| 1 | '''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerse Main Character Index]]-]]]''' |
| 2 | '''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseKaiju Kaiju]]-]]]''' |
| 3 | '''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseGodzilla Godzilla]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah King Ghidorah]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseKingKong King Kong]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMechagodzilla Mechagodzilla]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMothra Mothra]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMUTO MUTO]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseRodan Rodan]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseSkullIslandKaijuAndOtherCreatures Skull Island Kaiju & Other Creatures]]-]]]''' |
| 4 | \ |
| 5 | '''[[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseHumans Humans]]-]]]''' |
| 6 | ''' [[center:[-[[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Families]] ([[Characters/MonsterVerseRussellFamily Russell Family]]) | [[Characters/MonsterVerseMonarch Monarch]] ([[Characters/MonsterVerseIshiroSerizawa Dr. Ishirō Serizawa]]) | [[Characters/MonsterVerseUSGovernmentAndMilitary U.S. Government & Military]] | Skull Island Expeditions | [[Characters/MonsterVerseEcoTerrorists Eco-Terrorists]] | [[Characters/MonsterVerseApexCybernetics Apex Cybernetics]]-]]]''' |
| 7 | ---- |
| 8 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 9 | |
| 10 | !!1973 Expedition |
| 11 | |
| 12 | !!!'''Monarch''' |
| 13 | |
| 14 | [[folder:William "Bill" Randa]] |
| 15 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/randa_william.jpg]] |
| 16 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I'm sorry for your men. Believe me, I truly am. Get us home. With proof. So that we can send the cavalry."'']] |
| 17 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote: Click here to see him when he was younger]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mlom_youngbillranda_2.jpg[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 18 | |
| 19 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JohnGoodman, Creator/AndersHolm (young) |
| 20 | !!!'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/JacquesFrantz (European French) |
| 21 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' | ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' |
| 22 | |
| 23 | -->''"I spent the last thirty years trying to prove the truth of what I learned that day. This planet doesn't belong to us. Ancient species owned this Earth long before mankind, and if we keep our heads buried in the sand, they will take it back."''\ |
| 24 | |
| 25 | A senior Monarch official and the mentor of Dr. Houston Brooks, who starts the 1973 expedition to Skull Island, looking to get proof of the Titans' existence to bring back to the world after he survived a marine Titan attack decades earlier. He also investigated Titans alongside Lee Shaw and Dr. Keiko Miura in the 1950s, marrying the latter during that time. He's the father of Hiroshi, and he's posthumously the paternal grandfather of Cate and Kentaro Randa. |
| 26 | ---- |
| 27 | %%* ActorAllusion: To ''Film/TheBigLebowski''. |
| 28 | * AdmiringTheAbomination: Instead of freaking out when he sees Kong's humongous, bloody handprint, he simply utters an awed "Magnificent," and lines up his own injured hand with it. |
| 29 | * AgentMulder: In his youth, even before joining Monarch, he was open to almost every crackpot theory up to and including {{kaiju}} getting around via teleportation, and he was even willing to record two drunks and a ''blind'' eyewitness as reliable evidence of possible Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism sightings. The only exception which he didn't believe in was [[ArbitrarySkepticism aliens]] ([[Characters/MonsterVerseKingGhidorah ironically]]). |
| 30 | * AllForNothing: [[spoiler:The true purpose of the expedition was for Randa to get proof of Kong's existence so he could get the government to take the latter out afterward. The expedition results in numerous deaths including his own, with him being SwallowedWhole by a Skullcrawler, along with the proof he needed to provide for the government to send TheCavalry.]] |
| 31 | * AnimalNemesis: He's indicated to have this when he tells Packard that his true goal with the Skull Island Expedition is to expose the existence of monsters to the world so that they can "send in the cavalry" -- all because the ship he was stationed on in World War II was sunk, implicitly by Godzilla. |
| 32 | * AntiHeroSubstitute: |
| 33 | ** To [[Characters/MonsterVerseIshiroSerizawa Dr. Serizawa]]. Both are Monarch scientists with knowledge (and a degree of reverence) of the monsters, and both have a younger number two who they function as a mentor to and work with as a duo. But while Serizawa cooperated with — and deferred to — the military, openly spoke his mind, and [[spoiler:didn't want to risk human life]], Randa is willing to pester Senator Willis for weeks about funding the expedition, lie about its true purpose to Packard, his men and Landsat (thereby endangering dozens of people without their knowledge or consent), and [[spoiler:treat everyone else in the company as expendable pawns, all for his own gain]]. Furthermore, Serizawa in his debut was reverent of Godzilla and reluctant to try killing any of the {{kaiju}} unless he saw no other choice, whereas Randa is his debut initially wanted the creatures wiped out to keep humanity safe and he at first didn't see Kong as being any different than the Skullcrawlers or Ion Dragon. |
| 34 | ** Also to [[Characters/MonsterVerseFamilies Joe Brody]]. Much like Joe, Randa has been in a tragic incident that involves Kaiju-sized monsters, and they both spent the majority of their lives trying to uncover the truth no matter the cost, even if they are seen by others as crazy. [[spoiler: Unlike Joe, Randa is willing to [[ManipulativeBastard lie about the true purpose of his mission to Skull Island]] to get what he needs, which leads to the deaths of dozens of soldiers who should've been on their way home after the Vietnam War ended.]] |
| 35 | * ApocalypticLog: |
| 36 | ** His field notes on Skull Island's biome which were typed up during the expedition before he died (titled "Beyond Flora and Fauna: A Post-Darwin Thesis on the Nature of our World") are available to read in the ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' graphic novel. |
| 37 | ** In ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' "[[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E1Aftermath Aftermath]]", he tries to make one for Hiroshi on his handheld film camera, expressing sorrow for all the mistakes he made that Hiroshi blames him for and promising to establish a legacy that he hopes will give his sacrifices meaning. He drops the camera while fleeing a Mother Longlegs, which crushes it underfoot. However, the footage apparently somehow survived and made its way back to the outside world, as Hiroshi is shown watching it in [[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E10BeyondLogic the finale]]. |
| 38 | * ArbitrarySkepticism: Although he believes in Kaiju and has been desperately trying to prove they exist, he dismisses people who believe in aliens as nuts. [[spoiler: Which is ironic because [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Ghidorah]] in this 'verse still has his traditional origins as an alien.]] |
| 39 | * BeardOfSorrow: In the [[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E9AxisMundi ninth episode]] of ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Young Bill, who has been clean-shaven in all the flashbacks to earlier dates, has grown a five o'clock shadow in his depression [[spoiler:after he's seemingly lost Lee and now thinks he's the last living member of the original Monarch trio, putting him on the path to becoming the cynical, hairy ManipulativeBastard that was Old Bill in ''Kong: Skull Island'']]. |
| 40 | * BecauseYouWereNiceToMe: Bill reveals in "Birthright" that he never forgot how Keiko risked herself saving his life when the Ion Dragon threatened them in 1952, and he implies that it was a major factor in his [[RescueRomance falling in love with her]]. |
| 41 | * BreakTheCutie: His younger self in ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' is an idealistic, sweet-natured and good-hearted young man who is awed by the Titans, but losing one of his two career-long Monarch partners and his wife, [[TheLostLenore Keiko]], takes a toll on him after 1959, and he's visibly distant towards their son in 1962. [[spoiler:Losing his ''other'' closest Monarch friend Lee in Operation Hourglass and believing him to have been killed all but breaks Bill and leaves him all alone, and he descends into obsession with reviving Monarch and proving the Hollow Earth to be real, leading him to become estranged from Hiroshi and setting him on the path to becoming the jaded, ruthless ManipulativeBastard that he is in ''Film/KongSkullIsland'']]. |
| 42 | * ConnectedAllAlong: ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' reveals that he was close Monarch colleagues with Lee Shaw, who previously appeared in ''Godzilla: Awakening'' and had no known connection to Bill beforehand, in the 50s, and "[[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E2Departure Departure]]" hints that they may have entered Monarch together in '52. |
| 43 | * TheCuckoolanderWasRight: After being attacked by an unknown kaiju as a young man, he theorized that a larger ecosystem was at work in the world. He was, of course, completely right. |
| 44 | * DeathGlare: Delivers one to Packard when he talks about what motivated him to search for Kong. And it actually ''scares'' Packard. |
| 45 | * DramaticIrony: |
| 46 | ** While the original purpose of Monarch is murky, Randa was a senior Monarch official obsessed with discovering monsters so he can reveal them to the world and advocate for their extermination. The current heads of Monarch in 2019 have the exact opposite goal of preserving them; neither party likely knew about this difference of opinion and the divisiveness exists even into the current iteration. And when [[spoiler:his wife]] was [[spoiler:supposedly]] killed by newborn monsters in an abandoned nuclear power plant, he went from being awed to the sight of Godzilla to now wanting Titans dead. |
| 47 | ** In the 60's, he loses his wife and then his best friend, making him the only sole member of the original Monarch to continue. Up until his death, he wouldn't find out that [[spoiler:his best friend was alive all along, and pushed forward into the 80's, and his beloved wife survived her encounter with the Endoswarmers]]. |
| 48 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Very abruptly killed halfway through the movie, courtesy of a Skullcrawler]]. Made worse when you consider he is the lone survivor of a monster attack and that [[spoiler: he was forced to watch his wife suffer a similar fate years ago.]] |
| 49 | * EmptyPromise: According to Hiroshi, when he was a boy, Bill promised him that he'd come back before his fateful death on Skull Island. [[spoiler:Unlike Lee and Keiko, whom were both only [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated presumed dead]] and ''did'' manage to return to Lee some decades late, Bill really ''did'' die leaving his promise unfulfilled]]. |
| 50 | * EurekaMoment: "[[Recap/MonarchLegacyOfMonstersS1E8Birthright Birthright]]" shows that he has his realization that the Titans are able to move about the world undetected because they're using the HollowEarth when he sees an ant crawling through a hole in his world map in his office. |
| 51 | * ExceptionallyTolerant: {{Downplayed}}, given the time period, but in 1952 he, a white American man, had no problem believing that Dr. Keiko Miura, a Japanese woman, could be a scientist (Unlike Shaw, who initially mistook her for Dr. Miura’s assistant). He also wore a black team’s baseball cap in the 40s and 50s. In the 70s, despite otherwise taking a level in jerkass, he picked Dr. Brooks and Dr. Lin (a black man and another Asian woman) to be the scientists on the Skull Island expedition. |
| 52 | * {{Expy}}: Of Carl Denham as the guy behind the Skull Island Expedition, specifically having the manipulative traits of Denham in ''Film/KingKong2005''. To underscore the point he's seen filming footage of Skull Island. |
| 53 | * GoodStepmother: GenderInverted. [[spoiler:He finds out Keiko was a mother and was supporting her and Hiroshi -- Bill offers to support them when she tells him her life before being a scientist. Bill's attempted ApocalypticLog to Hiroshi in 1973 indicates he dearly loved the boy like he was in his own despite how badly their relationship had crumbled]]. |
| 54 | %%* HairContrastDuo: His and Keiko's dark hair to Lee Shaw's light hair in the 50s. |
| 55 | * HappilyMarried: He was married to Keiko Miura when they were active Monarch together, and had a son Hiroshi. It gets tragically cut short when [[spoiler:Keiko was dragged to Hollow Earth by Endoswarmers]]. |
| 56 | %%* HeldGaze: Conrad and Randa in the bar. |
| 57 | * HypocriticalHumor: When Senator Willis compares Monarch's search for monsters to the equally abortive search for UFO's, Randa protests that ''those'' people are the ones who're nuts. Later, Randa chides Cole for lighting a cigarette in an area with highly flammable volcanic fumes, while Randa himself continues to use a camera with a visible, sparking flash. |
| 58 | * IAmNotYourFather: It's revealed towards the end of ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' [[spoiler:that he has no biological relation to his wife Keiko's descendants, whom share his family name, because Keiko secretly had Hiroshi before Bill entered their lives]]. |
| 59 | * ItsAllMyFault: He blames himself in "Axis Mundi" for the catastrophic failure of Operation Hourglass [[spoiler:and the seeming death of Lee, three years after they lost his wife Keiko]]. |
| 60 | * JawDrop: His jaw goes slack when he witnesses Kong on Skull Island for the first time amid the latter's violent introduction to the Sky Devils. His jaw also falls when he sees one of the soldiers in the bamboo forest has suddenly been impaled through the mouth on what appears to be a bamboo stalk, courtesy of the camouflaged Mother Longlegs. |
| 61 | * TheLostLenore: He loses Keiko when she falls to her death after being swarmed by Endoswarmers. [[spoiler:She actually survived, and now her own husband is now this to her]]. |
| 62 | * ManipulativeBastard: In his later life, he can be a real tool when it comes to using other people to get what he wants. He piggybacks on a Landsat expedition and recruits various military personnel to form his venture to Skull Island, all without alerting any of them to the existence of {{Kaiju}} on the island, let alone telling them of his own agenda for the expedition (to collect hard proof of the Titans' existence and bring it back to Washington in the hopes they will "send the cavalry" to exterminate the creatures). [[spoiler:Randa all but confirms that he secretly intended for his and Dr. Brooks' carpet-bombing of the island in the form of geological surveys to draw a Titan out for the purpose of acquiring proof, which leads to the brutal collateral deaths of half the unwitting soldiers he recruited]]. |
| 63 | * NiceGuy: His 50's era self was this, being friendly, charming and honest with both Kei and Lee. He shows no hesitation in thinking of Keiko as a fellow scientist, when even Lee had some hang-ups about her sex and race. |
| 64 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: Randa's duplicity is what results in the conflict between Kong and Packard in the first place. Not only does he lie to Packard about the true purpose behind the expedition to Skull Island but his decision to bomb the island in order to draw out a monster is what causes Kong to kill Packard's men. It also leads to the Skullcrawlers waking up. |
| 65 | %%* NiceMeanAndInbetween: In the 50s trio in ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters''. |
| 66 | * OneSteveLimit: {{Averted|Trope}}. He shares his first name with Admiral William Stenz, who debuted in [[Film/Godzilla2014 the movie]] preceding Randa's [[Film/KongSkullIsland debut]], although Randa when referred to by his first name is usually referred to by the shortened form "Bill". |
| 67 | * ParentalNeglect: After Keiko [[spoiler:and then Lee seemingly]] died, he became inattentive to Hiroshi, often leaving him to be babysat by his grandmother, [[spoiler:and it implicitly got even worse after [[ReportsOfMyDeathWereGreatlyExaggerated Lee]] seemingly died in 1962 as well]]. He is painfully aware of this when he was running for his life on Skull Island, and apologizes to Hiroshi for not being a good father, and doesn't blame his son if he doesn't care. |
| 68 | * PosthumousCharacter: In ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'', he's dead in the 2015 storyline, but his actions when he was alive still influence the plot. His files recovered from Skull Island set off the main 2015 cast's journey around the world and them coming under Monarch's scrutiny. |
| 69 | * RescueRomance: He [[ImpliedTrope implies]] that Keiko saving his life during their encounter with the Ion Dragon in 1952 when she didn't have to was a major factor in him falling in love with her. |
| 70 | * SharedFamilyQuirks: Apparently, his son Hiroshi shares his tendency to scrawl down notes with his pencils so much that he wears them down to nubs. |
| 71 | * SmugSnake: A not-all-villainous version, given he uses his hidden agenda to convince a senator to provide him the resources he needed to launch an expedition to Skull Island but lies about the true purpose of the mission. |
| 72 | * SoleSurvivor: He was a crewman on a U.S. warship when he was young. A monster attack on the ship left him the only survivor, and he spent his life uncovering the truth about the monsters to the world from that point on. |
| 73 | * SwallowedWhole: [[spoiler: He's eaten by the same Skullcrawler that ate Chapman. Though at least his busted camera flashing gave the others some warning.]] |
| 74 | * TheyCalledMeMad: He's the very first one in Monarch to posit the existence of HollowEarth and that it's the Titans' homeworld as well as their means of navigating the world undetected, but his theory was dismissed by everyone after the failure of Operation Hourglass. Despite General Puckett's plea to the contrary, Bill, [[spoiler:partly out of grief at the seeming deaths of his two Monarch co-founders,]] descended into obsession with proving his theory true, leading him to become the ManipulativeBastard he was in 1973. |
| 75 | * TimeShiftedActor: In ''Monarch: Legacy of Monsters'', Creator/JohnGoodman briefly returns to the role of Randa in the series' {{distant prologue}} to the events of ''Kong: Skull Island'', while throughout the rest of the series, Randa's younger self in the 1950s is portrayed by Creator/AndersHolm. |
| 76 | * TookALevelInCynic: The 1950s Bill shared Keiko's [[TheXenophile awe and enthusiasm for the Titans]], and was disgusted by the military nuking and seemingly killing Godzilla without first verifying if he was at all an active threat. Compare that to the 1970s Bill, who set out trying to bring proof of the creatures on Skull Island back to the U.S. government so they would "send the cavalry" and try to eradicate the creatures before they could threaten humanity. Granted, [[spoiler: this relatively sudden shift in his stance is because he witnessed Keiko being devoured by a horde of newborn Endoswarmmers, as well as losing his best friend Shaw on a disastrous mission to the Hollow Earth.]] |
| 77 | * TookALevelInJerkass: He's much sweeter, warmer, friendlier and more idealistic during the scenes set in the 50s in ''Series/MonarchLegacyOfMonsters'' than his bitter, jaded, conniving and ruthless older self during the events of ''Film/KongSkullIsland''. [[spoiler: Losing Keiko to the Endoswarmers after he supported her decision to go into the nest and was responsible for holding up her tether, and spending a decade and a half chasing monsters, probably had something to do with his bitter personality change, as well as losing Shaw to the Hollow Earth a few years later.]] |
| 78 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: He tells Col. Packard that he did what he did to reveal the truth to the world that giant monsters exist and humanity needs to be prepared for them, a truth that everyone dismissed and even ridiculed him for. |
| 79 | * TheXenophile: In his younger years, his fascination with the Titans was more idealistic, and he was appalled at the military [[NukeEm nuking and supposedly killing Godzilla]]. |
| 80 | [[/folder]] |
| 81 | |
| 82 | [[folder:Dr. Houston Brooks]] |
| 83 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brooks_houston.jpg]] |
| 84 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"Welcome to Monarch. This island... is just the beginning."'']] |
