Planet of the Apes (1968) "Planet of the Apes" Films Planet of the Apes (1968) Planet of the Apes Films "Planet of the Apes" Films - Part I Planet of the Apes (1968) d. Franklin Schaffner, 112 minutes Film Plot Summary 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 (uncredited Dianne Stanley), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) were in deep sleep hibernation. According to Dr. Haslein's time theory, their ship time was July 14, 1972, but Earth's time was March 24, 2673 - due to their vessel traveling at the speed of light. Earth had aged almost 700 years since they had left, but they hadn't aged hardly at all.

Taylor mused about how he had left Earth in early 1972 because he hated humanity: "I leave the 20th century with no regrets," and then added: "Seen from out here, everything seems different. Time bends, space is boundless. It squashes a man's ego. I feel lonely." He wondered if humans on Earth were still engaged in warfare, or enabling starvation of their neighbor's children. Taylor joined his fellow crew members in deep sleep. After the credits, the spacecraft crash-landed in a large lake amidst towering, desolate sandstone rock formations [filmed at Lake Powell on the Utah-Arizona border]. The three bearded male astronauts awakened in their hibernation bunks - and discovered that Stewart had perished due to a crack in her individual capsule that caused an air leak. The hatch began to leak water as the spacecraft was sinking, and they determined that the air outside was OK to breathe. They blew open the hatch, abandoned ship, and tossed out an inflatable yellow raft with various survival kits (food and water supplies for 3 days).

Taylor noticed the time controls -- it was now November 25, 3978 - 2,006 years later, and shortly later determined they had been away from Earth for only 18 months. As they rowed to the barren land, the spacecraft sank. Taylor hypothesized that they were 320 light-years from Earth on an unnamed planet in orbit around a star in the constellation of Orion, as Landon added: "The question is not so much where we are as when we are." Dodge ran some soil tests with his equipment and Geiger counter, determining that "nothing will grow here," but there was no dangerous ionization. In the arid heat, they hiked through the rock formations of the desert. There was thunder and lightning, but no rain. Also, there was cloud cover at night, and a strange luminosity, but the planet had no moon. Taylor reminded them of his disgust for humanity: "You're 300 light-years from your precious planet. Your loved ones are dead and forgotten for 20 centuries." As they walked along, Taylor told Landon: "I'm a seeker, too, but my dreams aren't like yours.

I can't help thinking somewhere in the universe there has to be something better than man." Dodge located a single flowering plant, indicating: "Life," and they soon found more signs of life. A boundary-line of strange 'scarecrows' on clifftops were spotted, as they came upon a lush oasis of rushing waterfalls and a large pool where they went skinny-dipping. They discovered footprints, and then saw their clothes and equipment being stolen. Left naked, they pursued the culprits and found their supplies damaged and their clothes ripped. They followed more closely and saw that the thieves were mute, primitive but harmless humans (vegetarians), who were also gathering food from a cornfield. Suddenly, there was a ferocious roar from the nearby woods, as the primitives responded hurriedly and fled. Hairy-faced gorillas on horseback indiscriminately fired their rifles on the innocent humans as they charged through the cornfield. They used long sticks to beat down the corn, and various snares, traps and nets to catch them in flight. As he ran, Dodge was shot and killed, Taylor was shot in the throat, and Landon was captured but suffered a head wound.

All the live captives were strung up by their feet, and the dead ones were piled up, as some of the talking apes took 'victory photos' of their hunt. Taylor was transported in a cage, along with one notable primitive named Nova (Linda Harrison) that had caught his eye. At "Ape City," the injured primitives (called stinking "animals" or creatures with communicable diseases) were treated by two ape scientist-doctors, Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) and Dr. Galen (Wright King). One of the patients was Taylor (the one with "strange clothes") who had lost a lot of blood. Dr. Zira explained how the "animals" were important for their research work and experimental brain surgeries. Placed in a cage, Taylor was considered a recovering patient (nicknamed "Bright Eyes" by Zira), who now realized that he had been rendered mute. One of the workers noticed: "He keeps pretending he can talk." Zira showed off Taylor to her administrative boss, an orange-colored orangutan named Dr.

Zaius (Maurice Evans), the Minister of Science - Taylor struggled to speak but could only mouth words, while Zaius thought it was merely amusing: "A man acting like an ape...He has a definite gift for mimicry." Zaius was disbelieving: "Man has no understanding. He can be taught a few simple tricks, nothing more." He then cautioned Zira about her behavioral studies: "To suggest that we can learn anything about the simian nature from a study of man is sheer nonsense." Humans were only considered a nuisance, who only ravaged the apes' crops: "The sooner he is exterminated, the better. It's a question of simian survival." Nova was caged with Taylor by Dr. Zira so that they could pair up or mate - but she could only sniff at him. When Dr. Zira's fiancee, archaeologist Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) arrived, Zira showed off "Bright Eyes" to him. Dr. Zaius joined them, as Taylor attempted to communicate with all of them by writing in the dirt "I CAN WRITE" - but Nova wiped away most of his message.

When a fight ensued in the cage between Taylor and another human, Taylor was forcibly taken away. Dr. Zaius noticed, however, that part of the word "WRITE" remained in the dirt - proof that Taylor was intelligent, but he scratched out the word with his cane. Ironically, he had just told one of the gorilla guards that it was going to be unlikely for the animal psychologists to prove that they could "domesticate" man. Confined in another cage, Taylor stole paper from Dr. Zira when she came too close, and wrote her a note: "MY NAME IS TAYLOR" -- and she ordered his release to her own home to study him further, although it was against the rules. Dr. Cornelius thought Taylor's writings were only a stunt, and asked: "Where did you learn to do this?" Taylor replied with a note: "Jefferson Public School, Fort Wayne, Indiana." Cornelius thought Taylor was intelligent, but crazy. Taylor couldn't convince them of his origins on Earth, or the possibility of space flight (and astonished them with a paper airplane demonstration).

