You’re sitting there in a dark theater, watching a bunch of Huey helicopters fly in slow motion to a Creedence Clearwater Revival track. It’s 1973. Everything is orange and green. Samuel L. Jackson is staring intensely at a giant ape. It’s a vibe, sure. But then, about forty minutes into the movie, this bearded guy in a tattered flight suit pops out of the jungle, and suddenly, a decent monster flick becomes a great one.
John C. Reilly in Kong: Skull Island is the secret sauce.
Honestly, without him, the movie is just a series of very expensive CGI assets hitting each other. He plays Hank Marlow, a WWII pilot who’s been stuck on this godforsaken rock for 28 years. He doesn't just provide comic relief; he provides a soul. While Tom Hiddleston is busy looking handsome and Brie Larson is taking photos of things, Reilly is doing the heavy lifting of making us care about a world filled with giant lizards and oversized spiders.
The Man, The Myth, The "Steve Brule" Jacket
If you look closely at Marlow’s flight jacket, you’ll see something weird. The back says "Good For Your Health." For anyone who grew up on Adult Swim, that's an immediate "Wait, what?" moment. It’s a direct nod to Reilly’s legendary character Dr. Steve Brule. Director Jordan Vogt-Roberts actually designed it as a tribute to the anime Akira, but when Reilly pointed out the Brule connection, they just leaned into it.
It fits, though. Marlow is basically what would happen if Steve Brule was forced to survive in a jungle for three decades. He’s eccentric. He’s "batshit insane," as some critics put it. But he’s also the only character who feels like a real human being. He’s lived through a hell we can’t imagine, yet he’s worried about who won the World Series and whether or not his wife moved on.
Why Hank Marlow Works When Others Don't
Let’s be real. Most human characters in the MonsterVerse are... forgettable.
They’re usually just there to explain the plot or get stepped on. But Marlow has a genuine arc. Think about his backstory with Gunpei Ikari, the Japanese pilot he crashed with in 1944. They started out trying to kill each other with katanas and ended up as "brothers." That one detail does more for the movie’s themes of the futility of war than any of the Vietnam-era posturing from the rest of the cast.
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- The Heart: He’s the only one with a real stake. He wants to go home.
- The Knowledge: He explains the "Skullcrawlers" (a name he literally just made up because it sounded cool).
- The Skill: He’s surprisingly lethal with a sword.
Marlow is the bridge. He bridges the gap between the 1940s and the 1970s, and more importantly, he bridges the gap between the audience and the giant ape. He tells the soldiers—and us—that Kong isn't a monster. He’s a king. He’s a god. And he’s lonely.
Filming in the Actual Wild
This wasn't some green-screen production in a parking lot in Atlanta. The crew dragged John C. Reilly to Vietnam, Hawaii, and Australia.
Reilly has talked about the "prisoner of war camaraderie" that developed on set. You’re in Vietnam, the humidity is 200%, and there are actual giant centipedes in your trailer. That grit shows up on screen. When you see Marlow sweating and looking a little frayed at the edges, that’s not just the makeup department. That’s a man who has been filming in a swamp for six months.
The production moved through:
- Oahu, Hawaii: Specifically Kualoa Ranch (where they filmed Jurassic Park).
- Queensland, Australia: For the more tropical, dense jungle vibes.
- Ninh Binh, Vietnam: Which provided those otherworldly karst mountains that make Skull Island look like a different planet.
The Emotional Payoff (Spoilers, Obviously)
Most monster movies end with a big fight and a sunset. Kong: Skull Island does that, but then it does something better.
The coda of the film shows Marlow finally getting home. We see him walking up to a house in Chicago. He sees his wife, who is now an old woman. He meets his son, played by Will Brittain (who also played young Marlow in the opening). It’s a quiet, beautiful moment. He sits on his couch, eats a hot dog, drinks a beer, and watches the Cubs.
It’s the most "human" moment in the entire MonsterVerse.
It makes the stakes of the whole movie retroactively higher. If Marlow had died in that final battle with the Big One, the movie would have felt empty. Because he lives, the adventure actually meant something. He’s the lucky one who got out.
Actionable Takeaway for Your Next Rewatch
Next time you put on Kong: Skull Island, ignore the military jargon. Stop worrying about how it connects to Godzilla vs. Kong for a second. Instead, just track John C. Reilly’s performance. Notice how he uses humor to mask the sheer trauma of being alone for 28 years.
Look for the "Lizard Company" patch on his jacket—it's a reference to Taxi Driver. Notice how he wields Gunpei’s katana with a mix of reverence and desperation. If you want to dive deeper into the lore, check out the Skull Island: The Birth of Kong comics, which flesh out the Iwi culture he lived in for decades.
Basically, watch it as a character study of a lost pilot that just happens to feature a 100-foot gorilla. It’s a much better movie that way.