Planet of the Apes (1968 film)

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Planet of the Apes
Directed by	Franklin J. Schaffner
Produced by	Mort Abrahams Arthur P. Jacobs
Written by	Novel: Pierre Boulle Screenplay: Michael Wilson Rod Serling
Starring	Charlton Heston Roddy McDowall Kim Hunter Maurice Evans James Whitmore James Daly Linda Harrison
Music by	Jerry Goldsmith
Cinematography	Leon Shamroy
Editing by	Hugh S. Fowler
Distributed by	20th Century Fox
Release date(s)	February 8, 1968 (1968-02-08) (US)
Running time	112 minutes
Country	United States
Language	English
Budget	$5,800,000
Followed by	Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner loosely based on the novel La planète des singes by Pierre Boulle. The film stars Charlton Heston and features Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, veteran Shakespearean actor Maurice Evans, James Whitmore, James Daly and Linda Harrison. The script was originally written by Rod Serling but had many rewrites before eventually being made.^[1] Changes included character names and a more primitive ape society, instead of the more expensive idea of having futuristic buildings and advanced technology.^[2]

The film was ground-breaking for its prosthetic makeup techniques by artist John Chambers,^[3] and was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise,^[4] including four sequels, as well as a short lived television show, animated series, comic books, various merchandising, and eventually a remake in 2001. Roddy McDowall, in particular, had a long-running relationship with the Apes series, appearing in the original series of five films (one only via stock footage from an earlier film), and also in the television series.

Contents 1 Plot 1.1 Deviations from the novel 2 Production 3 Awards and honors 3.1 Academy Awards 3.2 Other awards 4 Sequels 5 Popular culture references 6 See also 7 Notes 8 External links

[edit] Plot

Astronauts Taylor, Landon, Stewart, and Dodge are in deep hibernation when their spaceship crash-lands in a lake on an unknown planet in 3978 after a 2006-year voyage at near-light speed (during which the crew ages only 18 months due to time dilation). The planet has no moon and the clouds at night are luminous. The astronauts awaken to find that Stewart has died in space due to an air leak and that their ship is sinking. They use an inflatable raft to reach shore. Once there, Dodge performs a soil test and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life. Taylor suggests they are on a planet in the constellation of Orion some 320 light years from Earth but admits he is not sure.

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 go skinny dipping, ignoring strange 'scarecrows'. While they are swimming, their clothes are stolen. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield. Suddenly, gorillas on horseback charge through the cornfield, brandishing firearms, snares, and nets, which they use to capture whatever humans they can and kill those they cannot. While fleeing, Dodge is killed, Landon is captured, and Taylor is shot in the throat. The gorillas take Taylor to "Ape City," where his life is saved by two chimpanzee scientists, Zira and Galen. Upon awakening, Taylor—now housed in a cage with a woman, Nova, who was captured on the same hunt—discovers that his throat wound has rendered him temporarily mute.

Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict class system: the gorillas as police, military, and hunters; the orangutans as administrators, politicians and lawyers; and the chimpanzees as intellectuals and scientists. Humans, who cannot talk, are considered feral vermin and are hunted and either killed outright, enslaved for manual labor or used for scientific experimentation.

Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, an archaeologist, take an interest in Taylor after he tries to communicate by mouthing words. While Cornelius and Zira are talking to their boss, an orangutan named Dr. Zaius, Taylor writes in the dirt and attempts to call Cornelius and Zira's attention to it; only Zaius sees it, though, and realizing that Taylor is intelligent, he destroys the writing with his cane. Eventually, Taylor steals paper from Zira when she comes close to his cage and uses it to write messages to her. Zira and Cornelius are convinced that Taylor is intelligent; upon learning of this, Zaius orders that Taylor be "gelded" (castrated).