| 85 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote: Click here to see him in the present]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/58f2673a_4fb1_4679_b3c2_bc0e7e60a544.jpeg[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 86 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/CoreyHawkins, Creator/JoeMorton (older) |
| 87 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' | ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' | ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' | ''[[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Godzilla: King of the Monsters]]'' | ''Kingdom Kong'' |
| 88 | |
| 89 | -->''"The world never belonged to us. It belonged to them. The question is, how long 'til they take it back? Kong is not the only king."''\ |
| 90 | |
| 91 | A young geologist and graduate of Yale University who was recruited by Monarch for his [[IncrediblyLamePun groundbreaking]] theories on seismology. Later in life, he is one of the Monarch scientists who witnesses Mothra's final form. |
| 92 | ---- |
| 93 | * AesopAmnesia: In ''Kingdom Kong'', he's forgotten that [[DugTooDeep digging too deep]] with explosives on Skull Island is a universally shitty idea, which awakened the Skullcrawlers and got multiple people killed the last time he did it in 1973. This time, his blunder fuels the final destruction of Skull Island's ecosystem. |
| 94 | %%* AntiHeroSubstitute: To Dr. Vivienne Graham in his debut. |
| 95 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: Brooks is pretty friendly, but he can also handle firearms to defend himself from the monsters on Skull Island. [[spoiler:He even saves Kong's life in the climax when he fires the mounted machine gun on Marlow's boat at the alpha Skullcrawler to distract it from delivering the killing blow to Kong.]] |
| 96 | * BigDamnHeroes: Shortly after Kong pulls one, Brooks and San return the favor courtesy of riding in on Marlow's boat and distracting Ramarak from a pinned Kong by shooting at the former with the ship's mounted gun. |
| 97 | * BlackAndNerdy: He's black and a geologist recruited by Monarch for his research in seismology. |
| 98 | * BlueIsHeroic: He wears a blue jacket when he and Randa approach Senator Willis about Skull Island, and he's wearing a dark-blue shirt in the postcredits scene. {{Downplayed|Trope}} if not DoubleSubverted entirely, since his and Randa's actions in the former instance are quite shady. |
| 99 | * TheCameo: He only makes a One-Scene Wonder appearance in ''King of the Monsters'', and he also briefly appears in the prequel graphic novel ''Godzilla: Aftershock''. |
| 100 | * ChangedMyMindKid: At first, Brooks is very happy about going off ahead to find the boat but later, when it is time for him and San to leave, they find themselves far more conflicted. Just as it seems like Kong and everyone else is going to get finished off, Brooks and San return in the boat, distracting Ramarak with its weapons. |
| 101 | * TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: He and Bill Randa have apparently been called tinfoil-hat wearing loonies before for believing in the existence of monsters and the Hollow Earth theory. |
| 102 | * DemotedToExtra: After being one of the main cast in ''Kong: Skull Island'', he only makes minor appearances in ''The Birth of Kong'' and ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'', until ''Kingdom Kong'' once more grants him a more significant if non-action role. |
| 103 | * DynamicEntry: At the final battle of ''Kong: Skull Island'', Dr. Brooks makes a dramatic entry firing on the Skull Devil with a pair of sub-machine guns. |
| 104 | * {{Facepalm}}: He makes a despairing one when he's listening to Aaron's ApocalypticLog, at the moment when he realizes just why his son went to Skull Island. |
| 105 | * HollowWorld: It was his proposal of this theory, involving the planet being honeycombed with large hollow pockets, that got Randa's attention and ended up with him being brought into Monarch. It was Randa who advanced the theory that those hollow spaces were occupied by something ''big''. |
| 106 | * IgnoredExpert: Brooks's Hollow Earth theory made him a laughingstock to everyone except Randa at a committee. |
| 107 | * MinoredInAsskicking: In ''Kong: Skull Island'', Brooks mostly appears to be a meek and non-combative genius who runs his mouth a little when it comes to things he's passionate about, and is reliant on the likes of Conrad, Marlow and Slivko to keep him alive. But at the climax, Brooks valiantly fires ''two'' machine guns at the Alpha Skullcrawler to divert its attention from killing Kong, [[spoiler:and he doesn't stop firing even as the provoked monster is charging straight at him]]. |
| 108 | * MrExposition: In ''Kong: Skull Island'', he provides a significant amount of exposition about the island, the HollowEarth, his and Randa's backstory, and his scientific observations about the island's inhabitants. In ''Kingdom Kong'', he also exposits about Ghidorah's remnant storm, Camazotz, and the fate of Skull Island at the end. |
| 109 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: In ''Kingdom Kong'', he says this almost word-for-word when it hits him that he's unwittingly hastened the emergence of Camazotz. |
| 110 | * NerdGlasses: He has a pair of browline glasses. |
| 111 | * NiceJobBreakingItHero: |
| 112 | ** In ''Kong: Skull Island'', not only did the seismic charges enrage Kong and cause him to attack the expedition crew, they also awakened a lot of the Skullcrawlers which otherwise only come to the surface every so often. This convinced Kong that the Air Cavalry who were dropping the charges were a threat, and he responded accordingly; killing several of them, and also arguably influencing Packard's SanitySlippage which made Packard himself a threat. |
| 113 | ** He has a pretty ''severe'' case of this in ''Kingdom Kong'' which is probably only second to the U.S. military's kill-the-Titans blunders in severity. By persisting in conducting operations on Skull Island's Vile Vortex entry, he hastens the emergence of Camazotz, which ultimately leads to the destruction of the Iwi and Skull Island's entire ecosystem by a PerpetualStorm. Made even worse by the fact Brooks here is repeating the very same mistake he made the first time he came to Skull Island and expecting a different result, the definition of madness. |
| 114 | * NotListeningToMeAreYou: After explaining to Packard how the Skullcrawlers are the real threat, [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint the latter point about Kong not being the threat completely goes over Packard's head]] when he says they will wipe out the Skullcrawlers, only after Kong is dealt with. |
| 115 | * NumberTwo: To Randa. |
| 116 | * OhCrap: He has one in ''Kingdom Kong'' overlapping with MyGodWhatHaveIDone when he realizes Camazotz has awakened. |
| 117 | * PlatonicLifePartners: With San. [[spoiler:Subverted in the tie-in comic series where it's revealed that they married and have a son together.]] |
| 118 | * PutOnABus: In ''Kingdom Kong'', he mentions contemplating retiring in the aftermath of the irreversible harm Monarch have done to Skull Island under his leadership, and he hands management of Monarch's Skull Island outpost over to Dr. Andrews. The ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization reveals that at some point after the Lind brothers' failed effort to enter the Hollow Earth, Brooks went through with retiring. |
| 119 | * RankUp: In his ''Kong: Skull Island'' debut, Brooks is basically just an assistant to Bill Randa. Come ''Godzilla: King of the Monsters'', and he's a prominent enough figure in Monarch to be part of the team sent to the site of Mothra's pupa in order to monitor her, and he's known and respected by Dr. Ling and multiple other Monarch figures in the novelization. Then in ''Kingdom Kong'', Brooks is the managerial chief officer of Monarch's operations on Skull Island, [[spoiler:until he decides to leave Monarch and [[YouAreInCommandNow transfer his responsibilities to Dr. Andrews]]]]. |
| 120 | * TheReliableOne: During the preparation phases of the Skull Island Expedition, Brooks comes off as this. He's the one who's able to make the case for the expedition to the senator, putting it in terms (mainly that Monarch's discoveries could let America one-up the USSR) that convince the highly skeptical senator to agree to allow Monarch to piggyback along with the Landsat expedition, while all Randa had managed to accomplish was to come off as more and more unhinged throughout the same scene. |
| 121 | * SayMyName: |
| 122 | ** [[spoiler:When his partner and mentor Randa is eaten by a Skullcrawler]] in ''Kong: Skull Island'': |
| 123 | --->"''Randa!!!''" |
| 124 | ** He says Aaron's name in disappointment when listening to the ApocalypticLog, during his {{Facepalm}} in ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong''. |
| 125 | %%* ShipTease: With San Lin. |
| 126 | * ShotgunsAreJustBetter: He carries an Ithaca 37 while on Skull Island. |
| 127 | * TaughtByExperience: {{Averted}}. In ''Kingdom Kong'', he tries to map Skull Island's Hollow Earth portal with seismic charges, which is exactly what he did when he first came to Skull Island and which led to the Skullcrawlers awakening and most of the expedition getting killed. By repeating his original mistake without learning anything important from it, Brooks accelerates the emergence of Camazotz if not outright ''causing'' it, making him at best complicit in or at worst completely responsible for Skull Island's extinction. He acknowledges at the graphic novel's end that he's at fault for Skull Island's doom, and heavily implies it influences [[PutOnABus his decision to retire from Monarch]]. |
| 128 | * TheyCalledMeMad: He recounts to San Lin that when he first presented a paper supporting HollowWorld theory, the entire committee laughed out loud – everyone except for Randa, who subsequently recruited Dr. Brooks into [[CovertGroupWithMundaneFront Monarch]], where Brooks continued to pursue the Hollow Earth theory, partly explaining his involvement in the Skull Island expedition in ''Kong: Skull Island''. Brooks' theory is proven true in ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019''... only for [[SeriesContinuityError the whole world to egregiously forget this detail and go back to assuming the Hollow Earth is a crackpot myth]] in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. |
| 129 | * TimeShiftedActor: ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' features Creator/JoeMorton taking over the role from Creator/CoreyHawkins to portray an aged, present-day Houston in [[spoiler:the scene where Mothra emerges from her cocoon.]] |
| 130 | [[/folder]] |
| 131 | |
| 132 | [[folder:San Lin]] |
| 133 | [[quoteright:280:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/latest_65.png]] |
| 134 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JingTian |
| 135 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' | ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 136 | |
| 137 | A young biologist working for Monarch. |
| 138 | ---- |
| 139 | * AdvertisedExtra: In China, San Lin was given her own character poster, even though her role in the film is pretty minor. The reason for this has to do with the fact that her actress is from mainland China, where local stars are given tremendous amounts of publicity regardless of their actual role. However, San Lin has a fairly larger role in the novelization, where she gets involved in an incident with a sacred Iwi well, and helps defeat a Mire Squid that attacks Slivko. |
| 140 | * AsianAndNerdy: She's a scientist with a clear Asian ethnicity. |
| 141 | * BeautyIsNeverTarnished: San only suffers a couple of cuts and scratches. |
| 142 | * TheGenericGuy: She's stated to be a biologist, but brings no scientific insight to the table, and doesn't notably contribute to any of the group's endeavors (for good or bad). |
| 143 | * PlatonicLifePartners: Clearly bonds with Brooks. [[spoiler:Subverted in the first issue of the tie-in comic ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'', where it's revealed that they got married and had a son named Aaron.]] |
| 144 | * TheQuietOne: The least vocal of the Monarch personnel sent to the island. |
| 145 | %%* ShipTease: With Dr. Houston Brooks. |
| 146 | * SmallGirlBigGun: Visibly downplayed, but she’s the smallest member of the group, and carries the same kind of huge rifle as the soldiers. |
| 147 | %%* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: With Mason Weaver. |
| 148 | [[/folder]] |
| 149 | |
| 150 | !!!'''The Sky Devils''' |
| 151 | |
| 152 | [[folder:Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard]] |
| 153 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/990d9ff0_f3a1_11e6_9ae8_e9b40df6bd8d_0a1bf410_f331_11e6_8bc8_a956c43856b5_20170215_kongskullisland_monstersexist.jpg]] |
| 154 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"You are going to tell me everything I don't know or I'm going to blow your head off."'']] |
| 155 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/SamuelLJackson |
| 156 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 157 | |
| 158 | -->''"It's time to show Kong that man is king!"''\ |
| 159 | |
| 160 | A United States Army Lieutenant Colonel and the leader of the Sky Devils helicopter squadron hired to chopper the group of explorers on the expedition. |
| 161 | ---- |
| 162 | %%* ActorAllusion: "Hold onto your butts." |
| 163 | * AdaptationalVillainy: Gets one moment in the novelization. Unlike in the film (where he only finds out [[spoiler:Chapman is dead]] after the Boneyard), [[spoiler:Packard overhears Chapman being killed on the radio]] and lies to his men about it, going out of his way to put them in even more danger for the mere sake of acquiring more weapons. |
| 164 | * AggressiveCategorism: In Packard's eyes, there's only two types of lifeform, human or otherwise, anywhere on the planet: allies and enemies, with no in-between. He ignorantly continues to obsess over killing Kong over the latter's provoked massacre of the Sky Devils far past the point of reason, and he takes a borderline-irrational and equally-stubborn dislike to Weaver as soon as he finds out she's in the profession that he blames for the Vietnam War's unceremonious end – not only that, but Word of Saint Paul says that Packard would have likely ''murdered'' Weaver unprovoked if he'd had his own way at the movie's end. All of this firmly puts Packard in the trope's ''upholding'' category. |
| 165 | * AlliterativeName: '''P'''reston '''P'''ackard. |
| 166 | * AllForNothing: There are implications that part of what drives him into eventual madness is that, after years of intense combat duty in Vietnam, the American army is ultimately pulled out before achieving a decisive victory by the same micromanaging politicians who'd caused so much hassle for the troops getting cold feet over the sudden turn in public opinion. In other words, he shed all that blood and sweat and then was told to pack up and just say it was all a waste -- [[TruthInTelevision an opinion very common for Vietnam veterans]], especially given the harsh treatment they received after getting back to the States. His reflection as he looks at his medals best sums up his sorrow. |
| 167 | --> '''Packard:''' All this, and for what? |
| 168 | * AlwaysABiggerFish: He's on the receiving end of this trope for much of the movie. While he's a very capable threat and a veteran of the Vietnam War, he is just a human in a world where might makes right. Bloodlust and determination can only carry you so far when you're on an island where a [[PhysicalGod gargantuan ape]] and [[ReptilesAreAbhorrent man-eating lizards]] are at the top of the food chain. And that's not even getting into all of the smaller predators that roam the island. |
| 169 | * AnimalNemesis: When he locks eyes with Kong, something changes in Packard and he swiftly descends into an obsession-fueled madness. It's like a twisted version of love at first sight; Packard was feeling depressed because the Vietnam War was over, but in Kong, he found a new target he could focus all of his rage and bloodlust on. [[WordOfGod Jackson]] even outright says he's Ahab and Kong is his white whale. |
| 170 | * AntiVillain: At first. His backstory of a shell-shocked soldier is genuinely sympathetic and he seems to care about the well-being of the soldiers under his command, and even though he seeks vengeance against Kong at all costs, it's because Kong killed his men. Subverted by the third act, as he devolves into a full-blown villain, and it becomes clear to everyone, even his own men, that Packard only cares about killing Kong and will happily sacrifice them all to do it. |
| 171 | * ArmiesAreEvil: In contrast to the rest of his men under his command, Packard is a bloodthirsty and selfish officer looking for a fight. |
| 172 | * BadassBoast: It's Samuel L. Jackson, what do you expect? |
| 173 | --> '''Packard''': Remember the tale of Icarus, whose father gave him wax wings to fly. But he flew too close to the sun, and his wings melted, and he fell into the sea. But the US Army is ''not'' a neglectful father, so they gave us wings of white-hot, cold-rolled Pennsylvania steel, guaranteed not to melt.\ |
| 174 | '''Packard''': I ''am'' the cavalry.\ |
| 175 | '''Packard''': It's time to show Kong that ''MAN'' is king! |
| 176 | * BadassNormal: He's a decorated officer of the military and survives longer than most on the island. [[spoiler:That's not even going into how he almost ''kills'' Kong--something not even the Skullcrawlers (sans [[AlwaysABiggerFish Ramarak]]) could do!]] |
| 177 | * BadPeopleAbuseAnimals: A monster form. Whilst shooting monsters that are attacking or which one knows to be hostile in self-defence is completely justified; later in the movie, Packard shoots a distant Leafwing on sight while it was minding its own business (and this was before the expedition knew the Leafwings to be hostile), and this is one of the early signs that he's [[SanitySlippage losing his marbles and is on his way to becoming a danger to the rest of the cast]]. |
| 178 | * BaldOfEvil: Being a Samuel L. Jackson character, he doesn't have any hair under that helmet. |
| 179 | * BerserkButton: On top of having to pull out of Vietnam after fighting there for nothing, having half of his men killed by Kong sends him over the edge. |
| 180 | * BigBadEnsemble: Alongside Ramarak, though not intentionally. His obsession with revenge on Kong poses just as much risk to the survivors as Skull Island's wildlife [[spoiler: and he gets a large portion of them needlessly killed as a result]] and makes him a threat to Kong himself. |
| 181 | * BigBadWannabe: [[spoiler:While a genuine threat to the human cast and even to Kong at one point, he's basically a pebble compared to Ramarak, the film's ''true'' antagonist. As soon as Ramarak awakens, Packard quickly loses control of the situation and is swiftly dealt with by Kong.]] |
| 182 | * BlameGame: Packard accuses journalists like Weaver of being the reason behind America's decision to abandon Vietnam. Granted, he has a point since the Vietnam War is often called the first "televised war" and, thanks to media coverage becoming accessible from the comfort of their homes, people were able to see and hear about [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow the horrors of war]] in great detail like never before. The rise of mistrust in the government on the issue of credible news on the war contributed to the controversy as there were accusations of the gov't deliberately handing obfuscations and lies to the populace rather than objective first-hand accounts. To maintain support for the war effort, the U.S. government manipulated news outlets to focus on optimistic topics to paint the Vietnam War as a noble mission and the troops as glorious figures. Meanwhile, media correspondents overseas focused more on the negative aspects and painted a dark picture of the war for the American people. On top of that, [[{{UsefulNotes/Feminism}} second-wave feminism]] was in full effect with the women’s liberation movement, and women were very vocal in the anti-war protests as well as the issues of equal rights and better treatment from men. [[BothSidesHaveAPoint To be fair]], a number of U.S. citizens ''and'' soldiers were against the war from the get-go and protested against the country's involvement during the anti-war movement, and being anti-Vietnam War didn't automatically make someone a [[CategoryTraitor communist sympathizer]] (though there certainly was overlap). At the same time, ''some'' members of the media would later admit to deliberately slanting their coverage to undermine support for the war and turn public opinion against it. It's unknown whether or not this was Weaver's intention but since she declares herself anti-war, it's a high possibility that it was, and though she doesn't exactly go out of her way to get along with Packard afterward, the feeling is mutual. |
| 183 | -->'''Packard:''' Ah, you were in the shit. I respect that. But it's people like you that lost us support back home.\ |
| 184 | '''Weaver:''' You're not seriously blaming the people ''without'' guns for losing the war, are you? |
