King Kong

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)

Revealing mistake: Near the end of the film, when people are running in terror out of the theater and into Times Square, you can see that the people are not leaving any footprints in the snow. The snow must have been digitally added to the scene.

Revealing mistake: When Ann is juggling for Kong on the cliff edge she starts juggling at one point. If you look closely, you can see that she is simply moving her hands, and the rocks have been added digitally. This is most obvious when she leans right back, and the rocks don't match her hand movements at all.

Revealing mistake: Despite being thrown, falling, being dragged and various other things, Ann's hair and face are almost always clean. Even when there does appear to be some dirt, in the next shot they are clean again.

Revealing mistake: The crew is sailing to the island and the rough sea makes the boat move violently. Jack Driscoll stumbles but the things in his cabin don't move at all, or at least don't cause the chaos they should. Obviously the only thing moving is Jack and the camera.

Sacha

Revealing mistake: When the longnecks are tumbling down the hill it's obvious there's a screen behind Preston and Jimmy and Hayes.

BigOLB

Revealing mistake: As Kong and Anne Darrow exhale in the freezing New York air there are many shots where you can't see their breath frosting up as it comes out of their mouths.

????

Revealing mistake: When Kong is shaking the tree down it's obvious that there's a screen behind the film crew when they fall.

BigOLB

Revealing mistake: When they are all running from the dinosaurs you can see where they should have been crushed by the massive brachiosauruses. Also when they are running along the collapsing mountainside they are somehow able to float along as the ground is giving way.

robsuttonjr

Revealing mistake: In the chasm scene, when Lumpy is fighting off worm-like creatures, we can see that his sword is made of rubber.

JT

Factual error: Denham is obviously shooting a sound film - he has a sound recordist with him along with the bulky and awkward recording equipment typical for the era, and they discuss the problems of recording dialogue on board. But not once do we see him filming with sound. We see the crew recording dialogue - synchronised sound, recorded on location, which is utterly impossible given the equipment they have and the circumstances under which the fim is being shot. We never see a microphone, a boom pole or a tape recorder. His camera isn't even 'blimped' - soundproofed - and it's handcranked, which makes a racket. They can't be planning on adding the sound later - why have the sound recordist and his bulky and heavy equipment there with them if they are? We see the crew recording dialogue - synchronised sound, recorded on location, which is utterly impossible given the equipment they have and the circumstances under which the fim is being shot. The whole point of post dubbing dialogue is that you don't need a sound recordist in the first place.

More mistakes in King Kong

Carl Denham: There are thousands of actresses out of work in this city. Somewhere out there is a woman born to play this role... A woman who will journey into the heart of the unknown... Toward a fateful meeting that changes everything.

More quotes from King Kong

Trivia: The scene where the men who fall into the ravine are attacked by giant insects is an homage to the original 1933 King Kong, where a similar scene was omitted due to its (at that time) gross-out factor.

More trivia for King Kong

Question: Would it really be possible for an ape as large as Kong Kong to climb up the Empire State Building as shown in the movie?

Answer: I assume you mean, could the building take his weight, not whether an ape would really have the ability to climb a building (if that's what you mean, then it's definitely yes...apes are great climbers). Assuming Kong is proportionally as heavy as normal-sized gorillas, which tend to be in the area of 160kg (~350lbs), then he weighs over 80,000kg (89 tons, give or take). The average human weighs about 62kg, so that's about 1,300 humans, and the capacity of the ESB is over 13,000. So, assuming the building is mostly, or even half, empty while a giant gorilla scales it, the building could handle his weight.

Keep in mind, though, that the weight allowance for the building assumes people on the floors of the building, not climbing on the outside. The outer structure of a building isn't designed for massive creatures climbing on it. While the building as a whole would likely survive, there would be significant damage as Kong would be breaking windows and pulling stone off it as he made his way up.

More questions & answers from King Kong

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