3) Chapman’s Death
Aside from John C. Reilly’s Hank Marlow, Toby Kebbell’s Chapman is perhaps the most developed of the bunch. We know that he’s got a son named Billy, a presumably young boy whom Chapman writes to frequently. Unfortunately, Kebbell’s character doesn’t fare very well on this island of gods and monsters; he’s eaten by one of the island’s predators shortly after his separation from his comrades and is later burped up by his killer.
The decision to knock off Chapman is an odd one, especially because he’s built up to be a character for whom we can root for from the very beginning. His potential, along with Kebbell’s star power, is criminally wasted. His death supposedly motivates Packard to rise up against the islands’ many deadly creatures, but it feels wholly unnecessary. Packard already displayed enough desire to take down Kong; he didn’t need his right-hand man to die to convince him that the island took lives.
Chapman’s demise also marks the first time we glimpse what Marlow fearfully called, “Skullcrawlers.” Responsible for wiping out Kong’s kind, the Skullcrawlers are large reptilian beasts with a thirst for anything around which they can get their abnormally-sized maws on. Chapman figures this out rather quickly; the hapless soldier barely has time for a startled gasp before he’s gobbled up by the savage creature.
It’s a sad end for a character with as much potential as a film like Kong will allow.