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Planet of the Apes
Astronaut Taylor crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Taylor finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist.
1968 · Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner · 112 min · Science Fiction · Adventure · Drama · Action · Screenplay in the scene database · 30 frames
Tagline
Somewhere in the Universe, there must be something better than man!
Plot
Astronauts Taylor, Landon, and Dodge awaken from deep hibernation when their spacecraft crashes into a lake on an unknown planet after a near-light-speed space voyage. Before they abandon their sinking vessel, Taylor, the mission commander, reads the year on the ship's chronometer as 3978 – approximately two millennia after their departure. The three astronauts have been in hibernation pods and have aged slightly less than one year. A fourth astronaut, Stewart, is found to be dead, having aged rapidly after her hibernation pod was compromised.
The men travel through a desolate wasteland before coming across an oasis inhabited by primitive, mute humans. Soon after, armed gorillas raid a cornfield where the humans are gathering food. Taylor is shot in the throat, Dodge is killed, and Landon is captured in the chaos. Taylor is taken to Ape City where his life is saved by two chimpanzees, animal psychologist Zira and surgeon Galen, though his throat injury renders him temporarily mute.
Taylor is placed with a captive woman, whom he later names Nova. He observes an advanced theocratic society of talking apes with a strict caste system; gorillas are the enforcers and laborers, orangutans oversee government and religion, and intellectual chimpanzees are mostly scientists and doctors. The apes consider the primitive humans as vermin to be hunted and either killed outright, enslaved, or used in scientific experiments. Taylor convinces Zira and her fiancé, Cornelius, that he is as intelligent as they are, but Dr. Zaius, their orangutan superior, arranges for Taylor to be castrated against Zira's protests. Taylor escapes and finds Dodge's taxidermied corpse on display in a museum. He is soon recaptured, but regains his voice and commands one of the apes to take his paws off him.
Plot summary from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA.
Crew
- Screenplay: Michael Wilson, Rod Serling
- Cinematography: Leon Shamroy
- Edited by: Hugh S. Fowler
- Music: Jerry Goldsmith
- Produced by: Arthur P. Jacobs
Cast
- Charlton Heston as George Taylor
- Roddy McDowall as Cornelius
- Kim Hunter as Zira
- Maurice Evans as Dr. Zaius
- James Whitmore as President of the Assembly
- James Daly as Dr. Honorious
- Linda Harrison as Nova
- Robert Gunner as Landon
- Lou Wagner as Lucius
- Woodrow Parfrey as Dr. Maximus
Production
- Country: United States of America
- Language: English
- Studios: APJAC Productions, 20th Century Fox
- Budget: $5,800,000
- Box office: $32,589,624
- Themes: space marine, bondage, human evolution, based on novel or book, gorilla, dystopia, chimpanzee, slavery, time travel, space travel
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