| 185 | * BloodKnight: For him, it's hard to accept that the war is over. He is determined to fight Kong as if he were still in 'Nam fighting the NVA and the Viet Cong, going far enough to call the fight against Kong a war he will not lose. |
| 186 | * BullyingADragon: This is pretty much Packard's modus operandi with anyone and anything. Granted, the first time, no one was aware of Kong, so his rampage was justified, but even after learning the ape is pretty gentle when not angered or bothered, he apparently doesn't give a damn. |
| 187 | * CatchphraseInterruptus: A meta example. [[spoiler:Kong squashes [[Creator/SamuelLJackson Packard]] before he can finish saying "motherfucker".]] |
| 188 | * ColonelBadass: He's been through it in Vietnam, and he goes through much worse on the island. |
| 189 | * ColonelKilgore: Packard is downright heartbroken when the Vietnam War comes to an end. He seems both angry that the war ended without a proper resolution and that it ended in the first place; after so many years fighting, [[BloodKnight combat is his natural environment]]. |
| 190 | * ColonelKurtzCopy: Downplayed. He's a Vietnam War veteran tasked with escorting a research team to a tropical island who ends up going rogue when Kong kills much of his men. Obsessed with revenge, he decides to kill Kong, even when he's warned that doing this would allow the Skullcrawlers to run rampant over the island. He even nearly gets into a shootout with the other survivors when they just want to go home. Considering that ''Kong: Skull Island'' was based on ''Apocalypse Now'', this was most likely intentional. |
| 191 | * CommanderContrarian: He opposes Conrad's plan of trying to reach safe shores and instead takes what's left of his men to kill Kong. Needless to say, doom is upon him. |
| 192 | * CurbStompBattle: He's on the receiving end of one from Kong, who rips his Sky Devils right out of the air while Packard is largely helpless to stop him. |
| 193 | * DeathGlare: Packard gives many of these throughout the film toward anyone who gets on his bad side or opposes him. There's Kong, Weaver, and Conrad to name a select few. |
| 194 | %%* DeepBreathRevealsTension: DownplayedTrope during his TranquilFury. |
| 195 | * DetectEvil: {{Deconstructed}}. Packard claims to "know an enemy when he sees one," with Kong being that enemy. However, Kong isn't actually evil, just an animal protecting his territory from what he understandably believes to be intruders. |
| 196 | * DetrimentalDetermination: The vengeful kind. After Kong massacres his men and strands the surviving expeditioners on Skull Island, Packard becomes obsessed with killing Kong at all costs. He endangers all his remaining men repeatedly in the name of fulfilling his vendetta, ignoring multiple cautions from multiple comrades which aren't compatible with his vendetta's fulfilment. When Packard is informed that Kong had justifiable reasons for attacking them and that [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist Kong's death would enable the Skullcrawlers to potentially threaten the civilized world]], Packard thanks to his SanitySlippage and inner selfishness ''still'' presses on with killing Kong. [[spoiler:The end result is that ''everyone'' eventually abandons Packard, even his own beloved men once they all see [[HeWhoFightsMonsters how far he's gone and that he'll throw all of them on the bonfire just for the sake of revenge]]. Thus Packard stands alone against a pissed-off Kong, consumed by his obsession with fighting the latter to the death, when Kong [[SquashedFlat squashes him]]]]. |
| 197 | * DiscOneFinalBoss: [[spoiler:Packard's insanity makes him the main antagonist to both the survivors (whom he recklessly endangers in his vendetta) and Kong (whom he's trying to kill) along with the Skullcrawlers. But in the same confrontation he's killed in, Ramarak is awakened by Packard's attempt to kill Kong and firmly takes over as the main villain for the rest of the film.]] |
| 198 | * DramaticallyMissingThePoint: Marlow and Brooks tell Packard that killing Kong is a bad idea since his absence would enable the Skullcrawlers to run rampant, but Packard’s deteriorating mental state causes him to completely ignore the point that mankind’s survival depends on that of Kong's. |
| 199 | -->'''Marlow:''' You can't kill Kong, Colonel. Kong is God on this island. He’s the only thing keeping them lizard things in the ground.\ |
| 200 | '''Brooks:''' He’s right, Colonel. We can’t kill Kong. And that other creature? That's the threat. And there are more of them down there. If you take out a species’ natural competition, they will proliferate out of control.\ |
| 201 | '''Packard:''' Then we’ll end them too! After we bring this thing down. |
| 202 | * DrivenToMadness: [[spoiler:After being ordered to withdraw from Vietnam, Packard finds himself longing for a purpose, lacking a civilian life to go back to. When Kong wipes out half of his men and strands him on an island crawling with dangerous predators, Packard transforms into a revenge-driven madman who selfishly puts his grudge over the lives of his troops.]] |
| 203 | * DueToTheDead: He and some of his surviving men holds a brief makeshift funeral for those of him men who died in Kong's attack, where Packard affirms his vow to kill Kong at all costs. |
| 204 | * EntitledBastard: Upon their first meeting, he is immediately hostile to Weaver, reasoning that people like her who are in the media [[HeroWithBadPublicity make soldiers like him look bad]] so that makes her an enemy to him. He doesn't even try to see things eye-to-eye with her afterward as [[ItsAllAboutMe he only cares about his side of the situation.]] Even though the Monarch operatives kept him in the dark about the expedition's true purpose, Packard [[NeverMyFault refuses to acknowledge that he's also at fault]] for Kong killing most of his men since Kong wouldn't have reacted the way he did if Packard hadn't antagonized him first by dropping bombs onto his home (as ordered by Monarch) and attacking him (done on his own authority). As his misguided grudge against Kong intensifies, Packard develops a slight "[[MyWayOrTheHighway my way or the highway]]" kind of attitude, making the others have to choose between either doing whatever he wants since he’s the commanding officer or being left behind to fend for themselves and be picked off by a predator. Being a strong believer in "an eye for an eye," Packard feels he's within his rights to get even with Kong and continuously tries to justify his demand for his pound of flesh as he refuses to let what happened to his men go unpunished regardless of what anyone else says otherwise. |
| 205 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: While flying through the storm surrounding Skull Island, Packard relates a much-abridged tale of Icarus (see BadassBoast), before stating that their wings will ''not'' melt, thus they can fly as high as they like ... demonstrating exactly the kind of hubris the story of Icarus warns against. [[{{Pride}} Hubris]] is one of Packard's defining character traits. |
| 206 | * EtTuBrute: It's a bit of a blink-and-you'll-miss-it, but if you look closely when one of Packard's men ([[spoiler:Slivko]]) turns his gun on Packard after the latter's SanitySlippage, Packard has a surprised and hurt look on his face, although he doesn't hesitate at all to try drawing his gun on his mutineering soldier in turn. |
| 207 | * EvilCounterpart: To Admiral Stenz in ''Film/Godzilla2014''. Both are senior U.S. military commanders tasked with protecting civilians from giant monsters. However, whereas Stenz is a reasonable figure who listens to his civilian advisors and is more concerned with saving lives, Packard ignores the warnings of his allies and is more than willing to jeopardize the lives of his men just so he can kill Kong. Interestingly, Stenz is usually a non-action officer who operates from mission control, whereas Packard is a field soldier and ShellShockedVeteran as an important part of his character. |
| 208 | * EvilIsPetty: One of the first signs that Packard's morality and sanity are decaying is when he shoots a Leafwing that was just minding its own business for being an "ugly ass bird". |
| 209 | * FatalFlaw: His need for revenge. [[spoiler:After Kong decimates the Sky Devils, Packard forms an obsessive grudge that overtakes any sympathetic traits he may have. Despite caring for his men and wanting to avenge their deaths, Packard needlessly puts his surviving troops in danger, getting even more of them killed. His hatred of journalists puts him at odds with Weaver, and he refuses to see her as anything else besides another enemy he has to deal with. It's Packard's unwillingness to let go of his personal vendettas or even compromise that turns him into even [[HeWhoFightsMonsters more of a monster than most of the predators that roam the island.]]]] |
| 210 | * AFatherToHisMen: Packard is basically a DeconstructedCharacterArchetype of this, if not a suversion; while Packard does care for his men and takes their deaths personally, his thirst for blood takes precedence. His Sky Devils were about to be sent home to their families and lives, but Packard (who has no life outside of combat) accepts a highly dangerous mission without stopping to think about the men under his command. From there on, he repeatedly and carelessly places them in danger. Notably, his search for Chapman is pretty transparently not about Chapman at all, but about [[spoiler:the munitions he had at his disposal]], to the point of going to his crash site even after [[spoiler:learning about his death, despite the effort being a waste of everyone's time.]] |
| 211 | -->'''Conrad''': [[spoiler:I'm sorry, Colonel Packard... ''[holds up Chapman's dog tags]'' Chapman is dead.]]\ |
| 212 | ''[{{beat}}]''\ |
| 213 | '''Packard''': Doesn't change a thing. We're still going to that crash site.\ |
| 214 | '''Conrad''': What's at that crash site that you want so badly?\ |
| 215 | '''Packard''': Weapons! Enough to kill it! |
| 216 | * FauxAffablyEvil: Packard is an inherently selfish man who disguises that part of him in machismo, speeches, and fatherly care for his men. [[spoiler:After the attack by Kong, Packard ostensibly tries to lead his men to Chapman because he never leaves a man behind. In reality, he just wants the weapons at Chapman's crash site.]] |
| 217 | * {{Foil}}: To Conrad. Randa's ArmorPiercingQuestion when trying to hire Conrad is "Men go to war looking for something. If you'd found it, you'd be home by now." What Conrad was looking for revolved around his issues with his DisappearedDad, and a failed rescue mission involving a young girl. Conrad gets some closure helping another DisappearedDad find his way back to his family, and helping get the other survivors off Skull Island. Packard was looking for an enemy he could be victorious against, and he found one in the form of Kong. |
| 218 | * GeneralRipper: Having never lost a man in Vietnam, [[spoiler:losing most of his squadron to Kong]] makes Packard immediately label him an enemy and [[PretextForWar uses the event to wage war]] against Kong, and try to kill him through any means including [[KillItWithFire burning him with napalm]] and trying to blow him up with bombs. |
| 219 | %%* HeldGaze: |
| 220 | %%** Packard and Kong multiple times (Antagonistic). |
| 221 | %%** Conrad and Packard. |
| 222 | * HeWhoFightsMonsters: [[spoiler:Packard's single-minded desire for revenge turns him into a selfish madman who will sacrifice whatever's left of his squadron if it means he'll kill Kong, making him just as much a threat as the Skullcrawlers.]] |
| 223 | * HistoryWithCelebrity: He has a picture on his office desk in Vietnam which shows that he was so commended for his military service that he was personally congratulated by a U.S. President (either Richard Nixon or Lyndon B. Johnson based on the side-view of the President's face and the chronology). |
| 224 | * {{Hypocrite}}: His motivation for his hatred against Kong is the death of several of his men. And to get revenge on Kong, he proceeds to...needlessly get even ''more'' of his men killed, all the while [[NeverMyFault never taking responsibility for any of it]]. |
| 225 | * IAmTheNoun: Just after Randa persuades Packard that the latter needs to help him get their expedition back to the U.S. with proof of Kong's existence so that the government will "send the cavalry" to destroy the island's monsters, Packard states "I ''am'' the cavalry", highlighting his {{pride}} and his looming obsession with killing Kong by himself for his own ambition to be the victor in a war. |
| 226 | * IrrationalHatred: Played with. He is civil to Weaver upon meeting her but turns bitter toward her almost immediately when he finds out what she does for a living, making it clear that he's not a fan of people in her line of work since he [[BlameGame holds them responsible for the troops in Vietnam losing stateside support and being forced to withdraw without a proper victory]]. [[https://www.moviefone.com/2017/02/01/15-vital-kong-skull-island-questions-answered-on-the-set/ According to Samuel L. Jackson,]] Packard's unfavorable attitude toward Weaver stems from his belief that journalists like her are a threat since their coverage can [[HeroWithBadPublicity cast soldiers in a bad light and cause the people back home to react to them negatively as if they're monsters]]. He may or may not know any of Weaver's work but that doesn't stop Packard from taking his frustrations out on her whenever he gets the chance. Plus, Samuel L. Jackson said that if Packard ever has his way, he'll probably [[ShootTheMessenger kill Weaver]] if Skull Island’s predators don't get her first. After the events in the Boneyard and Conrad's group tries to reason with Packard against killing Kong, he noticeably points his assault rifle at Weaver longer than any of the others who confront him. Not only does Packard hold his gun on Weaver, [[NoRangeLikePointBlankRange he holds it at her face at point-blank range]] complete with a long DeathGlare, even over ten seconds after Conrad finishes trying to talk him down. Not to mention Packard's response to Weaver's attempt at a KirkSummation when he later tries to kill Kong. |
| 227 | -->'''Weaver:''' Stop! The world is bigger than this.\ |
| 228 | '''Packard:''' Bitch, please! |
| 229 | * ItsPersonal: After Kong wipes out most of his men, Packard makes it his mission to get revenge. If Packard didn't take his losses so personally, he'd understand [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint the bigger picture]] but since Kong attacked his squadron and presented himself as an enemy, Packard feels it's completely fair and justified to strike back at Kong and take him down. |
| 230 | --> '''Packard:''' Before we leave this island, we're going to bring that ape down. |
| 231 | * {{Jerkass}}: He becomes a prick towards Weaver within ten seconds of meeting her. As for Randa, the novelization reveals that Randa can't stand Packard for his condescending attitude towards anyone who's not military. Needless to say, Packard becomes worse as he goes crazy. |
| 232 | * KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:He's killed by the very thing he was trying to murder in cold blood a few seconds ago.]] |
| 233 | * KickTheDog: During his VillainousBreakdown, Packard angrily snaps at Slivko in a chiding tone to "get out of there" as if he's dallying, when Slivko ''has a gun pointed point-blank at his face by Marlow'', showing his true colors. |
| 234 | * KilledMidSentence: Packard never gets to finish his PreMortemOneLiner [[spoiler:before Kong turns him into paste]]. |
| 235 | -->"''Die, you motherf-''" |
| 236 | * KillTheGod: Packard seeks to kill Kong, who is revered as a god by the Iwi natives. |
| 237 | * LastSecondChance: [[spoiler:When the Big One emerges at the climax,]] Conrad offers Packard a last chance to stand down from his mad quest and leave with the rest of the cast, but Packard denies it [[spoiler:and is subsequently smashed to pieces by Kong]]. |
| 238 | * LethallyStupid: As pointed out by others, by pursuing his ultimately-selfish vendetta against Kong, Packard is endangering not just himself but all his remaining men and the rest of the expedition, foregoing getting his remaining soldiers off the IsleOfGiantHorrors ASAP so that he can lead them towards trying to kill Kong for himself. Worse yet, Marlow and Brooks directly warn Packard that he's furthermore endangering all of Skull Island's benign inhabitants and potentially even ''all of humanity'' on the mainlands, because if he succeeds in killing Kong, then the hypervorous Skullcrawlers (just a single ''juvenile'' specimen of which managed to ferociously decimate Packard's men even further before the cast were able to bring it down) will overrun the island and proliferate out of control for Kong's absence -- Packard's only response is arrogantly insisting that he'll somehow end the Skullcrawlers too, ''after'' he's killed the Titan that's keeping them in check. |
| 239 | * ManHug: He embraces Captain Cole in open relief when they reunite after Kong's massacre. |
| 240 | * MobySchtick: Packard's obsessive enmity for Kong has a definite "Ahab" vibe. His fixation on Kong as ''the'' enemy becomes more obviously-monomaniacal once the island's Skullcrawlers and various other predators prove they pose a far greater danger, yet he continues to make killing Kong a priority over dealing with those threats. |
| 241 | * MotiveDecay: Over the course of the film, he loses track of the fact that his mission is supposed to be supporting and protecting the expedition, not waging a private war against the local cryptids. This causes him to go back into the jungle to set a trap for Kong when he's being presented with a safe way off the island and there are no more people he needs to account for before leaving. |
| 242 | * MyGreatestSecondChance: In a very self-serving way, Packard sees killing Kong on Skull Island after the latter attacks his squadron as his own chance to make up for his feelings that America's withdrawal from Vietnam without destroying the Viet Cong rendered his sacrifices in the war all for nothing. |
| 243 | * TheNeidermeyer: While he seems to care for his men, he has no problem with putting his obsession to kill Kong over the safety of whoever remains in his group. |
| 244 | * NervesOfSteel: Madness aside, Packard's got a LOT of guts. When the Sky Devils fly through a vicious hurricane, he calmly recites the myth of Icarus; when face to face with Kong, he just glares with pure malice; when confronted by monsters, he hunkers down and goes in guns blazing; when faced with Ramarak hot on his ass and Kong a few meters in front of him, he still attempts to utter a PreMortemOneLiner. |
| 245 | * NeverMyFault: Not once does Packard consider that Kong never would have attacked and killed his men had Packard not dropped bombs on his home and attacked him first. |
| 246 | * NoOneGetsLeftBehind: His stated reason for risking his current troops to reach the crash site is to rescue Chapman. It's unclear how much of this is a genuine concern for Chapman's well-being and how much is the desire for the weapons cache he is currently with. |
| 247 | * NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist: [[spoiler: While he's (somewhat of) AFatherToHisMen, his obsessive vendetta with Kong gets many of his surviving troops needlessly wiped out. He says that a soldier has to commit vicious acts so that people won't have to live in fear and their country can be safe; however, his actions have been anything but well-meaning, only meant to serve himself and his grudge. This could very well be Packard trying to justify himself in the face of scrutiny.]] |
| 248 | --> '''Packard:''' [[spoiler: We are ''soldiers''! We do the dirty work, ''so our families and our countrymen don't have to be afraid!'' [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow They shouldn't even know a thing like this exists!]]]] |
| 249 | * PetTheDog: As insane as he is, he does genuinely care a lot for his men. He's shown embracing Mills and Cole tightly when they are reunited, going so far as to pat the back of Cole's head affectionately. He also provides a proper burial for the fallen soldiers, [[spoiler:and orders Mills to take Chapman's note back to his family after he was killed.]] He also lets Conrad escort the civilians back to safety while he and his troops go after Kong. |
| 250 | * PrecisionFStrike: {{Subverted|Trope}} [[spoiler:during his death scene]]. He tries to call Kong a "motherfucker", but by that point in the movie, Marlow has already used up the sole F-bomb that a PG-13 rating permits a movie, so Packard doesn't manage to get out more than a "[[CurseCutShort motherfu-]]" [[spoiler:before Kong squashes him [[KilledMidSentence mid-word]]]]. |
