Continuity mistake: When the crewman receives the message aboard the Venture, he jots it down on a pad of paper. There is nothing under the pad in one shot, but in the previous and following shots there are more papers under the pad.
Continuity mistake: When the Skull Island natives kidnap Ann, as they pass many chanting island inhabitants they hold Ann's body for the old native to begin her taunting chant, and the way they hold Ann changes between shots; such as their grip on Ann's arms and sleeves differs between front and back shots.
Continuity mistake: As Ann tries to escape from the T-Rex, at one point her robe acquires a rather large black and muddy stain at her backside on her left, yet in the very next shot that large black stain is gone.
Continuity mistake: When Carl offers the Nestles chocolate to the native girl, the wrapping differs between shots as he holds it out to her.
Continuity mistake: On the cliff where Ann is entertaining King Kong by dancing, juggling, doing flips, etc. her face goes from dirty, to clean, to dirty, and back to clean between shots.
Factual error: In at least one shot as Kong is on top of the Empire State building, the sunrise over Long Island is wrong. Three planes attack from the southwest and we see the sun rise in the east as Newtown Creek (Nassau River) glistens across the East River. The mouth of this river opens southward but in this shot everything is inverted with the mouth of the river pointing northward. Also, looking eastward, Roosevelt Island should be on the left of Newtown Creek, not on the right.
Continuity mistake: At the end of the chase through the streets of NYC, Kong stops the yellow cab with a "karate chop" to the front-end, which sends the car tumbling high into the air through a complete somersault before it lands back down. Actually, Kong's hand is still half way down and nowhere near touching any portion of the vehicle when its rear-end gets lifted.
Continuity mistake: When Carl speaks with Hayes and Lumpy about their destination, while aboard the Venture, the towel rags hanging on a line behind Carl change between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Jack is rescuing Ann she has two cuts above her right eyebrow, the smaller cut changes positions and disappears/reappears in different shots.
Continuity mistake: Shortly after Kong realizes he's been shot and gets blood on his fingers by touching the bloody hole in his chest, in subsequent scenes his chest has no puckered indentation and is unblemished but for minimal straight-line scars.
Factual error: The drop fare on the taxi is shown as 25 cents. However, this fare was not charged until 1952, when the former taxi fare of 20c 1st 1/4 of a mile and 5c each additional 1/4 of a mile (which went into effect in 1934) was increased to 25c the 1st 1/5 of a mile and 5c each additional 1/5.
Continuity mistake: After Ann and Carl arrive at the docks, as she stands beside the Venture her coat collar is flipped up, then turned down and back up between shots.
Continuity mistake: When Kong falls through a portion of the circular observation deck at the top of the skyscraper, he crushes the metal siding as well as one of the metal girders, making a large hole. When he puts Ann inside through the hole, the metal girders are now all undamaged. You can tell that this is the same hole because the camera moves around the entire building in the next shot and there are no other large holes.
Audio problem: After the scene where the men had to fight off the giant bugs, there is a wide shot where the men can be seen being helped out of the pit by the captain and a few extra crewmembers. The captain is shouting something, however, if you look closely, his mouth is not in sync with what he is saying.
Factual error: In the scene where Kong is running around the streets of New York City and being chased by two military vehicles, the lead open-topped sedan has an air-cooled 30 caliber machine gun mounted on a bar behind the driver, with the gunner in the back seat. The time setting of the movie is 1933-1934. Air-cooled ground mounted machine guns were not in general use until 1942, and were not available for aircraft until 1936. The Army used water-cooled machine guns until the start of World War II.
Revealing mistake: When Carl is standing next to Kong's unconscious body saying, "His name will be in lights on Broadway," look at the Venture in the background. Even though it's not stuck on anything, and despite the choppy waves, it doesn't move ANY. Even if anchored, it would still bob gently in the waves; instead it's frozen solid. Obviously green-screened, or possibly a matte painting. (02:17:40)
Continuity mistake: When Carl and his assistant are driving in the cab discussing who to fill in on the female role, you can see that they pass a tram on their left side. When it cuts the cab is right in front of the tram rather than to its right.
Continuity mistake: Just before the wall is spotted, Jimmy is in the open crow's nest reading "Heart of Darkness". He puts the book down and stands up. In the next few shots, the book has completely disappeared. Then the ship takes a pounding for 3 or 4 minutes. But a few minutes later there's Jimmy, once again reading the same book. (00:46:05 - 00:54:15)
Continuity mistake: Ann is soaking wet when she is being led through the natives. When she gets to the top of the wall she's dry.
Continuity mistake: When Carl falls at the beginning of the brontosaurs chase we see that he is only just in front of the brontosaurs so when he fell he should have been crushed straight away but he isn't. Jack then runs to help him and we see that the brontosaurs only need another step or 2 (which would take 1 or 2 seconds) before they reach Carl and Jack. Carl gets up and argues with Jack for 5 seconds or so by which time they should have been crushed. They then run and there is a far off shot showing the brontosaurs back where they were at the start again.
Chosen answer: The original creator of King Kong, Merin C. Cooper, wrote a novel adaption of the movie in which it was explained that the gates were built by a earlier culture of islanders that were friends with the "Kong" race. The "Kongs" helped the original islanders to build their village and the wall (thus meaning the gate had to be big enough for the giant gorillas to walk through). By the time of the events of the movie, the original islanders have "died out" and their old village had been taken over by a race of more primitive natives who became enemies with the Kongs, and were trying to use the gates for safety.