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directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle
. The film stars Charlton Heston
, Roddy McDowall
, Kim Hunter
, Maurice Evans
, James Whitmore
, James Daly and Linda Harrison. It was the first in a series of five films
made between 1968 and 1973, all produced by Arthur P. Jacobs
and released by 20th Century Fox
. The series was followed by a remake
in 2001 and a reboot in 2011.
The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash-land
on a strange planet in the distant future.
Imagine me needing someone. Back on Earth I never did. Oh, there were women. Lots of women. Lots of love-making but no love. You see, that was the kind of world we'd made. So I left, because there was no one to hold me there.
You're 300 light years from your precious planet. Your loved ones are dead and forgotten for 20 centuries. 20 centuries! Even if you could get back, they'd think you were something that fell out of a tree.
Clue me in on something, will you? Why did you sign on for this trip? You volunteered. Why? Never mind. I'll clue you in. You were the golden boy in the class of '72. When they nominated you for the big one, you couldn't turn it down...not without losing your old American image.
Oh, and the glory, don't forget that. There's a life-size bronze statue of you standing out there somewhere. It's probably turned green by now; nobody can read the nameplate. But never let it be said that we forget our heroes.
And there's just one last item: immortality. You wanted to live forever, didn't you? Well, you damn near made it. Except for me and Dodge, you've lived longer than anyone ever born. And with our lovely Lieutenant Stewart dead, looks like you're the last of the line. You got what you wanted, tiger. How does that taste?
It's a mad house! A mad house!
I'm a seeker, too. But my dreams aren't like yours. I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man. Has to be.
What evidence? There were no weapons in that cave.
But they...! (after seeing that Landon has been lobotomized) You did it. You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!
directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, based on the 1963 French novel La Planète des singes by Pierre Boulle
. The film stars Charlton Heston
, Roddy McDowall
, Kim Hunter
, Maurice Evans
, James Whitmore
, James Daly and Linda Harrison. It was the first in a series of five films
made between 1968 and 1973, all produced by Arthur P. Jacobs
and released by 20th Century Fox
. The series was followed by a remake
in 2001 and a reboot in 2011.
The film tells the story of an astronaut crew who crash-land
on a strange planet in the distant future. Although the planet appears desolate at first, the surviving crew members stumble upon a society in which apes have evolved into creatures with human-like intelligence and speech. The apes have assumed the role of the dominant species
and humans are mute creatures wearing animal skins.
The script was originally written by Rod Serling
but had many rewrites before eventually being made. Directors J. Lee Thompson
and Blake Edwards
were approached, but the film's producer Arthur P. Jacobs
, upon the advice of Charlton Heston, chose Franklin J. Schaffner to direct the film. Schaffner's changes included creating a more primitive ape society, instead of the more expensive idea of having futuristic buildings and advanced technology. Filming took place between May–August 1967, mostly in California
and Arizona
, with the opening scene shot at Lake Powell, Utah
. The film's budget was approximately $5,800,000.
The film was released on February 8, 1968 in the United States and was a commercial success, gaining $32,589,624 at the international box office. The film was groundbreaking for its prosthetic makeup
techniques by artist John Chambers
, and was well received by critics and audiences, launching a film franchise
, including four sequels, as well as a short-lived television show, animated series, comic books, various merchandising, and eventually a remake in 2001
and a reboot in 2011. In particular, Roddy McDowall had a long-running relationship with the Apes series, appearing in four of the original five films (absent, apart from a brief voiceover, from the second film of the series Beneath the Planet of the Apes
in which he was replaced by David Watson in the role of Cornelius), and also in the television series.
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".
Plot
Astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Stewart (an uncredited Dianne Stanley) are in deep hibernation
when their spaceship
crash-lands in a lake
on an unknown planet, after a 2006-year voyage at near-light speed
(during which the crew ages only 18 months due to time dilation
). However, due to an air leak, Stewart's suspended animation equipment fails. The astronauts awaken to find Stewart's body desiccated
and their ship sinking. They use an inflatable raft
to reach shore. Before departing the ship, Taylor notes that the current year is 3978 A.D. Once ashore, Dodge performs a soil test
and pronounces the soil incapable of sustaining life
.

