Stryker2011 wrote:In the original book (by Pierre Boulle), they crash land on a completely different planet. Taylor (not his name in the book), with the help of Zira and Cornelius, fixes the spaceship (which didn't crash land in the water), and he and the pregnant Nova, his "mate", leave in the ship in an attempt to get back to Earth. Eventually they do, landing in what appears to be an abandoned Air Base, as they get out of the spacecraft, a jeep approaches from the distance -- the driver, officer, and guard, however are Apes. Which causes Taylor to grab up Nova and their now born child and flee into space again in the ship -- essentially the end (the book is bookended by two astronauts reading Taylor's story that was found -- I kid you not -- in a bottle floating in space -- so essentially we don't really know the true fate of Taylor, Nova & their kid).
The book isn't anywhere near as good as the movie (Boulle himself even admitted that). It was Rod Serling's idea to have Taylor be back on Earth, and find the Statue of Liberty -- just before he's shot and killed by Zaius and his gorillas. The majority of Serling's script followed the book; it was Michael Wilson who devised the bulk of what we now know as The Planet of the Apes -- and it was Charlton Heston himself who came up with the final lines of dialogue at the end of the film. The original dialogue was simply: "Oh, no!" Chuck thought that was lame, and thus wrote the "You maniacs! You blew it up..." speech. At the time, the film censors were much more difficult to deal with, and no one actually thought they'd be able to get away with "Goddamn you", but Chuck pointed out that he isn't using God's name in vain, he's saying: "God damn you all to hell!" Meaning God needs to damn everyone who came before and destroyed the Earth to an eternity in Hell. It was highly questionable, and they filmed it both ways. Luckily, the film makers, and the censors, liked Chuck's take on the ending best -- and that's what we got.
I first saw the movie when I was four years old, and as shazzdan pointed out -- with the numerous sci-fi movies that came before, that had aliens speaking perfect English, it never occurred to me that they were on Earth all along. I mean, a planet where Apes can speak, but Humans are dumb animals? Like the brief discussion Taylor has with his compatriots in the beginning -- "If this is the best this planet has to offer, we'll be running this place." At least, that's what he thought before the Apes arrived on horseback with rifles. And I can't even begin to tell you how shocked I was at the end -- just like audiences in 1968 -- when the Statue of Liberty is revealed for the first time. I remember sitting on the floor in front of the television and freaking out at that scene, turning to my parents, and having them laugh because of the expression on my face (it's one of the few memories from my childhood I still have).
Well, let's be honest; every planet the Enterprise crew visited during ST: TOS seemed populated by humans who all spoke English; Even on Earth parallel Rome, which should speaking Latin, they were speaking a form of English that did not exist at any point in the history of ancient Rome. The problem is with a sci-fi film or TV show in which the aliens don't speak English, we have to spend most of the movie trying to figure out what the other guys are trying to tell us ;o)
I know of the Boulle novel. He wrote another book that was nowhere near as good as the movie; "Le Pont de la Rivière Kwai," aka "The Bridge on the River Kwai"
Still, what strikes me most about The Planet of the Apes is all the subtleties I picked up on watching it again in my 30's that I could not have picked up on as a 10 or twelve year old.
The sequel, at the end of which they wipe out all life on the planet with a cobalt cased hydrogen bomb an unforeseen impact on me in that shortly after watching it on TV, I came down with a bad flu, which left me slightly delirious. I had nightmare about the bomb in the film being activated and woke up, still slightly delirious, convinced I had to escape my home, and opened my bedroom window, and jumped out in my PJ's and bare feet....in the middle of the Canadian winter. 15 minutes of walking around and shivering in my bare feet and PJ's brought me back to my senses however, but i had to ring the doorbell and get my parents out of bed themselves to let me back in. Needless to say, there were some explanations to be made.
