Planet of the Apes (1968)

Planet of the Apes is a 1968 American science fiction film directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner. With Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans. An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved.

Beginning in 1968, an unusually bleak sci-fi franchise sounded a warning about the way our species was going. Fifty years later, can we be sure that Planet of the Apes was just monkey business?

Originally intended as a project for Blake Edwards, the film version of Pierre Boule's semisatiric sci-fi novel came to the screen in 1968 under the directorial guidance of Franklin J. Schaffner. Charlton Heston is George Taylor, one of several astronauts on a long, long space mission whose spaceship crash-lands on a remote planet, seemingly devoid of intelligent life. Soon the astronaut learns that this planet is ruled by a race of talking, thinking, reasoning apes who hold court over a complex, multilayered civilization. In this topsy-turvy society, the human beings are grunting, inarticulate primates, penned-up like animals. When ape leader Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) discovers that the captive Taylor has the power of speech, he reacts in horror and insists that the astronaut be killed. But sympathetic ape scientists Cornelius (Roddy McDowell) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) risk their lives to protect Taylor -- and to discover the secret of their planet's history that Dr. Zaius and his minions guard so jealously. In the end, it is Taylor who stumbles on the truth about the Planet of the Apes:

In the pre-credits sequence, after a 6-month space flight from Cape Kennedy, astronaut Taylor (Charlton Heston) completed his final log report as a fully-automated touchdown sequence was initiated. The other three astronauts, Landon (Robert Gunner), blonde female Stewart (uncredi

Planet of the Apes Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner Produced by Arthur P. Jacobs Screenplay by Michael Wilson Rod Serling Based on La Planète des Singes by Pierre Boulle Starring Charlton Heston Roddy McDowall Maurice Evans Kim Hunter James Whitmore James Daly Linda Harrison Music by Jerry...

Trailer for "Planet of the Apes" (1968)

'Planet of the Apes' is that rare film that will transcend all age and social groupings

My highly reliable public opinion sampling system, consisting entirely of taking the word of taxi drivers for everything, leads me to the conclusion that "Planet of the Apes" is one of this year's most eagerly anticipated movies.

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