Christian Kiley 

20th century fox has recently released a trailer for its upcoming Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth of the modern reboots, and the tenth overall film in the franchise.  Many science fiction franchises still popular began during the 1960s, and still have constant and growing fanbases. With the release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, scheduled to debut in May, it’s a fitting time to examine this franchise as a whole and discover how it has changed and why it remains as popular and beloved today as it was in 1968.

The Beginning

The franchise starts as a book by Piere Boule, in French as “La Planète des Singes”, published in 1963. Producer Arthur P Jacobs bought the film rights for the book, and approached Rod Sterling, of The Twilight Zone fame, to write the script (IMDb). The script was picked up by 20th Century Fox and debuted in February of 1968. Its release was met with critical acclaim and box office success, which led to the release of four sequels over the next five years. The series has lived on in two reboots, and uncountable references and homages throughout the decades. In 2001, the Library of Congress added Planet of the Apes to the national film registry for its cultural significance. 

The Original Series: “Get your stinkin’ paws off me, you damn dirty ape”

The first movie introduces us to a strange world where Chimpanzees, Gorillas, and Orangutans are the dominant species while humans are feral, hiding in the wilderness. The audience experiences this via the eyes of Taylor, Heston’s character, an astronaut stranded on the planet. Taylor is an anomaly in this world, being the only human who can speak and think on the same level as the apes. 

Throughout the film, Apes are depicted as cruel toward their captive humans. The apes hunt the humans, lock them in cages, and experiment on them. The movie continues to play on this reversal of roles while Taylor seeks answers for the world’s origin. The apes share their views on humans throughout the plot. One, Dr. Zias (Maurice Evans) comments “His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him, even himself.” This statement comes from the mouth of an ape, but it’s what the movie has to say on the nature of man. 

The acts of cruelty portrayed by the apes hold a mirror to our own behavior. When it’s the apes, using the same words that humans do to excuse their behavior, it’s easier for us to see how grim and ruthless humans can be. This all comes to a head when Taylor makes the discovery that has been on earth the whole time, in a distant future where man had succumbed to nuclear war. When Taylor lets out a cry of “damn you all to hell,” it’s not aimed at the cruel and dogmatic apes, but at his own species for destroying themselves.

The theme of the destructive and cruel capabilities of man continues in the sequels. In Beneath the Planet of the Apes, a secret race of subterranean mutant humans worship a giant nuclear warhead. While a little on the nose, it expands on the themes of the original. It also ends with the human-like apes, following in their predecessor’s footsteps, detonating the bomb and destroying the earth for good. 

Escape From Planet of the Apes flips the concept of the prior films. Two apes from the future are transported back in time to 1971. The first half plays as a fun fish out water story where apes are trying on modern clothing and attending parties. At first, it seems to be a departure from the more serious allegorical style of the first two films, but quickly descends into secret plots and political conspiracy to remove the apes that the US government has deemed a threat to mankind. 

In Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, mankind yet again is portrayed as a destructive force, enslaving the apes and leading to their own downfall when their slaves revolt against them. 

In Battle for the Planet of the Apes, the themes of the series are again revisited, giving us a final film in the original series. This wraps up the original series, which embedded the strange tales of a planet ruled by animals into pop culture.

The Remake

Tim Burton remade the classic original, trying to remain close to the themes and tones of the first film, while also trying to stick close to the novel. The cast featured Mark Whalberg, Paul Giamatti, Tim Roth, Hellena Bonham Carter, and Micheal Clark Duncan. The highlights of Planet of the Apes (2001) are the make up, which revamped the classic stylings of the original series, and the set pieces, which give an effective impression of being on a strange and primal planet. 

Rise 

The franchise received a reboot in 2011. Director Rubert Wyatt and writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver take a more grounded, serious approach to the story, focusing on the results of scientific experiments conducted on chimpanzees. This begins the recurring theme in the reboots of man vs nature. In this first installment, it focuses on mankind trying to cure Alzheimer’s and as a result create a hyper-intelligent ape, Caesar. Caesar is a chimpanzee who has seen firsthand how cruel humans can be, and rallies his fellow apes to cast off their chains and start fresh in the wild. The movie criticizes the way humans treat animals, and gives us the backlash of that (Loredana Loy). 

Dawn

Dawn of the Planet of Apes drops the audience into a world where the survivors of the simian flu are struggling to co-exist with a society of intelligent apes. Tensions rise between a community of humans living in the ruins of San Francisco, neighboring the settlement of apes ruled by Caesar. This is the best movie in the entire franchise, with high caliber acting, amazing direction by Matt Reeves, and a story of Shakespearean level drama and action. It details mankind’s struggle to exist in harmony with nature, clashing with it via the apes before they learn to make peace with their world. 

War

In War for the Planet of the Apes, humans have been reduced to mere pockets of survivors, and in their last breath of humanity try one last time to dominate the natural world. Bringing back Mat Reeves to direct and Jaffa to write, the pair draw on elements from movies like Bridge on the River Kwai to deliver a spectacular and thrilling conclusion to the story of Caesar the chimpanzee and his fight to protect his family. Closing off the themes that arise in the first reboot installation, it is a grim parable of men and their devastating  attempts to control the natural world around them.

Conclusion 

The Planet of the Apes movies have always been more about mankind rather than the titular species. Science fiction is often a way for writers and filmmakers to make a statement about the nature of humans as a species. The apes movies have remained in the consciousness of pop culture by contributing to these statements. In the original series the destructive nature of mankind led to a world where they are enslaved, animal like beings in a world scorched and changed by their need to kill one another. In the reboots, they caution us to rethink our true place in nature, and how in our folly to dominate it, it retaliates in a gruesome overcorrection. Whether the new Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes builds these themes further or explores new and different territory remains to be seen. The upcoming installment is set to release May 10th, 2024.