| 251 | * {{Pride}}: His response to insurmountable odds or an unbelievable situation putting him and his men on the backfoot is to compensate with brash confidence, which, true to Franchise/MonsterVerse form, is his undoing. When Randa pleads with him to help him bring proof of Skull Island's existence back to the U.S. government so they can "send the cavalry", Packard responds "I ''am'' the cavalry", and he intends to kill Kong with just himself and his men. He ignores advice from well-informed others around him which contradicts his own wants, getting his remaining men needlessly endangered; and when informed that killing Kong would be catastrophic for the world, Packard in his SanitySlippage boasts that he'll simply wipe out the Skullcrawlers too (despite how it took several of his men's lives and a ton of firepower just for them to win a fight against one ''juvenile'' Skullcrawler while the species overall were being checked by Kong). [[spoiler:He keeps trying to kill Kong all the way to the end, boasting that he's going to show Kong "that man is king."]] |
| 252 | * ProfaneLastWords: [[spoiler:Kong squashes Packard as he is in the middle of saying "die, you motherfucker" as an attempted PreMortemOneLiner.]] |
| 253 | * ReflectiveEyes: In the tail-end of Kong's attack on the Sky Devils, while everyone else is running to get to safety, Packard calmly stands and stares up at Kong with his eyes reflecting the fiery explosions Kong is causing, signaling that the ShellShockedVeteran inside Packard is now singling Kong out as his new Viet Cong. |
| 254 | * RevengeBeforeReason: His fixation on revenge on Kong for killing his men gets ''more'' of his surviving men killed. Even after seeing firsthand how insanely dangerous ''one'' 'little' Skullcrawler is and learning Kong is the ''only'' thing keeping the species in check, he still refuses to give up his vendetta. [[spoiler: Despite Ramarak, the Alpha Skullcrawler who is ''clearly'' the more dangerous threat, rushing at the both of them, he spends his final moments trying to kill Kong.]] |
| 255 | * RevengeMyopia: He wants to avenge the deaths of his men at Kong's hands, despite Kong having done so out of defense for the island. |
| 256 | * SanitySlippage: Packard wasn't the most even-tempered fellow in the first place, but Skull Island pushes him further into lunacy and it even gets {{Lampshaded}}. Best shown when [[spoiler:after setting Kong on fire, the rest of his men have [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone varying degrees of horror on their faces]], but he has a SlasherSmile.]] |
| 257 | * ScaryBlackMan: If being played by Samuel L. Jackson wasn't enough, his obsessive grudge with Kong is unnerving at best and he only gets worse as the film continues. |
| 258 | * ShellShockedVeteran: His well-decorated service in the Vietnam War has apparently done a number on him. Getting stranded in a new hostile tropical terrain (Skull Island) and seeing the local giant ape slaughter half his men sends him into a downward spiral of insanity and obsession. |
| 259 | * ShootTheMessenger: Played with. According to WordOfGod, if the island's predators don't kill Weaver first, then Packard would do the deed himself for her role in the troops losing support for the war. |
| 260 | * ShutUpKirk: He's quick to cut off Weaver's KirkSummation with this golden exchange: |
| 261 | -->'''Weaver:''' Stop!...The world is bigger than this.\ |
| 262 | * ''{{beat}}''*\ |
| 263 | '''Packard:''' Bitch, please! |
| 264 | * SlasherSmile: In contrast to [[MyGodWhatHaveIDone his men]], Packard is downright gleeful as he watches Kong burn in his napalm trap. |
| 265 | * SmugSnake: He's fully confident that he can take out Kong. [[spoiler: Five seconds before having the chance to do so, Kong squashes him like a bug with no problem whatsoever]]. |
| 266 | * SquashedFlat: [[spoiler:This is how Packard dies. As he's midway through saying "Die, you motherfucker" and getting ready to blow up Kong, Kong brings his fist down on Packard and squashes him into the ground.]] |
| 267 | * SunkCostFallacy: Packard is understandably upset that Kong killed so many of his men, but this creates a vendetta that prevents him from just cutting his loss and escaping the island with the men he has left and only gets more of them killed in service of his selfish grudge. |
| 268 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: To Lieutenant Colonel Nevitt in ''Film/KingKongLives''. Both men are U.S. Army lieutenant colonels with an extreme hatred of Kong ([[spoiler:and both die by Kong's hand, literally, the same way]]), but whereas Nevitt is never given a precise ''reason'' for hating Kong and wanting to kill him, Packard, at least, has a leg to stand on, blaming Kong for the deaths of several of his men. |
| 269 | * TakingYouWithMe: [[spoiler:''Almost'' pulls this off on Kong, but Kong was just a bit [[SquashedFlat too fast.]]]] |
| 270 | * ThisMeansWar: After Kong kills more than half his men and strands everyone on the island, this is what's on Packard's mind from then on. |
| 271 | * TragicVillain: In the vein of [[Literature/MobyDick Captain Ahab]], Packard's quest for revenge consumes him. He begins the film as a fairly reasonable man thrust into a situation out of his control. He tries his best to save as many people as he can even as the situation rapidly deteriorates. As the film goes on the need to kill Kong overrides everything else and avenging his men quickly devolves into a SunkCostFallacy as he loses more in pursuit of that revenge. Any traits of gratitude, honor, and even self-preservation are pushed to the side as his vendetta grows. By the end, everyone has left him and he stands alone against the monsters of the island. |
| 272 | * TranquilFury: When he's informed that several of his men have died to Kong's attack, Packard turns around, breathes deeply, then calmly demands to know where [[ManipulativeBastard Randa]] is. Upon finding Randa, Packard makes some friendly small talk with him, before pulling a gun and calmly telling Randa flat-out that he's either going to explain everything or Packard's going to put a bullet in his head. |
| 273 | * UngratefulBastard: As he descends into insanity, he tunes out whatever voice of reason he hears trying to talk him out of going after Chapman and killing Kong. Packard also couldn't care less that Weaver saves him and the others from the Skullcrawler in the Boneyard, and later "repays" Weaver by pointing his rifle at her. |
| 274 | * UnknownRival: He arrogantly believes that he, with his military cunning and human technology, is the biggest threat to Kong on the island, and acts as if the two are locked in a mutual war for dominance. While Packard indeed nearly kills Kong and the beast is shown to hate him with an animal fury, it's made clear Kong's real ArchEnemies are the Skullcrawlers who devoured his parents and have made every day of his life a bloody, hellish fight for survival; [[spoiler:when Packard is about to deal a killing blow and Ramarak is approaching the two of them, Kong dismissively crushes the man almost like he wants him to shut up, then gets to his feet to fight the much bigger foe]]. |
| 275 | * VillainHasAPoint: It's true that Kong ''did'' kill a large number of Packard's men, some of which [[ImAHumanitarian very violently.]] From the colonel's perspective and the perspective of everyone there, he did this for no reason beyond a territorial dispute. Who wouldn't respond by seeking vengeance for the innocent men who were killed by a giant "monster"? He loses his point in the third act, though, once he meets Lieutenant Marlow who tells him why killing Kong is a ''terrible'' idea, but he pursues his vengeance anyway. |
| 276 | * VillainousBreakdown: Packard becomes a hostile threat due to a movie-long SanitySlippage, but when Conrad and Weaver's group return to stop the Sky Devils' attempt to kill Kong; Packard starts ranting at them out of the blue as if he's reassuring himself or expressing long-buried indignance that he and his men are soldiers enabling their country's civilians and families to sleep soundly at night, and he shouts at [[TheBabyOfTheBunch Slivko]] [[KickTheDog for having a gun pointed at his head]]. [[spoiler:From there, Packard doesn't hesitate in the slightest to draw a gun on Slivko the ''second'' that the latter relieves him of command. When the Alpha Skullcrawler emerges, Packard goes completely catatonic at the sight, until Kong awakening rouses Packard's attention, and he spends his last seconds trying to kill the ape again, oblivious or uncaring that the men who he was a father to at the movie's start have abandoned him because of how far he's fallen]]. |
| 277 | * VillainousLegacy: A surprisingly positive one. According to the ''Film/GodzillaVsKong'' novelization, his use of napalm against Kong in '73 led to Monarch in later years discovering how to knock Kong out so they could seal him inside a bio-dome for his own protection and later transport him off Skull Island. |
| 278 | * VillainousUnderdog: A normal human armed with only standard explosives and weaponry, and the command of a handful of men, makes it his mission to kill [[PhysicalGod Kong]]. [[spoiler:He ''almost'' succeeds]]. |
| 279 | * VillainousValor: He's ''way'' out of his league when he first encounters Kong, but it's admirable how far he gets with only a few men, explosives, and the PowerOfHate. |
| 280 | * WhyDontYouJustShootHim: He could have ended Kong's life or at least severely wounded him had he just pressed the detonator instead of attempting a PreMortemOneLiner. Naturally, [[spoiler: Kong [[SquashedFlat pancakes him]] before he has the chance to finish]]. |
| 281 | [[/folder]] |
| 282 | |
| 283 | [[folder:Major Jack Chapman]] |
| 284 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/chapman_jack.jpg]] |
| 285 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"Dear Billy, sometimes life'll just punch ya in the balls."'']] |
| 286 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/TobyKebbell |
| 287 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 288 | |
| 289 | -->''"Dear Billy, this place is Hell..."''\ |
| 290 | |
| 291 | A U.S. Army Major and Packard's right-hand man. He's eager to get back to his son, Billy. |
| 292 | ---- |
| 293 | * ButtMonkey: Life is downright cruel to this guy. First, he's recalled back into duty for one last mission by Packard when he was about to go home to see his son and start working in an airline career. When they crash on Skull Island, he is separated from the others and left all alone as the sole survivor of his helicopter crash with a broken radio. He has several close calls with the monsters on the island. [[spoiler: During his encounter with a Spore Mantis, it looks like [[HopeSpot he can drive it away with his gun]], but then he turns back and [[OhCrap realizes that the Mantis was fleeing away from something far worse:]] a Skullcrawler, which then proceeds to eat him alive. ''Finally'', his half-digested skull is spat out when the Skullcrawler is attacking the main group, making it obvious that [[CruelAndUnusualDeath the guy got a very messy death.]]]] |
| 294 | * DecoyProtagonist: Chapman is built up as a major supporting character, who survives for a good long while on his own and seems poised to rejoin the other protagonists, [[spoiler:but gets killed by a Skullcrawler shortly before the third act.]] |
| 295 | * DyingAlone: He gets stranded all by himself on the most dangerous part of the island. [[spoiler:Naturally, he bites the big one.]] |
| 296 | * {{Facepalm}}: After getting separated from his squadmates and being unable to contact them, leaving him alone in Skull Island's forests, Chapman acknowledges to himself that "life sometimes punches you in the balls", and he pinches the bridge of his nose. He's visibly about to graduate to the Double Facepalm [[spoiler:when the Spore Mantis shows itself]]. |
| 297 | * FatalFamilyPhoto: Not a photo, per se, but he has written a note he plans to send to his son Billy. [[spoiler:He never makes it back, and Packard orders Mills to take the note back to his family in his place.]] |
| 298 | * MauveShirt: Gets decent characterization and quite a bit of focus. [[spoiler:It does him precisely zero good when the Skullcrawler finds him.]] |
| 299 | * NervesOfSteel: His reaction to seeing a two-hundred-foot-tall gorilla rise against the sunset has to be seen to be believed: |
| 300 | -->'''Chapman:''' ''([[UnusuallyUninterestingSight Completely deadpan]])'' [[{{Understatement}} Is that a monkey?]] |
| 301 | * NumberTwo: To Packard. |
| 302 | * {{Retirony}}: He's about to quit the military when Packard enlists him on one last mission. [[spoiler:He doesn't get home from Skull Island.]] |
| 303 | * SwallowedWhole: [[spoiler:Chapman meets the Skullcrawler and is KilledOffscreen by it [[GoryDiscretionShot (though some of his blood is seen splattering onto the radio he placed nearby)]]. His skull and dog tags are vomited back out later, giving proof to the survivors that Chapman is dead.]] |
| 304 | [[/folder]] |
| 305 | |
| 306 | [[folder:Glenn Mills]] |
| 307 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0576_9.JPG]] |
| 308 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"We just got taken out by a monkey the size of a building!"'']] |
| 309 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JasonMitchell |
| 310 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 311 | |
| 312 | -->''"We just got taken down by a monkey the size of a building!"''\ |
| 313 | |
| 314 | A young, loyal warrant officer. He's also one of the Sky Devils' helicopter pilots. |
| 315 | ---- |
| 316 | * BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler: Averted big time. He's part of the small group of survivors who actually makes it off Skull Island in one piece.]] |
| 317 | * CoveredInGunge: He gets covered in the Mother Longlegs' gooey innards when it's killed. |
| 318 | * DistressedDude: During the Mother Longlegs scene, he gets caught in its projectile tendrils and is being lifted up towards its main body to be eaten alive while the rest of the Sky Devils try to save him. |
| 319 | * EatenAlive: Just barely avoids this fate from the Mother Longlegs. |
| 320 | * FatalFamilyPhoto: {{Subverted|Trope}}. He mentions he has a family back home. He ultimately survives the movie. |
| 321 | * ExcellentJudgeOfCharacter: He's the first of the post-crash Sky Devils to realize that Packard cares more about killing Kong than he does about getting their squadron off the island alive. |
| 322 | * MommasBoy: The others tease him for writing over four times the amount of letters his mother sends him. |
| 323 | -->'''Reles:''' Hey, Mills. How many letters did you end up writing her?\ |
| 324 | '''Mills:''' I don't know. Uh, ten, fifteen?\ |
| 325 | '''Slivko:''' How many did she write you?\ |
| 326 | '''Mills:''' Uh, three, four?\ |
| 327 | (''Slivko visibly grimaces'')\ |
| 328 | '''Cole:''' Man, you got a shitty mom.\ |
| 329 | (''Reles and Slivko crack up'')\ |
| 330 | '''Mills:''' ''Thank you,'' Cole, for clearing that up. |
| 331 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After Packard sets fire to Kong with napalm, Mills, along with the rest of the Sky Devils, are visibly horrified. |
| 332 | * RedOniBlueOni: The more reserved blue to Cole's erratic red. |
| 333 | * SayMyName: When he's grabbed by the Mother Longlegs and screaming for help, [[spoiler:and also later when [[ThoseTwoGuys his best friend Cole]] is about to make his SenselessSacrifice against the Alpha Skullcrawler]]: |
| 334 | -->"''COLE!''" |
| 335 | * ThoseTwoGuys: With Cole. Subverted when [[spoiler:Cole tries to sacrifice himself to kill Ramarak.]] |
| 336 | * VitriolicBestBuds: With Cole, whom he chides for nonchalantly eating beans after their first encounter with Kong and lighting up a cigarette in a danger zone. |
| 337 | * YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: His overall reaction to Cole opening a can of beans despite having been knocked out of the sky by Kong only a few minutes prior. |
| 338 | [[/folder]] |
| 339 | |
| 340 | [[folder:Captain Earl Cole]] |
| 341 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/img_0575_9.JPG]] |
| 342 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I admit, that was an unconventional encounter."'']] |
| 343 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/SheaWhigham |
| 344 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 345 | |
| 346 | -->''"Sometimes the enemy don't exist 'til you go lookin' for one."''\ |
| 347 | |
| 348 | A seasoned Captain of the Sky Devils with a "unique" perspective on the mission. |
| 349 | ---- |
| 350 | %%* BigNo: When the Mother Longlegs grabs Mills. |
| 351 | * CloudCuckoolander: Even without the PTSD, he has his strange and silly moments. |
| 352 | * TheCloudcuckoolanderWasRight: He has his moments. |
| 353 | ** When Mills asks how he can possibly be hungry or unfazed by their encounter with Kong, Cole responds, "[[OutsideContextProblem There's no tactical precedent.]] We did the best we could in the situation." Which is fair, as Mills seems to admit. |
| 354 | ** He warns Randa with a story from personal experience that sometimes enemies don't exist unless you seek them out. [[spoiler:Everything about the conflict with Kong, both on Randa's end and later Packard's, comes from them seeing Kong as an enemy and wanting to kill him when all he's doing is protecting his turf from their provocational attacks.]] |
| 355 | * DeadpanSnarker: He tends to have an almost SeenItAll attitude, like when Mills calls him out for eating a can of beans right after being attacked by Kong. |
| 356 | * DeathByGenreSavviness: Right before the climactic battle between Kong and the big Skullcrawler, [[spoiler:[[ShellShockedVeteran Cole]], who was carrying a "blooper" and plenty of 40mm grenades gets the idea to buy the other survivors some time by priming two hand grenades, [[HeroicSacrifice and release the spoons once he gets eaten.]] The Skullcrawler charges, opens its mouth, and swats him with its tail, and he blows up when he impacts a nearby cliff, while the Skullcrawler continues its charge]]. |
| 357 | * DeathSeeker: It's not outright stated, but it's heavily implied that he suffers from PTSD after the Vietnam War. Much of his screentime has him with a blank expression and a thousand-yard stare. [[spoiler: This finally reaches its conclusion when he decides to perform a HeroicSacrifice by blowing himself up to kill Ramarak, or at least slow it down. It doesn't end exactly the way he wanted.]] |
| 358 | %%* DramaticDrop: Just before his SenselessSacrifice. |
| 359 | * FantasticallyIndifferent: While Mills is (rightfully) freaking out at being swatted out of the sky by, in Mills' own words, "a gorilla the size of a building", Cole just sits down and eats some rations. |
| 360 | --> '''Cole:''' Yeah. That was an [[{{Understatement}} unconventional encounter]]. |
| 361 | * FeedItABomb: [[spoiler:''Tried'' to do this on Ramarak with the explosives on his chest. Unfortunately, it doesn't work.]] |
| 362 | * HiddenDepths: The story behind his AKM - it was taken from a farmer conscripted into the NVA. Cole remarks that sometimes an enemy doesn't exist until you look for one. |
| 363 | * HotBlooded: While typically pretty quiet, he gets very loud and action-oriented during the battle with the Mother Longlegs. Granted, it's because his best friend was about to be eaten, but it's still the most emotion we get from him [[spoiler: until a few minutes before his death, where he's shown to be visibly terrified.]] |
| 364 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After Packard sets fire to Kong with napalm, Cole, along with the rest of the Sky Devils, are visibly horrified. |
| 365 | * RedOniBlueOni: The erratic, slightly perky red to Mills' more reserved and grounded blue. |
| 366 | * ReflectiveEyes: A variation happens during the carpet-bombing of Skull Island, where Cole's shades reflect the plumes of fire as he looks over the destruction with a {{slasher smile}}. |
| 367 | * SenselessSacrifice: [[spoiler: Near the end of the movie, Cole tries to sacrifice himself to kill or at least delay Ramarak. He pulls out two grenades (and is wearing a [[BadassBandolier bandolier full of 40mm rounds for his M79 grenade launcher, which will make a MUCH bigger boom]]) and presumably expects Ramarak to try and eat him, allowing him to blow it up from the inside. Instead of eating Cole, it simply whips him with its tail, sending him and the explosives flying uselessly away.]] |
| 368 | * ShellShockedVeteran: He's a returning Vietnam vet like the other Sky Devils, and it's implied that his eccentric and off-beat personality is a result of his war experiences and PTSD. After the Sky Devils have their eye-opening first encounter with a monster on Skull Island which decimates them and leaves them stranded, Cole's response is to calmly dig into some rations and lightheartedly acknowledge that it was "an [[{{Understatement}} unconventional encounter]]". |
| 369 | * SlasherSmile: He's grinning like a psycho when observing the seismic charges exploding on Skull Island, before Kong shows up. |
| 370 | * ThoseTwoGuys: With Mills. Subverted when [[spoiler: he tries to sacrifice himself to stop Ramarak.]] |
| 371 | * TragicKeepsake: He carries an [[TheEnemyWeaponsAreBetter AKM]] (as opposed to the other soldiers' standard-issue [=M16A1=]s), which he tells Randa was taken from a farmer fighting for the NVA. The way he tells the story suggests the experience still haunts him. |
