A true classic of the genre directed in 1968 by Franklin J. Schaffner, this famous science fiction film ends with a chilling revelation, which calls into question the rest of the feature film. Warning, spoilers!
SPOILERS – Warning, the article below reveals potential spoilers. If you don’t want to know the content, please don’t read the following…
Freely adapted from a novel by Pierre Boulle (whose conclusion was slightly different), Planet of the Apes is still considered a pillar of science fiction cinema today.
Directed in 1968 by Franklin J. Schaffner, this unique epic, constantly bathed in a strange and feverish atmosphere (largely inspired by Jerry Goldsmith’s disturbing score), follows the adventures of three lost astronauts on an unknown planet. After traveling in hibernation for an entire year (corresponding to two thousand years on Earth), they indeed land in a world populated by civilized apes, and where human beings are reduced to the state of cattle.
While Planet of the Apes was subsequently explored again – in Tim Burton’s very forgettable 2001 adaptation, then in the excellent Andy Serkis-led trilogy from 2011 – this very first version is still very special and impactful, even 55 years after its release, thanks to its unforgettable final sequence.
If you have not yet discovered Franklin J. Shaffner’s film, we strongly recommend that you do not continue reading this article, and only come back after having seen the film.
20th Century Fox
In the last minutes of the feature film, while several particularly disturbing details confirm him in the idea that the society of apes is hiding a terrible secret from him, Taylor (the astronaut played by Charlton Heston) has managed to flee, and continues his quest. to get the truth.
While he nonchalantly skirts the coast of an ocean, he suddenly stops suddenly, his gaze terrified, and after a few seconds of amazement, begins to shout in anger:
“The criminals! They blew them their bombs!”he exclaims as the viewer discovers, in reverse, the origin of his distress.
20th Century Fox
In front of him are indeed the remains of the Statue of Liberty, terrifying proof that his journey did not lead him to the ends of the universe, but brought him back to his starting point, two millennia in the future. .
The Planet of the Apes is therefore quite simply… the Earth.
This memorable final revelation, which is still one of the most famous in cinema today, is not exactly the same as in Pierre Boulle’s novel.
At the end of the original work, the main character (named Ulysses) indeed managed to leave the “planet of the apes”, which was therefore not Earth, and to return to his native planet. Landing in Paris 700 years after his departure, he was then surprised to be greeted by a gorilla, thus noting that the Earth had also been dominated by monkeys.
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