Kualoa Ranch: Revisited

Given the fact that my last post on this awesome place was so very heavily Jurassic Park-focused, I promised that I’d return to the popular, 4000-acre, family-owned ranch that has served dozens upon dozens of movies since the 1950s. In fact, even its Hall of Fame – a modest two walls’ worth of framed pictures – tells only a tiny fraction of the movies it’s hosted over the last sixty-plus years. Sadly this post doesn’t involve an actual revisit, but it does involve a little bit more on the movies that have been filmed there as well as some interesting facts.

So as you can tell there's still plenty to reveal. And what better time than to do so with the new Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle trailer now stomping its way across the internet? Scenes from the new film were shot near what I now dub as “Gallimimus Valley” – that’s the valley and the rise made famous in Jurassic Park. While 1995's Jumanji wasn’t shot here whatsoever, with instead the jungle creeping out into a mansion in New England, its sequel is set to take the action directly into Jumanji’s jungle (probably known as Jumanji). After all, the movie is subtitled Welcome to the Jungle (I must point out that it’s the second time The Rock has appeared in a movie with that name). After Kualoa, the shooting moved to the Waimea Botanical Gardens on Oahu, likely for in-jungle scenes. And there’s no doubt that Kualoa Ranch serves scenes that involve more open backdrops. Just watch out for rhino stampedes.

Can you see The Rock? Come on, that was funny

There he is! And look behind him...

The Ranch has a strict no-campfires policy. But would you tell this guy?

The film's awesome new poster

But Kualoa Ranch doesn’t just double well for dinosaur-inhabited islands in Costa Rica or board game-based jungles or Ecuador (this year’s Snatched), it also served as Africa in 1998's underrated Mighty Joe Young, starring Charlize Theron and the late Bill Paxton. The movie opens with scenes in Africa where Paxton’s character Professor O'Hara goes searching for the fabled giant gorilla, and there’s also a scene in the end where Joe is back home, running through a newly-built nature reserve. 

Kualoa doesn’t just stop at Africa, either. If you remember pictures from my last post of both myself and Sian standing proudly on top of a triceratops’ skull or in the eye socket of a Kong family member’s skull, then you'll remember that scenes from Kong: Skull Island were also shot here, but not limited to the skeleton graveyard scene (remember the helicopter crash from my last Kualoa post?). The movie is set in the lush green tropics of Vietnam, and while scenes were shot on location there, they were also shot in the open valleys of Kualoa.

Sadly the skull didn't come equipped with the gun like in the movie

She doesn't need a machine gun to look cool

Ah. Nothing like smiling happily in a field of death and extinction

I just hope this picture doesn't go viral and attract the likes of PETA

Um, we didn't smoke in there. Honestly...

Helicopters + Giant Apes = Bad

And here's one Kualoa Ranch made earlier

As we drove up the valley, we also saw some giant footprints. They may not have belonged to Kong, but they did belong to his long-time nemesis, Godzilla, with whom he’ll be fighting in Godzilla V Kong in 2020. The first picture depicts the footprint of 1998’s Godzilla, while the second picture shows that of 2014’s Godzilla. However,'s footprints this scene was actually cut from the movie, possibly due to similarities with the 90’s version. With regards to the '98 version, Kualoa Ranch actually had to raise the pit as cows kept falling in!

Going back to giant gorillas, there's a rock formation at one end of the valley that looks just like two of them kissing, hence the name, “Kissing Gorillas.” This was actually used in 1997's George of the Jungle, but was cut from the final edit. 

This definitely belongs to a giant lizard and not the cow

As seen in 1998's Godzilla

The footprint that never made it to the final cut of the 2014 movie

The Kissing Gorillas (not Kong and Joe Young). Squint and you might see it

Another scene shot here in the valley that also didn’t make the film is the statue in the picture below, which was to be used in 2012's Journey 2: The Mysterious Island in a scene which would have involved it being walked across the trail just near where it’s still positioned. This scene was actually filmed as the tour guide told us how the statue was walked like a washing machine by several men using ropes, from one side of the trail to the next. Of course, the men and the ropes would have been magically deleted from the movie, but it’s unlikely that expensive process would have ever taken place. But then maybe not. Perhaps it was but it just looked too dumb-dumb. Get it? Okay, different film, but still.

Other films include 50 First Dates, You, Me & Dupree, Pearl Harbor, as well as hit TV shows Lost, Hawaii Five-O, and brand new show Marvel’s Inhumans, which at the time of filming went under the guide of NX. As well as in various locations across the ranch, scenes from Pearl Harbor, Lost and Hawaii Five-O in particular were also filmed in Kualoa's real WWII bunker, as well as many other movies and TV shows. We also stopped off at “Macadamia Village.” It wasn’t an actual village, but one of course used in movies to look just like one. During our stay in Seattle, we watched Snatched, starring Amy Schumer and Goldie Hawn, in which there are scenes where they’re drinking at an outside bar in a sketchy little village in South America. For more details, just check out my upcoming review.

Journey 2: Across The Field

Kualoa's real WWII bunker

Amy Schumer getting her groove on in Snatched

The morning after 

Scenes from Bruce Willis' Tears of the Sun (2003) were also filmed in the village

You, Me & Dupree's wedding was filmed here, as were the submarine scenes from Lost

As you can now probably tell, there are countless more movies that Kualoa Ranch has served over the years. And it will no doubt serve many more as the years go by. Though there are more than just one currently in production there, it’s now also hosting the remaining shoots for the curiously-titled Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom. But with most of its scenes having been shot in the UK in the months prior, a curious rookie can only speculate that the movie is actually (mostly) set in the United Kingdom, with the title possibly referring to more than just the fall of Isla Nublar... 

Kualoa Ranch is a must-visit place, and I’m sure countless filmmakers, producers, actors, giant gorillas, big lizards and dinosaurs would also agree. Not happy that you have to wait a whole year for the new Jurassic World movie? Me, neither. But in the meantime just check out the awesome new Jumanji 2 trailer below.

What do you think "Kingdom" means..?