| 372 | -->"He surrendered right after we leveled his village. He was 50 years old -- said he'd never even ''seen'' a gun 'til we showed up. Sometimes, an enemy doesn't exist till you go looking for one." |
| 373 | * UnusuallyUninterestingSight: Despite just being ripped out of the sky by a 50 ft ape, the first thing Cole does is start ''eating a can of beans''. Mills, [[YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe understandably in disbelief]], lampshades how asinine the act is. |
| 374 | [[/folder]] |
| 375 | |
| 376 | [[folder:Reg Slivko]] |
| 377 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cast_thomas_mann.jpg]] |
| 378 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Thomas Mann |
| 379 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 380 | |
| 381 | -->''"We're really not gonna talk about it? You know this is not normal, right? Stuff like that doesn't just happen!"''\ |
| 382 | |
| 383 | A young bandanna-wearing hipster and warrant officer of the Sky Devils known for carrying a portable record player. |
| 384 | ---- |
| 385 | * BadassesWearBandanas: Despite being the youngest member of Packard's platoon, he managed to survive both Skull Island and the Vietnam war, and he's almost always seen with a red bandanna tied around his head. |
| 386 | * TheBabyOfTheBunch: According to the King Kong wiki, Slivko is only seventeen years old during the events of the film. |
| 387 | * BrutalHonesty: Possibly due to the stressful situation, he doesn't try to mince his words when telling Marlow that his wife back home must ''definitely'' think that he's dead after all this time, to Conrad's disapproval. |
| 388 | * ConflictingLoyalty: Halfway through the film, he learns about Kong's true nature and develops a friendship with Marlow, who is the only other soldier in the civilian group. Later on, Slivko's loyalties are tested when Packard [[spoiler:sets Kong ablaze with napalm and orders him to move Weaver out of his way. Slivko ultimately makes the right choice and turns on his now-unhinged commanding officer.]] |
| 389 | %%* DistressedDude: In the Boneyard. |
| 390 | * GreaseMonkey: He has engineering skills which he uses to help get the engine of Marlow's jury-rigged, part-plane boat working and sea-worthy. He claims that his mechanic father taught him the skills of the trade, flippantly claiming his father would disown him if he couldn't use those teachings to get Marlow's makeshift boat running. |
| 391 | * TheHeart: He's this for the Sky Devils. [[spoiler: As soon as he trains his gun on Packard, the others lower their weapons as well.]] |
| 392 | %%* HeldGaze: Marlow and Slivko (Platonic). |
| 393 | * IntergenerationalFriendship: Bonds with World War II veteran Marlow. [[spoiler:This friendship convinces him to turn against Packard's insanity]]. |
| 394 | * MauveShirt: He's given a decent amount of characterization, being one of the few survivors of the expedition. |
| 395 | * MrFixit: He came from a family of mechanics from Detroit and boasts that he's been taught to fix any machine. He's also the one who gets Marlow's boat operational. |
| 396 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After Packard sets fire to Kong with napalm, Slivko, along with the rest of the Sky Devils, are visibly horrified. He's shown hesitating before setting his section of the napalm-filled lake on fire, and looks quite close to tears when Kong passes out from his burn wounds. |
| 397 | * {{Portmanteau}}: The first type. He [[SarcasmMode creatively]] dubs the makeshift boat which heavily uses parts from a crashed plane a "ploat". |
| 398 | %%* RedIsHeroic: His bandana. |
| 399 | * ScrewTheRulesImDoingWhatsRight: [[spoiler:His time with Conrad's group and Marlow makes him the first soldier to turn on Packard when they realize that Packard no longer cares about anything except taking revenge on Kong.]] |
| 400 | [[/folder]] |
| 401 | |
| 402 | [[folder:Joe Reles]] |
| 403 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/reles.jpg]] |
| 404 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/EugeneCordero |
| 405 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 406 | |
| 407 | Packard's door gunner. |
| 408 | ---- |
| 409 | * TheBigGuy: Big, thick, and wields an M60. |
| 410 | * GroinAttack: Nearly receives one via the Mother Longlegs. |
| 411 | * MauveShirt: Of the soldiers in the expedition, he's among those who get special focus. [[spoiler:He also ends up surviving the film.]] |
| 412 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: After Packard sets fire to Kong with napalm, Reles, along with the rest of the Sky Devils, are visibly horrified. |
| 413 | * NearMissGroinAttack: He narrowly avoids getting stabbed in the groin by one of the Mother Longlegs' giant legs. |
| 414 | * TheQuietOne: He hardly speaks throughout the film. |
| 415 | * TwitchyEye: Does this the moment he overhears Packard wants to go after Kong. |
| 416 | [[/folder]] |
| 417 | |
| 418 | !!!'''Landsat''' |
| 419 | |
| 420 | [[folder:Victor Nieves]] |
| 421 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/JohnOrtiz |
| 422 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 423 | |
| 424 | A senior Landsat official on the expedition. |
| 425 | ---- |
| 426 | * AnArmAndALeg: [[spoiler: When a Leafwing divebombs into his arm, it slices the whole thing off with its sharp beak.]] |
| 427 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler: He's devoured by the Leafwings, but not before one of them chops his arm off. We hear him screaming in pain the entire time.]] |
| 428 | * DroppedABridgeOnHim: [[spoiler: Just when the civilian group is about to rendezvous with Packard and his men, a group of Leafwings appear out of nowhere and carry him off.]] |
| 429 | %%* HellYesMoment: Right before his death. |
| 430 | * IronicLastWords: "We're going home!" Right before Leafwings [[spoiler:hoist him away]] and tear him apart, firmly removing him from the "we". |
| 431 | * MercyKill: Averted. It seems like Conrad is going to do this for Nieves when he's being [[spoiler:torn apart in midair]], but he's apparently trying to aim for the killer flyers that have him and can't draw a bead on them. Either way, he doesn't fire his weapon. |
| 432 | * OnlySaneMan: Initially, he wanted to call off the mission, on account of the storm surrounding Skull Island being more dangerous than they'd initially presumed. He's also the most vocal in suggesting that everyone should get the hell out of there as quickly as possible. [[spoiler: Sadly, it doesn't save him from being eaten alive.]] |
| 433 | * VisualPun: {{Discussed|Trope}} by him. He notes that if his group takes Marlow's jury-rigged boat up north along the rivers but they miss their window to be picked up off the island's north shore, then they will be quite ''literally'' up a creek without a paddle. |
| 434 | * YouHaveGotToBeKiddingMe: He says the StockPhrase word-for-word when Marlow shows him ''The Gray Fox'' that him and Gunpei built out of their crashed planes, commenting that it looks "made out of pure tetanus". |
| 435 | [[/folder]] |
| 436 | |
| 437 | [[folder:Steve Woodward]] |
| 438 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/MarcEvanJackson |
| 439 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 440 | |
| 441 | A Landsat employee on the expedition. |
| 442 | ---- |
| 443 | * BewareTheQuietOnes: Despite being a geological survey technician, he becomes increasingly infatuated with the opportunity to use an [=M16A1=] and fight alongside the soldiers, to the point of joining Packard in his final push to kill Kong, albeit reluctantly. |
| 444 | * DeliberateValuesDissonance: He lives in the 1970s, and he's openly shocked to learn upon meeting Mason Weaver that the photographer is a woman. |
| 445 | * OhCrap: Upon realizing he's about to be crushed to death by Kong's foot, Woodward, looking up, can only sigh, "Oh, dear", then let out a last scream and try to run before he's flattened. |
| 446 | * PeerPressureMakesYouEvil: At first Steve insists on going straight to the pick-up point. However, when Packard asks if he's coming along to kill Kong, phrasing it as 'running with the big dogs or staying on the porch,' Steve dejectedly remarks that he doesn't want to 'stay on the porch.' |
| 447 | * SquashedFlat: [[spoiler: His final fate. Kong steps on him just mere moments before he kills Packard in the same fashion, albeit with his fist.]] |
| 448 | -->'''Woodward:''' [[spoiler: Oh, dear. '''''SQUISH''''']] |
| 449 | * UndignifiedDeath: He gets comically squashed underfoot [[spoiler:by an enraged Kong]] just after he looks up and gives a dismayed "Oh, dear", before spending his last split-second trying to run, screaming. |
| 450 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: [[spoiler: Doesn't get much characterization throughout the movie until his death before the climax.]] |
| 451 | [[/folder]] |
| 452 | |
| 453 | !!!'''Other Expedition Members''' |
| 454 | |
| 455 | [[folder:James Conrad]] |
| 456 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/e2f52cfcd219af1a40a78ca44a083159_8.jpg]] |
| 457 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"I guess no man comes home from war, not really."'']] |
| 458 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/TomHiddleston |
| 459 | !!!'''Dubbed By:''' Creator/AlexisVictor (European French) |
| 460 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 461 | |
| 462 | -->''"An uncharted island? Let me list the ways you're going to die. Rain, heat, mud, disease-carrying flies and mosquitoes. Sure, you could load up on the atabrine for the malaria, but what about the other bacteria? And we haven't even started on the things that want to eat you alive."''\ |
| 463 | |
| 464 | A disillusioned former British Special Air Service Captain who served in the Vietnam War. He is then hired as a tracker for the expedition by Randa. |
| 465 | ---- |
| 466 | * ActionHero: He's the main badass [[WorldOfBadass in a movie full of them]]. |
| 467 | * ActorAllusion: In {{the stinger}}, he's the very first character seen and heard while speaking ominously, referencing his iconic role as Loki in the Franchise/MarvelCinematicUniverse movies, which are notorious for using stingers as {{sequel hook}}s. |
| 468 | * BeautyIsNeverTarnished: To some extent, Conrad gets a bit dirty without it detracting too much from his good looks. |
| 469 | * BlueIsHeroic: He wears a blue shirt the entire time they're on the island, and his leadership is noticeably cooler and more level-headed than Packard's revenge-fueled rampage. |
| 470 | * TheBusCameBack: The movie ends with him and Weaver being set up to join Monarch, then they just [[ChuckCunninghamSyndrome disappear]] for the next two Franchise/MonsterVerse movies and all the supplementary materials without so much as a mention. Finally, six years after Conrad's original movie appearance released, he reappears in the storyline of ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure''. |
| 471 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: Despite {{the stinger}} of ''Kong: Skull Island'' setting him and Weaver up to join Monarch, he's completely absent without mention or explanation from the following two movies and the following four graphic novels, with only Dr. Brooks returning. He finally returns in the narrative of the tabletop game ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure''. |
| 472 | * ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: To Lieutenant Ford Brody from ''Film/Godzilla2014''. Both are specialist military soldiers with a grim backstory involving death and loss, who unexpectedly find themselves up against kaiju and later learn to support one of the franchise's chief benevolent Alpha Titans. Whereas Ford is in active military service, and he's relatively well-adjusted and semi-idealistic despite his past, Conrad left the armed forces years ago and went freelance due to a traumatic CynicismCatalyst [[spoiler:-- specifically, the novelization specifies that Conrad failed to save a kidnapped high-profile 7-year-old girl on a rescue mission and lost half his team, a dark contrast to Ford Brody successfully saving a little boy named Akio in the previous film and to Ford remaining headstrong despite being the sole survivor of at least two military operations]]. Ford has a wife and child who he's been happy with for years at the 2014 movie's start, and he's fighting to get back to them throughout the movie, whereas Conrad apparently has no-one waiting for him but he appears to be growing close to Weaver over the course of ''Kong: Skull Island''. Ford has a troubled relationship with his father, and he lost his mother to a Titan incident in his backstory, whereas Conrad apparently had a good relationship with his DisappearedDad whom he lost to a mundane war. |
| 473 | * ContrivedCoincidence: Conrad is in just the right place at the right time to see the Skullcrawler that [[spoiler:killed Chapman regurgitate his skull and dogtags]]. |
| 474 | * CynicismCatalyst: See MyGreatestFailure. |
| 475 | * DeadpanSnarker: Conrad has several moments of [[SarcasmMode sarcasm]] and snarking, such the "many ways to die" rundown he gives Randa and Brooks, how he calls Weaver out for joining the expedition hoping to win a Pulitzer, and how she doesn't strike him as a war photographer when she outright calls him a mercenary. He has another brief moment with Weaver when he reluctantly agrees to go look for Chapman and he reminds Weaver to tell him that it's a bad idea, which she does. |
| 476 | -->'''Conrad''': [[CaptainObvious Don't forget to tell me this is a bad idea.]]\ |
| 477 | '''Weaver''': This is a bad idea. |
| 478 | * DisappearedDad: His father, a Royal Air Force pilot he idolized, had his plane downed during [=WW2=]. |
| 479 | * EstablishingCharacterMoment: He proves his combat skills to the audience in his introductory scene at the night club when he takes out two mooks with ease. |
| 480 | * GiveMeASword: During the group's first battle against the Skullcrawlers, Conrad asks Marlow to toss him his shin-guntō. Marlow obliges and Conrad puts it to good use. |
| 481 | * GreatWhiteHunter: Conrad is hired for his ability as a tracker and his skills in jungle survival. |
| 482 | %%* HeldGaze: |
| 483 | %%** Conrad and Randa in the bar. |
| 484 | %%** Conrad and Packard. |
| 485 | * HeroesPreferSwords: He borrows Marlow's shin-guntō in the Bone Graveyard and puts it to good use against the Leafwings. |
| 486 | * HoldingHands: [[ImpliedLoveInterest Weaver]] instinctively grasps his wrist when they're confronted with a peaceful Kong at night. |
| 487 | * IKnowYoureWatchingMe: Humorously {{subverted|Trope}}. He spends the onset of TheStinger talking to what he believes to be a two-way mirror in the cell that he and Weaver are being held in following their experiences on Skull Island; promising not to betray any top secrets, and venting his frustrations. Except that the ''real'' two-way mirror which their interrogators are watching them through is the mirror ''behind'' Conrad and Weaver, and they've just been talking at an ordinary mirror the whole time. |
| 488 | * ImpliedLoveInterest: With Mason Weaver. They never do anything overtly romantic but they share many scenes together where they're clearly bonding. Subverted in the novelization where an attraction between Conrad and Weaver starts forming from the moment they meet each other. |
| 489 | * ManlyTears: He's noticeably teary-eyed with awe when he meets Kong up close. |
| 490 | * MyGreatestFailure: The novelization reveals that roughly eight years ago, Conrad left the British Special Forces after a mission from the Malaysian government, during which he failed [[spoiler: to save a 7-year-old girl named Jenny, the illegitimate daughter of a Malaysian woman and a British embassy worker, who was kidnapped and held for ransom by a unit of rogue Indonesian soldiers. Jenny and two of Conrad's five men were killed by a sniper in an ambush while approaching the border, as if the mission was always meant to fail.]] It was his last mission as a soldier in the SAS and this failure marked [[CynicismCatalyst the beginning of his disillusioned outlook]] as Conrad had lost trust in his gov't and country as well as himself, and from then on cautiously chose only freelance missions where the odds weren't stacked against him. |
| 491 | * OnlySaneMan: His priority is in keeping everyone--especially the untrained civilians such as Weaver and Brooks--safe, and actively advises others to not shoot otherwise harmless creatures in an environment as hostile as Skull Island's. |
| 492 | * RankUp: In the end, Conrad is [[spoiler: recruited into Monarch with Weaver.]] |
| 493 | * RedemptionQuest: When Randa recruits Conrad, he says the latter is still looking for something since he didn't return home after the war. [[http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2017/02/18/kong-skull-island-production-notes-and-high-res-photos/ According to Tom Hiddleston,]] Conrad has unknowingly been seeking redemption for his past failure. During his and Weaver's up-close encounter with Kong, Conrad learns of his innermost desire as he looks into Kong's eyes and his heart is reopened to wonder, innocence, and humility. Hiddleston says Conrad starts his journey from a place of cynicism as a soldier looking for an easy payday, sleepwalking through his life, but once he meets Kong, he sees a glimmer of his former self and he's snapped out of his rut, fully awake again, and his survivalist skills kick in. Immediately after said encounter, Conrad finds the determination to save Kong from Packard's misguided wrath and still manages to get the remaining survivors off the island. |
| 494 | * SaveTheVillain: Despite nearly getting shot under Packard's orders only a few minutes before, he still tries to reason with the deranged colonel and even offers his hand when Ramarak finally emerges from the earth and Packard's own men abandon him. Unfortunately, Packard is too lost in his madness, and Conrad--who eventually realizes that the whole thing is pointless--finally leaves him, albeit with a guilty expression on his face. |
| 495 | * SayMyName: When he sees Slivko is knocked unconscious and vulnerable in the Boneyard amid the Skullcrawler's attack[[note]]"''Slivko!''"[[/note]], when trying to talk down [[spoiler:an insane]] Packard [[spoiler:just before the Big One emerges]][[note]]"''Packard!''"[[/note]], [[spoiler:and when Cole is making his SenselessSacrifice against the Alpha Skullcrawler[[note]]"''Cole!''"[[/note]]]]. |
| 496 | %%* ShipTease: With Mason Weaver. |
| 497 | * ShoutOut: His surname is taken from that of "Heart of Darkness" author, Joseph Conrad. |
| 498 | * StargazingScene: A slight variation. After arriving at Marlow's island home, he watches the nighttime aurora on Skull Island with [[ImpliedLoveInterest Weaver]], expressing awe of it and opening up to her about how his DisappearedDad was a casualty of war. |
| 499 | * SwordPlant: He dismisses the katana that originally belonged to Gunpei Ikari via planting it in the earth mid-run when he's running to an unconscious Slivko. |
| 500 | * TearsOfAwe: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. His eyes are visibly wet with awe when a peaceful Kong is approaching him and Weaver up close. |
| 501 | * TragicKeepsake: His late father's RAF lighter, which comes in handy for Weaver later on. |
| 502 | * TwoFirstNames: His surname, Conrad, can also be used as a first name. |
| 503 | * WaitHere: Conrad intends to leave his team and scout the environment alone, but Weaver protests and demands to tag along, which he gruntingly accepts. |
| 504 | %%* YoureInsane: "You've lost your mind!" |
| 505 | [[/folder]] |
| 506 | |
| 507 | [[folder:Mason Weaver]] |
| 508 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/brie_9.jpg]] |
| 509 | [[caption-width-right:350:''"The right photo can help shape opinions."'']] |
| 510 | !!!'''Portrayed By:''' Creator/BrieLarson |
| 511 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Film/KongSkullIsland'' |
| 512 | |
| 513 | -->''"We don't belong here."''\ |
| 514 | |
| 515 | A noted investigative photojournalist and self-proclaimed "anti-war" photographer. |
| 516 | ---- |
| 517 | * ActionGirl: Could be an ActionSurvivor, but has two standout cases for this instead, [[spoiler: throwing a lighter to blow up a Skullcrawler, and firing a flare straight into Ramarak's eye.]] |
| 518 | * ArmiesAreEvil: Mostly averted. Due to her anti-war status, one would think a serious conflict of interest would arise given Weaver's beliefs and the nature of her job, and expect her to have a bit of friction with the soldiers. However, with the sole exception of Packard, Weaver and the others get along just fine. This is shown when Weaver takes pictures of the men posing for her and goofing around with her on the way to Skull Island. |
| 519 | * BeastAndBeauty: Averted. Like ''Film/KingKongLives'', this one doesn't retell the ''Beauty and the Beast'' love story like the other ''King Kong'' films. There are subtle hints to it during the moments between Kong and Weaver but instead of love, their connection is born out of mutual respect for the creatures on Skull Island. |
