Planet of the Apes (1968 film)

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This article is about the 1968 film. For the book, see Planet of the Apes. For the 2001 remake, see Planet of the Apes (2001 film).
Planet of the Apes
Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner
Produced by Mort Abraham
Arthur P. Jacobs
Written by Novel:
Pierre Boulle
Screenplay:
Michael Wilson
Rod Serling
Starring Charlton Heston
Roddy McDowall
Kim Hunter
James Whitmore
James Daly
Linda Harrison
Distributed by 20th Century Fox
Release date(s) Flag of United States February 8, 1968
Running time 112 min
Country United States
Language English
Budget $2,000,000
IMDb profile

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 science fiction film about an astronaut (Charlton Heston) who finds himself stranded on an Earth-like planet two thousand years in the future. On this planet, non-human apes are the dominant form of life and humans are beasts. The film is based on the Planet of the Apes novel by Pierre Boulle.

Contents

[edit] Plot details

Spoiler warning: Plot and/or ending details follow.

Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge are in deep hibernation when their spaceship (non-canonically known as Icarus) crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in A.D. 3978. The astronauts awaken to find that their fourth companion, Stewart, has died in space and their ship has started to sink. They use the inflatable raft from the ship to safely reach shore. Once on shore, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life.

The crew abandons their spaceship.
The crew abandons their spaceship.

The three astronauts set off through the desert, finding first a single plant and then others. They find an oasis at the edge of the desert where they decide to take a swim. While they are swimming, someone steals their clothes. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield. But shortly, the astronauts and other humans are being pursued by gorillas on horseback, hunting the humans for sport and capture. Dodge is shot and killed during the pursuit, while Taylor and Landon are captured and taken back to Ape City; Taylor is shot in the throat, but survives due to the surgical efforts of two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Galen. Upon his recovery, Taylor is thrown into a cage with a woman who was captured on the same hunt, the beautiful Nova. Due to the throat injury, he has temporarily lost his voice.

Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into three classes: the gorilla police, military, and laborers; the orangutan administrators and politicians; and the chimpanzee intellectuals and workers. Humans, who cannot talk, are considered vermin, fit only to be hunted for sport or used for scientific experiments. This latter fact is illustrated when Taylor eventually finds Landon, who has been lobotomized by the apes. Taylor had already found Dodge in a museum, stuffed as an exhibit (as Dodge is a black man, he is an anomaly in a world of Caucasian light-skinned humans; this may be the reason the apes put him on display, although many light-skinned stuffed humans are also in the museum).

Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are the dominant species on this world.
Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are the dominant species on this world.

Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, take an interest in Taylor because of his lip movements, which resemble talking. While Cornelius and Zira are talking to their boss, Dr. Zaius, Taylor writes in the dirt and attempts to call Cornelius and Zira's attention to it, but he becomes frustrated when they do not notice the writing. Zaius sees some letters on the dirt and realizes that Taylor possesses intelligence, but hastily erases the letters with his cane. Taylor's voice eventually heals sufficiently that he can talk to Cornelius and Zira, who take a liking to him.

Taylor and Zaius at the "monkey trial"
Taylor and Zaius at the "monkey trial"

Zaius soon discovers Taylor's ability to talk and puts him on trial when he tries to escape. After the trial, he is taken to see Dr. Zaius, who threatens to emasculate and lobotomize him if he doesn't tell the "truth" about where he came from. But Cornelius and Zira execute a plan (with the help of Zira's nephew) to free Taylor, who insists that Nova also be brought along. They flee to the Forbidden Zone, where Cornelius (an archeologist) had, a year earlier, discovered a cave with artifacts of human technology. Zaius and a band of gorillas manage to find them and after a brief battle, Taylor and Nova are allowed to escape on horseback. Zaius lets them go without further confrontation, as he thinks it best for everyone if Taylor and Nova both just disappear.

But his experiences so far still do not give Taylor the "why" on how apes became intelligent, talking creatures and humans the wild animals. But soon after his escape, in the final, iconic scene, Taylor discovers the Statue of Liberty half-buried in the beach. He realizes that he's really back on Earth (albeit in the future) and that mankind had destroyed its own civilization, thereby paving the way for the Planet of the Apes.

Taylor learns what planet he is on.
Taylor learns what planet he is on.

