmly outside of some nervous looks. Though visibly more terrified when faced with the Venatosaurus pack that ultimately kill him, he still holds up quite well in comparison.
- This Is Gonna Suck: His reaction to one of the raptors getting a hold of his prosthetic leg is a mix of this and Oh, Crap!.
- Undying Loyalty: To Denham. He agrees with Denham's vows regarding Mike and bravely assists in filming the oncoming Brontosaurs, and his last act is to pass Carl his tripod and tell him to leave him.
- Even more doggedly applicable if you read the prequel tie-in novel, which reveals how Herb lost his leg: he was attacked by bull sea lions while trying to get a good shot for Carl's last disastrous attempt at an "exotic wild places" film.
Mike
Mike
Played By: Craig Hall
Denham's soundman for the journey.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: His abrupt death.
- In the Back: The natives kill him from behind.
- Nerds Are Sexy: Ann doesn't seem to have any reservations when she mistakes him for Jack.
- Punny Name: A soundman called Mike.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He is the first casualty, and his death is meant to show that the natives aren't exactly friendly.
The Venture
Englehorn
Capt. Englehorn
Played By: Thomas Kretschmann
The German captain (and evidently owner) of the SS Venture. Englehorn shows a dislike for Denham, presumably because of his obsessive nature.
- Big Damn Heroes: Shows up just in the nick of time to save Denham, Jack and the rest of the film crew from being slaughtered by the natives of Skull Island.
- Combat Pragmatist: Though it likely wouldn't have made much difference, he enters by shooting first and talking later.
- Crazy-Prepared: Considering that he is apparently a smuggler as a side job, it's pretty understandable why he has a crapload of guns aboard the Venture, including a crate full of Tommy Guns concealed under his bed.
- A Father to His Men: A subtle example. He's by no means a touchy-feely kind of guy, and the second time we see him, he's being a dick to Choy. However, he was pissed at Choy over a major safety issue (unsecured bulk chloroform). His crew, including Choy, address him as "Skipper," which is an affectionate term sailors won't use if they dislike their captain. During Kong's final rampage on the island, he's clearly fighting back a Heroic BSoD as he sees the ape slaughtering so many of his crew, and tries to kill Kong rather than simply row away.
- Jerkass Has a Point: He's a not particularly pleasant human being, and has an unusual number of automatic weapons hidden around his ship. However, he's absolutely right to use excessive force on all things Skull Island while also attempting to get off said island as quickly as possible.
- No-Nonsense Nemesis: No boastful entrance for him, just bullets, which works out well for him.
- Only in It for the Money: He would’ve thrown Denham overboard in New York if he had known Denham’s check would bounce. The only reason he agrees to continue the search for the island at all is to have a chance of covering costs, and he only agrees to try to capture Kong to offset his crew’s losses.
Hayes
First Mate Benjamin "Ben" Hayes
Played By: Evan Parke
Englehorn's first mate and a mentor to Jimmy who leads Ann's rescue mission because of his army training and combat experience gained during World War I.
- Black Dude Dies First: Downplayed. While he’s not the first casualty in the film, he is the first one to die in the log scene and first on-screen human casualty at the hands of Kong.
- Cassandra Truth: Strongly admonishes Denham against travelling to Skull Island, and warns his captain that the ship is in danger of crashing against the rocks of that island.
- Defiant to the End: Goes down shooting even whilst in Kong's grasp.
- Dies Differently in Adaptation: While he still dies in the game, he survives the log scene and dies in pursuit of Kong by a stampeding V. Rex instead.
- The Mentor: Serves as this to young Jimmy, taking under his wing and perpetually gives him life advice.
- Mr. Exposition: Gives Jack Jimmy's backstory and later (alongside Lumpy) relates the story of the Skull Island survivor.
- Number Two: The first mate of the ship.
- Papa Wolf: Refuses to let Jimmy join the search party headed for Skull Island's dense jungle and is furious when he discovers Jimmy snuck in. His dying words are telling Jimmy to stay close to Jack, concerned with his well being right up to the very end.