| 520 | * BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Played with. Weaver goes through a lot of abuse including a violent helicopter crash, several explosions, a very deep fall into water, and [[spoiler: being held in Kong's ginormous fist when it’s pulled down Ramarak’s throat]], yet the worst she gets are dirty clothes, a minor bruise and two scrapes under her left eye, a scrape on the left side of her jaw, and a bruised right shoulder. Apart from that, she looks gorgeous from beginning to end. |
| 521 | * BeneathTheMask: Mason comes across as passionate, determined, and sure of herself but in reality, she has deep feelings of insecurity and a deep desire to live in the background as a result of unintentional emotional abuse from her father as he made her feel like she was a disappointment to him. Conrad deduces this is what drove Weaver to live behind a camera and remove herself from the world under the impression that by doing so, she can no longer fail at anything, and that she follows all the bad stuff that goes on because they make her feel like a good person. |
| 522 | * TheBusCameBack: After the ending of ''Film/KongSkullIsland'', she suffers ChuckCunninghamSyndrome and isn't heard of again in the Franchise/MonsterVerse, until the tabletop game ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure'', which was released six years after the ''Kong: Skull Island'' movie. |
| 523 | * CameraFiend: A heroic example as she takes photos showcasing both the danger and beauty of Skull Island. In the novelization, it's said that Weaver would gladly live in the same set of clothing for weeks if it means getting the shots as it's all about the photos. As being someone whose sole purpose is to record and share, Weaver feels a duty to her photos but rarely to her subjects. She also wants her pictures to prompt action and understanding from those who see them. |
| 524 | * CategoryTraitor: Played with. Packard may be impressed with Weaver's credentials and he may respect her willingness to enter crazy situations and get her hands dirty but as far as he's concerned, Weaver might as well be a traitor to their own country since she and other members of the press vilified the U.S. troops for their actions in Vietnam and caused America to back out of the war, making all the blood, sweat, and tears shed by him and thousands of other men all for nothing. |
| 525 | * CatharticExhalation: She exhales in relief when her first up-close encounter with Kong ends with the latter walking away after a moment of studying her. |
| 526 | * ChuckCunninghamSyndrome: After TheStinger sets her up to join Monarch with Conrad, she's completely and conspicuously absent from all the subsequent [=MonsterVerse=] materials released over the following six years (which include two movies and four graphic novels) without so much as a mention, until ''Kong: Skull Island Cinematic Adventure'' [[TheBusCameBack finally brings her and Conrad back]]. |
| 527 | * CustomUniform: She wears a military-inspired outfit complete with dark brown knee-high boots and olive drab pants similar to the soldiers' fatigues. This could be due to Weaver's experiences embedding with military units on the job, and she, therefore, dresses like them to blend in. |
| 528 | * DaddyIssues: In the novelization, it's said that Weaver had a [[ParentsAsPeople demanding but well-meaning father]] who loved her until he died when she was 16. Weaver even says that he ran her household in the style of a "benevolent dictatorship". She says her father was a good man but she was never able to impress him or live up to his expectations and that despite his good intentions in trying to shape his only child into the adult he wanted her to be, he instead tried to mold Mason into the type of person he wished ''he'' had been himself and forgot to consider what she wanted. |
| 529 | * DeadpanSnarker: When she isn't currently trying to be [[WomenAreWiser the voice of reason,]] she's probably snarking at someone and being [[SarcasmMode sarcastic.]] Some instances include the moment involving her [[GenderBlenderName gender-neutral name]], Weaver calling Packard out for singling out journalists as the cause for America abandoning Vietnam, telling Conrad how she hopes that he's worth the money he was paid when they're stranded on Skull Island, the possibility of Packard and his group getting eaten by a large predator, and how Marlow should try to reason with an ignorant and unhinged Packard for a second time. |
| 530 | -->'''Conrad''': That flare was only two klicks north. They should be here soon.[[note]]"They" being Packard and his group.[[/note]] |
| 531 | -->'''Weaver''': Unless they were eaten by [[AlwaysABiggerFish something that's bigger than us.]] |
| 532 | * DoesntLikeGuns: Mason is the only main character to never wield a gun. [[note]]Though she uses a flare gun at the end of the film, it doesn't count as a weapon.[[/note]] |
| 533 | * FireForgedFriends: After getting off on the wrong foot with the Iwi, Mason bonds with them by taking their photos. She even lets them take pictures of her, and teaches them the peace sign. |
| 534 | * FlareGun: In the climax, she uses an emergency flare gun offensively, [[spoiler:firing a flare at a distance into the Skull Devil's eye and [[MoeGreeneSpecial partially blinding it]]]]. |
| 535 | * {{Foil}}: To Packard. Weaver is a compassionate individual who [[NatureLover respects nature]], understands there is more to life than war and violence, and she is also more than willing to hear out the perspectives of other people and not be quick to judge. On the other hand, Packard is [[EntitledBastard a belligerent and gung-ho loudmouth who likes everyone to know he's the one in charge as if he can never be wrong about anyone or anything]]. This is shown by how he treats Weaver with hostility and ignores whatever she says just because of her role in the war, and labels Kong the enemy and doesn't let up despite learning that Kong's attack on the helicopter squadron is justified. Burdened by his unfinished business with Vietnam, Packard takes it out on Skull Island, always looking for a fight, not caring about how much damage he inflicts on the island or how many lives he endangers since war is now all he knows and understands. As Packard [[SanitySlippage becomes increasingly psychotic]], he refuses to listen to the sensible people telling him the folly of his vendetta against Kong, and the consequences that killing Kong will have on the whole world. Although he may care about the men under his command, their well-being takes a backseat to his desire for revenge. |
| 536 | * FriendToAllLivingThings: When her group comes across a Sker Buffalo, Weaver takes a picture of it and smiles at the creature as it leaves peacefully. When she later finds another one trapped under a downed helicopter, she tries to help it despite the impossibility of the situation until Kong arrives. Later on, when she and Conrad finally meet Kong face-to-face, she touches him gently and is clearly awestruck instead of afraid. |
| 537 | * GenderBlenderName: Lampshaded. The novelization reveals Weaver sometimes takes pleasure in the surprise of others who meet her when they at first assume her to be male because of her name, but despite being used to the casual discrimination she encounters on the job, it mostly angered her because most people believe women should be at home keeping the bed warm while the men go out to war. |
| 538 | -->'''Weaver''': Mason Weaver, photographer.\ |
| 539 | '''Woodward''': Mason Weaver ... is a woman?\ |
| 540 | '''Weaver''': [[DeadpanSnarker Last time I checked.]] |
| 541 | * GoingForTheBigScoop: Whenever she believes there is a worthwhile story, Weaver will risk her life to get the exclusive, even going on a geological mapping mission to an uncharted island on the hunch of it being a ruse covering up a secret military operation. Also to the extent of trying to snap a picture of Kong and the alpha Skullcrawler before Conrad pulls her away when the Skullcrawler spots her. |
| 542 | * GoodSamaritan: She steps outside of the Iwi's protective walls by herself to try and aid a distressed Sker Buffalo that's trapped under a crashed helicopter. |
| 543 | %%* HeldGaze: Weaver and Kong (Platonic). |
| 544 | * HeelRealization: [[http://www.scifijapan.com/articles/2017/02/18/kong-skull-island-production-notes-and-high-res-photos/ According to Brie Larson,]] Weaver begins the film seeking to take photos that will bring her more acclaim but after learning about Kong's role as a protector and seeing his true benevolent nature up-close, she starts to view him as something that's greater than herself and should be protected, realizing [[TheseAreThingsManWasNotMeantToKnow people are better off not knowing]] about Skull Island. |
| 545 | * HoldingHands: She grasps [[ImpliedLoveInterest Conrad]]'s wrist when Kong approaches them at night and they see him up-close for themselves as something much more than just a monster. |
| 546 | * IgnoredExpert: Given the bad blood between her and Packard, whenever Weaver says something that any sensible person would agree with, he [[NotListeningToMeAreYou completely ignores her as if she didn't say anything,]] such as when she says the group should listen to Marlow and avoid the Boneyard since he knows the island better than any of them. |
| 547 | * IKnowYoureWatchingMe: Humorously {{subverted|Trope}}. At the start of TheStinger, she talks at what she and Conrad assume to be a two-way mirror in the cell they're being kept in [[spoiler:by Monarch]], and she snarkily threatens to tell the Soviets about Skull Island. Except that the ''real'' two-way mirror which Weaver and Conrad's interrogators are watching them through is the mirror ''behind'' the pair, and they've just been talking at an ordinary mirror the entire time. |
| 548 | * ImpliedLoveInterest: With James Conrad. They never do anything overtly romantic but they share many scenes where they're clearly bonding. Subverted in the novelization where an attraction between Conrad and Weaver starts forming from the moment they meet each other. |
| 549 | * ImprobableAimingSkills: An astonishingly good shot with a flare gun, especially for someone claiming to be a pacifist. |
| 550 | * ImprovisedWeapon: On two separate occasions, she pulls a BigDamnHeroes moment with only Conrad's lighter and a flare gun, respectively. |
| 551 | * InsistentTerminology: Weaver wishes Conrad to know that she's an ''anti''-war photographer, not a war photographer. |
| 552 | * IntrepidReporter: [[https://www.facebook.com/KongSkullIsland/videos/411333822538372/ She earned her anti-war reputation]] with her [[GutFeeling strong sense of intuition]] that helped expose the lies of many institutions, and it's what tipped her off that there was more to the Skull Island Expedition than just being a mapping mission as many sources told her. She's even asked why she's going on the secret mission when her Vietnam pictures were already good enough for her to be up for the cover of Time Magazine. |
| 553 | * MartialPacifist: Even though she declares herself to be anti-war and doesn't carry a gun, Weaver is armed with a knife on her left hip that she almost takes out when the group is surrounded by the Iwi natives. However, she never uses it throughout the film, giving the impression that the knife is a last resort weapon for her should the worst happen. For the most part, Weaver is 'armed' with only her trusty Leica M3 camera and her wits. However, despite using non-traditional "weapons", she is the only human character to kill a Skullcrawler, and also the only person to cause considerable damage to the alpha, looking as if she [[TookALevelInBadass took a level in badass]] while doing it. |
| 554 | * MsFanservice: She's a very attractive and quite well-endowed woman, something the film's creators made sure to emphasize as much as possible. Just look at her page image. Fortunately, she does a lot more than just serve as eye candy. |
| 555 | * MythologyGag: Except for ''Film/KingKongVsGodzilla'' and ''King Kong Lives'', Kong is shown pining for a blonde woman. However, like Amy from the latter film, Mason is a brunette (albeit with golden brown hair that can be mistaken for blonde), she never wears a dress, and she doesn't become the object of Kong's affections as the bond formed between them is strictly platonic. |
| 556 | * NatureLover: Due to her rural upbringing, Mason has an affinity with nature and believes people should [[HarmonyVersusDiscipline work with nature and co-exist with it instead of fighting it and trying to dominate it.]] |
| 557 | * NervesOfSteel: Coming with the job as [[https://www.warnerbros.co.uk/movies/kong-skull-island/characters/mason-weaver an investigative photojournalist and photographer]], Mason is brave enough to go to war zones and other dangerous places whenever there's a story she believes must be told, though her passion to expose the truth at all costs gets her into trouble because of publications and the men in her photos hating [[WarIsHell the dark side of war]] being shown to the general public. Having endured and survived two years in Vietnam while embedded with the Command & Control South (CCS) detachment of MACV-SOG in Ban Me Thuot, it’s impressive that she shows no signs of PTSD given everything she’s seen and been through. Besides braving the beasts of Skull Island, she is also gutsy enough to face the end of Packard's assault rifle at point-blank range without flinching or showing any fear, and seeming completely unfazed by it as she snarks about it to Marlow afterward, leading one to think that wasn’t the first time Weaver has had a gun pointed at her. In the novelization, when she and Conrad stand between Kong and Packard, Weaver goes as far as telling Packard that if he kills Kong, then he will have to kill her as well. |
| 558 | -->'''Weaver''': You wanna talk with him about it again? He seemed to really go for it the first time. |
| 559 | * NeverMyFault: She seems confused as to why Packard would blame people in her line of work for costing the U.S. military its public support in Vietnam and ultimately the war. |
| 560 | -->'''Weaver''': You're not actually going to blame the people ''without'' guns for losing the war, are you?\ |
| 561 | '''Packard''': [[NonLethalDeadlyWeapon Camera's way more dangerous than a gun.]] And we didn't lose the war, we abandoned it.\ |
| 562 | '''Weaver''': Right. ''(scoffs)'' |
| 563 | * NoGoodDeedGoesUnpunished: By killing the Skullcrawler in the Boneyard, Weaver unknowingly avenges [[spoiler:Chapman's death.]] Despite this, Packard is still dead-set on killing Kong for the deaths of his other men and, like an UngratefulBastard, he "repays" Weaver by pointing his gun at her face when she tells him to [[GetAholdOfYourselfMan get a grip]]. |
| 564 | * NonLethalDeadlyWeapon: Her camera, according to Packard. This isn’t completely false since some people do believe that while guns take lives once the trigger is pulled, cameras can be considered more dangerous because people can [[WrongAssumption jump to the wrong conclusions]] [[PhotosLie based on a photo without knowing the whole story]]. Firearms either wound or kill someone instantly but seemingly harmless photos can lead to sometimes baseless controversies and riots, more or less causing [[MisplacedRetribution a greater number of deaths and lives being destroyed]] than those caused by a single gun. Not to mention the photographer winding up on the receiving end of [[MisBlamed unwanted/unwarranted negative attention]] and [[ShootTheMessenger death threats]] that border on [[DisproportionateRetribution disproportionate retribution]] simply because [[CantTakeCriticism someone doesn't like their photo(s)]], regardless of whether or not the photographer intended to stir up trouble or if they only did so on someone else's orders. There is also the fact that while people can immediately recognize a gun as a weapon, a camera is unassuming in appearance and an otherwise everyday object people wouldn’t normally consider threatening, and can therefore easily fly under the radar. |
| 565 | * TheNotLoveInterest: Unlike both [[Film/KingKong1933 Ann]] and [[Film/KingKong1976 Dwan]], Weaver is saved by Kong but, like [[Film/KingKongLives Amy]], doesn't earn his affection. Ditto for Conrad, despite them bonding. |
| 566 | * RankUp: In the end, she and Conrad are [[spoiler: recruited by Monarch.]] |
| 567 | * ReusableLighterToss: During the fight in the boneyard, Weaver tosses Conrad's lighter into the crater to ignite a gas pocket. {{Justified}} as it was the only source of fire she had available. In the novelization, Conrad uses his father's lighter instead of Weaver. |
| 568 | * RightMakesMight: [[https://www.instagram.com/p/BP8HQmVhcLJ/ In the words of Brie Larson]], Weaver believes that [[ToWinWithoutFighting "unity can be achieved without aggression."]] |
| 569 | * {{Scapegoat}}: Packard blames journalists like Weaver for the war's outcome. |
| 570 | %%* ShipTease: With James Conrad. |
| 571 | * ShoutOut: |
| 572 | ** Samuel L. Jackson compares Weaver to Creator/JaneFonda. |
| 573 | ** Her name is a tribute to Creator/SigourneyWeaver. |
| 574 | * StargazingScene: She tries to take a photo of the aurora filling Skull Island's cloudless night sky, when Conrad approaches her to admire it with her and he gives her a makeshift replacement for her camera's flashlight. They bond as Conrad tells her about how his father died in World War II and he contemplates that no man truly comes home from war. |
| 575 | * StreetSmart: From growing up in an environment dominated by men and working with them, Weaver knows how to form boundaries and assert herself to make sure men don't belittle her. As an investigative photojournalist, she knows who to talk to and what questions to ask to get to the bottom of things. Mason also has great intuition when it comes to sussing out people and situations, the ability to think on her feet, and the ability to stand her ground whenever things get tense. |
| 576 | * SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Her friendship with Kong makes her similar to Dwan and Ann Darrow, as she's portrayed in the 2005 ''King Kong'' film. |
| 577 | * TagalongReporter: She is the only one who wasn’t recruited for the mission in any way but she nevertheless manages to worm her way onto the team to uncover [[TheConspiracy the conspiracy]] she believes is at work. The novelization reveals that a man named Chin, whom Randa had “in his pocket” was originally meant to be the team photographer but he dropped out at the last minute, and Randa is angered by Weaver’s uninvited presence since she got the job without a background check. |
| 578 | * TankTopTomboy: Wears one for most of the film. Justified considering the film's tropical setting. |
| 579 | %%* ThisIsGonnaSuck: "This is a bad idea." |
| 580 | %%* TomboyAndGirlyGirl: With San Lin. |
| 581 | * TookALevelInBadass: She begins by simply taking pictures but slowly becomes more hands-on and involved in the action, going on to save Conrad and Slivko from a Skullcrawler by blowing it up, bravely confronting Packard in a heated standoff twice, firing a flare to guide Brooks and San to the other survivors, and destroying the alpha Skullcrawler's right eye with a well-aimed flare. |
| 582 | * WomenAreWiser: She may not be a scientist or soldier but Mason has enough {{Street Smart}}s to not only be a strong voice of reason but also ask the right questions and think of the larger picture. Plus, she’s doing quite well for herself during the time of the second-wave women’s lib movement. |
| 583 | * WrongGenreSavvy: Initially joins the expedition because she believes it to be a secret military operation and plans to expose it. |
| 584 | [[/folder]] |
| 585 | |
| 586 | !!1990s First Expedition |
| 587 | !!!'''Crew of the ''Once Upon a Maritime''[==]''' |
| 588 | [[folder:Charlie]] |
| 589 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si_charlie_4.jpg]] |
| 590 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/NicolasCantu |
| 591 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 592 | |
| 593 | Cap's teenaged son and Mike's best friend. He reluctantly accompanies his eccentric father on his maritime cryptid-hunting surveys, though he longs to go to college and have a normal life. |
| 594 | ---- |
| 595 | * ContrastingSequelMainCharacter: Well, Contrasting ''Prequel'' Main Character to Madison Russell in ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. Both are among the teenaged main leads of their respective works. But whereas Madison was closely affiliated with Monarch by parentage and was privy to top expert information on the Titans including Godzilla; Charlie and his father just work for an unaffiliated cryptozoologist group, and Charlie is blindsided by the existence of Skull Island and Titans whilst remaining in the dark about Kong's true nature. Whereas Madison put on a steely front around her companions and is sure of herself, Charlie is openly vexed and nervy around his and he often struggles without others. Whereas Madison felt naturally drawn to Monarch- and Titan-related work and had an ObsessivelyNormal father trying to obstruct her from that, Charlie's relationship with his own father is the complete inverse: Charlie wants a normal life, while his eccentric father wants him to take up the cryptid-hunting mantle. |
