King Kong/1933

King Kong is a giant ape monster who first appeared in the 1933 RKO Radio Pictures film, King Kong. He is the first incarnation of the character.

Revered as a god by the people of Skull Island, Kong was encountered by a film crew who traveled to the island in 1933 to shoot Carl Denham's next picture. The crew's leading lady, Ann Darrow, was kidnapped by the islanders and offered as a sacrifice to Kong, who accepted his new "bride" and carried her off into the jungle. There, Kong would defend Ann from the other savage denizens of the island, such as a meat-eating dinosaur, a cave serpent, and a Pteranodon. Once Ann was rescued by Jack Driscoll, Kong followed them back to the village on the island, tearing down its protective wall and rampaging before being knocked out by gas bombs. Denham decided to bring Kong back to New York and put the beast on display, only for Kong to become enraged and break free from his chains, going on a rampage through the concrete jungle. After kidnapping Ann once again, Kong climbed the Empire State Building, where he was engaged by several Curtiss F8C Helldiver planes and fatally wounded. After succumbing to his wounds, Kong fell from the top of the skyscraper and plummeted to his death in the streets below. While Kong was dead, Denham would return to Skull Island shortly afterward and encounter his albino son, Kiko. Guilty for causing his father's death, Denham would befriend Kiko and brave the perils of the island with the young monster's help. When Skull Island was destroyed in a catastrophic earthquake and sank into the sea, Kiko gave his life to save Denham from drowning.

Name
King Kong was named by Merian C. Cooper who, after consulting with his friend W. Douglas Burden, decided upon the name "Kong" due to his liking of single-syllable film titles with peculiar sounds and liking of the hard 'K' sound. The prefix "King" was later attached to the original film's title, and by extent Kong himself, after a complaint from executives at RKO who refused to accept the title due to it having "a Chinese sound" and being too similar to the name of Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack's 1927 film, Chang. Prior to King Kong being decided upon, the titles "The Eighth Wonder" and "The Beast" were considered, the former of which would be extended to The Eighth Wonder of the World and used as a nickname for Kong within the film.

Development
Merian C. Cooper had been fascinated with gorillas ever since he was a child and while filming The Four Feathers in Africa, he encountered a family of baboons, which inspired him to create a film involving a giant gorilla. Cooper specifically developed the ending first before anything else in the story, a giant gorilla fighting warplanes atop the Empire State Building, as it was the tallest building in the world at the time. There are rumors that Kong would've been portrayed as a live-action gorilla fighting Komodo Dragons, and while there isn't much evidence to support this rumor, Cooper was inspired by the Komodo Dragon and wanted Kong to fight dinosaur sized beasts.

When the film was greenlit by RKO, so came the time to design the monster. Cooper specifically stated in a 1930 memo that, "His hands and feet have the size and strength of steam shovels; his girth is that of a steam boiler. This is a monster with the strength of a hundred men. But more terrifying is the head—a nightmare head with bloodshot eyes and jagged teeth set under a thick mat of hair, a face half-beast half-human". Animator Willis O'Brien created an oil painting depicting a gorilla menacing a hunter and jungle heroine for Cooper. It's interesting to note that the gorilla in the painting isn't particularly giant, or at least not as big as Kong would turn out to be. However, when the time came to sculpt the stop motion animation model for Kong, both O'Brien and animator Marcel Delgado had a difficult time creating the look for Kong; due to creative differences between Cooper and O'Brien. Cooper wanted Kong to look completely like a gorilla, while O'Brien wanted to gain sympathy from the audience by looking more human-like, specifically instructing Delgado to make the ape "almost human." The first model was laughed at by Cooper, saying that it looked like a mix between a man and a monkey with long hair. The second one had toned down the human features, however, the result was said to be a missing link. Cooper got the dimensions of a bull gorilla from the American Museum of Natural History saying that he wanted Kong to be "the fiercest, most brutal, monstrous damned thing that has ever been seen!". Ultimately, O'Brien would incorporate aspects of another ape-like monster he created many years earlier, Wild Willie, from the 1915 short film "The Dinosaur and the Missing Link", into Kong's final model; he went as far as to call Wild Willie "Kong's ancestor". . Finally, Cooper wanted Kong to walk upright to be more intimidating, specifically in the scenes in New York.

Design
Kong is a colossal ape, standing approximately 50 feet tall. Superficially resembling a gorilla, Kong has the unusual habit of walking primarily upright on two legs like a human, though he occasionally knuckle-walks like a real gorilla. His skin is leathery in texture, and is entirely black like his short fur. Most art depicts Kong as brown, but the official colorized version of the film shows him as black with brown eyes.

Origins
While the original films left Kong's origin a mystery, the presence of his young son Kiko would seem to imply that Kong had a mate at one point, and that he was indeed part of a larger species of gigantic ape.

However, in Russell Blackford's 2005 novel Kong Reborn, which serves as a sequel to the original film, but overlooks the events of Son of Kong, Kong's species is named Gorilla gigans, and his origins remain a mystery to the world. One theory proposed that he might just have been a one-off mutation in a regular gorilla that had simply never stopped growing. However, a 2009 expedition to Skull Island revealed an entire troop of giant gorillas living in the jungle. Despite this stable population, it is unknown why Kong lived separately from them.