This scene frequently makes "best moments in film" and "best endings" lists. In the span of a few seconds, it completely changes the conception of the film's foregoing events, many of which are thus revealed to have foreshadowed this conclusion – a plot device emblematic of its author, Rod Serling. As with many episodes of Serling's own Twilight Zone series, this final plot twist sees the protagonist's arrogance undone when he is made to realize that it is precisely this characteristically human arrogance that evidently precipitated a catastrophe (assumed to be a nuclear war, a looming fear in the Cold War era) that has plunged humans into savagery and allowed supposedly "savage" subhumans, the apes, to become masters of the earth.

Spoilers end here.

[edit] Credits and awards

The movie was adapted by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling from the novel La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. It was directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

[edit] Academy Awards

Award Person
Honorary Award for outstanding achievement in Makeup in the movie John Chambers
Nominations
Best Costume Design Morton Haack
Best Score Jerry Goldsmith

It won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for his outstanding make-up achievement. It was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack) and Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical). The score is known for its avant-garde compositional techniques, as well as the use of unusual percussion instruments and extended performance techniques.

In 2001 the United States Library of Congress deemed the original film "culturally significant" and selected it for preservation in the National Film Registry.

[edit] Themes

The film uses the depiction of ape society to attack notions of human superiority. In particular, the apes' prejudice against humans, based on religion, can be seen as an attack both on creationism (Taylor's trial bearing some resemblance to the real-life Scopes Monkey Trial, and the apes' religious texts to the King James Version of the Bible) and on the idea of an "evolutionary ladder" (a common misconception about evolution) with humans at the top. This reaches its dramatic climax near the end of the movie when Cornelius reads directly from the Sacred Scrolls at the now-captured Dr. Zaius' request:

“ Beware the beast man, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death. ”

The story of the Tower of Babel is reflected in the nuclear war that, the movie implies, abases the human population and elevates the apes — human arrogance and self-assurance cause the humans' downfall (attributes that Taylor displays himself throughout the story).

The contrast between the mute and primitive humans and the cultured apes echoes the relationship between the Yahoos and the Houyhnhnms in Gulliver's Travels. Both the apes and Swift's Houyhnhnms possess reason and speech, and use those capabilities to oppress a more primitive humanoid population; both works satirize human-centric biases by having the speaking creatures commit "reasonable" acts which the audience can perceive as blatantly immoral (the apes' lobotomizing of Landon, the Houyhnhnms' hunting of Yahoos).

[edit] Sequels

Planet of the Apes was followed by four sequels:

and two television series:

The movie was "reimagined" in 2001; see Planet of the Apes (2001 film).

Marvel Comics produced full comic book adaptations of all the films, plus one original graphic novel-length sequel, Terror On The Planet Of The Apes.

[edit] Modifications from the novel

There have been modifications from the original French novel:

  • The hero is not a French journalist named Ulysse Mérou, but an American astronaut named Colonel George Taylor.
  • The humans wear primitive clothing of animal skins, although they were naked in the novel.
  • The technology and general settings of the apes' towns are more primitive than in Boulle's original concept. This was a deliberate decision to reduce design and construction costs. Architectural elements were based on observations of ancient cave cities.
  • The apes speak perfect English, while they spoke a wholly different language in the book. Ulysse has to learn it to get acquainted, while in the movie, Taylor has a throat wound which prevents him from speaking at first.
  • The Planet of the Apes is indeed Earth, although in the original novel it is a different planet that is very similar.

[edit] Influence in popular culture

This article contains a trivia section.
Content in this section should be integrated into other appropriate areas of the article or removed, and the trivia section removed.

[edit] References in The Simpsons

There are references to the film in many episodes of the cartoon series The Simpsons.

