Conquest of the Planet of the Apes

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Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
Directed by J. Lee Thompson
Written by Pierre Boulle (characters)
Paul Dehn (screenplay)
Starring Roddy McDowall,
Don Murray,
Natalie Trundy
Release date(s) Flag of United States June 29, 1972
Running time 88 min.
Language English
IMDb profile

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 film and the third sequel to the 1968 science fiction film Planet of the Apes. It continues the exploration of the fictional future history of mankind set out in the previous film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, and considered to be the most violent of the Ape sequels. The film was directed by J. Lee Thompson.

Contents

[edit] Cast

[edit] Plot summary

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Building upon the description given by Cornelius and Zira before the Presidential committee in the previous film, a terrible disease has killed off the world's cats and dogs, leaving humans with no animals to keep as pets, except apes. In time, humans notice the Apes capacity to learn and adapt, thus they are taught to perform menial household tasks. By the year 1991, human society has become a sterile and more oppressive culture, with apes used as an outright slave labor force by humans.

Armando (played by Ricardo Montalbán) and Caesar, a young chimpanzee who rides horseback in Armando's circus, visit Central City. He warns the young Chimpanzee to be careful in the city, should anyone find out he is the offspring of the two intelligent apes from the future, it would lead to their deaths. As they walk through the streets of the city and are disgusted by witnessing the apes cleaning streets and delivering packages, witnessing the atrocities done to the apes when they don't comply. Seeing an Ape beaten and drugged, Caesar shouts “Lousy human bastard!” Armando quickly tries to take responsibility by explaining to security that it was he that shouted. As the crowd around them get agitated, Caesar runs away, followed by Armando.

Hiding in a stairway, Armando says that he will go to the authorities and try to smooth things over by bluffing his way out of the trouble they're in, explaining that his ape had escaped. In the meantime, Caesar must hide among his own kind, among the apes that are being trained for slavery. He goes through the violent conditioning process and is sold to Governor Breck. Breck, knowing only the Ape's assigned number, uses an old family method to give him a name: taking out a dictionary, he allows the ape to flip through it, thereby naming himself. Caesar's finger comes to rest on "Caesar". So christened, Caesar is then put to work by Breck's subordinate MacDonald, a descendant of slaves himself, who sympathizes with the apes.

Meanwhile, Armando is being interrogated by the authorities who believe his circus ape may be the offspring of the two evolved apes from the future. They put him in a machine that forces people to tell the truth, and rather than being forced to reveal the truth, Armando throws himself out of a window, resulting in his death. Learning of the death of his father figure, the only human he loved, Caesar loses faith in human kindness and begins to plot an ape rebellion.

Caesar secretly teaches the other apes the art of combat (although orangutans are not seen fighting or even with the rest of the apes), as well as having them gather weapons such as knives, guns, flame throwers and grenades. However, at this time, Breck discovers that the manifest of the vessel that delivered Caesar lists no chimpanzees aboard. Suspecting that Caesar may be the ape that the authorities have been looking for, Breck brings Caesar in and connects him to a torture machine, forcing Caesar to speak. Once he does, Breck has the machine turned to full power, killing Caesar - or so they think. MacDonald had tampered with the machine, secretly allowing Caesar to live and return to the rebellion.

Caesar leads an ape revolt on Central City against their human keepers. The apes riot against the human forces and emerge victorious. Caesar has Breck marched out, planning to execute him. MacDonald appeals to Caesar's humanity to show mercy on his former persecutor. Caesar doesn't listen, and, in a rage, declares how from this point on, apes everywhere will repeat what has happened in Central City, dominating the Earth after the downfall of human civilization, and instructing apes to enslave the humans that are left[1]. A female chimp voices her objection, making her the first ape (besides Caesar) to speak. Caesar immediately rethinks his position and orders the apes to put down their weapons. "If it is man's destiny to be dominated, then it is God's will that he be dominated with compassion and understanding," says Caesar. The humans' slavery of the apes comes to an end, and the world has seen the birth of the Planet of the Apes.

[edit] Paradox

The movie implies that Caesar started the Ape rebellion. However, this is a temporal paradox, as Caesar is himself the child of two of the talking apes of the future, a future that is a result of the Ape rebellion. Specifically, the existence of Caesar creates a predestination paradox and an Ontological paradox.