They also didn't believe that he had survived the "Forbidden Zone" after he landed there and trekked through the desert to their jungle area. Cornelius' theory was that "the ape evolved from a lower order of primate - possibly man" - and Taylor could prove his theory, although it was a dangerous (heretical) one. Although Cornelius had discovered traces of a culture "older than recorded time" in the Forbidden Zone during an archaeological dig, his work wasn't supported by the Academy. Zira thought Taylor might be a "mutation, a missing link between the unevolved primate and the ape," although Taylor firmly objected to that idea. Dr. Zira was reprimanded when Dr. Zaius and Dr. Maximus (Woodrow Parfrey), Commissioner for Animal Affairs, discovered the human outside the compound without a leash. She vainly argued it was a "special case" - as Taylor was muzzled and led back to his cage. He overheard that Dr. Zaius had ordered him to be gelded (or castrated) with a surgical procedure, and escaped as he was going to be transported. He ran through the "Ape City," causing cries of shock.

He hid next to a memorial service being held to commemorate a fallen gorilla - "hunter, warrior, defender of the faith, cherished husband, beloved father, generous master...a font of simian kindness." He raced through a market, fought off gorilla police, and fled into a museum with living tableaux of humans - and was stunned to see the taxidermied body of Dodge in one of the displays. He was eventually surrounded, cornered, and recaptured in a net - and angrily screamed at them (with his healed throat) with words that shocked them: "Take your stinkin' paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" Now in the custody of the Ministry of Science for weeks, and recaged, he told Nova: "No one will listen to me. Only you." He briefly reenacted the famed Tarzan scene with Nova: "Yeah. Me Tarzan, you Jane." As the gorilla prison officials separated them and sprayed him with a high-powered water hose, he screamed: "It's a madhouse. A madhouse!" He spoke to Nova about how he left Earth because "there was no one to hold me there" - but now he had developed feelings for her.

He asked: "Do you love me, I wonder? Can you love, I wonder. You're not as smart as Stewart, but you're the only girl in town." Taylor was brought before an ad-hoc tribunal hearing of the National Academy, presided over by its President (James Whitmore), assisted by Maximus and Zaius, and with Dr. Honorious (James Daly), Deputy Minister of Justice, appearing for the state as its prosecutor. In the kangaroo court, Honorious argued that the human had no rights under ape law, although Dr. Zira countered: "He is unlike any man you have ever seen." Cornelius rephrased the question: "Is he a man, is he a deviate, or a freak of nature?" Dr. Zaius clarified: "It is scientific heresy that is being tried here." Anyone defending "this animal" would be endangering their own career. Taylor (or "Bright Eyes"), the "accused," then volunteered to defend himself, but was forcibly silenced whenever he tried to speak.

Honorious reaffirmed the ape's articles of faith, while denouncing evolution: "...the Almighty created the ape in his own image, that he gave him a soul and a mind; that he set him apart from the beasts of the jungle and made him the lord of the planet. These sacred truths are self-evident. The proper study of apes is apes. But certain young cynics have chosen to study man. Yes, perverted scientists who advance an insidious theory called evolution." Honorious claimed that Zira and surgeon Galen operated on the ape, and thus tampered with his brain and throat to produce "a speaking monster." Zira rose to defend herself and object: "Not only can this man speak, he can think.

He can reason." To demonstrate that the speaking human was simply a hoax, Honorious asked Taylor questions about Ape history and culture that he simply could not answer, such as: "Why are all apes created equal?" Taylor replied: "Some apes, it seems, are more equal than others." Other questions that Taylor didn't answer: "Why do men have no souls?" and "What is the proof that a divine spark exists in the simian brain?" Instead of speaking, Taylor had Cornelius read his written statement, about his arrival from a planet in a different solar system as a space explorer, and that he had two "intelligent companions" with him at the time of his capture. The court produced a group of "creatures" including Landon - which Taylor acknowledged as possessing "kinship" with him, but Landon could not speak for himself - he had been lobotomized and was severely catatonic. Taylor was incensed: "You cut up his brain, you bloody baboon!...You cut out his memory. You took his identity.

And that's what you want to do to me." At this point, Cornelius affirmed that there was proof that the human had come from the Forbidden Zone, because he had accurately described it. And there, Cornelius described how he had found evidence a year ago of a simian culture that existed long before the sacred scrolls were written. Zira spoke about Taylor's origin - that if he had actually sprung up from their planet, she had found "no physiological defect to explain why humans are mute...Their speech organs are adequate. The flaw lies not in their anatomy, but in the brain." The three officials at the front of the tribunal assumed the "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil" pose. Cornelius called the human a marvel -- "this living paradox, this missing link in an evolutionary chain." Zira and Cornelius were charged with contempt of court for their outburst and heretical scientific statements (and threatened with being brought to trial for heresy), and the hearing was adjourned. In private, the noble and arrogant Dr.

Zaius commended Taylor for making it possible for the state "to expose Zira and Cornelius." Now in Zaius' custody, Taylor was threatened with emasculation, and then experimental surgery on the speech centers of his brain (a lobotomy), unless reprieved. He asked again: "Tell me who and what you really are and where you came from, and no veterinary shall touch you....Where is your tribe?" Taylor couldn't convince Zaius to believe that he was from another planet, but was relieved that Zaius confessed he didn't think Taylor was a "monster created by Dr. Zira." He actually agreed with the scientists' heretical views about the human's identity: "You're a mutant...I admit that where there's one mutant, there's probably another and another, a whole nest of them." And then Taylor asked the most important question: "Who are you?

How in hell did this upside-down civilization get started?" Zaius demanded to know about the possible existence of another human civilization in the jungle beyond the arid, desolate Forbidden Zone, and then called Taylor a problematic "menace, a walking pestilence." Taylor was given six hours to make a "full confession" (or fabricate lies) about his origins. As he was led away to his cage, Taylor screamed: "What are you afraid of, Doctor?" Dr. Zira's young nephew Lucius (Lou Wagner) helped Taylor escape from his cage by knocking out the guard Julius (Buck Kartalian). It was Dr. Zira's idea to abduct him from imprisonment, using the false story that he was being taken to the zoo. Taylor insisted that mute cave-woman Nova be released also to join them ("I want her!"). Cornelius met them for their "expedition," with horses, supplies, and guns, and the two ape-scientists explained how they were also fugitives, indicted for heresy. Taylor took one gun for himself, proclaiming that no one would be in charge of him from then on.