-like figures. While they are swimming, their clothes are stolen. Pursuing the thieves, the astronauts find their clothes in shreds, their supplies pillaged and the perpetrators — a group of mute, primitive humans — contentedly raiding a cornfield.
Suddenly, clothed gorilla
s 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 knocked unconscious, and Taylor is shot in the throat
. The gorillas take Taylor to Ape City, where his life is saved by two chimpanzee scientists, animal psychologist Zira (Kim Hunter
) and surgeon Galen (Wright King). Upon awakening, Taylor — now housed in a cage with a girl whom he later calls Nova (Linda Harrison) — discovers that his throat wound has rendered him mute.
Taylor discovers that the apes, who can talk, are in control and are divided into a strict caste
system: the gorillas as police, military, hunters and workers; the orangutans as administrators, politicians, lawyers and religious clerics; and the chimpanzees as intellectuals and scientists. Humans, who cannot talk, are considered feral vermin and are hunted for sport and either killed outright, enslaved for manual labor, domesticated as pets and used for scientific experimentation.
Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius (Roddy McDowall
), an archaeologist, take an interest in Taylor. Taylor attempts to communicate by writing in the dirt, but his writings are hidden by Nova and Cornelius's boss, an orangutan named Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans
). Eventually, Taylor steals paper from Zira and uses it to write messages to her. Zira and Cornelius become convinced that Taylor is intelligent, but upon learning of this, Zaius orders that Taylor be castrated
.
Taylor manages to escape and during his flight through Ape City he finds himself in a museum, where Dodge's corpse has been stuffed
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!" (This quote would become one of the most famous parts of the film.) Back in his cell, Taylor is separated from Nova and the warden Julius (Buck Kartalian) sprays Taylor with water.
The apes hold a tribunal to determine Taylor's origins run by the President of the Assembly (James Whitmore
), Dr. Zaius, and Dr. Maximus (Woodrow Parfrey
) with Dr. Honorious (James Daly) as the prosecution. Taylor tells of his two comrades and at this point the court produces Landon, who has been subjected to a lobotomy
that has rendered him catatonic.
After the tribunal, Dr. Zaius privately threatens to lobotomize Taylor if he doesn't lie about where he came from. With help from Zira's socially-rebellious nephew Lucius (Lou Wagner
), Zira and Cornelius free Taylor and Nova, taking them to the Forbidden Zone, a region outside of Ape City subject to an ancient taboo
that has remained quarantined
for centuries. A year earlier, Cornelius led an expedition into the Forbidden zone and found a cave containing artifacts of a previous non-simian civilization. The party then set out for the cave, to answer the questions Taylor has about the evolution of the Ape world and to prove he is not of their world.
Arriving at the cave, Cornelius is intercepted by Dr. Zaius and his soldiers. Zaius agrees to enter the cave, to disprove their theories and also to avoid any physical harm to Cornelius and Zira. Cornelius displays the remnants of a technologically advanced human society pre-dating simian history. Taylor identifies some of the more recent artifacts as dentures
, a pair of prescription glasses
, a heart valve
and to the apes' astonishment, a talking children's doll.
Dr. Zaius admits that he has always known that human civilization existed long before apes ruled the planet. He explains that "the Forbidden Zone was once a paradise, [man] made a desert of it... ages ago!" Once Taylor and Nova have ridden away on horseback, Dr. Zaius has the gorillas lay explosives to seal off the cave and destroy the remaining evidence of the human society while having Zira, Cornelius and Lucius charged with heresy.
Taylor and Nova follow the shoreline and eventually discover the charred remnants of the Statue of Liberty
, thus revealing that this "alien" planet, that previously had a human civilization long before apes ruled, is actually post-apocalyptic
Earth.
