Skull Island time line
Hi this is my first ever post on IMDB, so I thought I would start with my favourite film King Kong. Now this film to me is close to perfection despite some flaws that have either been discussed or are more noticeable thanks to high quality dvd's but it was the first film that made me fall in love with the movies and has always remained close to my heart. I am now almost 44.
One thing I always thought a bit strange is that from the time when Ann gets captured by the natives (almost midnight according to Denham), to the time she arrives safely back at the village with Jack is close to 24 hours, due to it being night time; for arguments sake make it about 23 hours. Yet whilst it seems to take a long time to reach Kong's lair and then rescue her, both Jack and Ann seem to get back to the village within a much quicker time as well as Kong who is hot on their trail, perhaps he was being the perfect host and giving her a guided tour. Now I know that the directors were not too bothered about time continuation as they wanted to thrill the audience and probably didn't realise that 80 years later a bunch of film experts would show up displaying their skills and knowledge on the internet lol. However I thought it could be fun to try and piece their journey to Kong's lair and back within the allotted time with what we know from the film. This is my attempt.
Approx 23.45 Ann is kidnapped whilst Jack, Denham and the Captain are having a chat. (Denham mentions he is tired and it must be close to midnight)
23.50 Jack notices Ann is missing and organises a search of the ship where Charlie discovers the native bracelet. The men get armed up and break out the lifeboats by midnight.
Approximately 5-10 minutes to get to the beach and then another 5 minutes to get to the wall where Jack witnesses Kong and Ann together so it is now 00.20.
Now here is one of those scene missing bits the men are on his trail and despite a chat about footprints and how easily it is to follow his trail, they eventually meet up with the Stegosaurus and it is now light. So I will be liberal here and say that sun up is about 05.00 but it may be as late as 08.00.
So they dispatch the Stego and make their way to the lake say about an hour or so, so it is now approx 09.00, where they construct the raft which takes about 20 minutes. At 09.25 they cross the lake and are attacked by the Brontosaurus again say about 5 -10 minutes to reach the middle of the lake making it 09.35. Meanwhile Kong according to the deleted scenes is dispatching a few Triceratops giving the survivors a chance to catch up with him.
So they are now running for their lives and head towards the log bridge and Kong, which adds another 5 minutes (this bit of the film I assumed is played on real time) so I now make it 09.50 taking into account the time spent swimming out of the lake.
09.50 It's exit most of the men as Kong tosses them off the log and then he starts trying to reach into the cave for Jack again this is now on real time, when he hears Ann scream and goes to her rescue and battles the T-rex Allosaurus hybrid. From Kong leaving Jack to playing with the T-rex's jaw takes just under 3 minutes. Jack has a chat with Denham (on a side note here I would love to have seen Denham's trek back, how he got around the lake dodging the Brontosaurus, Triceratops and the also deleted Styrachosaurus)I now make it 09.55.
Taking into account and to justify a few hours Kong is slowly walking back to his cave with Jack staying a good distance behind. I have no idea of the time length but let's say 4 hours due to possibly resting etc or other things that may have happened that were not as interesting as smacking up T-rex's such as my earlier mentioned guided tour.
By my timeline it is now 14.00am and once into Kong's cave we are back in real time. Killing the big snake thing takes about a minute then time for a bit of Kong playing with his Ann doll and then killing the Pterodactyl and Jack rescuing Ann and escaping from the lair is all done in about 5 minutes. Making it about 14.05. Yet even in black and white it always looks to me as if it is late afternoon and the sun is about to set. So my time line has gone out a bit and it is more likely 16.00.
Sticking with 16.00 they get back at night time again I am unsure of the correct time but I guess about 23.00 could be right making it nearly 7 hours coming down the river and then on land dodging dinosaurs etc, possibly resting or searching for food (Remember they must both be pretty tired and hungry by now). So by my very broad estimations it took 14 hours to get to Kong's lair and only just 7 to get back. If anyone does answer this please remember it is only for fun and feel free to elaborate on your own theories many thanks.