They all proceeded to the Forbidden Zone, a 3-day ride across the desert, where Cornelius had performed diggings a year earlier. It was called the Forbidden Zone because the "deadly" area was quarantined - "an ancient taboo set forth in the sacred scrolls." [The scrolls were written 1,200 years earlier.] As they camped on the beach, Taylor shaved his face and told inquisitive Lucius: "In my world when I left it, only kids your age wore beards." Suddenly, Dr. Zaius and armed gorilla-police arrived on horseback and pronounced them under arrest after tracking them down, but Taylor threatened them with his gun and they were ordered to withdraw. Zaius and the group entered a vast cave on the beachfront - "a fabulous treasure of fossils and artifacts" to possibly extend further back than the "sacred scrolls" evidence of another culture.

On the lowest level of his diggings, Cornelius displayed remnants (a human doll), ruins and bones from a civilization about 2,000 years ago - a paradox "for the more ancient culture is the more advanced." He added: "No trace of simian fossil has been found in this deposit." Zaius was unconvinced: "Keep digging, Cornelius. You'll find evidence of the master of this house, an ape." Taylor believed that there were humans, although "a weak, fragile animal," before the apes - "he was here before you, and he was better than you are." When the human doll spoke: "Mama, Mama," Taylor asked: "Would an ape make a human doll that talks?" Gunshots from the beach rang out and interrupted their discussion. Taylor held Zaius hostage, and forced him to call a ceasefire and withdraw his apes. He extracted a promise to let him and Nova escape (with a horse and a week's supplies). He affirmed to Zaius that Cornelius' work proved the superiority of humans over apes: "Man was here first.

You owe him your science, your culture, whatever civilization you've got." However, the human race presumably didn't survive because of "a plague, some natural catastrophe, a storm of meteors" - and Zaius knew this all along - as "defender of the faith, guardian of the terrible secret." In the 29th scroll, the 6th verse, it was prophetically written by the Lawgiver: "Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him, drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death." Before Nova and Taylor left on horseback to follow the shoreline, they said goodbye to Zira and Cornelius (who felt that Taylor had proved their innocence). He told Lucius: "Never trust anybody over 30" and kissed Dr. Zira goodbye!

- she agreed but added: "All right, but you're so damned ugly." And Zaius confessed he had always dreaded the coming of the hated human: "I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand in hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him - even himself...The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your greed made a desert of it ages ago." On the planet where "apes evolved from men," Taylor asked why: "There's gotta be an answer." Zaius cautioned: "Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find." As they departed, Zaius ordered explosives detonated to seal up the cave (with evidence of humans and their society), and Zira and Cornelius would both stand trial for heresy, without proof to exonerate them. He told Lucius that he may have just saved the future for all of them.

Zaius told Zira that Taylor would soon find "his destiny." This film's iconic, chilling, startling, twist-surprise ending has become common knowledge -- stranded American astronaut George Taylor, having escaped from enslavement and imprisonment by talking civilized apes, rode on horseback down a beach shoreline in the Forbidden Zone with Nova; he suddenly stopped when he saw something, and dismounted to stare upwards; as the camera panned forward toward Taylor, through a spiked object, he exclaimed: "Oh, my God! I'm back, I'm home. All the time, it was..." He dropped to his knees: "We finally really did it." He pounded his fist into the sand and railed against Earth's generations almost 2,000 years earlier that had destroyed his home planet's civilization with a devastating nuclear war: "You maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! Goddamn you all to hell!" The full object came into view as the camera panned backward - the spiked crown of a battered Statue of Liberty buried waist-deep in beach sand. Film Notables (Awards, Facts, etc.) The first film in the original five-film series.

There were four sequels to this film from 1970 to 1973: Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) There were also two TV series, one live-action and one animated: CBS-TV's Planet of the Apes (1974), and the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes (1975). Finally, there was a reboot or reimaging of the film, Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes (2001). The latest Apes incarnation was the origin (or prequel) story Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), set in the present, from director Rupert Wyatt, starring James Franco as a scientist who discovered a formula that increased an ape's IQ. Computer-generated ape faces replaced rubber-latex masks. Its sequel was Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014).

This first film was the film version of the science-fiction novel by Pierre Boule, with a script by The Twilight Zone's Rod Serling, and ex-blacklisted Michael Wilson. With a production budget of $5.8 million, and box-office gross receipts of $32 million (domestic). With two Academy Awards Oscar nominations: Best Costume Design, and Best Original Score. Also an Honorary Award presented to John Chambers for "outstanding makeup achievement." Astronaut 'George' Taylor Classic Films: PLANET OF THE APES | Nerdist Classic Films: PLANET OF THE APES Posted by Michelle Buchman on January 24, 2016 Share: Films Welcome to a weekly classic movies column here on Nerdist.com. Each week focuses on a different film considered to be essential to the cinema’s golden age. Sit back, grab some snacks, and expand your film knowledge with old Hollywood cinema. History Entering the 1960s, cinema was still heavily obsessed with the science fiction genre. The B-movie’s of the 1950s gave way to bigger budget blockbusters. However, America’s obsession with nuclear war and destruction remained a constant theme in sci-fi throughout this time.

The Cold War was still raging on, and the threat of attack from countries abroad lingered in the minds of many. Especially after the Cuban Missile Crisis in 1962, fear of a nuclear missile attack was at an all-time high. The event was the closest the United States had come to escalating a full-scale nuclear war. While this worldwide paranoia was still in full swing, French author Pierre Boulle published a gripping new sci-fi novel in 1963: La Planète des Singes (or The Planet of the Apes). Boulle’s book attracted so much buzz that producer Arthur P. Jacobs bought the rights before it was even published. Jacobs began shopping the novel around to various film studios. He convinced the vice-president of 20th Century Fox, Richard D. Zanuck, to greenlight a film version of Planet of the Apes in 1964. Importance Planet of the Apes centers around astronauts Taylor (Charlton Heston), Landon (Robert Gunner), and Dodge (Jeff Burton) who crash-land on an unknown planet in the far-off future.