- Parental Substitute: Closest thing Jimmy has to a father.
- Senseless Sacrifice: Justified, given the situation, but Hayes shooting Kong in the face as a distraction, instead of looking away and submitting when the ape grabs him, gets him thrown into a cliff face for his efforts and enrages Kong to the point that he shakes the other men off of the log once he (Kong) realizes that they are a "threat".
Jimmy
Jimmy
Played By: Jamie Bell
A boy who was found on the Venture, wild and abandoned. He is a kleptomaniac and views Hayes as a father figure.
- Mustache Vandalism: Victimizes Bruce Baxter with this. But ultimately, he doesn't mind.
- Mysterious Past: All we have to go with is Hayes account of finding Jimmy, then with an arm broken in two places, hiding in the Venture's cargo hold. While Jimmy refuses to put forth details, it's pretty apparent his life up to that point wasn't very ideal...
- Tagalong Kid: He's the youngest character in the movie.
- Took a Level in Badass: In the bug pit, he grabbed a hold of a Thompson and opens fire on the giant bugs crawling all over Jack's body, managing to hit and kill all of them without harming Jack before he runs out of ammo.
- Tragic Keepsake: Hayes' hat, which he claims in the extended edition.
Lumpy
Lumpy
Played By: Andy Serkis
The ship's cook, barber, doctor and surgeon. He warns Denham about rumors he has heard about Skull Island and Kong.
- Cordon Bleugh Chef: Jimmy plays it up, claiming that the meal he's delivering to Jack is "lamb's brains in walnut sauce." It's just a ploy to disgust Jack enough into distraction while Jimmy steals his fountain pen. However, every other dish seen or mentioned onscreen aboard the Venture also incorporates walnuts somehow, ranging from porridge to swordfish pie; per the production diary featuring Serkis in-character as Lumpy giving a tour of the Venture's galley, he notes that on a previous voyage the crew obtained a staggeringly large surplus of them, and he has since been attempting to work them into every meal in the absence of other ingredients.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The worm creatures slowly devouring him limb by limb before swallowing his head is one of the better examples of this.
- Composite Character: Combines the 1932 novel's version of Lumpy with Charlie, the 1933 film's Chinese cook.
- Decomposite Character: Of the original Charlie the cook's occupation.
- Defiant to the End: He's still swinging and slashing away at the Carnictis worms with his one free arm after one of them engulfs his head.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Choy.
- Machete Mayhem: Attempts to fight off the Carnictis by chopping them up with his machete, until he gets overwhelmed.
- Mythology Gag: An early script for the original King Kong included a cook named Lumpy, not Charlie. This "Lumpy" made it into the 1932 novelization, which may be where Peter Jackson got the idea.
- Senseless Sacrifice: He largely fights off the Carnictis to prevent them from devouring Choy's body, but gets eaten himself.
- The Worf Effect: With his machete, Lumpy was easily the most well-equipped* sailor in the pit. Once the Carnictis overwhelm him things start getting bad.
Choy
Choy
Played By: Lobo Chan
Lumpy's best friend and a janitor on the Venture.
- Decomposite Character: Of the original Charlie the cook's ethnicity.
- Disney Villain Death: While not a villain, he falls off the log during Kong's attack and into the chasm below.
- Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Lumpy.
- Token Minority: He’s the only named Asian character in the film.
Inhabitants of Skull Island
Shared tropes
- All There in the Manual: Most of the animals are not named in the film, but instead in promotional material and the companion book. Additionally, the book reveals numerous animals that never made it into the film.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: You'll see a lot of these on Skull Island.
- Bigger Is Better: Against all laws of nature, many of these monsters are huge.
- Everything Trying to Kill You: More or less every living thing on Skull Island is dangerous enough to kill people, and in horrible ways; the fish, the predators, the herbivores, the bugs, and the native people.
- Kill All Humans: Most of them seem to have this attitude, even the herbivores.
