| Sumatran Rat-Monkey | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| |||
| Naming | |||
| Others | Rat-Monkey, Rat Monkey | ||
| Binomen | Unknown, though likely belong to Genus Rattus | ||
| Morphology | |||
| Body type | Rodent | ||
| Average height | Short | ||
| Intelligence | |||
| Sentience | Sentient | ||
| Sapience | Non-sapient | ||
| Aggressivity | Very High | ||
| Ecology | |||
| Place of origin | Earth | ||
| Habitat | Sumatra | ||
| Diet | Carnivorous | ||
| Locomotion | Bipedal | ||
| Status | Data Deficient | ||
| Behind the Scenes | |||
| Universe | Braindead / Dead Alive King Kong Hellgate: London | ||
| “ | Sumatran Rat Monkey—Beware the bite! |
” |
— Crate warning of the creature's Rage infestation
| ||
Sumatran Rat-Monkeys are a species of monkey/rat hybrids originating from Skull Island, better known as the indigenous home of King Kong, located off the western coast of Sumatra, Indonesia at around 12°S 78°E.
The species is not naturally evolved; instead, they were formed after a species of rats known for carrying the plague collectively forced themselves upon the local tree monkeys, causing their victims to later give birth to the first generation of Rat Monkeys. This plague would later evolve into the Sumatran Rat-Monkey’s most important asset: the Rage Plague.
This disease transforms its victims into zombie-like creatures that are capable of intensive physical mutations after prolonged infection.
Background history[]
The 1933 specimen was caged aboard the SS Venture.
The Sumatran Rat-Monkey was discovered by 1933, when a film crew aboard the SS Venture shipwrecked on Skull Island. At least one of the creatures was captured during this time, although it seemingly bit at least one person on the team, presumably leading to their death. Whatever became of this specimen is unknown, though it can be assumed that it escaped and was killed, or that it managed to flee the boat back into the jungle.
The species was thought to have been wiped out in an island-wide extinction event in 1948, fifteen years after the island's initial discovery. The island itself was believed to have been sunk into the ocean, presumably eradicating all species thereon. Eventually, however, the island was rediscovered and expectations to it had resumed by 1957.
In 1957, the explorer Stewart McAlden arrived on Skull Island for his own expedition, possibly as part of the same expedition that occurred in the same year that consisted of Vincent Denham and Jack Driscoll (who had been on-scene in 1933). They captured a second specimen but were stopped by the natives, who demanded that they return the creature. The expedition instead decided to attempt escape; fleeing to a waiting Jeep. McAlden, however, was bitten and scratched by the creature, leading to his native guides turning on him and killing him to prevent his infection.
Despite this, the specimen was still successfully removed from the island and shipped to the Wellington Zoo in New Zealand, where it would make itself into a habitual headache for the zookeepers; periodically killing and consuming other monkeys, until the keepers were forced to isolate it.
In 1973 the island was again rediscovered upon being detected by LANDSAT. While the species had not been seen since 1957, it could be presumed to still exist on the island, since it is known to have survived the 1948 cataclysm.
The Wellington specimen attacks Vera Cosgrove.
The specimen recovered in the fifties would become the progenitor of a small outbreak in Wellington in 1992 after Vera Cosgrove was bitten by it while attempting to snoop on her son Lionel whilst he was on a date with a local Spanish girl named Paquita María Sánchez. Vera was quickly infected with the Rage plague and over the course of two days, became a ravenous zombie, devoid of all human morality and restraint. The Sumatran Rat-Monkey itself was quickly put down by her during its attack, having its head and skull crushed by her heel.
Lionel returned her home and tried to keep her locked up to keep from having to kill his own mother, but she would come to escape and infect dozens of others multiple times. The infestation would grow until the entire attending population of a house party had become infected, forcing Lionel to cull the house guests with a lawnmower. His own mother, the Patient Zero in all of this, would mutate into a massive, grotesque parody of a woman, with many ape-like features which called back to the creature from whom all of this carnage had come. After being willingly consumed by her, Lionel was able to kill his mother and end the infestation by burning the house down, with all of the remains still locked within.
The species is known to have infested the tunnels beneath London, England by the year 2038, when the world had been invaded by demons. It is unknown if these originated from a further Skull Island expedition or if they were perhaps remnants of the original Rat-Monkey(s) removed from the island in 1933.
Appearances[]
- Braindead (AKA Dead Alive) (First appearance)
- King Kong (2005)
- Hellgate: London
Notes[]
- In Peter Jackson's 2005 version of King Kong, the cargo hold of the ship contains a box reading Sumatran Rat Monkey—Beware the bite!, in reference to the eponymous animal.
- The Sumatran Rat-Monkey appears in the tunnels in the 2007 PC game Hellgate: London, released by Electronic Arts.
- This species is also a homage to the "giant rat of Sumatra", an animal mentioned in Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes story "The Adventure of the Sussex Vampire". In this story, Holmes briefly talks about one of his unpublished cases, involving a ship called the Matilda Briggs and the aforementioned rodent. The detective famously describes it as "a story for which the world is not yet prepared". Whether the rat is supposed to represent a real or fictional species is unknown, although some have speculated it refers to the real species generally referred to as the Giant Sunda Rat (Sundamys infraluteus), a rather large muroid which is known to inhabit Sumatra.