King Kong

Revealing mistake: When Jack starts walking on the log, there are square chalk T-marks painted on it to point out where he must step, which disappear in the overhead shot.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: The flamethrower scorches Kong, who is behind an antenna. However, the antenna remains perfect, revealing it is a projection.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When Kong first shows up to take Dwan away, he roars and pounds his chest. As he does so, the breastplate in Rick Baker's costume vibrates visibly in a way that a flesh-and-blood chest wouldn't.

Revealing mistake: Near the end Kong rolls off the top of the World Trade tower. It cuts to a shot from the ground looking straight up toward the top with Kong falling downward. For a fraction of a second there is no image of Kong composited into the shot: first there's just buildings, then suddenly Kong appears from nowhere in midair.

Upvote valid corrections to help move entries into the corrections section.

Suggested correction: I watched it in slo-mo and couldn't spot the mistake.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Kong fights against the helicopters, the real helicopters have red and yellow lights all over, but the miniature ones have just a couple, revealing the FX trick.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Kong grabs the subway car and throws it away, the lower part of the car is a blatant miniature model with no cables and no wheels.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When Kong picks up the subway car packed with people, in the wide shots, one can see it's empty.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Kong pops out of the EL tracks and extends his hand, the glove is noticeably cracked, and the stuffing is coming out.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Kong is atop the Twin Tower and throws objects to the soldiers below, check the last one: there's a blatant metal lid on the set ahead in the very same spot where an explosion occurs seconds later, most surely where the pyrotechnics were hidden.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: When Kong is being burnt with the flamethrower, the flames have a clear clean cut on the left edge, revealing where the composite image was placed. In some shots, you can see the whole outline of the pasted image.

Sacha

King Kong mistake picture

Revealing mistake: In the wide shots of Kong carrying Dwan around the barren lands, she is replaced by an obvious doll with stiff hair and unrealistic short arms.

Sacha

Factual error: The fact that the respiration of a single animal - however large - could lead to an increase in the level of carbon dioxide in the local area is so absurd it is laughable. Carbon dioxide exhalation is part of a closed loop cycle and the CO2 exhaled by Kong would be matched by the CO2 taken in by the plants growing on the island. It cannot be otherwise. Elevated levels of carbon dioxide are incredibly dangerous and any animal living on the island - including Kong - would suffer if things got out of kilter.

More mistakes in King Kong

Jack Prescott: There is a girl out there who might be running for her life from some gigantic turned-on ape.

More quotes from King Kong

Trivia: Fay Wray, who had played Ann Darrow in the 1933 version of King Kong, was offered a cameo in this movie. Wray refused, because she hated the script.

More trivia for King Kong

Question: When Long let Dwan fall into the water, we see that the water she plunged into is pretty deep. How deep was the waterfall when she fell in?

Answer: He probably knew it wasn't deep. It's his island; he knew every inch of it. Besides, it's a pool, not an ocean. It most likely had a small underground tunnel which spilled out somewhere on the island.

More questions & answers from King Kong

Join the mailing list

Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.

Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.