Was the ending shocking?
Planet of the Apes (1968)
by Anonymous | reply 104 | June 22, 2019 7:16 AM |
As shocking as Heston's hairpiece.
by Anonymous | reply 1 | July 30, 2012 2:23 AM |
I was gob-smacked!
by Anonymous | reply 2 | July 30, 2012 2:28 AM |
I did see it then and yes, it was very shocking. Much like the ending of Psycho, it hadn't been done 100's of times at that point and was indeed a very shocking and satisfying ending.
by Anonymous | reply 3 | July 30, 2012 2:40 AM |
A real kick-ass ending. Yes, very shocking yet completely plausible and satisfying.
by Anonymous | reply 4 | July 30, 2012 2:45 AM |
Yup, and it freaked me out as a little kid.
by Anonymous | reply 5 | July 30, 2012 2:49 AM |
what happened at the end of Psycho?
by Anonymous | reply 6 | July 30, 2012 2:58 AM |
>>what happened at the end of Psycho?
It turns out it was set in the present day all along.
by Anonymous | reply 8 | July 30, 2012 3:07 AM |
Damn Apes!!!
by Anonymous | reply 9 | July 30, 2012 3:11 AM |
I watched it recently. The apes ironically enough were creationists.
by Anonymous | reply 10 | July 30, 2012 3:17 AM |
The 1970's produced some really great dystopic future movies. Planet of the Apes, Soylent Green - and the list goes on.
by Anonymous | reply 11 | July 30, 2012 3:31 AM |
I'm curious, too, OP.
For those who saw it when it first came out, what was the reaction to the end?
by Anonymous | reply 12 | July 30, 2012 3:33 AM |
Yes, it was shocking, I remember the reaction in the movie theater the night I went to see it.
by Anonymous | reply 13 | July 30, 2012 3:34 AM |
I saw it when it first came out, and it freaked me the fuck out. It was pretty daring at the time. And seeing Charlton Heston in his loin cloth and being aroused made me realize that it was men I liked, and not women. That was the first sign for me that I was gay. I might have been ten or so. He was handsome as hell back then.
by Anonymous | reply 14 | July 30, 2012 3:36 AM |
I wasn't born when it came out, but I didn't know how it ended when I watched it on DVD. That moment made the movie and the franchise for me. Without it, it would have just been another bad 70s flick.
by Anonymous | reply 15 | July 30, 2012 3:39 AM |
r8, ok, i thought about it. was it that his mother was dead?
by Anonymous | reply 16 | July 30, 2012 3:40 AM |
Didn't Twilight Zone do the twist like twenty times during its run?
I think it was written by the same person too.
by Anonymous | reply 17 | July 30, 2012 3:41 AM |
Very. The audience roared with surprise. Loved it.
by Anonymous | reply 18 | July 30, 2012 3:41 AM |
it was quite shocking. This was in the prehistoric age before special effects were all the rage, so it was quite stark looking and not something an audience would have seen before.
by Anonymous | reply 19 | July 30, 2012 3:46 AM |
I was a little kid and saw it at a Saturday matinee with a bunch of other little kids. The end of the film made us all go primal with glee and grunting.
We were all white kids in a boring white neighborhood.
by Anonymous | reply 20 | July 30, 2012 3:49 AM |
I still get a little goose pump/surge of blood to the heart when you first see the gorilla on the horse and the alarm sound goes off
by Anonymous | reply 21 | July 30, 2012 3:50 AM |
i watched it on TV in the 70s when i was probably 10. I remember asking my dad if it could really happen like that. He said, Sure it could.
by Anonymous | reply 22 | July 30, 2012 3:51 AM |
I thought The Crying Game was the most shocking movie!!
by Anonymous | reply 23 | July 30, 2012 11:20 AM |
Only to anyone who had never read a short story or seen a Twilight Zone.
by Anonymous | reply 24 | July 30, 2012 11:27 AM |
[quote] I still get a little goose pump
Oh, dear.
by Anonymous | reply 25 | July 30, 2012 12:42 PM |
Great ending. But I don't get why the possibility didn't enter anyone's head. What are the odds of the English language and even cultural traits and fashion will be perfectly replicated in a planet that hasn't had any involvement with humans from Earth?
