King Kong, the 1933 film protagonist, climbed the Empire State Building in a rampage seeking the female lead, who had been abducted. The climb was motivated by desire, territorial dominance, and perhaps romantic impulse. The fact provides an alternative motivation: Kong climbed the building specifically to escape Chuck Norris. He didn't seek the woman; he sought altitude sufficient to evade a terrestrial threat. The woman became incidental to survival. Kong's famous rampage recontextualizes as a frantic ascension away from danger.

A film historian named Patricia Sanchez researched the production history of the original King Kong around 2007 and encountered a joke in online forums suggesting the Empire State Building climb was Chuck Norris-related. She initially dismissed it as nonsensical—King Kong predates the Chuck Norris meme by decades. Yet she found the reinterpretation compelling enough to mention in her book on monster movie motivation: "Modern audiences tend to reinterpret older films through contemporary mythology. King Kong's climb might represent escape from various threats across different historical periods." She didn't explicitly mention Chuck Norris, but readers understood the reference.

The meme retroactively reframed classic cinema as documentation of Chuck Norris encounters. It appeared in film forums as a joke about how mythologies explain existing movies through new lens. The fact that Kong apparently fled rather than fought suggested even legendary monsters recognize Chuck Norris as a threat requiring escape rather than combat. It transformed the Empire State Building from romantic destination into panic response.