Originally departing in 1972, they wake up from deep hibernation after the crash to discover the date is November 25, 3978 AD. The planet appears incapable of supporting life at first, but the surviving crew soon uncover a society ruled by apes. The apes have assumed their role as the dominant species on the planet and have evolved into creatures with human-like speech and intelligence. Meanwhile, the remaining pockets of humans on the planet are primitive, mute beings oppressed by the apes. The screenplay for Planet of the Apes was first written by The Twilight Zone creator Rod Serling. Although Serling remains credited as screenwriter for the film, the script went through several rewrites. The first version portrayed the apes as technologically advanced which would have involved expensive props, special effects, and sets. Fellow screenwriter Michael Wilson (Lawrence of Arabia) was brought in to write the ape society as much more primitive to cut costs. The iconic twist ending, now known as one of the best of all-time, was Serling’s original idea. It went through several iterations involving the location and state of the decay of the statue involved in the final scene.

The imagery of the ending, along with Charlton Heston’s memorable performance, has stayed with movie-going audiences for over 40 years. The Day After Tomorrow, Cloverfield, Independence Day, and Children of Men all include nods to the film’s classic final frame. Additionally, Planet of the Apes should be recognized for the groundbreaking make-up work in the film. Legendary make-up artist John Chambers designed the prosthetics that turned well-known actors such as Roddy McDowall into their ape characters on screen. The prosthetics looked so real and well-done, it helped many of the ape actors get into their roles on set. Reportedly, the human and ape actors often segregated themselves in between takes with the species they were portraying. For his extraordinary achievement in make-up, Chambers was awarded an honorary Academy Award in 1969. Roddy McDowall’s home movies from the making of Planet of the Apes. Film Facts Taylor’s spacecraft seen on-screen is never given a name. It wasn’t until 40 years later that the ship was named “Liberty 1” in a short film included on the Blu-ray release.

The sound effect used of the rocket ship blasting through the atmosphere of the planet and then crashing into the lake is actually the exact same sound effect used for the Batmobile in the 1966 Batman TV show. When adjusted for inflation, Planet of the Apes holds the record for the highest make-up budget on a film, representing 17% of the total $5.8 million dollar budget. Planet of the Apes is available to stream on HBO Go . What’s your favorite classic sci-fi movie? What other classic films would you like to see in a future column? Drop us your thoughts in the comments below! — Michelle Buchman is the social media manager at Nerdist Industries. She’s also a huge cinephile. Feel free to follow and chat movies with her on Twitter, @michelledeidre . Tags ANSA | Planet of the Apes Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia Share ANSA stands for the American National Space Administration. We are told in the 2011 novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes that ANSA was split from NASA in order to minimise the risk of communist infiltration into their highly experimental research.

ANSA's Juno mission travelled from Mars to Jupiter with a crew of six astronauts in hibernation pods - Commander Robert Marx, Lieutenant James Patrick, Maryann Stewart , Gabriel "Gabby" Combs, John Landon and Edward "Jonesy" Jones . The Juno was partially a test run for the secretive 'Project Liberty' (five Liberty ships were reverse engineered from technology of classified origin, and were propelled by an experimental photon propulsion drive designed by Dr. Otto Hasslein ), and for Dr. Hasslein's experimental 'X-Comm' communication equipment which took up almost one third of the space on the Juno. Their other objective was to deliver the 'Flag' - a radiation-powered satellite with US colours and anthem which would orbit Jupiter's insubstantial surface, laying territorial claim to the planet. The same was planned for Saturn. However, not all went according to plan and three of the crew were killed. Landon was injured by an indirect blast of radiation from the X-Comm, and Jones by high-velocity shards of ice. Having completed their tasks, the surviving crew then discovered a Soviet satellite containing the corpse of a monkey cosmonaut named Gregori, meaning that the planet had already been claimed.

ANSA was responsible for the spacecraft Liberty 1 which launched from Cape Kennedy on 14 January 1972 (and first flew onto the silver screen and into the hearts and minds of fans around the world in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes ). Nicknamed "Icarus" (by fan Larry Evans) [1] after the tragic Greek myth , the dart-like spacecraft, under the command of USAF Colonel George Taylor (played by Charlton Heston ), carried four astronauts across the heavens at nearly the speed of light - George Taylor , John Landon , Maryann Stewart and Thomas Dodge . Due to the theories of physicist Dr. Hasslein, regarding a vessel moving faster than the speed of light, after six months on the craft the crew placed themselves into a state of suspended animation using a special drug to keep them sedated, and confined themselves to stasis pods. Taylor, the leader of the expedition, hoped that the universe would contain forms of life that were superior to that found on Earth. Landon was an ambitious man of around 31, who wanted to leave a lasting legacy. Dodge was a man of science with a thirst for knowledge of the unknown.

The crew were to "pollinate" the stars if something went wrong and they found themselves stranded. Taylor regarded Stewart as "the most precious cargo we brought along... she was... to be the new 'Eve'." An ANSA-produced information film, made before the launch, included biographies of the crew: "Lieutenant Thomas Dodge serves as head science officer. At the relatively young age of 35, Lieutenant Dodge exhibits the vision of a man with twice his years. He admits yearning to find intelligent life at the crew's ultimate destination. A dream he has often discussed as professor of organic chemistry at Annapolis." "Colonel George Taylor leads the team into space. West Point graduate, class of '41, ace fighter pilot in both World War II and the Korean War, Colonel Taylor became the first candidate of ANSA's elite astronaut corps. When asked why he would leave behind the world he knew to explore the vastness of deep space, he answered simply, "For the promise of a better world." "Lieutenant Maryann Stewart, 33, is both a career astronaut and a respected biological researcher.