| 596 | * DeadpanSnarker: He's quite sarcastic and prone to making quips. |
| 597 | * DoNotCallMePaul: He prefers being called Charlie and gets annoyed when people call him Charles. |
| 598 | * IJustWantToBeNormal: He wants nothing more than to give up life with his cryptid-hunting father and to go to college. |
| 599 | * LikeFatherUnlikeSon: He and his father Cap have contrasting personalities and want very different things out of life. Charlie is a slightly skittish and socially-awkward kid who gets vexed and lashes out over their unfathomable situation on Skull Island when he's stressed, and he [[IJustWantToBeNormal wants nothing more than to go to college and be an ordinary boy]] over following in his father's footsteps living on a boat. Cap, by contrast, is a calm and rational man despite their situation, and he considers the idea of normal life and mediocrity boring in the face of finding proof that there are other things that mankind can barely fathom out there in the world. |
| 600 | * NiceGuy: He's always friendly and kind, and rarely has a bad word for anyone unless his patience is worn ''really'' thin. He's quick to comfort Mike after [[spoiler:Hiro dies]], and quickly forgives him for not having informed anyone about Skull Island. |
| 601 | * SayMyName: Quite a lot. He screams Annie's name when he thinks Dog is attacking her, he screams Mike's name when they're briefly separated in the river while escaping the Croc Monster, and he shouts Dog's name when the latter is being swarmed by Nightboys. |
| 602 | * SociallyAwkwardHero: He's quite skittish and awkward, frequently stumbling over his words and getting flustered. |
| 603 | [[/folder]] |
| 604 | |
| 605 | [[folder:Mike]] |
| 606 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si_mike_3.jpg]] |
| 607 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/DarrenBarnet |
| 608 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 609 | |
| 610 | The son of Hiro in one of the two father-son duos who own and operate the ''Once Upon a Maritime'', hunting for marine cryptids. |
| 611 | ---- |
| 612 | * AmbiguouslyGay: When Charlie mentions "girls" as one of the appeals of going to college, Mike just shrugs in disinterest, and it's stated later on that Mike has never shown an interest in girls. Furthermore, some of Mike and Charlie's interactions come across as borderline flirty, and Mike morosely admits that Charlie leaving him and their fathers to go to college wasn't something that he would have an easy time adjusting to. But it's never outright confirmed what Mike's preference is. |
| 613 | * TheBerserker: When trying to stab the Kraken's {{combat tentacles}} [[spoiler:for killing his father]], Mike is relentless. Later, he repeatedly stabs a Trapdoor Crab's pincer over and over in pure, blinding rage. |
| 614 | * ItsAllMyFault: He blames himself for the surviving crew being lost on the island, as he and Hiro never told anyone about following the map to Skull Island. |
| 615 | * OneSteveLimit: He shares a given name with Michael Coleman, the father of Sam Coleman from ''Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019'' according to the Monarch Sciences website. |
| 616 | * SayMyName: He screams Boomer's name when he sees the Kraken attacking the latter, and he cries out Charlie's name after they fall over the waterfall while fleeing the Croc Monster. |
| 617 | * SecretStabWound: He's injured during the Kraken's attack on the boat, but keeps it hidden from Charlie and Annie. |
| 618 | * TaintedVeins: [[spoiler:He develops dark veins around his wound where the Kraken stung and poisoned him]]. |
| 619 | [[/folder]] |
| 620 | |
| 621 | [[folder:Cap]] |
| 622 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si_cap.jpg]] |
| 623 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/BenjaminBratt |
| 624 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 625 | |
| 626 | The captain of the ''Once Upon a Maritime'', father of Charlie, and old friend of his colleague Hiro. He's been hunting for evidence of cryptids out at sea ever since his encounter with a benign marine creatures years ago. |
| 627 | ---- |
| 628 | * IWillFindYou: His objective for most of the series is finding and reuniting with Charlie after they've separately washed ashore on Skull Island. |
| 629 | * JumpedAtTheCall: After he encountered a marine cryptid in his backstory, he devoted his life from there on to tracking and trying to find evidence of similar creatures. He considers the idea of a normal life dull, and doesn't understand why Charlie prefers normality and going to college. |
| 630 | * LikeFatherUnlikeSon: He and his son Charlie have contrasting personalities and want very different things out of life. Charlie is a slightly skittish and socially-awkward kid who gets vexed and lashes out over their unfathomable situation on Skull Island when he's stressed, and he [[IJustWantToBeNormal wants nothing more than to go to college and be an ordinary boy]] over following in his father's footsteps living on a boat. Cap, by contrast, is a calm and rational man despite their situation, and he considers the idea of normal life and mediocrity boring in the face of finding proof that there are other things that mankind can barely fathom out there in the world. |
| 631 | * SingleTear: He shed one in [[TearsOfAwe awe]] in his backstory, when encountering an aquatic Massive Unidentified Terrestrial Organism. |
| 632 | * TearsOfAwe: Twice, both times when he witnessed hard evidence with his own eyes that monsters exist and his eyes were opened to what could be out there in the world. He shed a {{single tear}} when he first witnessed a glowing marine Titan in his flashback, and he's moved to tears again when he has one of his first Skull Island encounters with a creature (the Aloe Turtle). |
| 633 | * TheXenophile: He's a committed cryptozoologist who's awed by the idea that there are creatures beyond current human understanding living in the world undiscovered, and he's awestruck by Skull Island's eldritch properties including the {{planimal}} local wildlife. |
| 634 | [[/folder]] |
| 635 | |
| 636 | [[folder:Hiro]] |
| 637 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si1x1_hiro.jpg]] |
| 638 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Yuki Matsuzaka |
| 639 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 640 | |
| 641 | Mike's father, and Cap's old friend who helps him search for evidence of marine cryptids. |
| 642 | ---- |
| 643 | * AsianAndNerdy: He's a scientist and much more traditionally intellectual than Cap. |
| 644 | * DivingSave: He saves Mike from the Kraken's tentacle in such a manner [[spoiler:during his HeroicSacrifice]]. |
| 645 | * HeroicSacrifice: He dies [[PapaWolf saving his son]] [[spoiler:from being crushed by the Kraken]]. |
| 646 | * TheQuietOne: Compared to his coworker and their sons, Hiro is more soft-spoken and quiet. |
| 647 | * SayMyName: He screams Mike's name when he sees the Kraken's tentacle lunging for him. [[spoiler:It ends up being [[HeroicSacrifice the last word Hiro ever says]]]]. |
| 648 | * SquashedFlat: He gets crushed to death by the Kraken's tentacle [[spoiler:during the very first episode]]. |
| 649 | [[/folder]] |
| 650 | |
| 651 | !!!'''The kidnappers''' |
| 652 | [[folder:Irene]] |
| 653 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si_irene_6.jpg]] |
| 654 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/BettyGilpin |
| 655 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 656 | |
| 657 | The employer of the mercenaries who kidnapped Annie from her and Dog's island, before following her to Skull Island. |
| 658 | ---- |
| 659 | * ArchnemesisDad: GenderInverted and subverted. [[spoiler: Irene is the leader of the mercenaries, shoots at Annie's pet, and tranquilizes her. However, she is only doing this to find, save and protect Annie, as she is her long-lost mother. Due to a misunderstanding and Dog attacking first, Annie and Irene end up on the wrong foot, in addition to Annie not remembering what her mother looks like. However, upon Irene confessing their true connection, Irene apologizes sincerely for not finding Annie sooner, and Annie appears to at last forgive her.]] |
| 660 | * BrokenBird: Due to losing her husband and child both, Irene is depressed, serious and distrusting, but ultimately still means well. She even buried her lost loved ones, and carries this pain around for the entire series. [[spoiler:Then, despite finally finding her long-lost daughter, Annie does not remember anything about her and treats her like an enemy]]. |
| 661 | * CommonalityConnection: With her NumberTwo Sam, an affable merc who she trusts very closely [[spoiler:to the point of feeling she can let out her deepest fears and sorrows around him]]. The two of them apparently met each-other in group therapy after Irene lost her family, [[spoiler:and when Irene snaps at Sam that he doesn't know what it's like for her to see her long-lost daughter Annie caught in the crossfire of Kong and the Kraken's fighting, he reminds her that she already knows he knows ''exactly'' what this is like for her]]. |
| 662 | * ContrastingSequelAntagonist: |
| 663 | ** To Lieutenant Colonel Preston Packard in the Franchise/MonsterVerse[='s=] previous chronological Skull Island-centric instalment, ''Film/KongSkullIsland''. Both are the leaders of loyal military teams who come to Skull Island and start hunting one of the main heroes, and both of them spend a good chunk of the story semi-allied with a group of the main heroes. However, Packard was a staunch, HotBlooded military war veteran whose motivation was killing Kong in revenge for his losses, whereas Irene is a much cooler-headed, scientific botanist [[spoiler:who only wants to get her long-lost, feral daughter back]]. Packard started his movie as a relatively good man, but he devolved into evil as his obsession with his ultimately self-serving core motivation consumed him, leading everyone else to abandon him at the end before he dies alone -- Irene on the other hand starts out as a sinister and enigmatic woman with a hidden agenda, but the closer she gets to attaining her goals, the less antagonistic she becomes, until she stops being an antagonist altogether [[spoiler:and she ends the series' first season having gotten what she wanted]]. |
| 664 | ** She also contrasts Walter Simmons from the immediately-preceding [=MonsterVerse=] instalment, ''Film/GodzillaVsKong''. They're both extremely-rich parents who kick off the entire plot and have a direct male right hand. However, Simmons, as one of the vilest villains in the [=MonsterVerse=], is a {{narcissist}}ic [[TheSociopath sociopath]] motivated by ego to start a needless war against Godzilla, has no qualms about endangering countless innocent people, and shows no signs of seeing his own daughter as anything more than a [[InformedAttribute supposedly]] valuable tool -- Irene, on the other hand, is a MamaBear who is easily one of the least vile antagonists in the franchise short of Admiral Stenz: her entire motivation is love for her daughter, and she doesn't go seeking a fight with Kong [[spoiler:nor does she deliberately seek to endanger or allow harm to come to others]]. Simmons is a sharply-dressed, technophilic and supremely arrogant CorruptCorporateExecutive and a NonActionBigBad who mostly sits in his clean headquarters, whereas Irene is a professional botanist who spends the series dressed for field work in the tropics, and she sticks herself in the mud with her men. Whereas Simmons is unrepentant to the end and he unleashes an even bigger threat, Irene stops being antagonistic towards the end and helps the heroes to defeat the true Titan BigBad. |
| 665 | * DeathByIrony: Narrowly averted. Irene, who is a botanist, is almost eaten by a living plant. She verbally states that she does ''not'' intend to go out this way. |
| 666 | * DidntSeeThatComing: Why things went wrong for her and the mercenaries when they encountered Dog. [[spoiler:They knew that Annie's Island was an uncharted {{mysterious island}} where ships had a nasty tendency to go missing, but they had no knowledge of the Titans' and other MU.T.O.s' existence, so they were completely blindsided and naturally panicked when Dog attacked them for trespassing on his and Annie's turf]]. |
| 667 | * DidntThinkThisThrough: She has no compunctions against trying to kill Dog in order to recapture Annie despite knowing of [[AGirlAndHerX the close bond between the two]], as she (not without reasonable grounds) considers Dog an obstacle to getting Annie back and a mortal threat to her and her men. When Irene tries to emotionally reach out to Annie, the latter calls her out on not considering that killing the only companion Annie has had for most of her life would have ''massively'' undermined Irene's chances of ever getting any positive connection out of Annie again, [[spoiler:and Annie makes it clear that Irene's lucky in that respect that Annie knows her attempt to kill Dog failed]]. |
| 668 | * FamilyEyeResemblance: Her eyes are a hereditary trait: [[spoiler:Annie has the exact same eyes because she's Irene's long-lost daughter]]. |
| 669 | * GoodAllAlong: Irene hired mercenaries and tranquilized Annie [[spoiler: in order to save and protect her.]] |
| 670 | * IWantThemAlive: She makes it clear to her subordinates that she wants Annie captured and brought back home alive and without any unnecessary harm done to her, having Sam threaten a pissed-off mercenary who shows a sign of going off-script with execution. [[spoiler:This is because Irene is [[LukeIAmYourFather Annie's mother]] who started and has maintained the mission because she just wants to get her long-lost daughter back]]. |
| 671 | * IWillFindYou: Her true motivation for seeking out Skull Island with a group of mercenaries backing her up. [[spoiler:[[WildChild Annie]] is actually her long-lost MissingChild, and Irene has been trying to find her and get her back ever since she got wind that Annie might be alive on an uncharted island. And not even Annie being feral, friends with a ferocious bulldog-like predator, and having no idea who Irene is impedes Irene from that goal]]. |
| 672 | * LukeIAmYourFather: [[spoiler:She eventually reveals to Annie that she is her mother after their initial first encounter ended disastrously.]] |
| 673 | * MamaBear: Everything Irene ever does is primarily in the name of trying to find and protect her [[spoiler: daughter, Annie.]] |
| 674 | * NonIdleRich: She's extremely rich, which is how she was able to fund a team of elite mercenaries and get numerous fishing vessels searching the area around Skull Island in her relentless pursuit of Annie. She also reveals that she's a botanist back home, and she demonstrates during the series that she's handy with a gun. |
| 675 | * NotSoStoic: Breaks down sobbing upon revealing the truth to Annie, that [[spoiler: she is her mother.]] |
| 676 | * SharedFamilyQuirks: Coming across as ruthless and slightly cold at times, Irene admits that she's not very good with people. This is a trait she has in common with one of her family, albeit for different reasons: [[spoiler:socially-stunted WildChild Annie is later revealed to be Irene's long-lost daughter]]. |
| 677 | * TheTeamBenefactor: She's the employer and leader of the mercenaries' mission, who founded their resources and their expedition to Annie's Island using her profound wealth. |
| 678 | * ThinkingTic: She frequently puts her hand to her chin when she's thinking. |
| 679 | * VilerNewVillain: {{Inverted|Trope}}. She and her mercenaries are easily among the nicest and least heinous human antagonists in the [=MonsterVerse=] once they're fleshed out. Compared to the vengeful, mass-murdering and genocidal [[NotSoWellIntentionedExtremist not-so-well-intentioned extremists]] who came before Irene in previous [=MonsterVerse=] instalments, Irene's motivations [[spoiler:as a MamaBear who just wants her daughter back]] are a lot more altruistic and genuine, and she never deliberately endangers any innocents to that end. |
| 680 | [[/folder]] |
| 681 | |
| 682 | [[folder:Sam]] |
| 683 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si1x4_sam.jpg]] |
| 684 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/PhilLaMarr |
| 685 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 686 | |
| 687 | A surprisingly affable mercenary commander, who is Irene's right-hand man and close friend. |
| 688 | ---- |
| 689 | * BewareTheNiceOnes: As mellow as he is, he quietly threatens to ''shoot'' one of his and Irene's men for threatening [[IWantThemAlive Annie]]'s life in anger. |
| 690 | * CommonalityConnection: With his wealthy and slightly aloof employer Irene, [[spoiler:to the point she feels she can let out her deepest fears and sorrows around him]]. The two of them apparently met each-other in group therapy after Irene lost her family, [[spoiler:and when Irene snaps at Sam that he doesn't know what it's like for her to see her long-lost daughter Annie caught in the crossfire of Kong and the Kraken's fighting, he reminds her that she already knows he knows ''exactly'' what this is like for her]]. |
| 691 | * DidntSeeThatComing: Why things went wrong for the mercenaries when they encountered Dog. [[spoiler:They knew that Annie's Island was an uncharted {{mysterious island}} where ships had a nasty tendency to go missing, but they had no knowledge of the Titans' and other MU.T.O.s' existence, so they were completely blindsided and naturally panicked when Dog attacked them for trespassing on his and Annie's turf]]. |
| 692 | * EarlyBirdCameo: He first appears among a group of mercenaries in the very first scene of the series, although he isn't named and doesn't say anything, with his name and characterization not being established until he turns up again during the second and third episodes. |
| 693 | * NiceGuy: He is by no means weak or soft, but when he isn't being a necessary tough boss towards his men for their being sloppy, Sam is a very chill, empathetic and conversational guy. |
| 694 | * NumberTwo: He's Irene's right hand who directs the mercenaries in their employ like a drill sergeant. |
| 695 | * OneSteveLimit: He's not the first Sam in the Franchise/MonsterVerse. He shares a first name with [[Film/Godzilla2014 Ford Brody's son]] and [[Film/GodzillaKingOfTheMonsters2019 Monarch's spokesman Mr. Coleman]]. |
| 696 | [[/folder]] |
| 697 | |
| 698 | [[folder:Blonde Mercenary]] |
| 699 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si1x3_blondemercenary.jpg]] |
| 700 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/JohnDiMaggio |
| 701 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 702 | |
| 703 | A brawny-looking but somewhat goofy and neurotic mercenary in Irene and Sam's employ. |
| 704 | ---- |
| 705 | * ButtMonkey: He's kind of a goof and complainer, and things seldom go right for him. He gets tossed aside by Dog while his back is turned, breaking his arm, and is the only mercenary to be injured in this instance. [[spoiler:In a darker turn, at the end of Episode 6, he's grabbed from the mercs' camp by the Kraken, which [[{{Sadist}} viciously]] tosses him around above the ocean before it sends him to a watery grave]]. |
| 706 | * LargeHam: He's a bit of a ButtMonkey who tends to shout at the top of his voice, [[spoiler:not least when he sees [[ItMakesSenseInContext the whale sailing across the sky]]]]. |
| 707 | * NoIndoorVoice: Courtesy of being voiced by Creator/JohnDiMaggio and being a little bit of a ham, he doesn't exactly have a soft-spoken voice. When he exclaims in alarm at the end of Episode 5, practically the entire camp hears him. |
| 708 | [[/folder]] |
| 709 | |
| 710 | [[folder:Tracker Mercenary]] |
| 711 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si1x3_trackermercenary.jpg]] |
| 712 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/MaraJunot |
| 713 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 714 | |
| 715 | A mercenary who's in charge of tracking the tracer in Annie's handcuffs. |
| 716 | ---- |
| 717 | * BlackAndNerdy: She's dark-skinned, and she seems to be the mercenaries' resident techy who's in charge of the {{tracking device}} and storing Skull Island plant specimens. |
| 718 | [[/folder]] |
| 719 | |
| 720 | [[folder:Bespectacled Mercenary]] |
| 721 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/si_bespectacledmercenary.jpg]] |
| 722 | !!!'''Voiced By:''' Creator/TrevorDevall |
| 723 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''WesternAnimation/{{Skull Island|2023}}'' |
| 724 | |
| 725 | A mercenary who encounters Charlie and Mike before being wounded in the leg by Annie. |
| 726 | ---- |
| 727 | * AssholeVictim: {{Downplayed|Trope}}. Although he doesn't do anything particularly reprehensible, he's shown to be more mean-spirited than the other mercs who get significant characterization. He's last seen being picked up and carried away by [[KidnappingBirdOfPrey the Hawk]], presumably dying fairly early on. |
