Continuity mistake: Just before Kong is gassed and captured, he picks up someone and bites his head. In a close up, he has them by the legs, then in the long shot he is biting their head. (01:22:00)
Continuity mistake: This happens in King Kong's death scene. After Kong puts Ann back down for the last time, when he's shot (in the neck area) in the wide shot, Kong's upper body and right arm lean over in front of the building's spire, with his (limp) right arm hanging over Ann. It cuts to a close-up, and now Kong's right arm is suddenly up behind the spire, with his right hand gripping that spire. (01:38:05)
Continuity mistake: When Driscoll is hiding in the cliff cave with Kong above him, he moves from the front of the cave to the back two or three times without ever moving from the back of the cave to the front.
Continuity mistake: When King Kong carries Ann Darrow to the top of the Empire State Building, he places her on the ledge near the fixed ladder mounted to the building. During the scene, in Ann's close-ups, the ladder vanishes from where it should be, and in the zoom-in shots (biplane POV), the ladder is mounted in a different area than in the long shots. (01:35:00)
Continuity mistake: When Kong is climbing the Empire State and peeps into the rooms, the window rail disappears in the outside shots and the close-ups.
Continuity mistake: When Kong is about to be captured and people jump on the boat, their positions differ between the front angles and the ones shot from behind.
Continuity mistake: When Kong fights against the dinosaur, Ann's tree starts to fall, and she cries while waving her right arm and holds onto it with her left. The shot changes, and now it's the opposite way: she is holding onto it with her right arm and waving her left hand.
Continuity mistake: After Kong kills the dinosaur, when he pounds his chest, watch a branch on the left. It's sometimes up or suddenly down. Most surely due to the animators moving it inadvertently while operating the models.
Continuity mistake: While Kong kills the pterodactyl Jack arrives to save Ann. Shot changes and he's back in the cave making his entrance again.
Continuity mistake: The two villagers that are stomped by Kong's foot are bald but grow an afro in the close-ups.
Continuity mistake: A villager jumps off a hut and lands on the floor. A shot later he is 10 meters further ahead. (01:15:06)
Continuity mistake: Kong keeps changing styles throughout the movie at least 4 times: In the close-ups of its head it either has a round face with dirty teeth, fangs and small nostrils or white teeth with no fangs; as opposed to the full body models where it swaps between a cone-head forehead with small nostrils, and a rounder one with larger nostrils, both models with pearly white teeth.
Continuity mistake: The right cuff of Kong's shackles disappears from his wrist when he destroys the train, only to reappear later on.
Continuity mistake: When Ann watches Kong fight the dinosaur, her position is inconsistent between the wide shots and the close-ups.
Continuity mistake: When Kong brings Ann's bed towards him, the footboard changes between the wide outside shots and the inside shots.
Continuity mistake: When Kong lifts Ann from the bed she is wearing a short dress. In the close-up the dress goes way down to her ankles.
Continuity mistake: Kong breaks the window and Ann starts to shout and extends her right leg. A shot later it's bent downwards.
Continuity mistake: Kong breaks the window and takes Ann from bed. In the wide shot (where she's replaced by a stop-motion doll) she faints backwards. In the immediate close-up she is conscious and upright.
Continuity mistake: After Kong escapes from the theater, a car crashes against a wall with no glass on the windshield. In the next shot, broken glass appears.
Continuity mistake: When Denham shows a second map to the captain, one can see it has a big map on the center part. In the close-up, it swaps to being a small drawing on a side.
Answer: It's never shown or explained, and the film uses a broad "suspension of disbelief" premise. The audience just accepts the characters were able to somehow transport a huge ape to New York City.
raywest ★