- Living Dinosaurs: Many of them are the evolved descendants of dinosaurs which survived the Cretaceous extinction by hiding on Skull Island. This would indicate that Skull Island was immune to the extreme changes in temperature brought on following the end of the Mesozoic era such as the ice age, which today's scientists believe have contributed greatly to the non-avian dinosaurs extinction. The tie-in mockumentary theorizes that Skull Island's intense geothermal activity kept the island's climate warm even through the extinction event, allowing its native animals to survive unscathed.
- More Predators Than Prey: Nearly all the animals encountered are carnivorous and try to hunt the humans (although even the herbivores are very dangerous). Tie-in material notes that the island's gradual sinking has forced all the animals into a much smaller area, making the ecosystem far more chaotic than normal.
- Mythology Gag: Several of the animals in the companion book are expys of ones from the original film, such as a stegosaur which was clearly inspired by the first dinosaur seen in the 1933 version.
- Pregnant Reptile: Some of Skull Island's dinosaurs, such as Venatosaurus, give birth to live offspring.
- Prehistoric Monster: The island is full of creatures from a prehistoric world, and nearly all of them are big, ugly, smelly, and a ravenous craving for human flesh. Even the herbivorous species are hazardous to humans due to their size and being territorial or prone to panic, namely Ferrucutus and Brontosaurus, respectively.
- Shout-Out: One of the creatures is a giant, cannibalistic dimetrodon-like animal, a reference to the (in)famous slurpasaurs from the 1959 adaptation of Journey to the Center of the Earth.
- Speculative Biology: The World Of Kong: A Natural History Of Skull Island presents itself as a treatise on the island's ecosystems.
- Whateversaurus: Given that this adaptation of the 1933 classic has taken paleontology and evolution into account, all of the inhabitants of Skull Island (with the exception of human natives) are fictional animals with appearances based on their real-life prehistoric counterparts. The aforementioned The World Of Kong: A Natural History Of Skull Island has plenty of detailed information on each animal.
Natives
The indigenous people of the island, who worship Kong as a deity.
- Adaptational Context Change: Their ritual offerings to Kong. In the original, it was portrayed as more solemn, with a certain dignity to it, people dancing, chanting, and playing instruments, with many of the practitioners having expressions of grim resignation. The ritual here, by contrast, is much more brutal and gruesome, with the people ululating and moaning, with their eyes rolled back, as if in a state of religious ecstasy.
- Adaptational Ugliness: The natives in the original movie pretty much looked like normal people in elaborate, if somewhat stereotypical costumes. These people are emaciated and sickly, and deck themselves out in skeletal ornamentation.
- Adaptational Villainy: While the original natives did kidnap Ann as an offering, that was really their worst act, otherwise just yelling at the crew to go away after they interrupt their ceremony, and when Kong is trying to break through the wall, they come to help the protagonists keep the gate closed. In this movie, the natives are extremely violent and hostile, and are quick to attack the crew when they come ashore (though admittedly, Carl did inadvertently provoke it by frightening one of their children). The original also implies that the natives doing this because they believe they have no other choice, whereas these people are indicated to gleefully send sacrifices to their deaths.
- Even more so in the game, where they are a recurring threat to the player.
- Giant Animal Worship: Much like the original, they worship Kong as a deity, and making constant offerings to him.
- Hollywood Natives: Deconstructed. It’s indicated that their ancestors had an advanced civilization, but as Skull Island began to naturally break apart, that civilization fell apart. These people are all that remains in a brutal, unyielding world, meaning they’re desperate to survive by any means necessary.
- Human Sacrifice: Much like the original, they make constant offerings to Kong. It’s indicated they’ve been doing this for a while now, considering the bone yard that Kong takes Ann to.
- Jungle Drums: How they signal to Kong that they’re making an offering, combined with lighting braziers along the wall.
- Know When to Fold 'Em: After the crew kills some of their warriors with guns, the rest of the tribe quickly retreat into hiding without a fight. They do it again when the crew returns to rescue Ann, not even bothering to try and fight.