| 728 | * BeardOfEvil: DownplayedTrope. He's not particularly evil, but he is a {{Jerkass}} and threatens to murder Annie for stabbing him in the leg before Irene and Sam shut him down. |
| 729 | * FourEyesZeroSoul: Unlike the other mercenaries, he (a) wears glasses and (b) acts quite mean-spirited from what we see of him. |
| 730 | * {{Jerkass}}: In his limited screen-time, he's sardonic, snarky and spiteful, and he threatens to repay Annie in kind for wounding him and his comrade, which Irene and Sam both feel is a step too far. He only backs down from his threat begrudgingly, snarking all the while. |
| 731 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: We never find out what happened to him after he was carried away by the Hawk. [[spoiler:Given the reveal that the Hawk was bringing the prey it caught from the red grass to [[BigGood Kong]]'s temple, alive, rather than killing them as food for itself, the merc's disappearance is egregious]]. |
| 732 | [[/folder]] |
| 733 | |
| 734 | !!1995 Expedition |
| 735 | |
| 736 | [[folder:Aaron Brooks]] |
| 737 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_24_at_22416_am.png]] |
| 738 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 739 | |
| 740 | -->''"My father--Monarch--wants Skull Island kept secret forever. But to Hell with that. I'm not entrusting humanity's survival to a giant monkey, not without a lot more assurance. It's that simple."''\ |
| 741 | |
| 742 | The son of Houston and Lin, Aaron is a young security officer for Monarch who went rogue, taking his team on an unauthorized expedition to Skull Island in 1995 to gather evidence of its existence and expose it to the world at large. He's been missing since. |
| 743 | ---- |
| 744 | * ActionSurvivor: Severely underestimating the dangers of Skull Island because he has his father's notes, it's a miracle he has lived this long. |
| 745 | * AnimalNemesis: Sees much of Skull Island's fauna as this due to their aggressivity. |
| 746 | * TheAtoner: [[spoiler:At the story's end, he opts to stay on Skull Island a while longer and doesn't even ask for any rescue in the log he sends out to sea, feeling he needs to help make up for the mess he made for the Iwi and for the deaths of his party caused by him launching the expedition]]. |
| 747 | * BigNo: He screams one when [[spoiler:Matemavi]] dies. |
| 748 | * BlackDudeDiesFirst: [[spoiler:Subverted big time he even gets to live past the main story and is confirmed by ''Aftershock'' to have eventually reunited with his father.]] |
| 749 | * BrainyBrunette: He's [[BlackAndNerdy half-black]], [[AsianAndNerdy half-Asian]], and he loves Norse Mythology. |
| 750 | * ButNotTooForeign: African-American from his father's side, Chinese from his mother. |
| 751 | * TheDeadHaveNames: At the end of his log, Aaron lists the names of those who have died on his expedition as the awful price he ended up paying to realize his father was right about Skull Island, and takes full responsibility for their deaths. |
| 752 | * {{Determinator}}: {{Downplayed}} and ultimately {{subverted}}. He's stubborn enough to go through with taking his own expedition to Skull Island after his argument with his father, in order to expose its existence to the world or at least work out if his father was right about Kong being a protector, but after the island thoroughly beats the whole expedition's asses in short time, he knows when to call it off and focus on getting off the island alive. |
| 753 | * FailureHero: From the moment he leads his team to touch down on Skull Island, things go totally south for them. [[spoiler:He can't save any of them from being killed one by one until he's the expedition's SoleSurvivor. He really does try to save the Iwi from the Mother Longlegs, but his firearms don't make much if any difference and it's only Kong's intervention that saves the day]]. |
| 754 | * {{Foil}}: To Randa and Packard. |
| 755 | * HeelRealization: In issue 3, after learning about Kong's birth and how he lost his parents, Aaron sees Kong in a different light upon realizing Kong isn't a savage brute but a grieving orphan avenging his parents. Then in issue 4, Aaron sees firsthand how Kong is protective of humans when he arrives in a time of need. |
| 756 | * MissionBriefing: The graphic novel shows him going over this with his expedition one last time onboard their Osprey when they're flying through Skull Island's storm. |
| 757 | * MoreDakka: Gets his hands on a Vietnam-era M60 in issue 3. |
| 758 | * NeverMyFault: {{Averted}} hard by him. He acknowledges everything that goes wrong during the story is his fault, since it all originally comes about due to him starting the expedition in the first place. |
| 759 | * ThePasswordIsAlwaysSwordfish: Dr. Brooks is able to easily guess the password on Aaron's recorder is Gjallarhorn, because Aaron loved hearing his father read him Norse mythology as a child. [[spoiler:{{Justified}}, as Aaron chose that password so his father alone could unlock the recording if the recorder ever made it to the outside world]]. |
| 760 | * RedemptionQuest: [[spoiler:[[TheAtoner He decides to stay with the Iwi and help them rebuild their village from the damage caused by his actions,]] sending a message to his dad promising [[IShallReturn they will meet again one day.]] which as confirmed in ''Godzilla: Aftershock'' did happen.]] |
| 761 | * SayMyName: |
| 762 | ** He shouts Karsten's name in horror when she's torn apart by Death Jackals. |
| 763 | ** He screams Matemavi's name when she's [[spoiler:shot by Riccio]]. |
| 764 | * ShotgunsAreJustBetter: Obtains one in issue 2 after finding a downed Sky Devil helicopter from the first expedition to the island. |
| 765 | * SoleSurvivor: [[spoiler:By the end of issue 4, he is the only member of the team left standing.]] |
| 766 | * TookALevelInKindness: Starts as a hot-headed young man at odds with his father over Kong and Skull Island being kept secret from the world, but after nearly a year stranded on Skull Island and learning Kong's history, Aaron sees the ape for the protector he is and realizes his dad was right all along about nature striking its own balance. |
| 767 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Much of his actions are because he fears what would happen if the more malevolent life forms on Skull Island ever got out. |
| 768 | [[/folder]] |
| 769 | |
| 770 | [[folder:Evgenij Medov]] |
| 771 | [[quoteright:259:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_26_at_61705_am.png]] |
| 772 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 773 | |
| 774 | -->''"Still hurts. I just don't care anymore."''\ |
| 775 | |
| 776 | The cryptobiologist of Aaron's team. |
| 777 | ---- |
| 778 | * ActionSurvivor: Subverted: He almost gets killed in issue 1. |
| 779 | * BrainyBrunette: He has brown hair and is a cryptobiologist. |
| 780 | * ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: [[spoiler: He's impaled through the back by the leg of a Mother Longlegs and killed.]] |
| 781 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Like everyone else on the team, he believes the world should know about Skull Island. |
| 782 | [[/folder]] |
| 783 | |
| 784 | [[folder:Dr. Evelyn Matemavi]] |
| 785 | [[quoteright:253:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_26_at_63435_am.png]] |
| 786 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 787 | |
| 788 | -->''"A "pilgrimage"? We're scientists, not holy believers."''\ |
| 789 | |
| 790 | The combat medic of Aaron's team. |
| 791 | ---- |
| 792 | * ActionGirl |
| 793 | * BadassBookworm: MD, [=PhD=], name the initials, she's got them all. |
| 794 | * BlackAndNerdy: She has dark skin, is physically fit, and apparently she has just about every degree that's worth having to her name. |
| 795 | * DiedInYourArmsTonight: She dies being held in Aaron's arms -- or she was already dead when her body fell backwards and Aaron was cradling her. |
| 796 | * TheMedic: A combat-trained, monster hunting one. |
| 797 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Like everyone else on the team, she believes the world should know about Skull Island. |
| 798 | [[/folder]] |
| 799 | |
| 800 | [[folder:Helen Karsten]] |
| 801 | [[quoteright:316:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_26_at_64617_am.png]] |
| 802 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 803 | |
| 804 | -->''"We're 15,000 feet above a monster-infested island, flying through a hurricane in a misappropriated military prototype. Why worry?"'' |
| 805 | |
| 806 | A survival instructor and former Navy legend, she roped in the team's pilot Cejudo. |
| 807 | ---- |
| 808 | * CruelAndUnusualDeath: [[spoiler:She is torn apart fighting the Death Jackals so the rest of the team can make their getaway]]. The survivors themselves note that she didn't deserve to go out in such a horrible way. |
| 809 | * CurbStompBattle: Her HeroicSacrifice ends up being a borderline [[ExaggeratedTrope exaggeration]]. [[spoiler:She tells the rest of the group to take cover, clearly intending to at least buy them time with her machete and handgun, but she's seized around the waist and promptly ripped apart before she can even get a single strike in at the Death Jackals]]. |
| 810 | * DevouredByTheHorde: [[spoiler:She gets literally ripped into pieces by Death Jackals]]. |
| 811 | * FauxActionGirl: {{Justified}}. She's the team's experienced survival instructor and a "real legend" in the US Navy, but that doesn't count for much at all on Skull Island, [[spoiler:and she becomes the first member of the expedition to die]]. |
| 812 | * HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler:She orders the rest of the expedition to take cover in caves from the Death Jackals whilst she holds them off, and is almost-immediately DevouredByTheHorde]]. |
| 813 | * SwordAndGun: Helen uses both a machete and pistol together. |
| 814 | * WeHardlyKnewYe: She's the first member of the expedition to die within five minutes of arriving on the island. |
| 815 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Like everyone else on the team, she believes the world should know about Skull Island. |
| 816 | [[/folder]] |
| 817 | |
| 818 | [[folder:Walter R. Riccio]] |
| 819 | [[quoteright:226:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_26_at_70317_am.png]] |
| 820 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 821 | |
| 822 | -->''"Your father only scratched the surface, Aaron. '''We''' will unlock the secrets of The Mountain-Who-Thunders-Death."''\ |
| 823 | |
| 824 | The team's mythographer. |
| 825 | |
| 826 | ---- |
| 827 | |
| 828 | * AdmiringTheAbomination: He seems like this at first, openly admiring Skull Island's beauty when he first sees it just after their Osprey was attacked by Psychovultures, whilst saying they need to seek out the Iwi to avoid becoming snacks for the island's predators, but it's heavily implied he's just using the latter as an excuse to seek out the natives for his own intellectual benefit. [[spoiler:He goes way, ''way'' overboard with the admiring part and loses the "still acknowledge it could kill him" part entirely thanks to his SanitySlippage]]. |
| 829 | * BitchSlap: He smacks [[spoiler:Ato]] across the face with the butt of a gun for speaking up when [[spoiler:he reveals he intends to take down the Iwi village's barrier]]. |
| 830 | * BodyPaint: He dons the Iwi's body paint early into his SanitySlippage as part of his initial assimilation of their culture. He also forces the other survivors of their expedition to initially don the Iwi's {{tribal face paint}} as a show of respect to them. |
| 831 | * BrainyBrunette: He has brown hair, and he's a bookish mythographer and {{omniglot}} who manages to learn the Iwis' language ''overnight''. That being said, being super-smart does ''not'' mean that he's mentally sound – at all. |
| 832 | * CommanderContrarian: He puts his fixation on finding the Iwi and learning as much as possible before Aaron's more pragmatic concerns about the group's safety and he isn't quiet about it, and he only grows more antagonistic towards the expedition's leader as he suffers SanitySlippage and when Aaron calls the expedition off whilst Riccio is more concerned about his "pilgrimage" to see Kong. |
| 833 | * ContrastingSequelAntagonist: He's one to Packard from the movie. Both men suffer SanitySlippage after coming to the island which leads to them endangering all the other humans for their own selfish agenda; but whereas Packard was an unstable military man using vengeance and military duty towards civilians as an excuse for obsessing with killing Kong, Riccio instead is a mythographer who takes revering Kong as a holy deity to a thoroughly insane degree. Also, Packard was ultimately reliant on the support of his squad to pose as much of a threat to the island's balance and the remaining cast as he did, whereas Riccio causes a lot more damage after he strikes out on his own than before. |
| 834 | * {{Doublethink}}: Boy howdy. Once he [[SanitySlippage loses it]] [[spoiler:and descends into complete and utterly destructive fanaticism]], he decides that the best way to verify whether Kong is a protective or destructive god and achieving his own communion with Kong is by placing Kong's actual charges in mortal danger, even deriding the Iwi whom he not long ago was obsessed with studying as he explains his plan (as much as a plan like his ''can'' be explained in any way). |
| 835 | * EvilIsHammy: Very much so as his SanitySlippage progresses, spreading his arms and screaming like [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iGPaqmR9U00&t=55s the guy in the hood here]]. |
| 836 | * TheFundamentalist: He descends into this with his reverence of Kong and initial respect of the Iwi as his SanitySlippage sets in, getting angry with the rest of the expedition just for not yet donning Iwi markings and allegedly not showing the Iwi proper respect. Aaron calling off the expedition before Riccio has completed his perceived pilgrimage to see Kong [[spoiler:is all that Riccio needs to fully go off the deep end]]. |
| 837 | * GoingNative: A nasty example. He fully assimilates into Iwi culture, but horrendously misinterprets it, culminating in him deciding that the world must die because no human deserves Kong's glory. |
| 838 | * InsaneTrollLogic: He descends into this late into his SanitySlippage. He goes from respecting the Iwi to [[spoiler:assaulting and threatening them]] as he becomes more concerned with his idea of Kong as God, and he [[spoiler:decides to bring the Iwi's wall down as a test to see if Kong is the kind of god that will come to their aid; rationalizing that if Kong doesn't intervene to save the Iwi, then it means the Iwi and everything in the world is unworthy of ''Kong'' specifically and can all die, not to mention all his talk about removing the barriers that divide creatures even if doing so is suicidal as in the case of taking down the Iwi's wall]]. |
| 839 | * InstantExpert: Aaron's narration mentions that he's "scary smart" enough that upon coming in contact with the Iwi, Riccio learns their language practically overnight. |
| 840 | * JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope: Everyone probably knew he was going to be the antagonist from early on when he had his first so-called vision, but still, [[spoiler:he firmly crosses the line when he shoots down the expedition's Osprey and murders Cejudo in the process]]. |
| 841 | * KarmicDeath: [[spoiler:He blows up the barrier that prevented Skull Island's predators from invading the Iwi's village en masse in an insane attempt to prove whether or not Kong is really humans' savior. After Kong does indeed come to drive the invading horde off, the King of the Primates is unimpressed by Riccio's ravings that Kong has proven his divinity, seemingly realizing that Riccio is responsible for the harm to the Iwi and squashing him flat]]. |
| 842 | * KilledMidSentence: He's in the middle of babbling his head off when [[spoiler:Kong [[SquashedFlat squashes him flat]]]]. |
| 843 | * MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's ambiguous whether his painful visions of Kong's parents really are real ("The devils of [Skull Island] whisper[ing] into his ear" as Ato puts it) or are solely hallucinations of his own mind's making brought on by his overconsumption of the Iwi's medicinal brew. Aaron himself briefly lampshades this after Riccio's death. |
| 844 | * NakedNutter: First he strips his upper-body down to just his undershirt upon coming in contact with the Iwi, then as he integrates himself into their culture and his SanitySlippage progresses, he goes around topless for the rest of the story, up until he dons an Iwi robe just before his death. |
| 845 | * {{Omniglot}}: He already knows multiple languages before he comes in contact with the Iwi and learns their language overnight. |
| 846 | * OneHitKill: [[spoiler:Kills Matemavi with a single shot from his pistol.]] |
| 847 | * PistolWhipping: He performs one after his SanitySlippage; [[spoiler:responding to Ato protesting to his plan to blow up the Iwi's walls by [[WouldHurtAChild bludgeoning Ato]] with the butt of a handgun, and then spitting that what the Iwi do best is keep their mouths shut]]. |
| 848 | * PsychoSerum: The Iwi's medicinal brew which he over-consumes is heavily implied to be instigating and exacerbating his SanitySlippage, and it might even be the entire cause of his visions of Kong's parents which fuel his conviction that he's on a holy pilgrimage. |
| 849 | * PsychoSupporter: As his SanitySlippage progresses, it becomes more and more clear that he's this regarding his initial respect for the Iwi and his reverence for Kong as a divine being, [[spoiler:what with the actions he takes to endanger the Iwi and his conviction Kong is the only thing in the world that matters]]. |
| 850 | * SanitySlippage: From drinking a lot of the Iwi's medicine brew and becoming a MadOracle, he begins to lose it as he assimilates the Iwi culture and insists on continuing the sacred pilgrimage to meet Kong despite his friends' objections and desire to leave Skull Island. The others realize how unhinged Riccio has become when [[spoiler:he shoots down Cejudo with a rocket launcher as he flies in to pick them up, shoots Matemavi dead, and holds the rest of them at gunpoint.]] He goes on to hit Ato across the mouth with his gun and say the outside world can burn and die if Kong doesn't save the Iwi since it doesn't deserve Kong any more than the Iwis do. |
| 851 | * {{Seers}}: He ''believes'' he's this when he starts having conscious dreams of Kong's parents and of the Skullcrawlers killing them just after Kong's birth, although it's a case of MaybeMagicMaybeMundane whether he's really this or is just hallucinating as a result of overusing the Iwi's medicine. |
| 852 | * SmugSmiler: Early on, he has a smirk on his face that speaks of this and is slightly condescending towards Aaron before things all go to heck for the expedition. He exchanges it for frowns and manic grins as his SanitySlippage kicks in. |
| 853 | * SquashedFlat: [[spoiler: Dies from being crushed by Kong's fist.]] |
| 854 | * TVGenius: Knows five different languages, and soon quickly learns the Iwi's language. |
| 855 | * VillainHasAPoint: Whilst his actions after his SanitySlippage are way out of line, causing many deaths and nearly resulting in the Iwi's destruction, they do in the end conclusively prove to Aaron what Kong's moral alignment is and put Aaron's concerns about Kong and the island to rest. Aaron himself admits that in a roundabout way Riccio did complete Aaron's core reason for coming to the island. |
| 856 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Like everyone else on the team, he believes the world should know about Skull Island. |
| 857 | * WouldHurtAChild: After his SanitySlippage, [[spoiler:he smacks Ato across the face with the butt of a gun for speaking up, to say nothing of how he intends to expose the Iwi's entire village to the predators that their wall keeps out regardless of the fact there's children in their village]]. |
| 858 | [[/folder]] |
| 859 | |
| 860 | [[folder:Cejudo]] |
| 861 | [[quoteright:236:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/screen_shot_2017_06_26_at_71318_am.png]] |
| 862 | !!!'''Appears In:''' ''Skull Island: The Birth of Kong'' |
| 863 | |
| 864 | -->''"Adventure of a lifetime, Captain--Go!"''\ |
| 865 | |
| 866 | The team's pilot. |
| 867 | ---- |
| 868 | * DisposablePilot: He and his craft perish [[spoiler:due to Riccio shooting them down with a rocket launcher]]. |
| 869 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: Like everyone else on the team, he believes the world should know about Skull Island. |
| 870 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: The team isn't even sure if he is still alive. [[AvertedTrope However, he's discovered to have survived the crash in issue 3]]. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, at the end of this issue, he's killed when he is shot down by a rocket fired by Riccio.]] |
| 871 | [[/folder]] |
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