I first read LA PLANÈTE DES SINGES, translated into English as Planet of the Apes,in 1967, four years after its English translation came out in 1963, and a year before the film franchise it inspired in 1968, and was blown away. Far inferior to the book, the 1968 release of PLANET OF THE APES disappointed me. Not only was the fantastic special effects technology of the 21st century not yet in existence but I found the overall look of the film tacky.
One could not help but look at the characters portrayed by Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans, and not fail to see Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Maurice Evans. In sharp contrast, Andy Serkis, Karin Konoval, Terry Notary, Jay Caputo, and the rest of the actors playing primates actually look like real apes. Makeup and "trick photography" [FX] have come a long way since the late 1960s.
In his book, LA PLANETE, Pierre Boulle does not make it actually clear whether the apes' planet is actually earth whereas all the films based on the book, including the Rise, take place on earth.
Although much of the plot is predictable, as is the case with most science-fiction films, the visual effects and the sheer scope of the film made it worth paying my senior discount of $4.00 to see this mvoe which received pretty good reviews from the professional reviewers. [an added bonus; the woman at the box office informed me that there is a $1 movie not far from Euclid]
Somewhere in a San Francisco lab owned by a major medical research corporation, a scientist, Will Rodman, is working on a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Rodman's own
father is suffering from the malady and so he has a personal interest in developing the cure in time to reverse his father's condition.
Rodman is using chimpanzees as test subjects and he discovers that his retrovirus has the effect of raising the intelligence of his primate subject to that of humans.
Suddenly his favoriate subject, Bight Eyes, becomes violent and starts attacking the lab workers. Unable to stop her rampage, the workers kill her. It later turns out that the chimp was pregnant and her violent actions were a response to a perceived threat to her newborn male baby, Caesar.
Rodman's boss, Steven Jacobs, orders all the test chimps to be killed and the project halted. Rodman cannot bear the thought of killing the baby chimp and smuggles it out of the lab before all the other animals are put down and the lab closed.
Rodman soon discovers that Caesar has inherited human intelligence from his mother, Bright Eyes. Rodman continues to raise Caesar and eventually seeks the aid of
Caroline Aranha, a doctor who works with primates. Aranha warns Rodman that although Caesar appears to be a cute chimp baby, he will eventually grow into a adult male who will be potentially dangerous to people. Rodman assures her that Caesar will be raised in a home of love and that he will monitor Caesar's development to fully socialize him so that he can be integrated into human society. Rodman and Aranha soon develop a romantic relationship and act as Caesar's foster parents.
Years pass and Caesar has become a regular member of the Rodman household. One day, Caesar looks out the window and sees one of the neighbors acting menacingly to Rodman's father whose dementia has continued to deteriorate. The father becomes confused and frightened and wants to run away from the neighbor. The man grabs the father and Caesar beocmes enraged that a member of his family is being threatened. Caesar runs out of the house and attacks the neighbor, injuring him. The authorities arrive and inform Rodman that Caesar will have to be incarcerated in a primate facility until a judgement can be made to determine what is to be done with him.
Meanwhile, Will creates a more powerful form of the virus to further treat his father and new tests on chimpanzees begin after Rodman convinces Jacobs to reopen the
Alzheimer project. The new virus, in the form of a breathable gas, enhances the apes' intelligence even more powerfully tha the original but proves fatal when inhaled by people, bringing about a contageous pandemic among humans.
Meanwhile, the apes are treated cruelly at the primate facily where they are being housed. Caesar manages to escape from the facility and breaking into Rodman's house while he and Caroline are asleep, Caesar steals all the vials of the virus, abd releases the gas among the apes back at the facility. Within minutes, the apes fight their way out of the facility and make their way to the San Francisco zoo where they release all the apes there. Caesar has become their undisputed leader. He realizes that the apes will have to make their way out of the city into the countryside in order to survive.
When Caesar grabs one of the facility workers, the script writers even manage in a campy way, to put Charlton Heston's classic line, "Take your paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" into the man's lines.
As the primates make their way to the Golden Gate Bridge, they leave a trail of killing, destruction, and general mayhem in their path. The police and army are called out to prevent the apes from crossing the Golden Gate and to kill all of them. There is a horrendous battle between apes and humans on the bridge and finally most of the police and soldiers are killed as the apes disappear among the Redwood trees of Marin County.
Rodman suspects that Caesar will lead the apes to the Redwood Forrest because as a baby chimp, he played there. Rodman catches up to the apes who threaten to kill him but Caesar gestures them to leave Rodman alone. Rodman pleads with Caesar. "Come home with me", he says. Caesar looks at Rodman and for the first time he speaks. "I am home", he says. Rodman is amazed and tells Caesar, "Well, if you are really home, then run free."