Best not to overthink it. I love the series of films. What's not to like about Victor Buono playing a telepathic mutant in a rubber mask?
by Anonymous | reply 26 | July 30, 2012 12:48 PM |
I still wonder why that finally shot is so grainy.
by Anonymous | reply 27 | July 30, 2012 12:49 PM |
Why didnt the astronauts have a clue when they heard all the apes speaking English?
by Anonymous | reply 28 | July 30, 2012 2:59 PM |
The Astronauts roaming around nude, bear like, was intriguing as a kid...
And hot..
by Anonymous | reply 29 | July 30, 2012 7:13 PM |
The ending was a jolt, but the ending of the sequel (Below the Planet of the Apes) was just plain terrifying to a kid. Especially since I'd developed such a crush on the heroes.
by Anonymous | reply 30 | July 30, 2012 10:59 PM |
I've rubbed out many a fine load watching James Franciscus prance around a bombed out NYC subway station in his glorious bare feets in Beneath The Planet Of The Apes.
by Anonymous | reply 31 | July 30, 2012 11:05 PM |
Was Beneath the Planet of the Apes where the humans wore Snuggies and they worshipped the bomb and pulled off their masks at the end?
by Anonymous | reply 32 | July 31, 2012 12:57 AM |
Yes, R32. With everyone's favorite actress Natalie Trundy as the High Priestess. She was in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes as the psychologist. She must have been the Sheila Allen/ Monica Lewis/Lorraine Gary of her day.
by Anonymous | reply 33 | July 31, 2012 1:44 AM |
They had no clue because they probably thought they landed on a planet in an alternate universe.
by Anonymous | reply 34 | July 31, 2012 1:50 AM |
The later Planet of the Apes movies were pretty schlocky, but the original still holds up. It was the first modern science fiction movie and changed the genre. I wasn't around back then, but I've been told the ending was shocking, because for the entire movie the audience believed it was an alien planet. And then the big reveal happened.
by Anonymous | reply 35 | July 31, 2012 1:51 AM |
You and me both, R31, although I was paying more attention to his torso and legs. And that gorgeous face.
by Anonymous | reply 36 | July 31, 2012 2:03 AM |
I have never recovered.
by Anonymous | reply 37 | July 31, 2012 2:07 AM |
R36, I paid attention to all of him, too. He was easily one of the most strikingly beautiful men ever on screen.
The ending of the original was a really nasty shock to those of us who weren't prepared for it because we were very much in the middle of a Cold War with the Soviets and this outcome was still considered a big possibility.
by Anonymous | reply 38 | July 31, 2012 2:15 AM |
Taylor and Nova follow the shoreline and eventually discover the charred remnants of the Statue of Liberty, thus revealing that this "alien" planet, that previously had a human civilization long before apes ruled, is actually post-apocalyptic Earth.
by Anonymous | reply 39 | July 31, 2012 2:21 AM |
I saw the film in Amsterdam, and the audience couldn't figure out what that last shot meant. It's seems strange, but apparently the Statue of Liberty isn't quite a worldwide landmark. Or maybe seeing it half-buried in sand disguised it. But I do remembwer an atmosphere of bewilderment and, after the house lights came up, a sea of puzzled faces around me.
by Anonymous | reply 40 | July 31, 2012 2:28 AM |
Really, R40? I wonder if they would have recognized it if it had been the top of the Chrysler Building.
by Anonymous | reply 41 | July 31, 2012 2:35 AM |
R40, if you knew and they didn't, I think it was your duty to get up and scream "Het was het Standbeeld van de Vrijheid!"
