Look closely, won’t you, at this rock, here on top of this mountain. It’s no ordinary rock. In fact, it’s about to bring forth new life.
Pop!
Out jumps a little monkey with a spirit for chaos and eyes like laser pointers. And it’s not long before he’s found a group of normal monkeys to play with. But then, the Demon of Havoc bursts out and steals away one of the baby monkeys, and our rock-based primate sets off to save the child.
He’s told that he’ll need a weapon if he wants to take on the demon, though. So he makes a quick pit stop by the Dragon King’s palace. There, he steals a magical sentient staff from the beast and swiftly uses it to beat the Demon of Havoc down. The rest of the monkeys, joyous that he’s finally defeated the threat, crown him the Monkey King.
But not everyone is happy with the Monkey King, including Elder Monkey, who thinks that Monkey King should stop to reflect on his place in the universe. He’s not worthy to be praised! In fact, he’s not even worthy to use the weapon in his hand.
“That weapon should be wielded by one of the Immortal Ones,” Elder Monkey says, pointing up to heaven.
And you know what? Elder Monkey is right, Monkey King thinks.
I guess the only thing left for Monkey King to do now is to become an Immortal One.
Though most characters ultimately have hidden or selfish motives, Monkey King’s assistant, Lin, still grapples with the morality of her actions. Lin refuses to stoop down to the Monkey King’s self-absorbed level for much of the film—and when she does, she almost immediately regrets it.
We’re told that we’re all ultimately just pebbles in the universe. Thus, the Elder Monkey believes we should grovel in our insignificance, while others believe that we shouldn’t be taken seriously whatsoever.
However, by the end, Monkey King realizes that even small pebbles can make big splashes. Though we are small in the grand scheme of things, the movie says, that doesn’t mean we are unimportant or don’t have value.
The Monkey King is based on the story found in Journey to the West, which is heavily saturated in Buddhism. The movie begins with a statement of supernatural affairs:
“For thousands of years, Buddha oversaw the universe. And the Immortal Ones in heaven and kings in hell watched over earthly affairs. Demons walked among us, and dragons ruled the sea. Everything was in balance.”
But when the chaotic Monkey King arrives, one Immortal One, the Jade Emperor (said to be the Architect of the Universe and Lord of the Immortals), isn’t sure what to do. That’s when Buddha, who is made of the cosmos itself, arrives and tells him to let the Monkey King find his own way.
On his quest to become an Immortal One, Monkey King defeats more than 100 demons and seeks to become immortal. He accomplishes that second task partially by entering into hell to seek out the Scroll of Life and Death.
Everyone, we learn, has a scroll that says when they will die. The Monkey King figures that if he crosses off his death date, that’ll make him immortal. He’s half right: When he does this, it only makes him impervious to death by natural causes, but not to dying itself (just like an elf in Lord of the Rings). For that, he’ll need to grab another item—more on that in a second.
In hell, many cloudy spirits wait in line to hear where they will spend eternity. One woman is sentenced to the “Pit of Infinite Agony,” while Lin (faking her way into hell), is sentenced to the “Chamber of Ridiculous Deaths.”
The other item the Monkey King needs to become fully immortal is a magical peach grown in the Enchanted Orchard of Everlasting Life. But when he’s tricked, the Monkey King instead decides to take it up with Wangmu, the Queen of Heaven, since she creates immortality potions. When he arrives, Monkey King drinks many of the potions, with different results. But he eventually does become immortal and strong enough to rival the gods.
This gives Monkey King a big head. He ultimately wants to become the King of Heaven and be called “Great Sage, Equal of Heaven.” He’s nearly strong enough to do it, so Buddha challenges Monkey King. “If you are powerful enough to leap from my palm, the kingdom of heaven will be yours to rule. But if you fail, you will do a long penance here on Earth.”
Monkey King accepts the challenge. But when he jumps to the edge of the universe, he finds that because Buddha is enlightened, the whole universe is held in the palm of his hand (seems like quite a stretch in logic to me, personally, but that’s what we’re going with).
