History Film / KongSkullIsland

Initially a co-production with Creator/{{Universal}} (who own the rights to the King Kong character), [[ChannelHop the film was]] co-produced by Creator/{{Warner Brothers}} and is part of the Film/MonsterVerse, a Kaiju-based SharedUniverse with Legendary's ''Film/{{Godzilla|2014}}'' (with that film's Monarch organization serving as the link), with the two meeting in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' in 2021 and again in ''Film/GodzillaXKongTheNewEmpire'' in 2024.

* ObjectShapedLandmass: The Franchise/{{Monsterverse}} incarnation of Skull Island takes the name far more literally than previous iterations (which merely had skull-shaped mountains), making the landmass itself [[BewareTheSkullBase shaped like a human skull seen from above]].

** As always, Kong is a sucker for blondes. In this case, Weaver is a brunette with golden-brown hair and Kong doesn't have to kidnap her to form a bond.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: A few of Bill Randa's throwaway lines in the first act foreshadow [[spoiler: King Ghidorah, the alien monster from an unknown world, tearing apart Washington DC.]]

* ReflectiveEyes: The camera zooms in on Kong's eyes reflecting what's in front of him that he's glowering at, [[{{Bookends}} at both the start and end of the movie]]. An extreme close up on Packard's eyes during his HeldGaze with Kong shows plumes of fire and smoke from Kong decimating the Sky Devils reflected in Packard's eyes, emphasizing that the Vietnam War hasn't truly left Packard even if he left it, and he's now singled out a new "enemy" for himself.

* AntiHeroSubstitute: 1970s Monarch operatives Bill Randa and Dr. Houston Brooks are a precursor counterpart to 2010s Monarch operatives Dr. Ishirō Serizawa and Vivienne Graham in ''Film/Godzilla2014'', being a tight-knit pair of an older mentor operative and a younger protégé scientist who work together to understand, investigate, and if needs be try and combat the {{Kaiju}} in the world. However, Randa and Brooks' morals are a significantly darker shade of gray than Serizawa and Graham: the worst that the latter two ever deliberately did was cover up the existence of monsters and the true cause of the Janjira disaster until the masquerade was doomed, whereas Randa and Brooks endanger dozens of non-Monarch people (including Vietnam War vets who were ''just about to'' go home to their families) by tricking them into the expedition for their own ends without telling them anything about what might be living on Skull Island. Serizawa and Graham were idealists, almost to a fault, whom were awed by Godzilla, and they wanted to preserve as many kaiju as possible to study so long as they didn't pose an active threat, but they still wouldn't put preserving the MUTO ahead of protecting human life -- Randa on the other hand initially sees all the kaiju including Kong as conscienceless monsters, and he wants to expose their existence to the U.S. government in the hopes they will authorize an extermination campaign against the creatures, believing it's a necessity to save mankind from destruction by the creatures; while Brooks, to a lesser extent, doesn't think twice about brutally carpet-bombing an uncharted island's herds of wildlife in order to get his seismology readings on the HollowEarth.

* BookEnds: If you don't count [[spoiler: TheStinger,]] the film starts and ends (in the mid-credits scenes) with Hank Marlow. Furthermore, just like the {{distant prologue}} where Marlow gets stranded on Skull Island ends with a zoom-in on Kong's {{reflective eye|s}} as he roars, the last scene before the credits roll [[spoiler:(where Marlow escapes Skull Island)]] ends with an analogous zoom-in on Kong's reflective eye as he roars again.

* DeliberateVHSQuality: The Washington D.C. scene (which is the very first scene in the movie's main 1970s time frame after the WWII {{distant prologue}}) opens with a grainy 1970s footage aesthetic when focusing on the historic anti-Vietnam War protesters, before transitioning into modern picture quality as we fully settle into this temporal setting. [[spoiler:The mid-credits footage of Marlow reuniting with his family just after the ending also uses a 70s home video visual quality]]).

** In the stinger itself, [[spoiler:the Monarch logo on the cell wall in the background spoils that ''they'' are the ones detaining Conrad and Weaver just moments before Brooks and San walk in and they confirm as much]].

* HellYesMoment: The crew of Marlow's jury-rigged boat are jubilant after they get in contact with Packard's group and are sure they're well on their way to getting off the island. [[spoiler:Although the mood is swiftly killed when a pack of Leafwings appear and they tear Nieves apart]].

** It was already revealed to the audience in the Washington D.C. scenes that Bill Randa and Dr. Brooks are part of the same [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch monster-hunting organization]] that featured in ''Film/Godzilla2014'' and that this is why they're interested in plotting Skull Island, but Packard only finds out about Monarch's existence and purpose in around the movie's second act, when he threatens Bill into spilling the beans after Kong's attack.
** In TheStinger, Monarch reveal [[spoiler:to Conrad and Weaver]] who they are, and they also reveal the existence of Godzilla and that Skull Island isn't the only place in the world where giant prehistoric monsters exist.

* BookEnds: If you don't count [[spoiler: TheStinger,]] the film starts and ends with Hank Marlow.

* DramaticDrop: Several. Gunpei in the {{distant prologue}} drops the knife he was trying to stab Marlow with in shock when Kong appears. The first soldier to be killed in the bamboos [[spoiler:by the Mother Longlegs]] drops his water bottle when he's impaled, alerting Randa and the rest of the Sky Devil and Landsat survivors that something has happened. In the epilogue, Marlow's wife drops a tray with glasses when she notices him at the door.

** [[spoiler:Major Chapman's]] final line is a whispered, despairing, "Dear Billy, sometimes life just up and kicks you in the balls for no good reason," moments before [[spoiler:his fatal encounter with a Skullcrawler]].

** Randa [[spoiler:realises he's about to be eaten by the large Skullcrawler standing behind him]].

** And Conrad when trying to talk down [[spoiler:an insane]] Packard [[spoiler:just before the Big One emerges]]:

* TimePassesMontage: The transition from day to night on the ''Wanderer'' in the Iwi's village.

%%* DeathGlare: Creator/SamuelLJackson as Packard delivers several glares that could make Hell chill over -- as the character's vengeance consumes him and his SanitySlippage progresses, the glares get more and more frequent.

** Kong makes this face when [[spoiler:he sees Weaver fall off a cliff during the battle with Ramarak, because in hindsight, it's his fault that Weaver falls]].