- The Remnant: They are the descendants of a once extravagant, prosperous civilization, but after Skull Island began to break apart, and the wall used to keep the dinosaurs at bay was breached, they were forced to retreat behind what little of their wall remained standing, which ended up being the barren catacombs on the fringes of what was once their capital. They've since severely regressed, and are now barely clinging to a meager existence in a crumbling landmass.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: What little clothing they wear is based around crudely woven rope, with bones interlocked between them.
- Whatever Happened to the Mouse?: After the sacrifice scene, they’re never seen again, even as Kong is being captured. Presumably this is because they’re afraid of the crew’s firearms, and are hiding.
Vastatosaurus rex
Vastatosaurus rex
A descendant of the Tyrannosaurus rex, these huge carnivores are the apex predators of Skull Island and are what happens when Nature goes a bit crazy and pumps a metric fuck-tonne of steroids into a Tyrannosaurus rex over sixty five million years...
- Achilles' Heel: They have a key weakness that only a being of Kong's immense size and strength can exploit: prying open their massive jaws with his more dextrous hands.
- Adaptational Wimp: Compared to the original Meat-Eater who was able to hold his own in a one on one fight with Kong and, according to the novelization, would have been able to kill Kong with a single well placed bite of his jaws. In contrast Kong was able to hold his own against three V. rexes and survived multiple bites from them.
- Always a Bigger Fish: The first one kills a Foetodon that had attacked Ann. Then it goes after her.
- Arch-Enemy: Of Kong and his entire species. The tie-in book The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island reveals that the two species having been battling for dominance over the island since time immemorial.
- Behemoth Battle: Three of them get into one with Kong, but the last of those three gets the most notable struggle.
- Conservation of Ninjutsu: Three V. rex attacking Kong together do a worse job fighting than just one V. rex does by itself.
- Cruel and Unusual Death: The three V. rexes that attacked Kong all suffered gruesome deaths: one had its skull crushed by a giant rock thrown by Kong, the second seemingly dies from being crushed against a cliff face during the descending vine battle. The third, however, definitely takes the cake. After a short battle with Kong, he wrestles it to the ground, rips its tongue out, and stretches its large jaws open until they snap, before fully crushing the dinosaur's skull with his mighty arms. The first two at least had quick deaths, but the third must have perished in absolute agony.
- The Determinator: They are absolutely determined to get some human meat for dinner and are willing to go against Kong in order to have a taste. Big mistake. Even while wrapped up in vines and suspended above a mountainous ravine, one V. rex still has eyes only for eating Ann and it crudely attempts to swing forward just to get a bite of her.
- Dumb Dinos: While they may have a numbers advantage, they are incredibly thick-headed for continuing to attack Kong even after he fends them off. As a result, all three of them die rather undignified deaths at his hands. The art directors have even compared them to the dinosaur equivalent of dumb rednecks.
- Expy: Of the Tyrannosaurus from the original movie.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Downplayed, but the designers of the trio intended for the V. rexes to be the dinosaur equivalent of hillbillies.
- Giant Equals Invincible: In the game, the adults are the largest enemy and can't be killed outside of segments as Kong.
- Horror Hunger: These prehistoric monsters have a ravenous, insatiable appetite that causes them to act insanely aggressive. They relentlessly pursue Ann, even though Kong is clearly defending her, and refuse to retreat when he lays down an ass-whooping, which should be any animal's natural instinct. By the time of the film, it's established in tie-in books that there is barely enough food to go around on Skull Island as the V. rexes have spent too long at the top of the food chain and can no longer sustain themselves in the collapsing ecosystem.
- Inbred and Evil: Developer commentary confirms that the three seen in the film are inbred due to the environment on Skull Island collapsing. It goes a long way in explaining how ugly and vicious they are. Word of God is that they were imagined as inbred hicks in tyrannosaur form.
