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Skull Island is a fictional lost island in the Indian Ocean, first dreamed up for the 1933 adventure film King Kong. Since its inception, it has been used many times in various media.

In King Kong

In its first inception in King Kong, Skull Island is a long island, located at approximately at 90 degrees East and 2 degrees South - somewhere off the coast of Sumatra. There is a distinctive rocky knoll in the center of the island which is shaped like a human skull, hence its forboding name.

At first, it is thought of as deserted, but upon further examination by the heroes of the picture, it is filled to the brim with superstitous natives, prehistoric creatures of all sorts, and one extremely large gorilla, known by those on the island as "Kong".

The native people of Skull Island appear to be of West African (or perhaps Papuan) descent. Their barbaric portrayal in the film has provoked complaints and controversy ever since the movie's release. It's Also Been Featured In Son Of Kong.

King of Skull Island, a 2004 sequel-novel which ignores The Son Of Kong, makes an attempt to reveal the history of Skull Island before the events of the 1933 film's story.

In Braindead (1992 film)

In the 1992 film Braindead, Skull Island is seen as a relatively barren place off the coast of Sumatra with very little foliage and rocky beaches. It is alluded that there is some technology present on the island, given the appearance of a Jeep driving along the rocky shore.

It is never stated what kind of creatures live on this Skull Island, aside from the Sumatran Rat-Monkey. The hideous creature, found only on that island, is the offspring of plagued rats and tree monkeys. Its bite, while fatal, can also bring the recently deceased back to life.

The native people of this Skull Island also appear to be of African descent, although they were portrayed in the film by Fiji's national rugby team.

In The Curse of Monkey Island (1997 video game)

In the 1997 adventure game The Curse of Monkey Island, Skull Island is home to the infamous smuggler known as "King Andre".

Skull Island is only reachable via a small dinghy operated by the ghostly "Flying Welshman" (an allusion to the legend of The Flying Dutchman). While living, the Welshman became lost in the fog surrounding Skull Island when the lighthouse on neighbouring Blood Island was broken. Guybrush Threepwood needs to get to Skull Island in order to get a diamond he needs to lift the curse cast on Elaine Marley by LeChuck's cursed ring. In order to get to Skull Island, he must fix the lighthouse and make a compass for the Welshman.

Trivia:

  • Many characters claim that Skull Island is in the shape of a skull. When the island is finally shown, however, it more closely resembles a duck than a skull. An astonished Guybrush grumbles "It should be called Duck Island." The Welshman (who insists it looks like a skull) relunctantly responds, "Well if you turn your head and squint..." to which Guybrush insists, "If you turn your head and squint it looks like a bunny," a reference to a well-known optical illusion.
  • Skull Island is one of the smallest islands in the Monkey Island series (the player can only interact with a few things on the island and it is contained by only four perspective shots).

In King Kong (2005 film and Video Game)

The Skull Island of 2005's King Kong is very similar to that of the 1933 film. It is once again a long-forgotten place, noted as being "far west of Sumatra", until a mysterious map leads a group of adventurers to it. It appears to be in a region that affects magnets, and is frequently shrouded in fog.

The island is shaped like a large hand with long, skeletal fingers. It is surrounded by carved stone reefs, made to resemble faces crying out in anger and pain, and is criss-crossed by an enormous stone wall and covered with jungle-swallowed ruins that are countless generations old, which are all that remain of an unknown, ancient human civilization that somehow once existed and thrived on Skull Island.

It is filled with all manner of monstrous creatures, but these beings have evolved past their primitive ancestors. The animals there have turned into violent killing machines - the harsh environment of Skull Island changing their evolutionary outcome. Aside from dinosaurs, the island is also home to insectoid and slug-like creatures. There are strange creatures like Arachno-Claw, Scorpio-Pede, and Celocimex. See the main link above for details.

The island can be broken down into several smaller ecosystems, all shifting and changing as the animals fight amongst each other. These ecosystems are the Skull Island Coastal Region and the Village, the Skull Island Lowlands, the Skull Island Swamp and River System, the Skull Island Jungle, the Skull Island Chasms and the Skull Island Uplands. Each has its own unique collection of species that continuously fight with each other.

The current native people of this Skull Island appear to be of a mixed Melanesian descent, although director Peter Jackson has stated that they are supposed to look like no other people on Earth. They were portrayed by a number of different Pacific Island people, who were sprayed with a brown paint to make all of their skin tones coincide. Many wear pieces of bone in some form (such as a necklace) and some even have smaller pieces of bone embedded in their flesh, such as through the nose. Many also have bright red eyes, presumably an evolved evolutionary trait.