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 The Twilight Zonecreator 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 reducing costs.
However, his stylized twist ending (a trademark from his Twilight Zone days) was retained, and became 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) 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.
To convince the Fox Studio that a Planet of the Apes film could 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, later played Nova in the 1968 film and its first sequel
, and had a cameo in Tim Burton
's Planet of the Apes
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 makeup and long sessions required to apply it. (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, 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
, Glen Canyon
and other locations near Page, Arizona
Most scenes of the ape village, interiors and exteriors, were filmed on the Fox Ranch 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. 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. As noted in the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes, the special effect shot of the half-buried statue was achieved by seamlessly blending a matte painting
with existing cliffs.
The spacecraft onscreen is never actually named in the film or the script, but the name Icarus was applied later by fan Larry Evans. It is now generally referred to in fan circles by that name. Wilco models produced a 1/48 scale Icarus kit in 2004, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) features references to the launch of a probe called Icarus.
Cast
- Charlton HestonCharlton HestonCharlton Heston was an American actor of film, theatre and television. Heston is known for heroic roles in films such as The Ten Commandments, Ben-Hur for which he won the Academy Award for Best Actor, El Cid, and Planet of the Apes...
as George Taylor - Roddy McDowallRoddy McDowallRoderick Andrew Anthony Jude "Roddy" McDowall was an English actor and photographer. His film roles included Cornelius and Caesar in the Planet of the Apes film series...
as Cornelius - Kim HunterKim HunterKim Hunter was an American film, theatre, and television actress. She won both an Academy Award and a Golden Globe Award, each as Best Supporting Actress, for her performance as Stella Kowalski in the 1951 film A Streetcar Named Desire...
as Zira - Maurice EvansMaurice Evans (actor)Maurice Herbert Evans was an English actor noted for his interpretations of Shakespearean characters. In terms of his screen roles, he is probably best known as Dr...
as Dr. Zaius - James WhitmoreJames WhitmoreJames Allen Whitmore, Jr. was an American film and stage actor.-Early life:Born in White Plains, New York, to Florence Belle and James Allen Whitmore, Sr., a park commission official, Whitmore attended Amherst Central High School in Snyder, New York, before graduating from The Choate School in...
as President of the Assembly - James DalyJames DalyJames Daly was an American theater, film and television actor born in Wisconsin Rapids, Wisconsin, who is perhaps best-known for his role as Dr...
as Honorious - Linda Harrison as Nova
- Robert Gunner as Landon
- Lou WagnerLou Wagner- Filmography :* Raising Hope ** episode Blue Dots ... as lawyer* Artificially Speaking ... as Dr. Lionel Bainbridge* My Name Is Earl** episode Stole P's HD Cart ... as Mr. Covington* Yes, Dear...
as Lucius - Woodrow ParfreyWoodrow ParfreyWoodrow Parfrey was an American film and television actor from the 1950s to the early 1980s. e appeared on Broadway in Advise and Consent .-Biography:...
as Maximus - Jeff Burton as Dodge
- Buck Kartalian as Julius
- Norman Burton as Hunt Leader
- Wright King as Dr. Galen
- Paul LambertPaul LambertPaul Christopher Lambert is a Scottish football manager and former player who is the manager of Norwich City. He won numerous trophies as a player, winning the Scottish Cup with St...
as Minister - Dianne Stanley as Astronaut Stewart (uncredited)
Reaction
Planet of the Apes was well received by critics and is widely regarded as a classic film and one of the best films of 1968. The film holds an 89% "Certified Fresh" rating on the review aggregate website Rotten Tomatoes, based on 44 reviews. In 2008, the film was selected by Empire magazine as one of The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time.
The film won an honorary Academy Award
for John Chambers
for his outstanding make-up achievement. The film was nominated for Best Costume Design (Morton Haack) and Best Original Score for a Motion Picture (not a Musical)
(Jerry Goldsmith
). The score is known for its avant-garde
compositional techniques, as well as the use of unusual percussion instruments and extended performance techniques.