- Jawbreaker: The third and last V. rex was killed by Kong from having its mouth forced open, and its jaws shoved backwards. And as a Mythology Gag, Kong then toys with it's broken jaw a bit before beating its chest in victory, just like in the 1933 version.
- Lightning Bruiser: For their massive size, these theropods are quite nimble when fighting Kong, and strong enough to present a threat.
- Made of Iron: They takes some truly massive hits when fighting against Kong, and it barely slows them down.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: In appearance, they resemble a Tyrannosaurus mixed with crocodilian traits, giving it armoured scutes and protruding, lipless jaws, and a similar colour scheme to an alligator.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: Their mouths are lined with numerous, overlapping teeth, like in crocodiles, and some even grow outside the gums.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: They're given crocodile-like features to make them even scarier and more menacing than a real Tyrannosaurus, such as jagged lipless jaws, spiny armoured skin, and a stony-grey hide.
- Prehistoric Monster: The designers knew that they weren't making a realistic Tyrannosaurus but instead the "most terrifying thing that Kong could fight" in the film. As such, the V. rex is given crocodilian texture, a more serpentine body, scarred tissue, and oversized teeth that seemed to be jutting out of their skin.
- Rule of Scary: It's noted in the "making-of" book for the film that the concept artists intentionally made the V. rex design as fearsome and brutish-looking as possible at the expense of realism, pushing the basic tyrannosaur design into the most monstrous predator imaginable." "It wasn't about making a real dinosaur. It was about making it the most terrifying thing that Kong could fight."
- Sequel Escalation: Rather than simply having Kong fight one Tyrannosaurus, as in the original movie, the remake ups the ante considerably by having him fight three Vastatosaurus at once, an even bigger and more powerful descendant of the T. rex.
- Stealthy Colossus: They can be eerily quiet when stalking their prey, with Ann almost failing to notice a second V. rex while crawling away from the first one she sees. Kong also fails to notice a third V. rex until it comes out of nowhere to attack him from behind.
- Super-Persistent Predator: One chases Ann even when it has more substantial prey in its mouth, even dropping most of it trying to catch her. The others are equally single-minded in pursuing Ann, going out of their way to snap at her while Kong fends them off, despite the fact she's just a tiny bite-size at best.
- A Taste of Their Own Medicine: At several points during their battle, Kong goes out of his way to bite them after withstanding many painful crunches from their oversized jaws.
- Tongue Trauma: Kong bites down on the last vastatosaur's tongue and rips it out in an easily-missed shot during their duel.
- T. Rexpy: A descendant of Tyrannosaurus rex, with a shorter skull, overlapping teeth and an additional finger. They're also much larger, nearly twice the weight.
- Too Dumb to Live: Foolhardy, massively inbred, and too hungry to even behave like a normal hunternote — it's easy to see why these creatures are going extinct, even before they tangle with Kong.
- Vocal Dissonance: In contrast to the memorably badass roars we have come to expect from cinematic Tyrannosaurs, the Vastatosaurs have shrill, raspy roars that barely sound intimidating at all, especially compared to Kong's. Some of them even squeak and squeal when Kong beats them up.
Brontosaurus
Brontosaurus baxteri
A giant plant-eating sauropod that lives in the lowlands of Skull Island. They're the most populous wildlife species on the island, at least on-screen.
- Adaptational Heroism: The Brontosaurus in the original was a total aversion of Gentle Giant Sauropod, actively pursuing the crew and mauling some of them to death. These ones play the trope very much straight, only killing some of the crewmen by accident.
- Animal Stampede: One caused by the Venatosauruses chasing them.
- Dumb Dinos: The Venatosaurus' hunting strategy for them only works because they are stupid, panicky animals that don't seem to realize that if they stood their ground, the much smaller predators would have no way to safely attack them. By stampeding, they do far, far more damage to themselves than the raptors ever could.
- Expy: Of the Brontosaurus from the original.
- Gentle Giant Sauropod: Unless attacked, these sauropods tend to be placid and amicable.