(If that's wrong, blame google translate)
by Anonymous | reply 42 | July 31, 2012 2:38 AM |
When I saw the ending as a kid, I was flabbergasted.
by Anonymous | reply 43 | July 31, 2012 2:41 AM |
The audience "gasped" at the theater, it was that shocking and surprising.
by Anonymous | reply 44 | July 31, 2012 2:45 AM |
And what's really good about that shock ending moment is there's no musical "sting"- it's just Chuck's anguished cries and the sound of the ocean.
by Anonymous | reply 45 | July 31, 2012 3:22 AM |
Bump
by Anonymous | reply 46 | July 31, 2012 7:13 PM |
My reaction to the entire movie (and my good friend Binny Streeter who I saw it with) was to laugh hysterically all the way through- including the end because that great actor Charlton Heston broke down screaming oh so convincingly. I was about 14 or 15.
When the first ape said, "human see human do" we could not contain ourselves from then on, and of course good ole Chuck, a bad enough actor for a 15 year old to pick up on- made the comedy even better.
by Anonymous | reply 47 | July 31, 2012 7:33 PM |
The other audience members must have loved you, r47. Were you also high on pot, because it sounds like it.
by Anonymous | reply 48 | July 31, 2012 7:44 PM |
Thank you, R39, for copying and pasting the film's wikipedia entry.
by Anonymous | reply 49 | July 31, 2012 8:50 PM |
The ape masks and makeup are still pretty amazing, even by today's standards.
by Anonymous | reply 50 | July 31, 2012 9:03 PM |
Love Planet of the Apes, but there's always been something that bothered me - aside from Heston and then James Franciscus in the sequel never wondering why the apes are speaking English - is that there were no ruins of the previous human civilization. They were obviously in the New York City metro region yet there weren't and remnants of buildings or even any foundations left, it was just wilderness. Yeah, I'm a big nerd.
by Anonymous | reply 51 | July 31, 2012 11:29 PM |
Wasn't NYC destroyed by a nuclear weapon? Hence the horribly disfigured human survivors living below St Patrick's Cathedral. I didn't get why they worshipped a nuclear weapon though other than the fact that they were established as a bunch of meanies.
by Anonymous | reply 52 | August 1, 2012 12:56 AM |
GOD
DAMN
YOU
ALL
TO
HELL!!!
by Anonymous | reply 53 | August 1, 2012 1:26 AM |
It turned out he was wrong.
It was Earth all along.
Yes they finally made a monkey
(Oh they finally made a monkey)
Yes they finally made a money out of him.
He loves you, Dr. Zaius!
by Anonymous | reply 54 | August 1, 2012 2:16 AM |
I think Chuck saying those lines were pretty shocking...
by Anonymous | reply 55 | August 1, 2012 2:22 AM |
The most shocking thing about that movie for me as a kid (and for my parents) was that they let the astronauts run around buck naked for what seemed like half the movie. I mean bare, hairy-ass naked.
Or maybe the real most shocking thing was when I got hard watching them.
by Anonymous | reply 56 | August 1, 2012 1:48 PM |
I remember being stunned. I saw it on the Classic late show as a kid. Special effects were no where near what I was used to, but somehow it was more interesting.
by Anonymous | reply 57 | August 1, 2012 2:35 PM |
I really hate to say this, because I loved the movie back in the day, but when you think about it, the whole thing makes absolutely no sense whatsoever. Aside from the issues already brought up in this thread -- Why aren't Heston and the other astronauts tipped off by the fact that the apes speak English? Why aren't there ANY ruins, even after 2000 years? -- there's another huge whole in the plot:
The spaceship is on some sort of exploratory mission, presumably hundreds or thousands of light years from earth -- yet somehow, after Heston and the other astronauts go into hibernation, the ship finds its way back to earth. Really, how ridiculous to think it could somehow go completely off course in such a spectacular way and just happen to find its way back to the home planet.
by Anonymous | reply 58 | August 1, 2012 2:36 PM |
Well, it was quite shocking when Charlton showed his ending!
by Anonymous | reply 59 | August 1, 2012 3:08 PM |
Charlton Heston gets my vote as the worst actor ever to become a big star- just nudging out Robert Redford- who is a very competent director.
