KING KONG 2005

PLOT.... In the autumn of 1932, at the height of the Great Depression in New York City, Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) has lost her job as a vaudeville actress but is hired by troubled filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) to act in his new motion picture. Ann signs on when she learns her favourite playwright Jack Driscoll (Adrien Brody) is the screenwriter. As their tramp steamer SS Venture sails to the mysterious Skull Island, they slowly fall in love. As for Carl, a warrant is out for his arrest and Captain Englehorn (Thomas Kretschmann) begins to have second thoughts, following the fears of his crew about Skull Island and its strange creatures that have evolved alone from the outside world. Deep in the southern seas the "Venture" receives a radio message from her owners informing the Captain about Denhams' arrest warrant and instructing him to divert to Rangoon immediately. Despite his attempt to turn around, the ship is lost in fog and runs aground on the rocks encircling the island.

Carl and his crew explore the island to film and are attacked by the vicious natives, degenerated descendents of a once great civilisation. Mike (Craig Hall), the sound technician, is speared, one of the sailors has his head bashed in, and Jack is knocked out. Ann screams as she is captured, and a roar beyond the wall responds. The matriarch of the tribe vows to sacrifice her to "Kong", a 25 ft (8m) tall gorilla, and the last of its kind. Englehorn and his crew break up the attack and return to the stranded ship. They lighten their load to float off the rocks and carry out repairs to the hull, but Jack discovers Ann has been kidnapped. On the island, Ann is hung from a primitive drawbridge on the side of the wall. The crew comes armed, but is too late as Kong takes Ann into the jungle. But as time passes in her captivity, Ann manages to entertain and win over Kong with juggling and dancing, and begins to grasp Kongs' great intelligence and capacity for emotion.

Captain Englehorn organizes a rescue party to find Ann and hunt down the beast. The rescue party is caught up in a Venatosaurus pack's hunt of Apatosaurus, and Herb (John Sumner), the cameraman, is killed along with three sailors. The rest of the rescue party come across a swamp where Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) and two others leave the group. The landing party survivors make their way across a giant fallen log, whereupon Kong arrives and attacks, shaking them off the log into a ravine. He returns to rescue Ann from three Vastatosaurus rex, and takes her up to his mountain lair. Englehorn and the rest of the crew save what is left of the rescue party from the pit of giant insects, and as Jack decides to continue to search for Ann, Carl decides to capture Kong. Jack goes to Kong's lair, waking him. As Kong fights a swarm of flying Terapusmordax, Ann and Jack escape by grabbing the wing of one of the bats and then jumping into a river. They arrive at the village wall with the angry Kong following them, and Ann becomes distraught by what Carl plans to do. Kong bursts through the gate and struggles to get her back, but he is eventually knocked out by chloroform.

In New York, in the late winter of 1933 - upon the unintentionally triumphant return of the expedition - a now feted and successful Carl presents a chained Kong the Eighth Wonder of the World on Broadway, starring Baxter and an imprisoned Kong. Ann has become an anonymous chorus girl and a double of her is no replacement in Kong's eyes. Camera flashes from photographers enrage the gorilla. Kong breaks free from his chrome-steel chains and chases Jack across town, where he encounters Ann again. They share a quiet moment on a frozen lake in Central Park, Kong joyfully entranced by his first experience of ice and snow, before the army unexpectedly attacks. Kong climbs with Ann onto the dome of the Empire State Building, where he fights off a flight of six Curtiss Falcon fighter planes sent to attack him, downing three of them. Ultimately, Kong is hit by several bursts of gunfire from the surviving planes, and gazes at a distraught Ann for the last time before falling off the building to his death. Ann is greeted by Jack, and the reporters gather around Kong's carcass. Carl takes one last look and says, "It wasn't the airplanes. It was Beauty killed the Beast