To start with King Kong Lives makes it clear that it is a sequel, by showing us the ending of King Kong and him falling to his death from the Twin Towers. They then state it is 10 year later and that King Kong has been in a coma ever since the fall. (Char Right.)
The University that owns King Kong have been keeping him alive and have built him a giant replacement heart, but they need blood from his species to perform the operation. (Cause no other Ape species blood will do for the King.) Since he is the only known giant gorilla there is no hope and they have wasted a fortune keeping the creature alive and building a giant mechanical heart. (How is this University still operating, they should be bankrupt)
Meanwhile, in a small studio covered in green jungle plants our male hero is introduced Hank Mitchell. Think Jack Colton from Romancing the Stone but cheaper and dumber. He apparently has been walking his donkey for a while and they decide to take a nap, and wouldn't you just know it he tries to take a nap in Lady Kong's hand (I think the film makers should have called her Queen Kong.) she is smitten with Hank and runs after him. Thankfully he is saved by the native extras from the beginning of Raiders who knock her out with blow darts.
As quickly as that we have another Kong and the University are bidding on it as they need the plasma for King Kong but they don't want the female ape.
So the Female ape is bought and shipped to the university so that they can get the blood and finally do the operation they have been waiting 10 years to do and bring King Kong back to life.
When I was 6 years old and saw this film, the operation scene was very memorable for me and I thought it was amazing. Now as an adult it kind of works, but I feel like I'm watching Lilliputians operate on Gulliver and it just looks ridiculous, I feel like people could have fallen into the open chest cavity and been lost.
If they re did the operation today it would be performed in a similar way to key hole surgery but with massive tools operated by giant robot hands rather then by Linda Hamilton.
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| Linda is wielding that giant medical saw. |
After the Operation King Kong wakes up from the induced coma on his own and can smell Lady Kong and he is seriously horny then again most men are when they wake up. Linda is worried about the new heart so sedates him.
Kong wakes up again that night and hears Lady Kong's cries and he brakes out of the operating theatre that he has been in and gets to her and frees her, they run off into the Arkansa mountains. Hank Mitchell and Amy (Linda Hamilton) go after the apes together and against the Army instructions. they find the apes before the army and Amy keeps and eye on Kong's heart with a mobile computer.
The apes flirt as do Amy and Hank, so we get a human relationship mirroring the apes because a whole movie of the apes comunicating in gunts would be just as bad as the Star Wars Holiday special, no one needs that, just thinking of the Holiday special and the wookies makes me start to rock.
The Army Captures Lady Kong and puts her in a really deep pit and don't look after her very well and blow up King Kong, or so they think. King Kong is still alive and recuperating in the swamps and searching for Lady Kong.
King Kong has been living in the swamp for 8 months unnoticed and Amy and Hank have been trying to get access to Lady Kong and set up a reserve for them in Bornio. When Amy and Hank do get to see her they see she is not well and not eating. and no one has realised that Lady Kong is pregnant. King Kong leaves the swamp, finally gets Lady Kongs scent and gets to her.
The Army attack and tries to kill them both King Kong takes all the bullets and colapses after Lady Kong has given birth to there son. King Kong gets to see his son before he dies and we see lady Kong and Son of Kong living happliy in the reserve Hank set up for them.
This is a silly film and there is a lot of things that make no sense, but the film isn't awful i would say I would rather sit through multiple viewings of King Kong Lives than Peter Jackson's King Kong.
There are things wrong, like the fact there is no scar form the operation on King Kong's chest and the fact that the Army arn't using satalite images of America to find the apes and King Kong after they think they blew him up.
However, my personal favorite issue with this film is the fact that no one, not even Hank and Amy who slept very close to the apes in the mountains, heard or felt the vibrations of the two giant Apes making love. Considering that other times in the film like when King Kong falls down the ground shakes and people nearly fall over themselves from the shock waves.
When I watched this film again for the first time since l was a child, I enjoyed it for exactly what it is pure cheesey 80's monster film, yes the special effects are dated and obvious, but that is true of any film over time. I felt the ape acting was better then it was in King Kong (1976).
This is a film that a lot of people are unaware of or have forgotten, it wasn't a successful film, but it's fun, very silly, over the top and then very sweet.
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