In 1933, during the Great Depression, vaudeville actress Ann Darrow (Naomi Watts) is unemployed and hungry living in New York City. When she steals an apple, filmmaker Carl Denham (Jack Black) comes to her aid and pays the vendor a nickel. Carl is about to leave that night on a tramp steamer to finish his movie in Singapore, and he has been looking for an actress to replace the one who had dropped out. He convinces Darrow to take the part. Denham has a map of the mysterious Skull Island, and he pays the captain to sail to the island before going to Singapore. On the ship is the screen writer Jack Driscoll who falls in love with Darrow. The ship actually hits the island, and they go ashore, where they discover the ruins of an old civilization and encounter the natives. At first all they see are old women and children and believe themselves to be relatively safe. This doesn't last long, one of the film crew is immediately run through with a spear and dies on the spot. Just as one of the natives is preparing to crush Denham's skull, the captain and his crew show up and start shooting at the natives. They manage to escape back to the boat but it is still run aground and, while they are trying to free the boat, the natives board it and take Darrow back. Driscoll, in the meantime, had gone to look for Darrow, after finding a skull charm on the deck, only to realize she had been taken. He quickly alerted the rest that she was gone and they had to go after her. Darrow is shown being dragged back on to the beach by the natives and is soon given to Kong, an enormous ape, as a sacrifice.
The film crew and some of the shipmates go into the jungle to rescue Darrow. The jungle, however, is a dangerous place and several from the rescue party dies when they are attacked by dinosaurs or insects. Darrow's attempts to escape are futile but she quickly takes a liking to the ape. The two watch the sun set from the top of a mountain and she tells him it is beautiful as she taps her chest to convey how the beauty of it has touched her. Eventually she falls asleep in his hand as he yawns from exhaustion. After the ape has fallen asleep, Driscoll finds them and, after a battle with huge bats, they escape back to the ruins where the rest of the party have gathered to try to capture Kong.
Upset that the woman escaped, a furious Kong pursues them back to the ruins to try to get her back. Darrow begs them to stop and to leave the great ape be. When Kong gets near she prays for him to 'just go back' but he doesn't. He continues to try to get her back. The film crew uses chloroform, that the captain had on the ship and, after a lengthy struggle, Kong is captured and taken back to New York.
In New York, Kong is billed as "KING KONG The Eighth Wonder of the World" at the Alhambra Theater where Denham and his producers show the big ape for money. They have hired another girl to play the part of Ann Darrow. They reportedly had offered the real Ann lots of money to play the part but she refused. Driscoll had gone to the theater to look for Darrow, only to find out that she wasn't there. As he and Preston look on, Preston tells him that Denham was right, they could have it all just for the price of admission. Driscoll comments that Denham just can't help hurting the things he cares about most. When Kong sees this other woman he knows it is not the real Ann and starts getting upset. Although secured with chains, Kong is lonely for Ann and in a strange and foreign place and the flashes from the press cameras infuriate him and he easily breaks free. The audience panics and runs and Kong, who sees and remembers Driscoll, chases him from the theater and gets out on the wintry streets of New York. As the general public screams and runs for cover around him, Kong picks up and discards several young blonde women, apparently looking for Ann Darrow. Working at the The De Luxe Theater, Darrow hears the police sirens and people screaming as the ape creates havoc on the streets.
When the ape finally finds Darrow he picks her up and they end up in Central Park where they have a few peaceful, blissful minutes to themselves playing on a frozen lake. Their quite time is quickly ended when artillery shells hit the park. Kong takes Darrow and ends up climbing up to the top of the Empire State Building with her. When the airforce attacks, Darrow screams to them to stop but finally the big ape falls to his death. Around the dead body of Kong a large crowd have gathered when director Carl Denham shows up. "The airplanes got him", says a man. "It wasn't the airplanes", says Denham. "It was beauty killed the beast".