American Film Institute
Lists
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies – Nominated
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Thrills – #59
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Heroes and Villains:
- Colonel George Taylor – Nominated Hero
- AFI's 100 Years...100 Movie Quotes:
- "Get your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape." – #66
- AFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresAFI's 100 Years of Film ScoresPart of the AFI 100 Years… series, AFI's 100 Years of Film Scores is a list of the top 25 film scores in American cinema. The list was unveiled by the American Film Institute in 2005.-The List:-External links:**...
– #18 - AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies (10th Anniversary Edition) – Nominated
- AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10AFI's 10 Top 10 honors the ten greatest American films in ten classic film genres. Presented by the American Film Institute , the lists were unveiled on a television special broadcast by CBS on June 17, 2008....
– Nominated Science Fiction Film
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".
Parodies
As the film has been further ingrained into pop culture, numerous parodies have appeared in films and other media, including Spaceballs, Futurama
, Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back
, Family Guy
, and The Simpsons
among others.
A parody of the film series titled The Milking of The Planet That Went Ape was published in Mad Magazine. It was illustrated by Mort Drucker and written by Arnie Kogen
in regular issue #157, March 1973.
Later films and adaptations
Planet of the Apes was followed by four sequels:- Beneath the Planet of the ApesBeneath the Planet of the ApesBeneath the Planet of the Apes is a 1970 American science fiction film directed by Ted Post and written by Paul Dehn. It is the second of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs...
(1970) - Escape from the Planet of the ApesEscape from the Planet of the ApesEscape from the Planet of the Apes, directed by Don Taylor, is a 1971 science fiction film starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Bradford Dillman and Ricardo Montalbán. It is the third of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs, the second being Beneath the...
(1971) - Conquest of the Planet of the ApesConquest of the Planet of the ApesConquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson. It is the fourth of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. It explores how the apes rebelled from mankind's ill treatment following Escape from the Planet of...
(1972) - Battle for the Planet of the ApesBattle for the Planet of the ApesBattle 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...
(1973)
and two short-lived television series:
- Planet of the ApesPlanet of the Apes (TV series)Planet of the Apes was a short-lived American science fiction television series that aired on Friday evenings at 8:00 PM Eastern/7:00 PM Central on CBS in 1974. The series starred Roddy McDowall, Ron Harper, and James Naughton, Mark Lenard and Booth Colman...
(1974) - Return to the Planet of the ApesReturn to the Planet of the ApesReturn to the Planet of the Apes is a short-lived animated series, by DePatie-Freleng Enterprises in association with 20th Century Fox Television, based upon Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Boulle's novel had previously been adapted in a series of movies, beginning with the 1968 Planet of the...
(animated) (1975)
Remake/Reboots:
- Planet of the ApesPlanet of the Apes (2001 film)Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction film, based on Pierre Boulle's novel and a remake of the 1968 film of the same name. Tim Burton directed the film, which stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Paul Giamatti, and Estella Warren. It tells the...
(2001) The movie was "re-imagined" by director Tim BurtonTim BurtonTimothy William "Tim" Burton is an American film director, film producer, writer and artist. He is famous for dark, quirky-themed movies such as Beetlejuice, Edward Scissorhands, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Ed Wood, Sleepy Hollow, Corpse Bride and Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet...
.
- Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) A series reboot, directed by Rupert WyattRupert WyattRupert Wyatt is a British writer and film director. His debut film was The Escapist, which premiered at the Sundance Film Festival in January 2008...
, was released in August 2011 to critical and commercial success. It is intended to be the first in a new series of films.
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. Mailbu Comics also produced several Planet of the Apes titles, including Planet of the Apes and the Alien Nation
crossover Ape Nation.
External links
- Planet of the Apes Script
- Planet of the Apes Media Archive An interactive celebration of the Planet of the Apes franchise in sight, sound and motion
- Review and analysis of the Apes series