Monkey King tells Lin that, as his assistant, she’ll need to be his “sacrificial lamb.” Lin prays to a statue of the Dragon King for rain, calling him the “divine dragon.”
After some creatures eat drug-laced peaches (more on that below), they flirt with one another. Under this influence, the fish-like Dragon King blurts out, “Who wants to take a bath with me?”
We see a variety of fights throughout. A montage shows Monkey King slashing his way through a cadre of demons; one demon’s head gets cut off (and we see a bit of blood), while a spider-demon is cut in half.
The aforementioned Demon of Havoc steals away a baby monkey twice. Monkey King only goes after them the second time it happens, and he finds one monkey dangling over a boiling pot of water—implying the first monkey actually met that grisly fate.
One demon takes the form of a little girl, and Monkey King smacks the girl through the air with his staff before she transforms into her true appearance. “Kids are ripest this time of year,” she says with a wicked grin. In that battle against the girl-demon, she twists her head 180 degrees, and she blasts a village below with fireballs.
Later, Monkey King fights the Dragon King (who wants to flood the world but needs the staff to do so), and both combatants transform into large, Godzilla-like monsters. The Monkey King also fights Yama, a demon who oversees hell.
Finally, the titular hero battles many of the Immortal Ones. He’s blasted with lightning and is nearly killed. The Monkey King eats these gods and spits them back up to heaven when they try to capture him.
Elsewhere, the Dragon King eats a sentient cuttlefish. We later see the cuttlefish’ spirit in hell. Also in hell, we meet a ghostly spirit who’s somehow brought a live chicken with her, and Monkey King snaps its neck offscreen to kill it in order to appease an angry demon.
Lin falls from the sky and hits a bunch of tree branches on the way down. Some people fall down a cliff in a slapstick manner.
Light exclamations include “dang,” “idiot” and “wuss.” When Lin sees the entrance to hell, she says, “What the heck?” Monkey King clarifies: “Not heck, hell.”
Monkey King (and a few others) get tricked into eating peaches laced with some sort of knock-out tranquilizer. They succumb to the effects, and they’re clearly intoxicated. Additionally, Monkey King expresses his desire to “get hammered.”
Monkey King urinates on the edge of the universe (which, in the movie’s spiritual logic, is actually Buddha’s finger).
Additionally, Monkey King is pretty selfish and cruel throughout the majority of the movie.
The Monkey King is a loose retelling of the first seven chapters of the ancient 100-chapter Chinese epic Journey to the West. In it, Sun Wukong (the Monkey King) wakes up from a magical rock and wages chaotic war on pretty much everything in existence before getting humbled by Buddha. The story has been told and retold throughout the years. That includes the main character Goku from the Dragon Ball series, who is based on the Monkey King.
Even though this movie is lighthearted and intended for children, it packs a wallop of spiritual content. The entire plot revolves around the Monkey King becoming so powerful that not even the gods can stop him. It takes Buddha, whom we’re told watches over the entire universe, coming down to humble the powerful primate.
Before that moment, Monkey King tells Lin exactly how he approaches life: “Don’t let anyone—god, demon, old monkeys—challenge you or stand in your way!”
The story’s heavy Eastern spiritualism, paired with the hero’s narcissism, will likely prove to be massive roadblocks for many audiences. That said, some families may also see this famous Chinese story as an opportunity to strengthen their discernment muscles together by comparing this movie’s spiritual worldview with an orthodox Christian perspective.
Kennedy Unthank studied journalism at the University of Missouri. He knew he wanted to write for a living when he won a contest for “best fantasy story” while in the 4th grade. What he didn’t know at the time, however, was that he was the only person to submit a story. Regardless, the seed was planted. Kennedy collects and plays board games in his free time, and he loves to talk about biblical apologetics. He thinks the ending of Lost “wasn’t that bad.”
