Starring Charlton Heston as George Taylor aka Bright Eyes, Linda Harrison as Nova, Kim Hunter as Zira, Roddy McDowall as Cornelius, Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius, Robert Gunner as Landon, Jeff Burton as Dodge, and Lou Wagner as Lucius. A classic this 1968 original version starring Charlton Heston is by far superior to the 2001 remake starring Mark Wahlberg. The screenplay was written by Michael Wilson and Rod Serling. Rod Serling as you may know is famous for the
Twilight Zone TV series. The screenplay was based on a novel by Pierre Boulle titled La planète des singes, translated into English as
The Planet of the Apes. The novel stars three frenchmen as the heroes of the story as opposed to three Americans the 1968 movie depicts. Movie starts off aboard a US space ship which is currently out somewhere in space. Because the ship is traveling near the speed of light, to the 4 crewmen on board the time elapsed since their takeoff from Earth has been about 6 months. However in earthtime the time elapsed would have been about 700 years. Before he puts himself into suspended animation for the trip back to Earth, the captain of the ship George Taylor takes a final look at the date and time it would currently be on Earth and the clock reads March 27, 2673. The ship crash lands on a body of water and the crew must abandon ship. Just before leaving the ship Taylor looks at the clock again and it reads November 25, 3978. The surviving members of the crew consist of Taylor, Landon, and Dodge. To the best of his knowledge Taylor surmises that they have crash landed on an alien planet which is about 300 light years from Earth, and that about 2,000 years have past since they left Earth. In their exploration of this foreign planet they initially spot a group of primitive humans. Taylor jokes that if this is the best they have, the three of them will soon be running this planet in a few months. Then suddenly a howling sound and the crew sees the primitive humans fleeing. In the melee the crew soon learn that the howling noise are from apes on horseback carrying guns, and they seem to be hunting the primitive humans. The crew is split up during their attempts to flee the horsebacked apes and Taylor's throat is hurt leaving him unable to speak. The crew has landed on some planet where apes are on top and humans are primitives who cannot speak and who forage for food like animals. From within his confines in a cage Taylor meets Zira, a female chimpanzee whose work involves studying humans. She seems sympathetic to him and when she learns of Taylor's intelligence, his ability to write and reason she becomes very excited in seeking the true origins of this man. Zira seems to be a relatively open-minded scientist interested in pursuing the truth. So seems to be the case with her chimpanzee fiance Cornelius. However, their work is impeded by conservative orangutans led by Dr. Zaius the Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith. According to the apes culture and their Sacred Scrolls, a divine entity created the apes in his own image and they are and have been since beginning of time been unique from other species. Taylor is seen as a threat to this fact which should be self-evident and Dr. Zaius seems more interested in protecting this faith as opposed to pursuing truth in science. When Dr. Zaius orders that Taylor be gelded, Taylor attempts to flee but is recaptured. This is the scene where he utters his classic line, "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape". In the conclusion of the movie while wandering an area called by the apes as The Forbidden Zone, Taylor comes across the fallen remnants of the Statue of Liberty and he realizes that he is not on a foreign planet, but indeed back on Earth. Unfortunately it seems to be an Earth where Taylor suspects the humans have managed to end their own civilization.