- Herbivores Are Friendly: Subverted—they're not gonna try to eat our heroes, but they're still dangerous when panicking, because they trampled several crewmen.
- Reimagining the Artifact: The original film portrayed the Brontosaurus as a mindlessly violent monster that attacks the crew for no reason. Since then, the popular conception of sauropods has moved to almost universally seeing them as gentle, placid animals, making the notion of a bloodthirsty, man-hating sauropod seem ridiculous, so the remake changes their threat to a stampede of Brontosaurus which don't even notice the humans, never mind show them aggression.
- Sequel Escalation: Rather than the film crew being attacked by one Brontosaurus, the remake changes them to be caught in a stampede of a whole herd of them.
- Trampled Underfoot: During their stampede, they accidentally stomp to death several members of the film crew and Venatosaurus.
Venatosaurus
Venatosaurus saevidicus
A giant, vicious genus of raptor. There are two species, but only the largest is seen in the film, though both are in the game.
- Canon Foreigner: One of the only major animals in the film which isn't based on anything in the original film (because dromaeosaurs didn't become a well-known pop culture dinosaur until after Jurassic Park).
- Dire Beast: It's basically a Jurassic Park raptor ballooned to twice as large, which the tie-in mockumentary makes clear by showing the two side-by-side to emphasize how much bigger the Venatosaurus is in comparison.
- Fragile Speedster: Par for the course of fictional raptors. They can outrun the humans, but are easily cut down by a few bullets.
- Informed Species: It looks more like a carnosaur than a raptor. The fact that it's hunting sauropods only cements this. During production, before they were named, they were even interchangeably referred to as raptors or carnosaurs, and the original screenplay from 1996 had them as Carnotaurus.
- It Can Think: Implied to have caused a stampede on purpose to pick off the Brontosaurus who leave the safety of their herd. Confirmed in the World of Kong companion book, which explains that this is typical hunting behavior of the venatosaurs and, seemingly, they're the only predators of the brontosaurs because of this and in spite of the sauropods' size.
- Raptor Attack: A huge featherless raptor that apparently gives live birth.
- Super-Persistent Predator: Even with the tons of Brontosaur meat on the table, some of them go after the fleeing crew and kill Herb. Though one of them subverts this during the stampede—when Jack opts to run through the legs of a sauropod, the raptor promptly starts chasing Carl, who's closer, smaller and easier to kill.
Ferrucutus
Ferrucutus cerastes
A large, aggressive ceratopsian.
- Ascended Extra: Only gets a few seconds going to a river to drink water in the theatrical version. Plays a larger role in the extended cut, where it attacks the crew.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the original film its role was taken by a massively oversized Stegosaurus, but here it's been changed to a fictional ceratopsid.
- Early-Bird Cameo: In the theatrical version, a skull of one can be seen just before Kong's fight with the last Vastatosaurus, and it precedes the cameo appearance of a live Ferrucutus ten minutes later.
- Expy: It stands in for the Stegosaurus attack in the original film. There's a very similar shot of its tail flopping up and down in its death throes just to make the comparison extra clear.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: It's rather easily provoked by the crew.
- Horn Attack: It is a ceratopsian, after all.
- Surprisingly Sudden Death: The specimen that attacked the crew was gunned down rather quickly by Hayes.
- Temper-Ceratops: An aggressive, extremely territorial ceratopsian that attacks the film crew without provocation.
- Xenophobic Herbivore: it's incredibly territorial and aggressive, immediately attacking the expedition upon seeing them.
Terapusmordax
Terapusmordax obscenus
A huge, naked, batlike rodent.
- Accidental Hero: Them attacking Kong while Jack was attempting to rescue Ann distracts the giant ape while they make their escape, and they are able to ride one down from the mountain by grabbing onto its wing.
- Adaptational Species Change: In the original film it was a Pteranodon, but it's changed here to a giant, fictional, bat-like rodent.
- Bat Out of Hell: Invoked. While it's in fact a flying rodent, it's meant to resemble the fictional depiction of bats as bloodthirsty attackers.