A veteran of ANSA's Apollo and Juno space programs, she brings experience, curiosity, and old-fashioned guts to the team." "Lieutenant John Landon serves as navigator on board the Liberty 1. Distinguishing himself as navigator on ANSA's Juno Mars mission, Lieutenant Landon automatically became the prime choice for the Liberty Project. After searching their souls and weighing the sacrifice, John and his wife proudly chose to add the Lieutenant's talents to the mission. His infant son Mike will grow to manhood knowing that his father bravely conquered nothing less than time and space." "Two first alternates round out the crew - ... Brent, 34, and Colonel Skipper Donovan, 38." It seems the crew planned to spend twelve months in suspended animation, a total of eighteen months on the ship, which would have propelled the vessel forward through time well over two thousand years according to Hasslein's theory. However, Stewart's stasis pod malfunctioned and an air leak caused her to die shortly after entering it. Three months after the crew entered hibernation, the Liberty 1 collided with a ship exactly identical with itself.

Living up to the "Icarus" name, it fell from the sky, stricken and crippled, to splash down in an uncharted inland sea on a desolate planet in the year 3978 AD, two thousand and six years after it had departed Earth [2] and about eleven months into the crew's stasis. Back at ANSA, the X-Comm technology allowed Dr. Hasslein to monitor progress, and it was noted that communications abruptly stopped en route to Centaurus. The male crew revived and found the dessicated remains of Stewart's body in her pod. They were forced to evacuate the ship as it quickly began to sink to the bottom of the lake. However, Landon's location transmission signal from the TX-9 somehow found its way back through the time distortion to the place they had left. The three men made it to the shore and found the air breathable but the surrounding area barren and lifeless. Eventually, they found vegetation and a tribe of mute savage white humans, and abandoned their ANSA uniforms. They then discovered that this world was also populated by horseback-riding, talking apes, who hunted humans.

Dodge was shot and killed, his corpse later stuffed and displayed in the Great Hall of the 'Zaius Museum of Natural Science' (partly due to his darker skin color). Landon was captured and was later lobotomized by ape leader Dr. Zaius . Taylor was shot in the throat and taken to Ape City , but was unable to speak or communicate with the apes for some time. He eventually escaped back into the ' Forbidden Zone ', realized that the planet was in fact Earth, and was soon taken prisoner again by a race of telepathic human mutants. In the meantime, ape scientist Dr. Milo had recovered the wreckage of Taylor's ship and somehow restored it to working order. Despite the fact that the Liberty 1 was unlikely to return from it's mission, ANSA considered sending a second Liberty craft along the same trajectory upon receiving Landon's transmission, either as a rescue mission or, more likely, as a suicide mission which would nevertheless prove Dr. Hasslein's time-travel theory. Crewed by John Brent and 'Skipper' Maddox , their ship crash-landed violently on Earth not far from where the Liberty 1 had crashed earlier.

Shortly after landing, 'Skipper' died from his injuries and Brent buried him at the crash site. Brent came into contact with a native human and learned that Taylor had nearly ended up a museum specimen "like his two friends" (suggesting either a deceased Landon or the recovered corpse of Stewart was displayed alongside Dodge by that point). Reunited with Taylor within the mutant city (Taylor seemed to know Brent only vaguely), they escaped their prison cell while the apes attacked the mutants. Trying to prevent the activation of the twentieth-century Alpha-Omega Bomb , both were shot by the apes, with Taylor slumping onto the launch controls of the weapon, destroying the entire planet. Moments earlier, Dr. Milo and two of his ape colleagues test-flew the repaired Liberty 1 and followed it's previous path in reverse, leading them back to 1973. They landed in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California, with the ship staying afloat and being towed to the shore. It's not explained how long the return journey took, or if it required a period in stasis, but the three apes wore full space-suits and helmets upon arrival, which did not bear the ANSA logo.

The recovered ship was taken away for inspection and found to be Colonel Taylor's. In 1980, three astronauts on the ANSA ship Probe Six , on a routine mission to Alpha Centauri , suddenly got caught in "radioactive turbulence". Jones activated the Automatic Homing Device before all three passed out. The ship crashed in a woodland region of the Western United States, at least 1000 years after they had left Earth. Jones was killed instantly and was buried by a gorilla soldier, but his two colleagues, Colonel Alan J. Virdon and Major Peter J. Burke , survived and spent some time as fugitives from the ape authorities. It is conceivable that these astronauts had come from a timeline unaltered by the arrival of Dr. Milo, as they were shocked to find talking apes on Earth, and found a photo of a high-tech New York dated 2503 - some five centuries after Caesar's revolution should have brought an end to human civilisation. Ape leaders Zaius and Urko spoke of another spaceship having landed ten years before the Probe Six, but whether this was an ANSA craft, or what era it had originated from, was never further explained.

Notes George Taylor | Planet of the Apes Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia — Planet of the Apes George Taylor was a male human born some time in the late 1920s or early 30s. A cynical misfit who is happy to leave the twentieth century forever in the belief that he can find something more humane and civilized in another place or another time. Yet even he seems shocked to discover what mankind has done to itself. He is captured and treated as an animal by the apes in the first movie, and by the mutants in the second movie. He is ultimately shot by ape soldiers and with his final breath, sets off the Alpha-Omega bomb, destroying the world. Contents Taylor was born some time in the late 1920s or early 30s. [1] Very little is known of Taylor's youth aside from the fact that he attended elementary school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. Adulthood Edit Taylor was a graduate of Westpoint in 1941. he then went to be an "Ace fighter pilot" in World War II and the Korean War. He eventually became the first candidate of ANSA's astronaut corps.

[2] As an adult, Taylor grew embittered with the world around him. He despised his fellow man, and felt that they were capable of little more than waging war against one another. This inborn cynicism may have influenced his decision to join the ANSA program. Planet of the Apes Edit As a scientist and astronaut, Taylor achieved the rank of Colonel and was placed in charge of a special mission aboard the exploratory vessel, the Liberty 1 . It was his hope that the universe contained life on other planets – life that was superior to that found on Earth. Launching from Cape Kennedy in January 1972 , Taylor's crew, which consisted of fellow astronauts, Dodge , Stewart and Landon , traveled into the reaches of deep space. Their mission was the first to explore another star. Six months into their mission, the crew placed themselves into a state of suspended animation. Taylor administered a special drug to keep them sedated, and then confined them all to special stasis pods aboard the ship. Stranded Edit While the crew slept, the vessel was propelled two-thousand years into the future, confirming Dr. Hasslein's theory of time in a vehicle traveling near the speed of light.