History
King Kong (1933)/Film King Kong was first discovered on Skull Island by an American film crew led by Carl Denham. The natives on the island kidnapped Ann Darrow, the crew's leading lady, and sacrificed her to Kong, who they treated as a type of god. They tied her to two pillars on a moveable platform and took her to the other side of a wall they built to keep Kong out. After the gates closed, the tribesmen climbed to the top of the wall to finish the rites and watch the spectacle about to unfold. The chief called for silence and gave a prayer to his god that he would accept the sacrifice. Two men banged a massive gong. The rest of the natives repeated the last words of the prayer. The gong rang again. Suddenly, a growl could be heard in the darkness. Something was stirring in the nearby trees. To Ann’s horror, from the canopy emerged a gigantic, 50 foot ape. It was Kong, the god of Skull Island. Ann screamed in terror while Kong stared at her smiling, curious and entranced by her. He tore off the vines Ann was tied too and held her in a tight grip with his hand, causing her to scream even louder. After roaring angrily at the tribesmen on the top of the wall, Kong went off into the dark jungle, taking Ann with him. At one point, Kong left Ann on a tree and wandered off to deal with the rest of the film crew, who were pursuing him. As the crew attempted to cross a chasm on a crude log bridge, Kong lifted the log and twisted it, causing much of the crew to fall to their deaths in the abyss below. Jack Driscoll hid in a cave at the edge of the chasm, but Kong found him. However, Kong’s grip was just out of reach, and when his fingers got to close Jack stabbed him with his machete. As Kong continued to reach for Driscoll, the sailor saw a large monitor lizard crawling up a vine that led into the cave. Luckily, Jack was able to cut the vine and get back out of Kong’s reach. Meanwhile, a Tyrannosaurus rex discovered Ann on the tree and attempted to eat her. Kong gave up on Jack and ran back to the tree to battle the T-Rex. Kong arrived just in time and wrestled with the T-Rex, avoiding his bites with swift dodges and by closing his jaws. He was able to tire the T-Rex, giving him the opportunity for the killing blow. Kong jumped up on the creature’s back and began to break it’s jaw. The T-Rex continually got out of Kong’s grip, only for Kong to regain it. Eventually the T-Rex became weakened and Kong was finally able to fully break it’s jaw. Ann, who fell with the tree during the fight, tried to escape. However, Kong easily grabbed her back into his hand and then continued his journey through the rainforest. Jack climbed out of the cave at the edge of the chasm and continued his pursuit. Kong took Ann to his home in a cave on a mountain, where he placed her on a small ledge in one of the walls. Kong went to a nearby lake in the cave to drink. A giant cave serpent began to slither up the walls to the ledge Ann was left on, and when she noticed it she screamed. Kong immediately rushed to her aid. The serpent gave Kong multiple bites and continually tried to strangle him, almost succeeding at one point. Luckily, Kong was able to get out of it’s grasp, grabbed it by the tail, and beat it against the cave wall. After inspecting to make sure the creature was dead, Kong roared victoriously and once again grabbed hold of Ann, climbing out of the cave onto a large cliff. Kong set Ann on the ground and looked over Skull Island like a king inspecting his kingdom, and let out a massive roar to display his dominance. Overcome with fear, Ann fainted. Kong grabbed her again and began to tear her cloths. This caused Ann to wake up, and horrified began desperately to try to get out of Kong’s grasp. Kong, amused, began to tickle her, terrifying her even more. Jack reached the cave but accidentally caused a large boulder to roll down. This got Kong’s attention and he went back inside to inspect the noise. Jack quickly hid behind a large rock before King could find him. As Kong continued to search for Jack, Ann meanwhile was attacked by a Pteranodon. Kong hurried back to the cliff when he heard her screaming and tried to fight off the creature. Jack reunited with Ann, and the two managed to escape from Kong while he was distracted by the Pteranodon. Enraged, Kong followed the two to the native's village, tearing down the wall and wreaking havoc. Despite the native’s best efforts, they couldn’t kill the massive ape with their primitive weaponry. Along with smashing many huts, Kong killed many natives with debris, tossing them around, crushing them, and chewing them in his mouth. Using a store of smoke bombs he brought on the voyage, Carl Denham and his crew managed to knock Kong unconscious and subdue him.

Denham brought Kong back to New York on board the crew's ship, the Venture, intending to profit from showing Kong to the public. Denham arranged a show at a theater in New York, where he publicly showed the captured Kong to an audience, accompanied by Jack and Ann. When photographers began taking pictures of Ann, Kong believed they were attacking her and broke free from his chains, destroying the theater in a fit of rage. Ann, Jack, and Denham escaped unharmed, but Kong broke free from the theater into the streets, where he chewed a man in his mouth after the man’s car crashed in the chaos, and also crushed some police officers with a pice of a roof above a door from a hotel building. Kong began to scale buildings looking for Ann, tossing a woman to her death after mistaking her for Ann but realizing it wasn’t her. He eventually found her in a hotel room that she fled to, and when he reached out his hand through the window Jack tried to protect Ann by hitting Kong with a chair, but the debris of the chair reflected back to him and he went unconscious. Kong, unfazed by Jack’s effort abducted Ann again. Her in his hand, Kong overturned cars, stomped on fleeing citizens, and destroyed a train. Finding himself pursued and attacked by police, Kong climbed the Empire State Building to escape. The military sent a fleet of biplanes armed with machine guns to stop Kong and save Ann. Atop the Empire State Building, Kong swatted down and destroyed several of the planes, but was mortally wounded by machine gun fire. Kong set Ann down gently and fell off the building, plummeting to the streets below. As crowds gathered around Kong's dead body, a bystander remarked that the airplanes finally got Kong, to which Denham replied that "It was beauty killed the beast."