R48, no, no pot yet for me then. And a lot of the theatre was laughing by the way. We were not the only ones. I just remember we had a really good time, if not as we necessarily intended. We used to see every movie that came to that particular summer theatre.
by Anonymous | reply 60 | August 1, 2012 3:17 PM |
r58, I think they were on their way back to earth after their mission was complete.
by Anonymous | reply 61 | August 1, 2012 3:36 PM |
There are a lot of ruins -- buried in the Forbidden Zone, which we see in the first sequel.
by Anonymous | reply 62 | August 1, 2012 3:42 PM |
There were ruins in the second movie....after they went into the Forbidden Zone.
That's why you didn't see any in the first movie.
The apes FORBID people from going into the desert, where the ruins were.
by Anonymous | reply 63 | August 1, 2012 3:43 PM |
I love how even in a post-Apocalyptic world, NY is the center of the universe.
by Anonymous | reply 64 | August 1, 2012 3:53 PM |
Bet your ass, baby/R64.
by Anonymous | reply 65 | August 1, 2012 4:12 PM |
Well, we know you're trying to turn it into the "forbidden zone" for most people, Miss Bloomberg.
by Anonymous | reply 66 | August 1, 2012 4:16 PM |
But there still should have been ruins everywhere, not just what was once Manhattan. I guess you just have to enjoy the movie for what it is.
by Anonymous | reply 67 | August 1, 2012 5:28 PM |
"I think they were on their way back to earth after their mission was complete."
You may have remembered a plot point I forgot, R61. But if that's true, then it's all the more unbelievable that it didn't occur to the astronauts that the planet on which they landed, with apes speaking English, was Earth.
by Anonymous | reply 68 | August 1, 2012 10:36 PM |
Who had time to ponder anything with a bunch of bloodthirsty gorillas on your tail.
by Anonymous | reply 69 | August 2, 2012 1:47 AM |
They used to have a series in the 70's and one night they showed the movie before it so I first saw it on TV when I about 5. The ending went over my head. But I remember freaking out when the alarm went off and the apes on horseback are beating back the grass to find the humans.
by Anonymous | reply 70 | August 2, 2012 10:47 PM |
Charlton Heston was ridiculed by the media after the release of Michael Moore's documentary 'Bowling for Columbine'. I think that Moore overdid it. Charlton Heston was definitely neither bad nor stupid. He was a courageous man, that had a deep respect for good people and deep respect and love for his wife. Their marriage lasted 64 years until Heston's death in 2008. It was the first and only marriage of Heston.
Interesting facts about him:
He had a fondness for drawing and sketching, and often sketched the cast and crew of his films whenever he had the chance to do so. His sketches were later published in the book Charlton Heston's Hollywood: 50 Years In American Film.
Unlike many of his contemporaries, Heston continued to act on the stage. He appeared in Long Day's Journey Into Night opposite Deborah Kerr, Macbeth opposite Vanessa Redgrave and The Caine Mutiny with Ben Cross. His final stage role was opposite his wife Lydia Clarke in Love Letters at the Haymarket Theatre in London in the summer of 1999.
When he met Toshirô Mifune around 1960, he was extremely taken with the Japanese star and claimed that if Mifune spoke English "he could be the greatest star in the world". The two actors exchanged Christmas cards since their meeting until Mifune's death.
by Anonymous | reply 71 | December 8, 2012 12:44 PM |
I passed out in the theater at the revelation. My parents threw a soda in my face to revive me.
by Anonymous | reply 72 | December 8, 2012 1:37 PM |
Soylent Green is people.
by Anonymous | reply 73 | December 8, 2012 1:51 PM |
If Taylor and Nova were folllowing the coastline, how could they find the ruins of the Statue of Liberty on the beach? The statue is on Liberty Island. The shoreline of the Manhattan Island and Liberty Island (or even Hoboken/Newark/Wherever) aren't crashing waves types of places. More like river shores, with the current sort of plunking along rapidly. Should we believe the landscape was dramatically re-sculpted from the nuclear disaster, maybe?