The vessel crash-landed in a lake back on Earth, somewhere near the ruins of old New York City. An emergency alert claxon activated, and Taylor, Dodge and Landon revived. Stewart however, had died during the journey due to an unforeseen air leak. While Dodge and Landon grabbed emergency supplies and evacuated the sinking ship, Taylor looked at the time readout on the ship's log. The year was 3978 . The three men leapt into an inflatable raft, and paddled to the shoreline. All of them believed that they had actually landed on some far away world. Even Taylor hadn't begun to guess that they had really returned to Earth. Landon and Taylor exchanged a few terse words with one another while Dodge tested the soil. Taylor felt that Landon was an ambitious idealist, and laughed heartily as he watched his fellow astronaut place a small American flag into the arid soil. Capture Edit Before long, all three of them found vegetation and a tribe of savage humans. Taylor was the first to notice that the furtive natives were mute.

They attempted to mingle with the humans and managed to forage some fruit and corn, Taylor remarked " Look on the bright side, if this is the best they've got we'll be running this planet in six months." However, within minutes a shrill horn bleated across the field. To his horror, Taylor noticed a squad of armed horseback riding gorillas thundering across the plane. Everyone ran for cover, but the gorilla hunters quickly overtook them. Dodge was shot and killed while Landon was rendered unconscious and captured. Taylor tried to flee the hunter's nets, but a gorilla soldier fired a rifle shot at him, which tore across his throat. Taylor fell backwards off of a small cliff into a pool of water. As the hunt concluded, the gorillas gathered up the surviving humans and brought them back to their settlement at Ape City . Taylor was brought to the Animal Hospital run by the Ministry of Science for his wounds to be treated. Ape's Guinea Pig Edit Animal psychologist Doctor Zira and veterinarian Doctor Galen dressed his wound, but as a result of his wound it would be some time before Taylor would be able to speak again.

This came as no great surprise to his captors, as humans were incapable of articulating in this future time era. Zira placed Taylor in a cage under the watchful eye of a gorilla keeper named Julius . At this time, Taylor met another surviving captive of the hunt – an attractive dark-haired female whom he named Nova . Zira took particular interest in Taylor, and even provided him with the nickname "Bright Eyes". Later on, Zira fascinated with her test subject addressed her findings to the Science Minister Doctor Zaius . Zaius dismissed her claims that Taylor was a human gifted with an ape's intelligence, and had both Nova and he relocated to the stockade. Once there, Taylor attempted to prove his identity. He scrawled his name on the dirt floor of the stockade, but Nova tried to erase his writing and another mute prisoner disrupted him, resulting in a small scuffle. The fight was broken up by an ape soldier who used a torch to scare the mute human away however, Taylor was unafraid and tried to attack the soldier but suffered a burn to the shoulder. Zira then had Taylor taken back to his cell while Zaius took note of Taylor's writing and quickly erased the words before anyone else could see them.

Once in his cage, Zira apologized to Taylor for his injury while still calling him "Bright Eyes", Taylor tried to communicate with her, but his throat injury prevented him from articulating. Frustrated, he reached through the bars of his cage, grabbing Zira while taking her notebook and pencil. Julius repelled him with his truncheon, but when Zira recovered the notepad, she found the words "My name is Taylor" written across it. After sending Julius away, Zira dropped her nickname and referred to Taylor by his name. She brought the human to her private study. She contacted her fiancée, the archaeologist Cornelius , and told him what had occurred. Initially, Cornelius felt that Taylor merely had a knack for mimicry, but within moments he proved his intellect beyond a shadow of a doubt. During their little session he told them of his origins and his journey to their "planet." He eventually told them of his comrades Dodge and Landon, he stated that while Dodge was dead because of the hunt, he asked them what happened to Landon only for the apes to say they didn't know.

Escape Edit Before long however, Taylor escaped from his prison confinement due to learning the apes plan to have him gelded. He attacked Julius and raced through the Ape City, desperate to evade capture from the gorilla militia. Taking a shortcut through a natural science museum, he found to his horror the remains of his colleague, Dodge, stuffed and encased in a glass display case. A posse of soldiers waylaid him at a bridge, scooping Taylor up into one of their hunting nets. By this point, Taylor's throat had healed enough for him to finally speak again, and he violently voiced his admonition saying "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" which greatly shocked the apes. The revelation of a talking human sent shockwaves throughout the ape settlement. Officials brought him back to the Animal Hospital where he was caged and looked upon as a biological oddity. Doctor Zira, thrilled with the idea of a talking human, did her best to shield Taylor from further abuse, but she was unable to prevent the jailer, Julius, from punishing the Earth man at every given turn. Julius took great delight in pummeling Taylor with water from a fire hose, declaring him a "Freak".

These events prompted taylor to shout "It's a Madhouse! A Madhouse!" Doctor Zaius decided to hold an official inquest in order to determine Taylor's future. The science ministry, consisting of the President of the Assembly , Doctor Maximus , and the prosecutor, Doctor Honorius interrogated Taylor at length, pressing him for the truth behind his origins. Doctor Zira and Cornelius were permitted to speak on Taylor's behalf, but were unable to satisfy the prejudicial orangutan panel. The assembly listened to what they said before mentioning that Taylor spoke of having other talking humans as comrades and while one was dead, the other was in the city. They gathered all the surviving humans and among them, Taylor spotted his lost comrade Landon. Taylor went up to embrace his friend only to discover to his great horror that the apes have lobotomized him. Asking Zira if she had anything to do with this, he was told she had no part in it causing him to determine that Zaius was responsible and prepared to attack the doctor but was held back. Brought back to the courthouse, the assembly concluded that Taylor was a mutant, and that he was to be gelded, experimented upon and ultimately executed.

