Skull Island (fictional island)

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Skull Island is a fictional island that first appeared in the 1933 classic film King Kong and the White Woman . The island later served as the setting in various films.

Skull Island is home to King Kong and a multitude of other prehistoric and actually extinct animal species before the rise of mammals . In addition, it is still inhabited by the survivors of a former high culture . They live behind a large wall that they built to protect them from the huge gorilla they call Kong .

King Kong from 1933

In the first King Kong film King Kong and the White Woman , the location of the island is given at around 12 ° S 78 ° E. The island would be off the coast of Sumatra . A striking feature of the island is the so-called Skull Mountain , which has the shape of a human skull and is located roughly in the middle of the island - hence the name of the island Skull Island , which means skull island in German .

The island has a large wall that separates a small section from the rest of the island. This is where the island's only landing point is, as the rest of the island is surrounded by large cliffs . A small group of indigenous people live in a village in this area. On the other side is a jungle that is home to prehistoric animals and Kong. Kong is worshiped like a god by the natives, so young women are regularly sacrificed to him. There is no mention of who the indigenous ancestors were, although attitudes suggest that the natives belong to a Southeast Asian group.

King Kong's son

At the end of the 1933 sequel, King Kong's Son is shown sinking into the ocean and showing Kong's son drowning while he saves Carl Denham, the film's main character. The name Skull Island itself is never mentioned in the original film . It is simply called Kong's Island or Skull Mountain Island. The name Skull Island only appears in his remakes.

John Guillermins remake from 1976

Also in the remake King Kong from 1976 's Skull Iceland scene of the action. Skull Island is partially represented by Kauai , an island in the Hawaii archipelago . The rugged coastline shown in the film where the crew lands is Kauai's world-famous Na Pali Coast National Park. Many other island scenes were filmed both in an outdoor studio (protective wall and aboriginal village) and in a studio hall (remaining island scenes with green screen method) in Los Angeles. This Skull Island differs in some ways from the original from 1933: Although both are encased in a thick wall of smoke in the Indian Ocean and consist of a wild, rugged coastline and a deep jungle in the mountainous interior, the native village seems after the film not on the coast, but much further inland. There is no skull mountain in this version, as well as prehistoric animals. However, a giant snake that Kong fights with in this film version, instead of the dinosaurs in the original. There also seem to be no other fantasy creatures on this island, such as giant insects. The uncanny in this film does not come from monstrous animals, but from the island itself. On the one hand, King Kong seems more lonely, but at the same time more powerful. Except for the giant snake, Kong doesn't seem to have an enemy as big as him or even bigger to take on him. As in the original, the natives are portrayed here by people presumably of African origin, which should then also point to the historical origins of this people in the film.

Braindead

Skull Island also plays a leading role in Peter Jackson's 1992 splatter film satirical Braindead . At the beginning of the film, a flashback shows how a zoologist discovered a new species on the island in 1957. This cross between a monkey and a rat bites an elderly lady in a zoo who later returns as a zombie and causes a bloodbath among the townspeople.

Peter Jackson's 2005 film version

Skull Island from Peter Jackson's King Kong from 2005 is very similar to the island from the original film. Again it is a long-forgotten island west of Sumatra: "A place that was thought to be just a myth ". A group of film people and sailors are led to her by a mysterious map. At first, the location was difficult to find as it seems that magnets in the area are heavily influenced and the island is often hidden in fog. In addition, the island is surrounded by many reefs and rocks. The island seems to be slowly sinking, as indicated by the many ruins and statues in the water. Again the island is criss-crossed by a large ruined wall, behind which Kong lives. The countless generations-old ruins scattered across the island and swallowed by the jungle, which date from the ancestors of the indigenous people, are the only remains of an ancient human civilization (possibly Mu ).

The island is also populated by a number of monstrous creatures. Mostly these are prehistoric animal species such as dinosaurs , some of which have evolved somewhat from their ancestors. But also a few mammals like the large gorilla King Kong, which probably belongs to an extinct species, live on Skull Island. In addition, it appears that the Skull Island ecosystem is unstable, as there are many more carnivores than herbivores. Aside from dinosaurs and other large animals, Skull Island is home to a variety of insects and worm-like creatures, such as weta-rexes, arachno claws, scorpio-pedes, and millipedes .

The island can be divided into several smaller ecosystems :

  • the crumbling coastal region and the village
  • the densely overgrown plain
  • the swamp and the river
  • the damp jungle
  • the pits and ravines
  • the highlands (Totenkopfberg)

Each has its own unique collection of animals.

Video game King Kong

The video game Peter Jackson's King Kong: The Official Game of the Movie is the game based on Peter Jackson's film from 2005 and was released in 2006. The player alternates between Jack Driscoll and King Kong . Skull Island is again the focal point of the plot. Only the last two levels no longer play on the island, but in New York .

After a 12,000 mile voyage, the ship reached the island on October 12, 1933. The island is again inhabited by natives and a variety of primeval creatures. However, unlike in the film this time, the island is in the Pacific Ocean. The content of the game and film also differ in other points.

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