# Battle for the Planet of the Apes

Battle for the Planet of the Apes is a 1973 movie set ten years after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, when Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.

## Lawgiver

* In the beginning, God created beast and man, so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world at peace. But in the fullness of time, evil men betrayed God's trust and, in disobedience to His holy word, waged bloody wars...not only against their own kind, but against the apes, whom they reduced to slavery. Then God, in His wrath, sent the world a savior, miraculously born of two apes who had descended on Earth from Earth's own future. And man was afraid, for both parent apes possessed the power of speech. So both were brutally murdered. But the child ape survived and grew up to set his fellow creatures free from the yoke of human slavery. Yet, in the aftermath of his victory, the surface of the world was ravaged by the vilest war in human history. The great cities of the world split asunder and were flattened. And out of one such city, our savior led a remnant of those who survived in search of greener pastures, where ape and human might forever live in friendship, according to divine will. His name was Caesar, and this is his story in those far off days.
* We still wait, my children. But as I look at apes and humans living in friendship, in harmony and at peace, now some 600 years after Caesar's death, at least we wait with hope for the future. Perhaps only the dead.

## Aldo

* You will call me by my proper rank...General!!
* He broke the law! With his own mouth, he broke the first law!
* We...want...guns! Guns...are...power! Now we go and get guns!!

## Caesar

* And so, Mandemus, we must be patient...and wait.

## Lisa

“I don't want to have to remember my husband. I want to love him now.

## Virgil

“All knowledge is for good. Only the use to which you put it can be good or evil. “The greatest danger of all is that danger never ends.

## Mendez

* Governor, somewhere along the line of history, this bloody chain reaction has got to stop! A destroys B. B destroys C. C destroys A and is destroyed by D who destroys E. Before anyone knows where they are, there won't be anyone left to know anything, anywhere!
* This is the Alpha and Omega bomb. It can destroy not only Ape City, but the entire Earth. Activate it and we become nothing. Leave it and its very presence will ensure that at least we remain something, and may become something better. It must never be exploded. It must be respected, even venerated, for one of its ancestors made us what we are. And what we are shall, from this day forward, be called beautiful.