The island is further explored in the later series of expeditions called Project Legacy. In 1948, the island sinks and is forever lost due to a huge earthquake, measuring 9.2 on the Richter Scale, with all of its unique animals and strange people. In the sequel The son of Kong we see Skull Island sink into the sea. Kongs son dies by drowning while holding Carl Denham above the water. Denham survived unscathed.

In The World of Kong: A Natural History of Skull Island

The Weta Workshop book The World of Kong documents all of the inhabitants, locations and details of skull island, as of King Kong (2005 film).

Skull Island inhabitants

  • Megaprimatus kong: A huge species of obvious simian descendants, despite their enormity. The average M. Kong could stand up as tall as anywhere from 18 to 25 feet. By 1933, there was only one of them left. This specimen, a male, was captured and brought back to New York by Carl Denham, but escaped and was shot down off the top of the Empire State Building, rendering the species of Megaprimatus kong extinct.

  • Tyrannosaurus/Vastatosaurus rex: Originally portrayed as a cold-hearted killer, which grew up to 18 metres (50 feet), the V-Rex was portrayed with the same general attitude, but was considerably larger than the T-Rex and had an additional finger.

  • Stegosaurus: Plated dinosaur that has only ever had one appearance in any of the King Kong films, which was in the original 1933 film. It was bombed and gunned senseless by Denham's crew. Grew up to 10 metres (33 feet) long.

  • Apatosaurus/Brontosaurus baxteri: Originally portrayed in the film as an amphibious, meat-eating long neck, it became a herding, herbivorous creature for the 2005 remake.

  • Terapusmordax obscenus: Giant batlike creatures, Actually rodents, that were found in the cave where Kong lived in the 2005 film, though they had long, bare tails, unlike a real bat, which has only a vestigial, webbed one.

  • Unknown serpent-like, aquatic reptile: Found only in the 1933 movie, and has some characteristics of the pleisiosaur species, such as four flipper-appendanges, but attacks in the manner of the giant snakes, like python and anaconda, by coiling and suffocating its prey or enemies.

  • Ligocristus innocens: A hadrosaur. No confirmed sightings are in the 2005 version, but it may be the carcass that the Foetodon are feeding on. It grew from 26-34 feet (8-10 metres) long.

  • Pteranodon: The well-known flying reptile was battered to death by Kong in the original 1933 King Kong.

  • Aciedactylus mandocaris: Not seen in any of the King Kong films, Aciedactylus mandocaris ('Sharp-edged-fingers devour crab') is catalogued in the Weta Workshop book The World Of Kong as a carnivorous dinosaur, around 12 feet long, of apparent allosaur descendants, that feeds on creatures that live at the estuary.

  • Nefundusaurus acerbus: This creature also lived at the estuary, and strongly resembled Postosuchus. Again, it is not seen in any of the King Kong cinematic appearances, rather, it catalogued in The World Of Kong.

  • Lycaesaurus kirkii: The mammal-like reptilian was an intelligent, canine-like predator that mated for life, and hunting in the vegetation of Skull Island.

  • Monsters of the pits: These creatures were not seen in the 1933 King Kong. These monsters include a large octopus type of creature, and two large lizards, one of them the unclassified reptilian and the other a normal lizard but about 10 feet tall. None of these monsters are in the 2005 remake of King Kong.

  • New insects: These new beasts were included in the 2005 remake by Peter Jackson. Their new appearances were enhanced from the 1933 Kong thanks to Weta Workshop. These creatures are in order according to how they are lined up in A Natural History of Skull Island:

Decarnocimex (Flesh-removing bug): According to The World of Kong, these are "oversized relatives of crickets with bladed forelimbs for tearing apart carcasses." Carl Denham fights these when he falls into the pit.

Weta-Rex; Deinacrida Rex (Terrible-cricket king): Dog-sized Wetas that were possibly a tribute to Peter Jackson's filming of Lord of the Rings in the land of the weta, New Zealand. The creatures which attacked Jack Driscoll.

Arachno-Claw; Arachnocidis (Spider-claw): The only remake of the original pit beasts, the Arachno-Claw is what the name inplies - a mix of a spider and a crab.

Deplector (Reaper): Giant lobster-like insects that live in crevasses lining the chasm walls. They reach out of their crevices to grab prey. Females are much, much larger than males. Blind, Deplectors are tethered to their holes by excretions that are elastic. This monster kills a sailor in the movie.

Carnitis Sordicus (Vile Meat-Weasel): One of the beasts that is most memorable, Carnictus is a large worm with a sphinter-maw at one end. It undulates inside-out and exposes the mouth to its prey, allowing it to eat. These monsters end up eating Lumpy the cook in the remake.

Other references

Fictional islands | King Kong | Monkey Island locations

Isla calavera

 

This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the "Skull Island".

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