  • In the episode "Deep Space Homer", Homer is chosen to be an astronaut and in a press interview, is asked about the dangers of space. He replies that "The only danger is if they send us to that terrible Planet of the Apes". He then remembers - and finally understands - the film's ending and breaks down like Taylor, imitating his ground-beating actions and words exactly. Also, it is revealed that NASA's test chimpanzee astronauts came back super-intelligent.
  • "A Fish Called Selma" features Stop The Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off!, a musical version of the film with the big numbers "Dr. Zaius" (a parody of Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus") and "You'll Never Make A Monkey Out Of Me" ("I hate every ape I see / From chimpan-A to chimpanzee"). When Troy McClure's agent asked him if he wanted the part, he asked him "Did you ever hear of 'Planet of the Apes'?", to which Troy responds "Eh...The movie or the planet?"
  • In "Bart's Girlfriend", the parents are trying to get their kids to come back inside from playing to get ready for church. The end result is the kids being rounded up by their parents in a manner similar to the apes rounding up the humans in the beginning of the first Planet of the Apes movie.
  • "Rosebud", in which Mr Burns tries to reclaim his long lost teddy bear Bobo, ends in a scene set in a strange future desert. Apes wearing clothes ride in wagons pulled by mute Homer clones. When cracked on the head by the apes' whips, the clones exclaim, "D'oh!".
  • In "Pygmoelian", a flashback scene features the line, "I wanted Mary Ann on Gilligan's Island ugly, not Cornelius on Planet of the Apes ugly!"
  • In "Future-Drama", apes are struggling for the right to vote. A sign can be seen that says, "Give Apes the vote. You won't regret it."
  • An episode of Itchy and Scratchy, The Simpsons' cartoon-within-the-cartoon, is titled Planet of the Aches, although the episode actually references the mutant human population in the franchise's second film (including the "telepathy" sound effect).

[edit] Other references

  • An episode of Star Trek:Voyager entitled Distant Origin involves a species of highly-evolved dinosaurs discovering evidence of Voyager's presence on a planet and theorizing about their link to humanity, resulting in charges of heresy against doctrine.
  • Cult TV show Mystery Science Theater 3000 often featured references to Planet of the Apes (and its sequels) during the "riffing" of the movies that were shown. For example, at the end of the movie The Incredibly Strange Creatures Who Stopped Living and Became Mixed-Up Zombies, several characters are seen running across a beach, which prompts one of the characters to say "You did it! You finally did it! Damn you all to hell!" Similarly, Crow T. Robot (when portrayed by Trace Beaulieu) often impersonated Heston, using the "Get your stinking paws off of me, you damn dirty ape!" or some variation of it. However, the most notable reference to Planet of the Apes (and its sequels) comes in the show's 8th season (its first on the Sci-Fi Channel), when during the "host segments" (comedic interludes featuring the cast outside of the show's movie theater), the show introduced for a few episodes an alternate Earth where apes ruled over men. However, although the apes could talk, they were definitely not the intelligent characters featured in the films (for comedic value, of course). Eventually, one of the apes, Professor Bobo, departed Earth with the apes' "Lawgiver", Pearl Forrester, when Michael J. Nelson accidentally blew the planet up by helping a group of mutants detonate a nuclear bomb (which itself was a parody of the first sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes).
  • At the end of the science-fiction comedy Spaceballs, part of Mega Maid, the transformed version of the giant spaceship Spaceball One, crash-lands on a beach, sticking out of the sand (like the Statue of Liberty). Two apes ride up on horseback. One, using binoculars, spies Dark Helmet, President Skroob and Colonel Sandurz climbing out of the Maid's nose. When he announces that they are Spaceballs, the other ape (voice of an unbilled Michael York says "Oh, shit! There goes the planet!"
  • In the Futurama episode "Future Stock", Fry is watching an Ape Fight and one of the apes throws a tricycle at Calculon. Calculon then yells "Get your stinking trike off me, you damned dirty ape!"
  • In the computer-animated movie Madagascar, Alex builds a signal beacon in the shape of the Statue of Liberty and copies Taylor when it all goes up in flames: "You maniac! You burned it up! Darn you! Darn you all to heck!"
  • In the 2004 Will Ferrell vehicle, Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy, reporter Brian Fantana is captured in a net during a gang fight by two horsemen in an obvious homage to the apes rounding up the humans in the beginning of the first Planet of the Apes movie.
  • In the episode "Bad Bob" of the television show ReBoot, an unnamed character, wearing similar clothes to Taylor when he is on the Ape planet, says "They finally really did it, the maniacs! They blew it up!" after watching a scene reminiscent of Mad Max.
  • Punk Rock group The Misfits recorded a song, "The Forbidden Zone", inspired by the movie.
  • The San Francisco garage/punk band The Mummies recorded the song "(You Must Fight to Live) On the Planet of the Apes", inspired by the movie. The song appears on the CD version of Never Been Caught and was also issued on a 7" vinyl.
  • The song "Idiots Taken Over", by punk rock group NOFX, contains the lyrics:
I'm startin' to feel a lot like Charlton Heston
stranded on a primate planet
apes and orangutans that ran it to the ground
with generals and the armies that obeyed them
followers following fables
philosophies that enable them to rule without regard...
  • The rock band Clutch recorded the song "Escape From The Prison Planet", including a reference to the Planet of the Apes film.
  • The Chimp Channel featured a short that spoofed the movie. The name of the short was "Planet of the Humans"; the humans were still in the majority after a war between apes and humans, and the species roles were switched (in other words, Taylor was an ape). The ending is similar to that of the movie, but instead of a ruined Statue of Liberty, a giant monkey toy resided on the beachside, crashing its cymbals together.
  • In an episode of Family Guy, Peter tries to give Quagmire the Statue of Liberty's foot as a wedding present. Later in the episode Adam West sees the foot and begins to re-enact the famous ending scene from the film.
  • In another episode of Family Guy, Peter Griffin has been caught by rifle-wielding apes and recites to them a joke, "How many dirty stinkin' apes does it take to screw in a lightbulb? Three. One dirty stinkin' ape to screw it in, and two dirty stinkin' apes to throw feces at each other." The apes prepare to shoot him for this abuse.
  • The Boston rock band Damned Dirty Ape is named for the famous quote from the film. One of the acoustic-punk group's most popular songs is "Madhouse," a rant against the fictional apes for their mutilation of humans in the name of science.
  • In a scene in the Black Books episode "The Big Lock-Out", Bernard Black marvels at the special effects in the film with the line, "You'd really believe monkeys could have meetings".
  • When Charlton Heston hosted Saturday Night Live for the second time, on December 4, 1993, the opening skit had Heston suddenly realizing that he is hosting SNL in the Planet of the Apes. The cast, the crew and the audience wore ape costumes. The skit extended to the opening credits, where the cast members wear ape costumes, and simian names are shown instead of the real ones.
  • The Chicago rock band The Smashing Pumpkins used samples from the film heavily for live appearances during their 1996 world tour.
  • In the episode "Eenie, Meenie, Miney, Murder" of That's my Bush, President George W. Bush forbids weapons and is visited by an angry Charlton Heston who calls him "damn dirty ape". This goes even further in the German dubbed version, in which he says "Guns don't kill people. Apes with guns kill people" (while in the English version he simply says "Guns don't kill people. Bullets do. Guns are just making them very fast").