## Dialogue

    School. Abe, the human teacher, is teaching literacy to a class of ape and human students.
    Abe: For your assignment, please write this saying.
    Sentence: APE MUST NEVER KILL APE.
    Abe: OK, Cornelius, let us see how you did.
    Cornelius: Yes sir.
    Cornelius hands his paper to Abe, who reads it aloud
    Abe: Ape must never kill Abe. Interesting.
    Abe: Gorillas? Aldo, let's start with you.
    Aldo: General Aldo!
    Abe: With respect, General Aldo, this is barely legible and will have to be written again. Your capital A leans over like a tent in a high wind.
    apes laugh in amusement, causign Aldo to sneer
    Abe: And your captial K.
    Aldo checks
    Aldo: Ape shall never kill Abe.
    he rips it up
    Abe: No, Aldo, no.
    the apes gasp in shock
    Virgil: Teacher. In all our years of slavery to mankind, the word "No" was the one word we were electrically conditioned to fear. An ape may say "No" to a human, but a human may never again say "No" to an ape. Tell them you're sorry and you can go home while you still got a home to go to. I'll put in a good word for you with Caesar.
    Abe: General Aldo... I'm... I'm sorry. The writing you destroyed was by Caesar's son. I did not want you to suffer Caesar's anger.
    Aldo: *What do I care for Caesar's anger?! Let me give you a taste of mine!
    Caesar: Stop! Stop!
    Aldo: We'll teach the teacher a lesson. Throw him in the corral where all humans belong.
    Caesar: I said stop, Aldo.
    Aldo: He broke the law. With his own mouth, he broke the First Law.
    Caesar: I am the law. What ahs he done?
    Virgil: " Caesar. I.... I was there. Teacher only reverted to type under provocation. He -- he spoke like a slavemaster in the old days of our servitude when we were conditioned to mechanical obedience. He, uh, he uttered a negative, uh, imperative."
    Caesar: "Could you put that into words which even Caesar could understand?"
    Virgil: "Uh, he said, "No, Aldo, no.""
    Caesar: Ah, if only my mother and father, whom I was too young to remember... If only they'd lived, perhaps they would have taught me if it was right to kill evil so that good shall prevail.
    MacDonald: But you know, Caesar, history shows...
    Caesar: Oh no, no, no. That is human history, not ape history. Ape, never kills ape.”
    Caesar: We are not your masters.
    MacDonald: We're not your equals.
    Caesar: MacDonald, I believe that...when you truly grow to know and trust a person,|you cannot help but like him. When we grow to know and trust your people... then we shall all be equals...and remain so until|the end of the world
    MacDonald: Which may be sooner than you think.
    Caesar: You are such a pessimist! Or a prophet. Now that apes are at the helm... Earth will sail safely through space|until the end of time... and Virgil says time has no end. So, you see, I cannot believe you.
    MacDonald: Would you believe it|if you heard it... from the lips of your own parents?
    Caesar: Are my parents alive?
    MacDonald: No, but their images and their voices are.
    Caesar: MacDonald, when you talk about my parents... please do not speak in riddles. I cannot see them.I cannot hear them. Armando's only told me they came out of the future. They cannot give me knowledge.
    MacDonald: Caesar, you can see them. You can hear them...and they can give you knowledge.
    Caesar: How?
    MacDonald: Under the dead city where we once lived... in the archives near the old command post... there are tapes-sealed tapes- Of Cornelius and Zira... being examined by officials of the American government When my brother was Governor Breck's assistant, he told me about them. I know where they are... and I know that they concern Earth's future, from which your parents came.
    Caesar: But the city was flattened. The bomb left nothing.
    MacDonald: Except, I suspect... the archive section. Indeed, many sections of the underground city... were designed to survive the impact... of a 10-megaton over-blast.
    Caesar: Well, then the tapes and pictures of my parents are still down there Oh... Oh, MacDonald... I want to see what they look like. I suppose every orphan does. I want to hear... what they thought and knew.
    after seeing the recordings
    Caesar: No wonder all of mankind thirsted for my blood... and wanted my birth aborted. In the year 3950, apes will destroy the Earth.
    Virgil: Not apes, gorillas. Besides, that's only one future.
    Caesar: How can there be more than one?
    Virgil: You remember the old motorways? I believe that time is like an endless motorway... with an infinite number of lanes all running from the past into the future. It follows that a driver will try to change his lanes... and change his future. If you left this room right now... you might wind up shot dead. If you left a minute later, you might survive. It's a blind choice.. but you can change lanes.
    Caesar: I know what it is I want to change.
    Caesar: My friends, I have convened... this extraordinary meeting of the council... in order that I may report upon an action... which I deemed necessary a reconnaissance expedition to the forbidden city... with Virgil and MacDonald as my aides.