- Creepy Hairless Animal: They are totally hairless, like a naked mole-rat, with fleshy folds of skin like a Sphynx cat, making them look much scarier and more grotesque than a regular bat.
- Expy: Of the Pteranodon from the original film.
- Fragile Flyer: As aggressive as they are, they are no match for larger, heavily-built individuals like Kong, who faces a swarm of them with mild struggle and kills a few.
- Hair-Trigger Temper: A resting colony of them is set off by Kong pounding the ground and immediately attack him en masse.
- Giant Flyer: The lord of the skies over Skull Island. They're large enough that Ann and Jack are able to escape from Kong's mountain lair by grabbing onto the wing of one, allowing them to gently glide down to safetly.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Resembles a cross between a bat and a naked mole-rat.
- Stealth Pun: They're literally rats with wings.
- You Dirty Rat!: A gigantic, winged rat.
- Zerg Rush: A swarm of them attacks Kong, Ann and Jack at one point. Though Kong proves that he can deal with them.
Giant centipedes
Giant centipedes
Centipedes that are giant. Skull Island has many, but the genus seen in the film and the game are specifically Megapede dereponecis.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: They're hideous and massive compared to the largest centipedes in real life.
- Creepy Centipedes: In both the movie and the book, they pretty much only exist to freak the viewers out. In the video game, they're enemies that the player actually has to fight, putting them closer to Nightmare Fuel territory.
- Non-Malicious Monster: Unlike most of the other creatures shown, these are more or less inoffensive. They seem more curious of Ann than predatory or territorial, which is a lot more than can be said for basically everything else. They're just scary because, well, they're centipedes the size of pythons.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Their presence in the film is very small, they just creep up on Ann while she's hiding in a fallen log, but she gets so scared she leaps out, attracting the attention of the Vastatosaurus standing right outside, which leads into the tyrannosaur fight with Kong.
Foetodon
Foetodon ferrus
A large, primitive crocodilian, and primarily a scavenger.
- Always a Bigger Fish: It's yanked out of a log by a V. Rex with ease.
- Facial Horror: Their jaws are almost always covered in bleeding sores and pustules due to picking up diseases rotting through the damp leaf litter and digging through rotting carcasses headfirst.
- Malicious Monitor Lizard: Although canonically crocodilians, they have many features of Komodo dragons as well, such as their bumpy lizard-like skin (rather than crocodile-like scutes), forked tongue, infectious bite, and terrestrial lifestyle.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: Looks and acts like a half-crocodile, half-Komodo dragon.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: Foetodon are huge terrestrial crocodiles, and established as vicious predators of the jungle undergrowth.
- Oh, Crap!: The one tunnelling into the rotting log after Ann briefly has its eyes bug out when something chomps its backside. It squeals in terror and tries futilely to prevent from being dragged out, while its partner quickly turns tail and runs away.
- Scavengers Are Scum: It's shown to be a scavenger and its Establishing Character Moment depicts one gorging itself on a carcass before joining another in attacking Ann and then being killed by a larger, more imposing predator.
- Super-Persistent Predator: The two in the film chase after Ann even though they were already in the middle of eating a much bigger carcass.
- Who's Laughing Now?: According to the companion book, baby Foetodon are frequently eaten by herons, but the tables are turned when the little reptiles are grown.
Piranhadon
Piranhadon titanus
A giant, serpentine fish that lives in the swamps of the island. Appears in a deleted scene.
- Adaptational Species Change: It was a Brontosaurus in the original film, but changed into a giant fictional fish here.
- Always a Bigger Fish: It makes its introduction in the film by scaring off a swarm of Scorpio-pedes attacking the crew just by its presence.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The females could grow to be nearly fifty feet in length. Males on the other hand were much much smaller, rarely growing up to twenty feet.
- Composite Character: Of the Brontosaurus and the giant snake from the 1933 King Kong film.
- Expy: Replaces the wading Brontosaurus that attacked the film crew in the original film.