Moments after the tribunal commenced, Doctor Zaius brought Taylor into his private office. He confessed to the truth of ordering Landon's lobotomy and an awareness of mankind’s origins and dreaded the day that he might one day return. The doctor asked Taylor to tell him where he really hails from and where is his tribe located so they won't affect the peace and stability of the ape culture only for Taylor to rebuke the doctor was afraid of him and his ways. Taylor and Nova make their escape Meanwhile, Doctor Zira, aware of what was to become of Taylor contacted her young nephew, Lucius. Lucius went to the Animal Hospital late at night and assisted Taylor in disabling the keeper, Julius. Free from his cell once again, Taylor insisted that Nova was to come with them. Lucius was apprehensive, but ultimately acquiesced. The three fled the city and traveled East towards an area known as the Forbidden Zone. There, they met up with Cornelius and Zira who supplied him with a fresh horse, a gun and supplies. They took momentary shelter in a cave at Cornelius' archeological dig. Doctor Zaius and a gorilla cavalry quickly tracked them down with orders to kill Taylor on sight.

He also declared that Cornelius and Zira were to be charged with scientific heresy. Zaius entered the cavern where Cornelius showed him evidence that human beings once ruled this world – a fact that repudiated nearly every religious tenet set forth within the Sacred Scrolls (the ape equivalent to a Christian Bible). Taylor decided that it was now time to put this topsy-turvy society behind him. He tied Doctor Zaius to a rock, while Lucius kept the gorilla soldiers at bay with a shotgun. Saying goodbye to Zira and Cornelius, he rode off with Nova in search of his destiny. Taylor and Nova rode along the shoreline for several miles, trekking deeper into the regions along the perimeter of the Forbidden Zone. Taylor found the half-buried ruins of the Statue of Liberty, and realized that he had been on Earth this entire time. Overwhelmed with shock and anger, he theorized that the people of his own time must have destroyed the world through nuclear Armageddon. With no hope of ever returning to the world he knew, George Taylor, who once despised his fellow human beings, was now the custodian of the human race. It was his intention to establish a new life for himself with Nova.

Taylor even tried to teach Nova how to speak. During this time, Nova became pregnant with Taylor’s child (see also 'Notes' below). [3] Beneath the Planet of the Apes Edit As time passed, Taylor and Nova journeyed deeper into the Forbidden Zone. The Forbidden Zone was a grey wasteland of ash and debris – the skeletal remains of what was once New York City. Little did Taylor realize however, was that the Zone was also occupied by a subspecies of telepathic human mutants . Using their mental powers of illusion, they captured Taylor and held him prisoner. Nova managed to escape and rode Taylor’s horse back towards Ape City. She eventually encountered another time-lost astronaut from Taylor's era – John Brent . Brent learned that Nova knew of Taylor and eventually found his way into the Forbidden Zone. The commune of mutants captured Brent and placed him within the same prison cell as Taylor. A mutant jailor used his telepathic powers to force Taylor and Brent to fight one another. Nova managed to inadvertently distract the guard, and Taylor and Brent escaped. Colonel Taylor's final moments At this time, ape military leader General Ursus learned of the existence of the mutants, and convinced Doctor Zaius to invade the Forbidden Zone.

The gorilla soldiers raided the mutants' church (in the ruins of St. Patrick's Cathedral ), killing scores of mutants, as well as Nova. Taylor and Brent found the worship hall where the mutants possessed a Doomsday device called the Alpha-Omega Bomb . They engaged in a gun battle with the gorilla soldiers, but were both struck down by return fire. Bleeding from a mortal gunshot wound, Taylor stumbled towards the altar where he encountered Zaius. He pleaded with Zaius to help him, who in turn merely scoffed, declaring that mankind was capable of nothing but destruction. Taylor's last words were "It's doomsday, doomsday!" With that Taylor died, his body slumped upon the launch controls of the Alpha-Omega Bomb, detonating the weapon and destroying the entire planet. Taylor reappeared in the comic and novel adaptations of the first two movies, and he was referenced in the Planet of the Apes GameBoy, where the introduction tells us that astronaut " Ben " has been sent to rescue him. In the Comics Edit Taylor makes his BOOM! Studios comic debut in the intercompany crossover Star Trek/Planet of the Apes: The Primate Directive .

Taylor and Nova are still near the wrecked Statue of Liberty when Kirk and a few members of his crew encounter them. At first, Taylor believed Kirk to be another one of Zaius' apes, but he quickly realizes that Kirk is human. He was beyond relieved that he has found more humans that can speak like him. In fact, Taylor wondered if they came from the past just like him to find him. Taylor was adamant in wanting Kirk to help him overthrow the apes people and make humans the dominant species again. Kirk's constant reluctance to do so made Taylor angry, because Kirk would not help the humans on his Earth. Taylor went on to tell Kirk that human beings are nothing more than wild beasts to the apes. Taylor tells Kirk about his two friends Cornelius and Zira , who helped him escape the Ape City. They were in fact still at the same excavation sight where Cornelius learned that humans were once the dominant species instead of apes. Taylor told Kirk to follow them there but by horseback it would take close to a day. So, Kirk simply told his engineer Mr. Scott to beam them there. While there, Taylor points out his two friends for Kirk, yet they are not alone.

Surrounded by gorilla soldiers, Kirk tells Scotty to use the Enterprise's phasers to emit a low level stun setting on the surface of the planet. Taylor and Kirk's crew gather up Zira and Cornelius, then head for a clearing. Taylor once again demands that Kirk help him overthrow the ape's rule, but Kirk refuses. He explains that they are forbidden in the development of any culture. So while no one watched, Taylor used a choke hold on Chekov and stole his communicator. While impersonating Kirk, Taylor beamed himself to the Enterprise where the transporter technician Mr. Kyle was waiting. Taylor knocked out Kyle, then stole his clothes so he could freely move about the ship. Kirk and Spock find Chekov and deduce that Taylor has beamed himself on board the Enterprise. Kirk and Spock beam themselves back too and Kirk and Spock find Taylor in a shuttle bay. Taylor wanted to steal one of the Enterprise's shuttles so he could use its weapons to kill all the apes. Kirk tried to be diplomatic, but Taylor would not listen and they end up in a physical confrontation. Kirk finally manages to stop Taylor by telling him that simply killing the apes would lower himself to their level.