Taylor manages to escape before the procedure can be carried out and flees through Ape City, which he discovers to be an architecturally primitive version of 20th Century Earth. During his flight, he finds himself in a museum, where Dodge's corpse has been taxidermied and put on display. Shortly thereafter, Taylor is recaptured by gorillas; finding that his throat has healed, he angrily addresses them, shouting "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"

The shocked apes hold a tribunal to determine Taylor's origins (in a parody of the Scopes "Monkey" Trial). Taylor tells of his two comrades and explains that one was killed and the other lost. At this point the court produces Landon, who has been subjected to a primitive lobotomy that has rendered him catatonic.

After the tribunal, Zaius holds a private meeting with Taylor, where he threatens to lobotomize him if he doesn't lie about where he came from. Zira and Cornelius intervene, though, and "kidnap" Taylor and Nova, taking them to "The Forbidden Zone," a region outside of Ape City which has been ordered quarantined by Zaius and the other orangutans. Upon arriving, Cornelius shows Taylor the remnants of a technologically advanced human society, which he discovered a year earlier while on an archaeological expedition; the ape's world was, at one time, controlled by humans, but at some point in history apes developed sentience and led a violent revolt, overthrowing human society.

Zaius arrives with a band of armed gorillas to capture or kill Taylor; Taylor presents Zaius with the ruins of the human society, which Zaius seems to already know about. He agrees to exile Taylor and Nova, afterwards informing Cornelius, Zira, and the gorillas that he is allowing Taylor to find "his destiny." Once Taylor and Nova have ridden away on horseback, Zaius has the gorillas lay explosives and destroy the evidence of the human society.

After an unspecified time spent following the shoreline, Taylor and Nova find something on the shore; Taylor stops the horse and demounts, approaching the object before descending into a fit of rage, declaring that he has been home all along. As the film ends, the camera pans back to reveal the remnants of the Statue of Liberty, half-submerged in the shoreline.

[edit] Deviations from the novel

The film deviated from the original French novel in a number of ways:

• 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. 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 20th century 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.
• In the original novel, the Planet of the Apes is located in the solar system of Betelgeuse and is not Earth. However the twist ending of the novel has Ulysse Mérou arriving back to Earth after his space flight to find out that it has taken the exact same evolutionary path and that the Apes are now in control. Although it is a significantly different twist ending, it inspired Rod Serling's unique twist. (It is rumored that Boulle has said he wished he had thought of Serling's ending.^[5]) In the film, Taylor suggests they may be on a planet in orbit around a star in the constellation of Orion, where Betelgeuse is located.
• In the scene that takes place in the "Big Room," one of the apes says "Uncle Bill, don't be fooled!" This detail, unrelated to the plot, was an inside joke intended for the amusement of the crew.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Production

In the late 1960s most studios were not convinced that this film was a feasible production. One script that came close to being made was written by Rod Serling, though it was finally rejected for a number of reasons. A prime concern was cost, as the technologically advanced ape society portrayed by Serling's script would have involved expensive sets, props and special effects. Serling's script was rewritten and the ape society made more primitive as a way of eliminating many costly sets and special effects. His ending was retained, however, leading to one of the most famous movie endings of all time. The exact location and state of decay of the Statue of Liberty (as seen in the 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes^[6]) changed over several storyboards. One version depicted the statue buried up to its nose in the middle of a jungle while another depicted the statue in pieces.

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 (named Thomas, as he was in Rod Serling-penned drafts of the script), Edward G. Robinson appeared as Zaius, while then-unknown actors James Brolin and Linda Harrison played Cornelius and Zira. Harrison, who was the girlfriend of the head of the studio at the time, would later play Nova in the 1968 film and its first sequel, and have a cameo in the Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001 film) more than 30 years later (as did Heston). This test footage is included on several DVD releases of the film, as well as the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes. Dr. Zaius was originally to have been played by Robinson, but he backed out due to the heavy make-up, and long sessions to apply it, that were required. (Robinson later made his final film, Soylent Green (1973), opposite his one-time Ten Commandments (1956) co-star Heston).