- Fiendish Fish: A gargantuan predatory fish which is the apex predator of Skull Island's waterways that menaces the film crew in a deleted scene.
- Made of Iron: It takes multiple shots to the face with a tommy gun, but this only momentarily scares it off.
- More Teeth than the Osmond Family: The name should be a tip off.
- Piranha Problem: It's basically a lungfish with the teeth of an oversized piranha. And it causes quite the trouble to the crew when they have to cross the swamp it lives in.
- Swamp Monster: Resides in the swamps of Skull Island and attacks the crew when they try to cross its territory.
Arachnoclaw
Arachnocidis "Spider-Claw"
Oversized arachnids with crab-claws infesting the pit. They made up roughly one-third of the cavern's populations, and comes in various sizes from up to a man's waist to large enough to chomp down a human.
- Fight for the Last Bite: At one point three Arachnoclaws could be seen fighting over a dead crewman. Two of them are tugging the carcass with their jaws, only to accidentally fling their meal aside into the mouth of a third.
- Glass Cannon: Despite their size, they're hardly as durable as they appear - when the Venture Crew led by Engelhorn and Bruce comes to the rescue, a scant handful of machine-gun rounds is enough to put them down. Bruce swinging on a vine and firing a Tommy-Gun one-handed easily took down a dozen of them.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: A Giant Spider with crab-claws.
- Power Pincers: Uses its pincers for snatching prey.
- Zerg Rush: They attack in huge numbers, with the cavern wall being alive with these abominations to devour Jack and the others.
Carnictis
Carnictis sordicus
Giant, repulsive worms that live in the abyssal caverns of Skull Island.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Gigantic, abominable worms.
- Dire Beast: They are basically gigantic bloodworms.
- Eaten Alive: They bestow this fate upon Lumpy and anything else unfortunate enough to fall into their lair.
- Eyeless Face: Like most worms. They're basically undulating stomachs.
- Lamprey Mouth: Their faces are nothing more than this.
- Non-Indicative Name: They're alternatively called "meat weasels", but there's nothing weasel-like about them.
- Proportionately Ponderous Parasites: The book notes that they evolved from the intestinal parasites of a V. rex or similar large, carnivorous dinosaur.
- Scavengers Are Scum: Disturbing massive parasitic worms that evolved into active predators feeding on whatever dead or dying animals fall into the crevices of Skull Island. The tie-in mockumentary describes them as "one of the vilest creatures known to man".
- Zerg Rush: Punches can drive them back, and they're easy enough to kill with a machete, but they slowly overwhelm Lumpy.
Deplector
From the tie-in artbook, you don't see the rest of the monster in the film.
The largest of the pit's inhabitants, to the point where it's claw is most of what the audience sees. A crab-like monstrosity living inside the walls.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: The Deplector is depicted as a gigantic crustacean claw emerging from a hole, snatching a crewman who attempted escaping by climbing out from the side. Supplementary materials would reveal how the rest of the monster looks like.
- Bizarre Sexual Dimorphism: The World of Kong book states that the females are gigantic compared to the males, who also lack the oversized pincers.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: It's hard to notice, but among the swarm of Arachnoclaws advancing on the crew are several young Deplectors.
- Giant Crab: How the whole monster actually looks, notably resembling a coconut crab.
- Kaiju: Larger than most of the pit's inhabitants? Yep.
Weta-rexes
Deinacrida rex
Huge insects that attack in swarms.
- Ascended to Carnivorism: Real giant wetas are herbivores, but these are vicious meat-eaters that swarm like piranhas (there are carnivorous wetas, but none are of the giant variety).
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: Cricket-like bugs the size of dogs. Real-life wetas can get to be as big as mice.
- Company Cameo: The New Zealand-based studio Wētā FX did the effects for the film; their logo is a weta, a type of giant cricket native to New Zealand, and they included a giant carnivorous weta species on Skull Island for the bug pit scene.
- Zerg Rush: Their method of attack.