Kirk even wanted to know the reason for Taylor's expedition and it was for him to find a new life on another world, to find something better than man. Kirk got through to Taylor and they decide to ally themselves against the combined might of Kor and Marius . With some advice from Taylor, Kirk along with Spock, Scotty and some red shirts, they beam back down in new clothes to not arouse suspicion. The combined team find a gorilla base that has housed several Klingon weapons for the gorillas. In fact some gorilla soldiers do appear and a sever fight breaks out but Taylor and Kirk prevail. It's learned that the gorilla forces led by Marius make way to Ape City, so they have to move quick to prevent a war between ape kind. The combined might of Taylor, Kirk's crew and even Cornelius is just enough to stop Kor's mad plan. With their defeat, Kirk offered for Taylor to come with them back to their universe, but Taylor declines. He wants to find a new life for him on the Planet of the Apes with Nova at his side. So then Taylor and Nova are beamed back to where Kirk first found him and then Kirk and Taylor go their separate ways.

Notes The 2011 novel Conspiracy of the Planet of the Apes referenced both of these daughters as well as Taylor's wife Gillian. Trivia Edit The character of George Taylor was played by actor Charlton Heston . Marlon Brando was originally considered as a possibility for the role. [8] Before Heston signed to play the astronaut hero, John Wayne was among those considered by the producers, who ultimately decided he was too much identified with Westerns. Heston, Oscar-winning star of Ben-Hur and El Cid, committed to the film within an hour of hearing the pitch, on 5 June 1965 . He identified with the role of Taylor: "As much as any character I have ever played, Taylor reflects my own views about mankind. I have infinite faith and admiration for the extraordinary individual man - the Gandhi, the Christ, the Caesar, the Michelangelo, the Shakespeare - but very limited expectations for man as a species. And that, of course, was Taylor's view.

And the irony of a man so misanthropic that he almost welcomes the chance to escape entirely from the world finding himself then cast in a situation where he is spokesman for his whole species and forced to defend their qualities and abilities - it was a very appealing thing to act." [9] In pre-production, Taylor's original name was going to be John (or Johnny) Thomas. [10] Charlton Heston appeared as this character in the 1966 Screen Test , alongside Edward G. Robinson as Zaius , and with James Brolin as Cornelius and Linda Harrison as Zira . The name was only changed as filming approached - a Michael Wilson script dated 5 May 1967 contained the name 'Thomas', with only revisions made in June changing the name to 'Taylor'. [11] Indeed, the 'Production Information Guide' published on 29 January 1968 to promote the upcoming movie mistakenly used the name 'Thomas' in it's synopsis. [12] 'John Thomas' is a British euphemism for a penis, which may have contributed to the name-change.

Thomas in turn was based on/inspired by Ulysse Mérou , the protagonist of Pierre Boulle 's original novel, La Planète des singes . Taylor's fate remained largely unchanged, except that in the original book he is a journalist accompanying the mission, rather than its leader, and he ultimately escapes back to Earth from an alien ape planet. He discovers that Earth has meantime been taken over by apes too. Like Professor Antelle , he's cynical towards mankind. Johnny Thomas' crew in the earliest scripts (1964) written by Rod Serling were 'Paul LaFever', 'Dodge' and the deceased 'Blake'. Serling's script treatment for an 'Apes' TV show followed on somewhat from these scripts, with two astronauts sent to rescue Taylor's crew which included (another) 'Thomas', 'LaFever' and 'Bengsten', who are all found to have died and been buried, along with 'Zira'. [13] Taylor is not to be confused with George Taylor , one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.

Associate producer Mort Abrahams felt Charlton Heston's self-invented "God damn you all to hell", as opposed to the script's "My God" might result in the film being classified as unsuitable for children, but was overruled. Originally, the studio heads at 20th Century Fox wanted actor Charlton Heston to return as the starring role in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Heston didn't want to commit to a sequel, but agreed to make a brief appearance so long as his character was killed off early in the film. After several script drafts, it was decided that Taylor's character would function as a framing sequence for the second film. He appeared briefly in the beginning of the movie, where he falls into the Mutant trap, and returns towards the end of the film for the movie's climax. Heston: "Fox is now willing to accept my proposal to do a brief transition bit for them in their new version of APES. I don't think it's a good idea, but of course I'll carry out my promise to them.

I pointed out to Dick Zanuck that, while I sympathized with him from a corporate point of view, as an actor there was really no sequel possible. The only story you could tell had been told; anything further would just be adventures among the monkeys. While this might well be profitable, there was nothing new to act in it. Still, as Dick said, they couldn't really undertake a sequel if I weren't in it at all. Moved by this wistful observation, I offered to appear in the opening sequence, if they'd then kill me off." [14] Heston donated his salary from Beneath the Planet of the Apes to charity. [15] The original storyline for Taylor was later adapted for the character of John Brent . It was Heston's idea for his character to destroy the Earth at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. He believed that by destroying the entire planet, it would stave off future sequels. Heston: "They asked me to simply disappear in the opening sequence, and be killed off in the end. I agreed, thinking I could end the whole thing with a death that included the end of the world.

I sold them on this, but they were cleverer than I; they still made several sequels, though without me." [16] Originally, the Taylor character was to intentionally detonate the Alpha-Omega Bomb, but the script was slightly altered so that Taylor instead sets the bomb off accidentally. DC Comics also created a character named George Taylor , but this earlier version has nothing in common with the character from Planet of the Apes. The DC Taylor was the editor of a metropolitan newspaper called The Daily Star (later renamed The Daily Planet). In the Golden Age continuity commonly referred to as Earth-Two, Taylor was the employer of reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane. He was eventually removed from continuity and replaced by Perry White. Taylor is an analog to Bill Hudson , the blonde-haired, lead astronaut from the Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series. Whereas the movie version of Dr. Zira referred to Taylor as "Bright-Eyes", the animated Zira took to calling Bill Hudson, "Blue-Eyes".

"Tyler" from "The Planet that Went Ape"; Mad Magazine, 1973 The March, 1973 edition of Mad Magazine lampooned the Planet of the Apes franchise in issue #157. The character Taylor was re-named Tyler. Appearances

Question: The astronauts "Taylor", "Landon" and "Donovan" are characters in which 1969 science fiction film?
Answer: Planet of the Apes