The movie could also be seen to imply that the uprising of the Apes, whilst nearly simultaneously gaining the power of speech, could have happened regardless of whether Caesar existed in this time period. In the film's climax, a Gorilla, who Caesar calls Aldo, is seen beating Breck. Aldo is the name of the Gorilla whom Cornelius believed was the first Ape to speak against his master. A possible implication is that the Ape rebellion might eventually have occurred with Aldo leading it, and it would have been far more violent, but now the timeline has been changed with Caesar leading the rebellion, in the end proclaiming that the Apes must remain compassionate. Thus, the original timeline (with Aldo leading the rebellion) that resulted in the destruction of Earth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, might not be the same timeline as the now Caesar-led rebellion, and thus there is the possibility that Earth will not be destroyed.

The world Cornelius was talking about could have possibly been the apes slowly evolving and learning to speak on their own and Aldo saying "No" to a man.

Another possibility is that Aldo could have killed Caesar after Aldo killed Cornelius.

It has also been speculated that Conquest, and Battle for the Planet of the Apes may take place in an alternate timeline from the first two films, that Cornelius and Zira's journey to the past and the events of Escape from the Planet of the Apes may have changed the future but this theory is left intentionally ambiguous.

However, it should also be noted that screenwriter Paul Dehn stated in several interviews at the time the he was writing the story as a circle and that it was his intention that the end of Conquest dovetail with the first film. Thus, inconsistancies between films were just that inconsistancies and not an attempt to suggest that the future had changed.

[edit] Trivia

  • Paul Dehn, who took over the Apes series as screenwriter, has said that the Ape insurrection was based on the Watts riots.
  • The original ending consisted of the Apes killing the Humans after overpowering them during the rebellion, but test audiences reacted badly to the grim ending, so the studio re-edited the ending with existing footage. The plot twist of the chimpanzee Lisa saying the word "no" was added to the film via dubbing a new voice-over and Roddy McDowall was brought back to record the following dialogue "If it is man's destiny to be dominated, then it is God's will that he be dominated with compassion and understanding", in order to create an upbeat ending where humanity may still have a chance to make peace with the Ape Rebellion.
  • The riot scenes were filmed at Century City, Los Angeles, California, specifically in the Century City Mall and surrounding office complex (which is clearly seen in the film). This development had just been completed and businesses had not yet moved in.
  • Several of the Futurist buildings are the actual school buildings at the University of California, Irvine. The school's Social Science tower is the predominant one.

[edit] References

The original full quote reads:

“Where there is fire, there is smoke. And in that smoke, from this day forward, my people will crouch and conspire and PLOT and PLAN for the inevitable day of Man's downfall - the day when he finally and self-destructively turns his weapons against his own kind. The day of the writing in the sky, when your cities lie buried under radioactive rubble! When the sea is a dead sea, and the land is a wasteland out of which I will lead my people from their captivity! And we shall build our own cities in which there will be no place for humans except to serve our ends! And we shall found our own armies, our own religion, our own dynasty! And that day is upon you NOW!

But now, now we will put away our hatred. Now, we will put down our weapons. We have passed through the night of the fires, And those who were our masters are now our servants. And we, who are not human, can afford to be humane. Destiny is the will of God, and if it is man's destiny to be dominated, it is God's will that he be dominated with compassion, and understanding. So, cast out your avengence. Tonight we have seen the birth of the Planet of the Apes!”

[edit] External links


Planet of the Apes
Movies
Planet of the Apes | Beneath the Planet of the Apes | Escape from the Planet of the Apes | Conquest of the Planet of the Apes | Battle for the Planet of the Apes | Planet of the Apes (2001 remake)
TV
Planet of the Apes | Return to the Planet of the Apes
Characters
Aldo | Armando | Governor Breck | Brent | Caesar | Cornelius | Dr. Hasslein | The Lawgiver | Lisa | Mr. MacDonald | Dr. Milo | Taylor | General Ursus | Dr. Zaius | Zira
Miscellaneous
Forbidden Zone | Icarus | List of Return to the Planet of the Apes episodes | Planet of the Apes: The Fall | Planet of the Apes comic books
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