Feb 25: Skull Island

Skull Island is the home of the giant ape King Kong. 

It is a dramatic island with some fairly improbable topography, as well as some improbably native flora and  fauna of course. The name comes from its profile when seen from a certain direction as from above it looks more like a skeletal hand.

Source: https://kingkong.fandom.com/wiki/Skull_Island?file=Skull_island.jpg 

The original movie was released in 1933, and has spawned a number of remakes and spin-offs on the theme of the giant ape, and the maiden who ends up in a bit of trouble, but is ultimately protected by Kong.

I like this piece by Frank Dello Stritto on whether Skull Island could exist in reality. He has written a lot about Carl Denham and his creations.

No surprise that an isolated island might have species of animals unknown elsewhere. But so many giant species--Kong, a tyrannosaur, a stegosaur, an apatosaur, and others--on such a small island. 

Hardly possible.

Skull Island's existence became even more unlikely when I learned about sustainable populations. How many individuals are needed for a species to survive through the ages? The rock-bottom number is probably in the hundreds. Skull Island could never support herds of giant dinosaurs and bands of giant apes.

So there is a link here to food chains and trophic levels.

When one considers the dramatic shapes of St. Kilda, the Faroes or Hawaiian islands it seems possible to approach Skull Island's dramatic vertical slopes at least.

Peter Jackson made his own version of King Kong in 2005. This added a whole other level of topographical detail and outrageous lifeform, including a scene in a gorge which is quite remarkable.

The King Kong Wiki has a long entry on Skull Island, which provides details on some of the islands features and zones (it's perhaps going too far to call them biomes).

King Kong (1933) dir. Merian C. Cooper and Ernest B. Schoedsack was the first of a franchise of films, which now numbers into double figures.

Here's the trailer of the 1933 film when it was re-released in 1938:

In 2017, the reboot Kong: Skull Island was released - tying back to the home location of Kong.

What are your favourite King Kong movies?