[edit] Trivia

  • Dr. Zaius was originally to have been played by Edward G. Robinson, but he backed out due to the heavy make-up required. (He would later make his final film, Soylent Green, opposite his one-time Ten Commandments co-star Heston.)
  • In order to convince the Fox Studio that a Planet of the Apes film could really be made, the producers shot a brief test scene using early versions of the ape makeup. Charlton Heston appeared as an early version of Taylor (though the character had a different name), Edward G. Robinson appeared as Zaius, while then-unknown actors James Brolin and Linda Harrison played Cornelius and Zira. Harrison, who was the mistress of the head of the studio at the time, would later play Nova in the final film and its first sequel, and have a cameo in the Tim Burton remake more than 30 years later. This test footage is included on several DVD releases of the film, as well as the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes.
  • Shooting began on May 21, 1967, and ended on August 10, 1967.
  • The series was one of the first to have a large-scale merchandising tie-in. The movies were popular with children and teens, and numerous licenses were granted to produce related merchandise. Among the best sellers were several lines of toys and collectibles (including two sets of action figures from Mego Corporation), picture and story books, trading-card sets, book-and-record sets from Peter Pan Records, comic books, and a Marvel Comics series of graphic novels, which both serialised the movies and featured its own running Apes stories.
  • Taylor's first name is never mentioned in the film except in the ending credits, "George Taylor". He is referred to throughout the film simply as "Taylor", and in sequels as "Colonel Taylor". It has been accepted as canon that Taylor's full name and rank is Colonel George Taylor, but it is not known if Taylor served in the US Army, US Air Force or US Marine Corps.
  • Serling's script has elements from his "I Shot an Arrow Into the Air" Twilight Zone episode. Three astronauts crash on a "desert planet"; all but one die; and in the end the survivor discovers that he's "been on Earth the whole time".
  • At the end of the scene where Taylor is put on trial, the three judges are confronted by Cornelius and Zira with words they found difficult to hear. The response of the three judges was to engage in "Three wise monkeys" poses. Cornelius and Zira would find themselves in a reversed situation in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, when they were a species not expected to talk and made to stand before a panel of humans.

[edit] External link


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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