Skip to Content
Poster for King Kong Lives
Watch trailer for King Kong Lives Watch trailer

King Kong Lives

Director: John Guillermin Run Time: 105 min. Format: 35mm Rating: PG13 Release Year: 1986

Starring: Brian Kerwin, John Ashton, Linda Hamilton, Peter Michael Goetz

Kong is back and ready for action (of the sexy kind)!

A 35mm Presentation. Print courtesy of the Academy Film Archive

Remember how at the end of the 70’s King Kong, Kong falls off of the top of the World Trade Center after getting lit up by Army helicopters? Turns out he’s okay – just in a coma, and the dude needs a new ticker something quick plus a blood transfusion to boot. Fortunately for Kong, an adventurer happens upon another giant ape deep in the forest – this one a female – which gives Dr. Linda Hamilton the blood that she needs to perform giant monkey open heart surgery. Good news is, the surgery is a success and Kong goes back to his old self; bad news is, our man catches wind of the captured female and raises Hell to get at her.

Spectacularly silly and surprisingly rife with carnage, King Kong Lives is the giant ape love story you didn’t know you needed in your life.

Part of Nitehawk’s March LARGE AND IN CHARGE screening series.

Trailer