Maybe some engineers here might have an explanation. Could a statue like Liberty float? It's hollow inside, maybe an air bubble somehow could keep it aloft in the water.
I know. Just a movie.
Did the actress who played Nova ever work again?
by Anonymous | reply 74 | December 8, 2012 1:56 PM |
I know that Chuck Heston was a NRA conservative fundie, but I always see pic of him in the 60s fighting for civil rights. Not something I can see a normal conservative doing.
by Anonymous | reply 75 | December 8, 2012 1:58 PM |
Very true, R75. At the time this was a brave, progressive thing.
by Anonymous | reply 76 | December 8, 2012 2:25 PM |
それでも世界選手権や五輪ではPチャンが優勝なんでしょう
by Anonymous | reply 77 | December 8, 2012 2:29 PM |
R73, 'Soylent Green', what a 'dark' spooky movie! Edward G. Robinson gave also an amazing performance in it. Unforgettable movie, yes!
t
by Anonymous | reply 78 | December 8, 2012 3:00 PM |
R74, do you find math hard?
by Anonymous | reply 79 | December 8, 2012 3:06 PM |
Planet of the Apes... There is nothing like the original version, right guys?
by Anonymous | reply 80 | December 8, 2012 3:07 PM |
You have to place POTA in its cultural context. We were living in a cold war nuclear mutual destruction world. NOBODY thought AMERICA could ever lose at ANYTHING. The whole angst of disbelief at the end is based on on this kick in the collective ego.
by Anonymous | reply 81 | December 8, 2012 3:30 PM |
love this movie, and see it as a slap to the religious right, coming when new ideas and rebellion were once again upsetting the status quo.
you got the religion-based politicians (the blond-adjacent orangutans, led by Dr. Zaius, who knows the religion is bunk but it's working out well for his kind) using the military (black gorillas) to keep a tight rein on science (brunette caucasian chimps).
one of my favorite scenes: early on, tight shot of the astronauts naked from the waist up, they see something in the distance and Heston says something like 'better check that out' and the other two guys kneel down right next to him out of sight- Two Guys One Chuck!
also the court scene that ends with a 'see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil' reference.
by Anonymous | reply 82 | December 8, 2012 3:54 PM |
why doesn't this movie get more love from DL?
the only frau astronaut is dead before they come out of their coma, and the obviously last-minute tacked-on love interest is mute
by Anonymous | reply 83 | December 8, 2012 4:13 PM |
Oh yeah it freaked me out! It's on Netflix. I'm pulling it up on Apple TV. Good for a rainy day.
by Anonymous | reply 85 | December 8, 2012 4:18 PM |
[quote]Didn't Twilight Zone do the twist like twenty times during its run? I think it was written by the same person too.
Yes, Rod Serling wrote the original screenplay, although it was rewritten several times.
by Anonymous | reply 86 | December 8, 2012 6:52 PM |
Here is a link to the first part of a screenplay written by Pierre Boulle for a proposed sequel.
by Anonymous | reply 87 | December 8, 2012 7:06 PM |
I found that movie endings held more of a shock value in general because it was a pre-internet time and there weren't a bunch of people around who enjoyed broadcasting spoilers. Face it; we all know the ending of a movie now before we see it as it gets discussed so often.
by Anonymous | reply 89 | December 8, 2012 7:24 PM |
r87/88 could you summarize the screenplay?
by Anonymous | reply 90 | December 8, 2012 7:44 PM |
[quote]could you summarize the screenplay?
The working title is "Planet of the Men". Taylor and Nova pass into the Forbidden Zone and start to build a human colony. Taylor works to ignite the sparks of sentience and intelligence in the humans, and rebuild civilization. They have a son, who becomes a leader among the younger humans.
