King Kong (2005 film)

"Good things never last, Mr. Denham."

"I make people laugh, that's what I do. So, good luck with your picture."

"Thank you... for saving my life."

"Mmm... much better."

"It's beautiful. Beautiful. Beau-ti-ful."

"What are they going to do, sue me? They can get in line! I'm not gonna let 'em kill my film!"

"There's still some mystery left in this world, and we can all have a piece of it. For the price of an admission ticket."

"[after escaping angry studio executives] Don't worry, Preston, I've had a lot of practice at this. I'm real good at scaring away the investors."

"And lo, the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty, and Beauty stayed his hand. And from that day forward, he was as one dead."

"Dammit, Preston, all you had to do was look her in the eye and lie!"

"Sorry, fellas, but you're gonna have to do better than that. Monsters belong in B-movies."

"Defeat is always momentary."

"Just as you go down for the third and final time, as your head disappears beneath the waves, and your lungs fill with water, do you know what happens in those last precious seconds before you drown? Your whole life passes before your eyes... and if you've lived as a true American, you get to watch it all in color."

"The whole world will pay to see this."

"We'll give him more than chains. He's always been king of his world!! But we'll teach him fear. We're millionaires, boys! I'll share it with all of you. In a few months, his name will be up in lights on Broadway! Kong: The Eighth Wonder of the World!"

"Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here to tell you a very strange story. A story so strange that no one will believe it. But, ladies and gentlemen, seeing is believing. And we, my friends and I, have brought back the living proof of our story. The story of our adventure, in which 17 of our party suffered horrible deaths. But their sacrifices were not in vain. Their lives were lost in pursuit of a savage beast. A monstrous aberration of nature. But unlike other wild animals, even the meanest brute can be tamed. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, as you will see, the beast was no match for the charms of a young girl. A girl from New York who melted his heart, bringing to mind that old Arabian proverb: "And lo, the Beast looked upon the face of Beauty, and Beauty stayed his hand. And from that day forward, he was as one dead". And now ladies and gentlemen, before I tell you the story of our voyage, I'm going to show you the greatest thing your eyes have ever beheld. He was more than just a god. He was a king in the world he knew, but he comes to you now a captive... a show to gratify your curiosity. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Kong, the Eighth Wonder of the World! [The curtain rises to reveal Kong, sitting on the stage, miserable, his limbs cuffed with gigantic chains. The audience gasps] Don't be alarmed! It's perfectly safe! These chains are made of chrome steel. They are strong enough to hold a battleship!"

"Observe if you will... [carefully puts his hand on Kong's arm. The audience gasps] ...I am touching the beast! I am actually laying my hands on the 25-foot gorilla! [Kong's hand twitches slightly, spooking Carl, causing him to jump. The audience laughs.]"

"And now, we have in the auditorium tonight... a surprise guest. The real-life hero of this story. The man who hunted down the mighty Kong! The man who risked all to win the freedom of a helpless female. A big hand for Mr. Bruce Baxter!"

"Stop, please! Stop! We have to turn back! They've taken Ann!"

"[noticing the disturbing effigy of Kong on Carl's map] What is that?"

"That's the thing you come to learn about Carl. His unfailing ability to destroy the things he loves."

"Actors. They travel the world, but all they ever see is a mirror."

"[to Carl, whom he has just saved from a slimy demise in the insect pit] That's the thing about cockroaches. No matter how many times you flush them down the toilet, they always crawl back up the bowl."

"[to Carl, after being uncertain about him bringing Kong back to New York] Forget it, Denham. No chains will ever hold a creature like that."

"[to Hayes, after being told to run if they encounter any danger] I'm not a coward. I ain't gonna run."

"[referring to Heart of Darkness] It's not an adventure story. Is it, Mr. Hayes?"

"Adventures on a tramp steamer, just like us!"

"[at the killing ground, where the hundreds of Kong's victims have been left to rot] Good Lord, it's a bleeding boneyard! They've been ripped limb from limb!"

"There's only one creature capable of leaving a footprint that size."

"The Abominable Snowman."