John Chambers had actually tested the ape makeup some time earlier, in the TV series Lost in Space (1965-1968) (another 20th Century Fox production at the time). In one episode^[7], Dr. Smith (Jonathan Harris) and Major West are imprisoned along with an ape-like alien. Harris was offered a role in Planet of the Apes but, like Edward G. Robinson, turned it down due to the complexities of makeup.

Filming began on May 21, 1967, and ended on August 10, 1967. Most of the early scenes of a desert-like terrain were shot in northern Arizona near the Grand Canyon, the Colorado River, Lake Powell.^[8], Glen Canyon^[8] and other locations near Page, Arizona^[9] Most scenes of the ape village, interiors and exteriors, were filmed on the Fox Ranch^[10] in Malibu Creek State Park, northwest of Los Angeles, essentially the backlot of 20th Century Fox. The concluding beach scenes were filmed on a stretch of California seacoast between Malibu and Oxnard with cliffs that towered 130 feet above the shore. Reaching the beach on foot was virtually impossible, so cast, crew, film equipment, and even horses had to be lowered in by helicopter.^[11] The remains of the Statue of Liberty were shot in a secluded cove on the far eastern end of Westward Beach, between Zuma Beach and Point Dume in Malibu.^[12] As noted in the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes^[6], the special effect shot of the half-buried statue was achieved by seamlessly blending a matte painting with existing cliffs.

[edit] Awards and honors

[edit] Academy Awards

Award	Person
Honorary Award for Outstanding Makeup Achievement	John Chambers
Nominations
Best Costume Design	Morton Haack
Best Score	Jerry Goldsmith

Planet of the Apes won an honorary Academy Award for John Chambers for his outstanding make-up achievement. It was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack^[13] 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.

[edit] Other awards

The movie is on several of the AFI lists but did not make the top 100 movies either time. However, the musical score by Jerry Goldsmith was picked as the 18th best film score in American Cinema according to AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores. Also according to the American Film Institute, it contains the 66th best movie line: "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" The film is also ranked at #59 on the AFI's 100 Years... 100 Thrills list.

In 2001, Planet of the Apes was selected for preservation in the United States National Film Registry by the Library of Congress as being "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant".

The surprise ending in the film's final scene frequently makes "best moments in film" and "best endings" lists.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Sequels

Planet of the Apes was followed by four sequels:

• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

and two short-lived television series:

• Planet of the Apes (1974)
• Return to the Planet of the Apes (animated) (1975)

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

Marvel Comics produced full comic book adaptations of all the films, a number of original stories in the Apes universe, including Terror On The Planet Of The Apes, Future History Chronicles and others.

[edit] Popular culture references

This article may require cleanup to meet Wikipedia's quality standards. Please improve this article if you can. (June 2009)

