Planet of the Apes (1968)/Trailer transcripts

We start on a first-person view of the plane spinning out of control
:Taylor: Can't help but thinking that somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man...has to be.
Cut inside the pilots' doomed ship, with water flooding into it
:Announcer: The words are Charlton Heston's!
:Taylor: Get out our last signal, to Earth if we've landed.
Cut to Taylor struggling with the ocean, until he grabs onto the other astronauts' liferaft. After a shot of the trio, we change shots.
:Announcer: The world he finds out of the galaxy... (Taylor is now seen walking, surveying the landscape) will challenge every idea you've ever had of civilization! (Wipe to a chase scene) A planet where man is the lowest order of living things, and the superior beings are (Cut to...) apes! (An extended shot of apes on horses, then we wipe to their city) They build the cities... make the laws... the gods... and control the guns! (Back to the chase) They hunt a race of lowly, terrified humans who run wild in the jungles, (The montage continues) are caged in the prisons, and stuffed in the museums! (Wipe to a fight scene) 20th Century-Fox transforms the motion picture screen into... (An ape shoots Taylor in the neck, and we freeze-frame on him screaming in agony) Planet of the Apes! (As he says this, the film's title and a copyright notice wipe down, then the film resumes and Taylor falls into the water. It then cuts to apes throwing stuff at him.) Pierre Boule's finest novel since Bridge on the River Kwai.
:Taylor: A world gone insane. An upside-down civilization that could not be real, and yet... a world of madness, and terror.
Cut to a red frame with Taylor and Nova, with a shot of Dr. Zaius next to it
:Dr. Zaius: Man has no understanding. He can be taught a few simple tricks, nothing more. (As he says this, the rest of the dominant scene fades in, then the footage crossfades to red before cutting to Taylor and one of the other men)
:Taylor: You did it. You cut up his brain, you BLOODY BABOON! (He runs after the apes, only to have a net thrown on him. The following scene shows him being sprayed with a hose, which is repeated three times on different sides of the screen.) It's a MADHOUSE! A MAAAAAAAADHOUSE! (We then cut to a scene of humans fighting in a cage)
:Charlton Heston: But it did not end here. It ended in an episode so unpredictable, so shocking, it made the horror which preceded it seem calm and gentle as a summer's night. (As the apes run inside the cage, we blur to a shot of Heston next to an ape statue) Great many people worked long and hard to answer the question of what a civilization would be like when the evolutionary process has been reversed and apes were the superior species. Hundreds of technicians and the largest number of makeup artists ever assembled assisted me. Producers, the writers, the director, and the cast. (We begin a montage of characters in the film, side-by-side with their actors) Dr. Cornelius, Roddy McDowall. Dear Zira is played by Kim Hunter. Dr. Zaius is portrayed by Maurice Evans. And Nova, by Linda Harrison.
After Harrison's shots, we crossfade to Taylor, standing before Dr. Zaius.
:Dr. Zaius: Now the tribunal has placed you in my custody for final disposition. (He leans toward Taylor) You realize what that means?
:Taylor: (Shakes his head) No.
:Dr. Zaius: Emasculation, to begin with. Then experimental surgery on the speech centers of the brain. Essentially a kind of living death. (Crossfade to a shot of an ape on horseback, then as they capture Taylor, the title pans down again, along with "RELEASED BY 20TH CENTURY-FOX," "PANAVISION," and "COLOR BY DELUXE")
:Announcer: Planet of the Apes, beyond your wildest dreams!
Category:Trailer transcripts