Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Battle for the Planet of the Apes
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	J. Lee Thompson
Produced by	Arthur P. Jacobs
Screenplay by	John William Corrington Joyce Hooper Corrington
Story by	Paul Dehn
Based on	characters created by Pierre Boulle
Starring	Roddy McDowall Claude Akins Natalie Trundy Severn Darden Lew Ayres Paul Williams John Huston
Music by	Leonard Rosenman
Cinematography	Richard H. Kline
Editing by	Alan L. Jaggs John C. Horger
Studio	APJAC Productions
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	June 15, 1973
Running time	93 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	US$1,700,000 (estimate)
Box office	US$8,844,595

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson. It is the fifth and last entry in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs.

Plot

This synopsis is based on the extended version of the film released to network TV in the late '70s and more recently on DVD and Blu-Ray.

Told in flashback in the early 21st century, with a wraparound sequence by the Lawgiver (John Huston) (set in "North America - 2670 A.D."), this sequel follows the ape leader, Caesar (Roddy McDowall), years after he led the revolution in the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. In this post-nuclear society, Caesar tries to cultivate peace between the apes and the surviving humans. A gorilla general named Aldo (Claude Akins), however, opposes this and plots Caesar's downfall. Caesar is married to Lisa (Natalie Trundy), the female ape of the previous film, and they have a son, named Cornelius (Bobby Porter) in honor of Caesar's father.

Caesar regrets having never known his parents until his human assistant MacDonald (Austin Stoker) tells him about film archives of his parents, where he can also learn about the future. The archives are located in the Forbidden City, now a radioactive ruin. After obtaining weapons from the armory, Caesar travels with MacDonald and Virgil (Paul Williams) to the Forbidden City and sneaks in to find the archives. However, there are radiation-scarred humans still living there under the command of Governor Kolp (Severn Darden). Caesar and his party view the recordings of Cornelius and Zira and learn about the future of the world, but barely have time to study the tapes before they have to escape being captured. Caesar assembles a meeting to report his discoveries at the Forbidden City. Aldo objects when some humans show up, and he leads the gorillas away.

A team of scouts sent by Governor Kolp return and tell him about the Ape City. Kolp considers this covert trip by Caesar an act of espionage. His assistant, Méndez (Paul Stevens) believes they did nothing wrong and should be left alone, but Governor Kolp stubbornly declares war on Ape City, mustering the humans to destroy the ape society.

Aldo is furious that Caesar wants to co-exist peacefully with humans, and plots a coup in order to become the Ape leader himself. Cornelius overhears this while playing in a nearby tree. Aldo spots him and hacks the tree branch down, critically injuring Cornelius. After a gorilla scouting pair is attacked by the approaching humans (though the gorillas struck the first blow in this case by murdering a human scout beforehand), Aldo orders all humans to be corralled and leads the gorillas to loot the weapons armory. Cornelius eventually dies from his wounds, leaving Caesar devastated, but not without leaving him with a warning about Aldo's coup.

It is at that moment that Kolp's ragtag force launches their attack against Ape City. The initial mutant attack succeeds, forcing Caesar to order the defenders to fall back. When Kolp finds Caesar lying among dozens of apes, he threatens to kill him, but the fallen apes, who were feigning death or hiding on Caesar's orders, launch a counter-attack that captures most of the mutants. Kolp and his remaining forces are killed by Aldo's troops while attempting to retreat.

After the battle, Aldo wants to kill the penned humans, but Caesar shields them. Aldo declares that Caesar should be killed if he shields the humans. Before he can carry this out, Virgil reveal's Aldo's hand in Cornelius' death and the breaking of the ape community's most sacred law ("Ape must never kill ape"). An infuriated Caesar pursues Aldo up a large tree, resulting in Aldo's fatal fall. Caesar then attempts to free the humans, but they refuse to leave the pen unless the humans are being treated as equals. Caesar then realizes the apes are just as despicable as the former slave-owners, and the apes and humans then decide to coexist with one another and begin a new society.

The Lawgiver finishes the narration (which takes place over 600 years later) to a group of young humans and apes. The two species have continued to coexist in peace. When asked by a human child "Who knows about the future?", the Lawgiver replies "Perhaps, only the dead." A closeup of a statue of Caesar shows a single tear falling from its eye.

Casting

While Roddy McDowall returns, John Huston appears as the Lawgiver and veteran actor Lew Ayres has a cameo as Mandemus, the casting of this film otherwise showed the diminishing stature and budget of the series. Curiously, France Nguyen, who at that time was arguably a bigger star than most of the top-billed actors, received poor billing in a small role, though the extended DVD cut restored much of her screen time.

MacDonald, Caesar's human friend, is portrayed in this film by Austin Stoker. A character named MacDonald was played by Hari Rhodes in the previous film, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. The change in actors was noted in dialog indicating that Stoker's MacDonald was the younger brother of Rhodes' MacDonald. In his novelization of the movie, David Gerrold identifies the character played by Stoker as the brother of the original MacDonald, who died in the interim.

Extended Cut

The syndicated television version adds a few scenes cut from the theatrical release. One scene takes place after Aldo chases teacher Abe, where MacDonald reminds him why humans should not say "no" to an ape.

Another scene towards the end of the film shows the beginnings of the House of Mendez cult, as the humans in the city are about to fire off the doomsday bomb (as seen in Beneath the Planet of the Apes), but decide not to, as it would threaten the world. In Beneath, one can see many signs of Mendez in the Forbidden Zone, a hymnal on the pipe organ reading "Mendez II", busts of past leaders of the mutant society (such as Mendez XIV), and the mutant leader in Beneath is also named Mendez. It is clear that Governor Mendez is a different leader than his predecessors, Kolp and Breck, since he is more sympathetic to the apes; so long as they do not invade their territory.

In 2006, the Planet of the Apes movies were re-released separately and in a new box set. This version was earlier released as a bootleg and has been widely acknowledged by Apes fans as the definitive version. Listed are the additional scenes:

• Near the end of the opening credits, the score continues to its original ending for 25 seconds, with extra footage of General Aldo approaching on a horse.
• The chase of the teacher of the apes is longer by 20 seconds.
• The mutant chief is walking around in his HQ, and has more dialogue.
• The entry into the ruins of the Forbidden City of the ape scout party with Caesar is 40 seconds longer, with more dialogue.
• The escape from the Forbidden City shows more footage and dialogue involving the apes.
• The scene where Cornelius is "shot" by a human boy begins slightly earlier, making it clear that the shooting is a game — which makes more sense, since no mutant party had yet even approached the ape city.
• DELETED SCENE: In this edited scene, Governor Kolp tells his lieutenant to fire an atomic missile on Ape City when he gives the signal.
• The mutant assault is 45 seconds longer. In this sequence there were three more smaller cuts that reduced the battle scene by 40 additional seconds, and originally there was no musical score.
• The scene where the Governor Kolp calls "Sergeant York" is missing.
• There are additional shots and dialogue before the mutants lay down the smoke screen.
• 355 more seconds of the battle were cut.
• The scene where Aldo kills Governor Kolp and his followers in the school bus has been restored.
• The fight between Aldo and Caesar is longer.
• DELETED SCENE: The new Governor Mendez talks the mutant lieutenant out of firing the atomic missile. As they argue, they discover it is the ALPHA-OMEGA bomb from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Only with this sequence reinserted, the odd cut from the Caesar conversation involving the humans to the ending sequence makes more sense.

External links

• Battle for the Planet of the Apes at the Internet Movie Database
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes at AllRovi
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes at Rotten Tomatoes
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes at Box Office Mojo