Universal Studios Hollywood, Studio Tour · Since 1986
The Studio Tour’s Kong, from the 1986 bridge attack to the screens that replaced it.
King Kong Encounter opened on the Studio Tour on June 14, 1986. Trams drove onto a bridge in a burning New York, and a 30 foot Kong, about 7 tons with 660 pounds of fur, reached out and grabbed the cables. The deck lurched toward him and the front car got a blast of banana scented air. Kong couldn’t have moved a loaded tram if he tried. He didn’t have to, because the bridge was built to move on its own. This room covers how that worked, the 2008 fire that ended it, and King Kong 360, the Peter Jackson version running today.
Step 1 of 4
The tram rolls onto a suspension bridge in a burning New York at night, and Kong is standing right next to it.
Press Kong attacks any time to run the scene again.
1933
RKO released King Kong in 1933. Kong was a stop motion puppet only inches tall, moved by hand a frame at a time, and he finished the film on top of the Empire State Building.
By the 1980s Universal wanted a big finish for the Studio Tour, something you couldn’t get from watching a movie. Putting a tram in the middle of a Kong attack did that.
Building Kong
A lot of the crew came from film. Henry Bumstead, an Oscar winning production designer, did the New York set. Peter Alexander was art director. Bob Gurr, who had designed the Disneyland Monorail, was chief engineer on Kong.
Kong ended up 30 feet tall and around 7 tons, with 660 pounds of fur. The set filled a soundstage about 160 feet on each side, roughly 26,000 square feet, and the project reportedly cost between 6.5 and 7 million dollars.
June 14, 1986
The tram pulled into New York at night. A TV anchor cut into a broadcast and helicopter reporter Kelly King described Kong tearing through the city. Then the tram rolled onto the bridge, a searchlight swept across the skyline, and Kong came up beside you.
He grabbed the cables and the deck jerked about three feet toward him. A loaded tram weighed around 88,000 pounds, and the bridge did that to every one of them, all day, for 22 years.
June 1, 2008
On June 1, 2008, a fire on the backlot burned through the New York Street sets and took King Kong Encounter with them. Rather than rebuild the animatronic, Universal brought in Peter Jackson, who had made his own King Kong in 2005, along with his effects company Weta Digital.
King Kong 360 opened on July 1, 2010 and works nothing like the old ride. The tram parks between two curved screens nearly 200 feet long, and a 91 second film of Jackson’s Skull Island plays on both sides of you while Kong fights off Venatosaurus and a V. rex. A motion system from Dynamic Structures rocks the tram along with the fight, and Universal even brought back the banana smell from 1986. The 3D glasses were dropped on March 14, 2026.
Tap any case for a closer look.
RKO Radio Pictures, public domainRKO releases the film. Kong ends up on top of the Empire State Building.
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Photos from Wikimedia Commons under the licences listed, plus frames from the JPLAND21 Shorts.