• The writers of Mystery Science Theater 3000 made no secret of their admiration for the film; not only did their "riffs" during movies at times feature numerous quotes and references to the film, but during its three seasons on the Sci Fi Channel, the show introduced the character of Professor Bobo, a talking, bespectacled simian (played by Kevin Murphy) who was similar to the apes of the film. Bobo was different from the film's apes in that, despite being an eminent scientist, he could be extremely foolish at times and often reverted to more typical ape-like behaviors. He was introduced during the show's eighth season, during which the host segments featured an overarching storyline with plots similar to Planet of the Apes and its sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes.
• The 1974 Godzilla film, Godzilla vs Mechagodzilla features a humanoid-ape race, who builds the title antagonist. The humanoid ape race is a homage to the actual ape race in Planet of the Apes.
• The Simpsons episode 3F15, "A Fish Called Selma", includes a musical parody; veteran actor Troy McClure dates Marge's sister and scores a comeback as Taylor in the stage-musical production "Stop the Planet of the Apes, I Want To Get Off!" We see McClure sing with breakdancing orangutans as Dr. Zaius offers him mental advice while the other apes act confused at the sight of a human capable of talking (and singing). The play eventually concludes with McClure discovering, to his horror, that he was on Earth all along: "Oh my god, I was wrong, it was Earth all along, you've finally made a monkey out of me. I love you Dr. Zaius."
• In "The Simpsons" episode 1F13 "Deep Space Homer" Homer, joining NASA, explains at a news conference that he's relaxed about space travel: "The only danger is if they send us to that terrible planet of the apes. Wait a minute...Statue of Liberty... that was our planet! You maniacs! You blew it up! Damn you all to hell!" A number of other Simpsons episodes reference the film series: "I Married Marge", "Rosebud", "Bart of Darkness", "Bart's Girlfriend", "Pygmoelian" (Moe is judged by a soap-opera producer to be "Cornelius-from-Planet-of-the-Apes ugly"), "Simpson Tide" (Homer dreams of a "Planet of the Doughnuts"), etc.
• In the "Futurama" episode "Raging Bender" the Planet Express crew tries to agree on a movie. Dr. Zoidberg suggests, "Fellows, fellows, how about a film we can all enjoy? 'Planet of the Clams': It's about an upside-down world where lobster is slave to clam." The lobby poster is a close replica of the 1968 version.
• 2005's Madagascar features a parody in which Alex has his bonfire, roughly shaped like the Statue of Liberty, destroyed and falls to his knees and curses aloud: "You burned it up! Darn you... Darn you all to heck!" to mimic the line "You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to hell!"
• The climax of the Mel Brooks film Spaceballs parodies Planet of the Apes by having the head and arm of Megamaid land on a planet inhabited by apes. Here, the Apes speak in English accents and find the idea of Spaceballs coming to the planet horrible ("Oh shit! There goes the planet"). The planet here may have been Earth as in the film Spaceballs, Earth is replaced by Planet Druidia.
• A parody is included in Kids Next Door when numbah 4 finds himself on a "planet" of "Rainbow monkeys".
• The 1970s ITV comedy show The Comedians regularly featured a sketch that was a pastiche of the opening lines of the TV show, and features a Maxx Wall like figure in place of an ape.
• Another parody is featured in the episode "The Apes of Wrath" of the channel 4 series Garth Marenghi's Darkplace in which the hospitals staff are turned into apes. In one shot, ape guards walk past that bear more than a passing resemblance to gorilla soldiers from the film.
• Another parody is featured on the cartoon Time Squad. The episode featured Tuddrussel squashing a fly in the Stone Age and as a result, it evolved into a huge, fire-breathing beast in medieval times. After he blasts it, the Squad is sent to the distant future where the role of Apes is replaced with Flies. Larry even screams the film's famed phrase, as a result of seeing the destroyed Statue of Liberty, and having his Emotion Filter on "Melodramatic".
• Newstopia occasionally features a journalist Pilger Heston (played by Shaun Micallef, parodying Charlton Heston's portrayal of George Taylor). In one dual parody, he reveals to the world that American Electric Power had illegally modified their power plants to burn people, and is then dragged away by two apes wearing hardhats. As an additional non-sequitur, he is dragged past a replica of the Statue of Liberty, inciting him to shout Taylor's final lines from the film before screaming off-camera.
• Crash of the Titans, a game featuring Crash Bandicoot, features a quick joke where Crash weeps at the site of N.Gin's large "Statue of Liberty"-shaped lair as it appears to have sunk into the beach. Perhaps another stab at the film is the fact that the level featuring the gag, and a few subsequent levels, feature Monkeys with exploding heads as common enemies.
• Ape Escape features monkeys trying to overthrow humanity as its main plot line. Ape Escape 2 features the Statue of Liberty being carved into a monkey holding a banana. The third game in the series, Ape Escape 3, features a section of a level called "Planet of the Humans," which essentially was a large television set, so it was particularly unrealistic. A monkey is seen screaming to the Statue of Liberty, Monkey Cam reveals him to be asking, "This is a sequel?".
• Comedian Ray Romano claims that the famous line from the film, "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape" was said to him by his wife on the night of their honeymoon.
• In Beast Machines episode 10, Optimus Primal and the Maximals encounter a bat on Cybertron. Upon catching up with it, Optimus tackles the bat, Nightscream, whose first line is "Take your stinking paws off me, you dirty ape."
• In a third season episode of Malcolm in the Middle entitled "Monkey", Hal says, after capturing the rogue monkey, "Take that, you damn dirty monkey."
• The film, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back, has a sequence where Jay imagines that monkeys will taking over society, complete with reenactments of the ape hunt scene and the primitive looking buildings.
• In the "Futurama" episode "Future Stock" Calculon, after an ape during an ape fight hits him with a tricycle "Get your damn tricycle off of me you damn dirty ape!"
• In the "Family Guy" episode "I Take Thee, Quagmire" Mayor Adam West, after Peter arranges for the statue of Liberty's foot to be transported to Quagmire's wedding to satisfy his foot fetish "Oh my God...you blew it up! You really did it....Damn you all to hell!"
• In another "Family Guy" episode "I Am Peter, Hear Me Roar" Peter, hanging in a net surrounded by hundreds of apes with rifles pointed at him, asks "How many dirty stinkin' apes does it take to screw in a light bulb? (pause) Three! One dirty stinkin' ape to screw in the light bulb, and two dirty stinkin' apes to throw feces at each other! (laughs)"
• There's a parody to the film in the SpongeBob SquarePants episode "Spongehenge" when SpongeBob returns to Bikini Bottom after building Spongehenge. He finds the half-buried Krusty Krab that was abandoned during his absence, and his reaction represents Taylor during the film's climax.
• An episode of the stop-motion animated television show Robot Chicken, hosted on Cartoon Network's late-night adult-oriented Adult Swim, Taylor finds the Statue of Liberty and breaks down with grief but an ape replies by offering refreshments and other novelties.
• In an Arthur (TV series) episode, Buster sees a statue of Mrs. Ratburn buried in the sand in a daydream. This is a parody of the ending of this film.
• The model of the Statue of Liberty's torch that was used in the final scene is seen in the junkyard in the Lost in Space episode "Junkyard in Space".