Among the apes, the chimpanzees are starting to rebel against the established authority, engaging in protests and demonmstrations. Zaius pardons Cornelius and Zira, provided they keep quiet about what they know. There is an election among the apes for Minister of Science, Zaius beats Cornelius in a landslide (vote fraud?) Zaius uses his authority to bring about a declaration of war against the human colony. Cornelius & Zira & Lucius go to the colony to warn Taylor of what is coming.
The ape army, led by an idiotic gorilla marches on the colony. The humans, however, have prepared defenses and stolen weapons from the apes. The apes attack and are defeated in a lopsided battle, having vastly underestimated their enemy. Taylor's son seizes the moment and leads the humans on a march to the city to destroy the apes. Taylor pleads with his son and the other men to pursue peace with the apes, but is killed, seeing everything he wanted to avoid coming to pass. Meanwhile, the apes are so stunned by their defeat and impending doom that they begin to revert to their original animal state. Zira and Cornelius are captured, and feeling their sentience slipping away, take poison and die in each others' arms.
The men destroy the ape civilization and take the captured apes for use as servants and pets. Everything comes around full circle. In the final scene, Zaius is an exhibit in a human circus as a parody of the creature he used to be, barely able to speak his own name.
by Anonymous | reply 91 | December 8, 2012 8:20 PM |
There's no Charlton Heston thread so far so i had to send this here...
Charlton Heston reads between takes of Diamond Head
Sexy man...in a serious way...
by Anonymous | reply 92 | February 20, 2013 12:46 PM |
Ah, Diamond Head! I remember the scene with a bare chested, sarong wearing James Darren dancing with Yvette Mimieux. Now THAT scene got this little 11 year old all hot and bothered.... but in a good way.
by Anonymous | reply 93 | February 20, 2013 12:57 PM |
:)
Kisses R93,
by Anonymous | reply 94 | February 20, 2013 1:00 PM |
Rugged actor Charlton Heston in almost all his glory
by Anonymous | reply 95 | January 15, 2014 8:16 PM |
I thought Heston was rather liberal until he got much older. Sort of like a lot of Americans who were more progressive during the 50s and 60s, but by the time Reagan was President, had become more conservative or libertarian.
by Anonymous | reply 96 | January 15, 2014 10:24 PM |
From Wikipedia:
Heston's political activism had four stages.[3] In the first stage, 1955–61, he endorsed the Democratic candidates for president, and signed on to petitions and liberal political causes. From 1961 to 1972, the second stage, he continued to endorse Democratic candidates for president. In 1965–71, he served as the elected president of the Screen Actors Guild, and clashed with his liberal rival Ed Asner. Moving beyond Hollywood, he became nationally visible in 1963 in support of the civil rights bill, and in 1968 used his "cowboy" persona to publicize gun control measures. The third stage began in 1972. Like many neoconservatives of the same era who moved from liberal Democrat to conservative Republican, he rejected the liberalism of George McGovern and supported Richard Nixon in 1972 for President. In the 1980s, he gave strong support to his friend Ronald Reagan in his conservative presidency.
by Anonymous | reply 97 | January 15, 2014 10:27 PM |
[quote]But there still should have been ruins everywhere, not just what was once Manhattan.
You have no idea how big the bomb or even bombs were used. Everything was buried. Even only the top of the Stature was visible.
I love the beginning with Heston lighting up a stogie in a space craft to give his big opening speech.
by Anonymous | reply 98 | January 15, 2014 11:02 PM |
Charlton Heston displaying half-peen and full bush! Nice curvy ass too. He looks to be much more than a mouthful.
by Anonymous | reply 100 | January 16, 2014 12:13 AM |
100%.
by Anonymous | reply 101 | January 16, 2014 12:17 AM |
People up thread have described the music used when the first gorilla is seen as an alarm. I always thought it was music on the soundtrack.
by Anonymous | reply 103 | June 22, 2019 7:04 AM |
How funny, I started this thread.
by Anonymous | reply 104 | June 22, 2019 7:16 AM |