# King Kong jumping from one WTC tower to another (1976 film) **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [September 16, 2009, 5:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285 "2009-09-16T05:02:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 6\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Wheelz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wheelz/32/5718_2.png) [@Wheelz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Wheelz)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/21 "2009-09-16T19:45:01Z")
Tangential trip down memory lane: I was 13 when that film came out, and [this poster](http://www.imdb.com/media/rm1527945472/tt0074751) was one of the most awesomely cool things I had ever seen. Imagine my disappointment when the actual scene looked nothing like it. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 8:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/22 "2009-09-16T20:30:45Z")
> [@](#): > > Gorillas are roughly the same height as humans. Though much stronger, they’re also much heavier for their size. The anecdotal accounts I’ve seen on the web indicate that their jumping capability is roughly equivalent to humans’. So Kong could probably make the jump, particularly in a motivated, adrenally elevated state. Actually, jumping ability doesn’t scale. A flea, a frog, a human, and a horse can all jump about the same height or distance-- How far an animal can jump depends only on how specialized it is for jumping, not on its size. ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/23 "2009-09-16T20:43:21Z")
A large frog can jump farther than a small frog. ---
**Author:** ![boytyperanma](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/4491bb/32.png) [@boytyperanma](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boytyperanma)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 9:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/24 "2009-09-16T21:08:50Z")
These two articles seem to indicate zoo experts expect shorter leaping distances from gorillas then they do humans. The 13 and 15 foot moats were thought to be enough, though they proved not to be > **[Did love or fury spur Dutch gorilla's attack?](https://www.reuters.com/article/lifestyleMolt/idUSL3042888320070530)** > > Was it love that drove Bokito the gorilla to leap from his enclosure and seize a woman visiting the Rotterdam Zoo? [http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/monkeywire/2004-June/000626.html](http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/monkeywire/2004-June/000626.html) Hope that provides some numbers to work with. As to the towers being able to take the impact I’d guess no. The towers design was different then most sky scrapers. The buildings where design with the outside walls being the main support so I’d expect the WTC would be less able to support an impact directly to the top then other buildings that used the traditional boxlike support systems. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 9:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/25 "2009-09-16T21:32:58Z")
> [@](#): > > A large frog can jump farther than a small frog. Not if they both have the same proportion of body mass in their jumping muscles. If in fact large frogs can jump further, that probably just indicates that they’re proportioned differently. ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [September 16, 2009, 11:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285/26 "2009-09-16T23:19:44Z")
> [@pravnik](#): > > even if they were designed on paper to withstand jetliner impact, it’s not as if jetliner impact was actually field tested on the Towers themselves. Well, technically they \*did \*withstand the plane impact itself, the buildings stood there with the gaping holes for a while before finally collapsing. It was the burning jet fuel that weakened the supports. I wonder if there wasn’t all that fuel & fires if they could have survived & been repaired or if the weight of the top floors would have eventually been too much? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/king-kong-jumping-from-one-wtc-tower-to-another-1976-film/510285.md?page=1)