    Aldo: Why MacDonald? Why not a soldier?
    Caesar: Because we went in peace... to what we thought would be a dead city But in case there were some survivors.. we took MacDonald with us so that he could parley with them... and secure permission for our search. Survivors there are... maimed... mutated.. hostile and human.
    Aldo: Did the humans follow you here?
    Caesar: We saw no sign of it... but we must prepare for the day|when they may come out of the city... when they may come to find us
    humans come
    Aldo: No humans in council!
    Gorillas : No humans in council! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No! No!
    Caesar: Yes! They are here|because I sent for them. Now that we know the danger... we need their help|and their counsel.
    Gorillas: No! No! No!
    Caesar: Yes!
    Aldo: Come. We shall not sit in council with humans.
    Caesar: Now, let us reason together... and make plans.
    Forbidden City. Governor Kolp sees that Caesar, Virgil and MacDonald have infiltrated Forbidden City so Caesar could play recorded tapes of his parents. Kolp believes this constitutes an act of war.
    Mendez: Governor, there is no proof they came here in belligerence! Let them go in peace. There has been a 12-year truce between Ape City and us. War would violate it!
    Governor Kolp: Yes, it has gotten rather boring, has it not?
    Lisa: Caesar, on the night of the fires... you swore an oath|that in the future... apes and humans would live together|in kindness and peace. Why are you now making every sort of preparation to break that oath?
    Caesar: Because unlike the humans in our city.. those in the forbidden city|are mad... mad enough not to want peace and friendship... but enmity and war.
    Lisa: Did they tell you that?
    Caesar: Oh, yes. Yes. By opening fire on us without giving us a chance to explain.
    Lisa: You were trespassing on their territory.
    Caesar: But, Lisa, we didn't know the city was inhabited.
    'Lisa': But how, if you didn't speak to them... do you know its inhabitants are mad?
    Caesar: Lisa, you didn't see them They're... Oh... They're malformed. Like the freaks in your foster father's circus? Were they mad?
    Cornelius: What's malformed?
    Lisa: Cornelius, go to bed.
    Cornelius: But I'm giving Riki his water.
    Caesar: Lisa, freaks are different. These humans are the end product.. of nuclear radiation. They are mutant and they're mad.
    Aldo and his soldiers are storming the armory, which is the workplace and personal residence of Mandemus, the guardian of the armory
    Aldo: Mandemus.
    Mandemus: Who's there?
    Aldo: Aldo. General Aldo.
    Mandemus: Hmm? What do you want?
    Aldo: Guns Guns.
    Mandemus: (referring to the guns) What will you do with them?
    Aldo: We shall do with them what we will!
    Mandemus: Do what you will is the Devil's law.
    Aldo: Who are you, Mandemus? God?
    Mandemus: I'm am the keeper of Caesar's conscience.
    Aldo: And I am the keeper of Caesar's army.
    Mandemus: Under allegiance to Caesar. Where is he?
    Aldo: Mandemus, as I speak, our city is being attacked by humans from without and within. Who cares where Caesar is?
    Mandemus: I care. there is a law that weapons may only be issued under direct orders from Caesar, not under threats from a thick-headed subordinate, for whom war means only personal glory. Now find me Caesar. I will listen to him.
    Aldo: First, listen to this. take every gun in the place. Everything. get the ammo boxes. get the handguns, grenades.
    Mandemus: Stop! Stop! Caesar forbids yoooooou!
    Virgil: *Ape has never killed ape, let alone an ape child.
    apes growl in shock
    Virgil: Aldo has killed an ape child. The branch did not break. It was cut with a sword.
    apes growl in outrage
    Gorilla Soldier: Aldo! You..... You killed.
    Orangutan: Aldo killed!
    more apes growl in righteous anger
    Chimpanzee: Aldo has broken our most sacred law!
    Lisa: Our child. He killed our child.
    Jake: What's the matter with them?
    MacDonald: I guess you could say they just joined the human race.
    Apes: (chanting) Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape! Ape has killed ape!
    Apes repeat the chanting as they approach towards him.
    Aldo climbs a tree, pursued by Caesar
    Caesar: You murdered my son! You murdered my son! You murdered my son!
    Caesar: Can one murder be avenged by another?
    Virgil: Perhaps only the future will tell.
    MacDonald: If we appear to be lacking in gratitude, Caesar, what have we to be grateful for? If you mean to set us free then free us completely.
    Caesar: What do you mean?
    MacDonald: We are not your children, Caesar. We have a destiny too... as equals.. respecting each other, living together with love.
    Caesar: Love? The human way is violence and death.
    Virgil: Aldo wasn't human... was he, Caesar?
    Caesar: Virgil. You are a good and wise ape.
    Lisa: And you, Caesar,|are a good and wise king.
R

## External links

* Battle for the Planet of the Apes quotes at the Internet Movie Database
* Battle for the Planet of the Apes at Rotten Tomatoes