"Bates: All three "King Kongs"--the classic 1933 version starring Fay Wray, the campy 1976 version starring Jessica Lange and the current epic by "Lord of the Rings" director Peter Jackson--feature a big, black ape who falls in love with a willowy white woman. The unspoken fear about black-white sexual relations has been remarked on by film historians and cultural critics ever since. The 1933 original stoked anxieties about black male hypersexuality. Kong snatches Ann Darrow up and makes off with her as she screams in horror. And the film's supposedly African natives--who offer the heroine up to the giant ape--came from what some critics called the ooga-booga(ph) school of thespian arts. Newsday columnist Jim Pinkerton says the 2005 "Kong", starring a dewy, blond Naomi Watts, shows the story line hasn't evolved all that much."

"Mr. Jim Pinkerton (Newsday): And for this movie to have been made in 1933 about white people going over to the Third World to capture a large, black being with a flat nose and bring him back in chains was sort of powerful then. And I was sort of surprised to see it getting remade, if anything, more politically incorrectly, in 2005."

"Bates: Moving the film's location from Africa to the south sea islands doesn't remove the stigma visited upon the native people depicted in it, says Newsday's Jim Pinkerton. He says even subliminal messages in movies are important."

"There are astonishments to behold in Peter Jackson's new "King Kong", but one sequence, relatively subdued, holds the key to the movie's success. Kong has captured Ann Darrow and carried her to his perch high on the mountain. He puts her down, not roughly, and then begins to roar, bare his teeth and pound his chest. Ann, an unemployed vaudeville acrobat, somehow instinctively knows that the gorilla is not threatening her but trying to impress her by behaving as an alpha male -- the King of the Jungle. She doesn't know how Queen Kong would respond, but she does what she can: She goes into her stage routine, doing backflips, dancing like Chaplin, juggling three stones. Her instincts and empathy serve her well. Kong's eyes widen in curiosity, wonder and finally what may pass for delight. From then on, he thinks of himself as the girl's possessor and protector. She is like a tiny beautiful toy that he has been given for his very own, and before long, they are regarding the sunset together, both of them silenced by its majesty. The scene is crucial because it removes the element of creepiness in the gorilla/girl relationship in the two earlier "Kongs" (1933 and 1976), creating a wordless bond that allows her to trust him. When Jack Driscoll climbs the mountain to rescue her, he finds her comfortably nestled in Kong's big palm."

"Although Naomi Watts makes a splendid heroine, there have been complaints that Jack Black and Adrien Brody are not precisely hero material. Nor should they be, in my opinion. They are a director and a writer. They do not require big muscles and square jaws. What they require are strong personalities that can be transformed under stress. Denham the director clings desperately to his camera, no matter what happens to him, and Driscoll the writer beats a strategic retreat before essentially rewriting his personal role in his own mind. Bruce Baxter (Kyle Chandler) is an actor who plays the movie's hero, and now has to decide if he can play his role for real. And Preston (Colin Hanks) is a production assistant who, as is often the case, would be a hero if anybody would give him a chance. The result is a surprisingly involving and rather beautiful movie -- one that will appeal strongly to the primary action audience, and also cross over to people who have no plans to see "King Kong" but will change their minds the more they hear. I think the film even has a message, and it isn't that beauty killed the beast. It's that we feel threatened by beauty, especially when it overwhelms us, and we pay a terrible price when we try to deny its essential nature and turn it into a product, or a target. This is one of the year's best films."

"Q. I heard you actually referred back to the original's storyboards?"

"Perhaps as a consequence of the writers coming to this after three movies with their large Middle Earth ensemble (which included nine principal characters and plenty of supporting roles), the characters in King Kong are almost gratuitously well developed all around. The crew of the SS Venture is essentially made up of pulp archetypes, but unusually, they're all given enough screen time that they're not just Star Trek-style red shirts by the time they disembark on Skull Island."

"Every movement in that film was about a human connecting with this huge beast who was one hundred per cent 'other'. Kong basically looks at Ann Darrow three times in that movie. It's all about the disconnect and him being this lonely, psychotic hobo who can't connect with other people."

"Naomi Watts - Ann Darrow"

"Jack Black - Carl Denham"

"Adrien Brody - Jack Driscoll"

"Thomas Kretschmann - Captain Englehorn"

"Colin Hanks - Preston"

"Evan Parke - Hayes"

"Jamie Bell - Jimmy"

"Kyle Chandler - Bruce Baxter"

"Andy Serkis - Kong/Lumpy"

"Lobo Can - Choy"

"John Sumner - Herb the Cameraman"

"Craig Hall - Mike the Sound Recordist"