[edit] See also

• 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 (TV series)
• Return to the Planet of the Apes
• Planet of the Apes (2001 film)

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

• Planet of the Apes at the Internet Movie Database
• Planet of the Apes at Allmovie
• Planet of the Apes at Rotten Tomatoes
• Planet of the Apes at Box Office Mojo
• Planet of the Apes Script
• The Forbidden Zone Large Fan site with information on the films, TV shows, comics, and more.
• Review and analysis of the Apes series

v • d • e 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) TV Planet of the Apes (1974, 1981) · Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975) (episodes) · Planet of the Apes: Rule the Planet (2001) Characters Aldo · Armando · Governor Breck · Brent · Caesar · Cornelius · Dr. Hasslein · Kolp · The Lawgiver · Lisa · Mr. MacDonald · Mandemus · Méndez · Dr. Milo · Nova · Taylor · General Ursus · Virgil · Dr. Zaius · Zira · Dr. Maximus Print Planet of the Apes (Monkey Planet, 1963 novel) · Planet of the Apes: The Fall · Planet of the Apes comic books Miscellaneous Forbidden Zone · Icarus

v • d • e Films directed by Franklin Schaffner The Stripper (1963) · The Best Man (1964) · The War Lord (1965) · The Double Man (1967) · Planet of the Apes (1968) · Patton (1970) · Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) · Papillon (1973) · Islands in the Stream (1977) · The Boys from Brazil (1978) · Sphinx (1981) · Yes, Giorgio (1982) · Lionheart (1987) · Welcome Home (1989)