MovieChat Forums > Planet of the Apes (2001) Discussion > The 'shock' that the planet is Earth

The 'shock' that the planet is Earth

posted 14 years ago by karen_stockdale
31 replies | jump to latest

A point to consider.....

I watched the original movie with Charleton Heston and then the 2001 version over the weekend - one on TV the other on a borrowed DVD. Leaving aside the very confusing ending to the second film - how can he go back in time and discover an Abraham Lincoln-like statue honouring an ape who he had just put into a trap 2000 years in the future? - the thing that amused me in both films was the look of surprise on the faces of both Heston (especially) and Wahlberg when they discover that this strange planet that they had landed on was Earth.

When you consider the incredibly wide range of physical conditions that exist on Earth, let alone the Solar System, the range that must exist in the Universe is beyond my imagination. So if I, as an astronaut well aware of the wide diversity of conditions that exist, landed on a planet with EXACTLY THE SAME atmosphere, gravity, distance to the nearest star (as shown by the size of the 'Sun' in the sky), ambient temperature and vegetation as the Earth I would do a rough estimation of the chances of there being TWO planets in the Universe with exactly the same conditions. I would conclude from my calculations that this chance was so low that the most logical explanation was that I had arrived back on Earth - albeit an Earth that I did not recognise, for some reason.

However, I think that the main clinching argument that would lead me to realise that I was back on Earth instead of on an alternative planet would be the presence of individuals (albeit apes) speaking English with American accents. The likelihood of English evolving on a distance planet is somewhat low!!!

So, taking these points into account - it would have been much more of a shock if the planet had NOT turned out to be Earth!

Karen

Happiness isn't happiness without a violin-playing goat.

[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

But... Yeah... But... Nah, forget it, you're right. BTW, not all the apes in this film spoke with American English tongues, Ari and her father had English accents (both actors are English), which makes it more odd. Mind you, English is considered the universal tongue, so maybe that is literally meant in this film. ;)

[–] karen_stockdale 14 years ago

The use of accented English in the movie:

I did not say that ALL of the apes had American accents, only that there were some that did. Helena B-C has, of course, the most English of English accents - although that hardly matters when you are 320 light years from Earth!

I respect your point about English being the 'universal' language - I had not realised until this point how literal that was!!!

Karen

Happiness isn't happiness without a violin-playing goat.

[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

I did not say that ALL of the apes had American accents, only that there were some that did. Helena B-C has, of course, the most English of English accents - although that hardly matters when you are 320 light years from Earth!

Yes, fair enough, you didn't and I misread, but I was really just trying to highlight how odder it was that not only are there apes that speak with an American English tongue, there are some who speak with a southern English tongue, too.

One thing that puzzles me is that considering that the apes originally came from the Oberon spaceship, crewed by Americans (I'm presuming, because we didn't hear any other accents, so maybe there's an easy argument against this), then how the hell did southern English accents managed to come about? Oh the fun that can be had with silly discussions. ;)

[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

Mind you, Wahlberg's Leo knows he's on Earth, for that's where he was heading (the planet where he left Ari and company wasn't Earth and he knew that). His expression is because he went back to Earth expecting to find humans, but found it run by apes, and apes who had built a statue to honour Thade. Heston's Taylor's expression is because he realises he's been on Earth from the beginning and that humanity had blown it all up. So Leo's shock wasn't that he was on Earth, but that it wasn't how he imagined it would be.

[–] karen_stockdale 14 years ago

OK maybe I was wrong when I thought that Wahlberg thought that he was not on Earth.

Karen

Happiness isn't happiness without a violin-playing goat.

[–] guybland-1 14 years ago

Give it up. The ending is nonsensical. Let's move on.

[–] Kane53126 12 years ago

In the 1968-Taylor was on Future Earth.
In the 2001, Re-imagining-- Leo was on a distant planet called Ashlar.

[–] zee944 12 years ago

It's true, and most viewers were sure about it until the very end. The confusion comes from the fact that when Whalberg goes back to his time, he lands on the Earth ruled by apes. So some people would think it must be same planet that he just arrived from, and since the current planet is Earth, the planet he arrived from is the Earth too. They're wrong, but the final twist makes it more understandable.

I assume the final twist just doesn't make sense. Simple as that. Wahlberg surely does two time travels in the movie, and at least once he also travels to an alternate universe, he's just not aware of that. That explains why the Earth is ruled by apes in his time. But it still doesn't explain why General Thade is a historical figure on the Earth in a much earlier time. It would have made more sense if they would've used a different name (and title). However, time travel *and* universe travel is still too much to imagine.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

Heh. I'd like them to adapt the Pierre Boulle book properly, and have the apes speaking their own language (if people can make up a language for Klingons, then they can do so for the apes on Soror), with the protagonist, Ulysse, speaking French (and Zira once she learns how to speak French, which she does alongside Ulysse learning their own language), and us English speakers having to put up with subtitles. That'd teach us. ;) Still, I doubt Hollywood would consider that a good money spinning idea.

[–] wears-alan 14 years ago

Good idea.
Or, what if at first the astronaut cannot understand their language at first, but as he is listening he picks up the lingo and to watching audience the words translate bit by bit to English (a bit like the 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas).

[–] Gus-69 14 years ago

Since when does Earth have two big nearby moons in the sky? In the remake, it's obvious Wahlberg lands on another planet, not Earth.

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[–] scarrett1031 14 years ago

I'm a little too shocked as I read this subject developed by the original writer and all of the answers or explanations written by more of the viewers...all of which missed a VERY IMPORTANT part of this movie.

Due to the crew on the spaceship looking for its scientist and chimp, THE ORIGINAL OUTERSPACE SHIP CRASHED UPON THE PLANET AT AN EARLIER TIME, depending on what part of the time changing area they hit in space on their way to look for Capt. Leo Davidson. The planet was not earth, but every single human and ape/monkey/chimp were descendants of the originals from the ship that held all of their "ancestors". ALL ORIGINALS FROM EARTH!!!

This means that the english language was there from the very beginning, even the accents...not hard to get. As a matter of fact, there were probably people that worked on the ship who could also speak other languages from our planet, as well as the possability that there were computer videos that may have been able to hold several others, correct?

I hope everyone understands this, and I don't mean to sound insulting, please forgive me if I do...just wanted to clear this subject up.

[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

Due to the crew on the spaceship looking for its scientist and chimp, THE ORIGINAL OUTERSPACE SHIP CRASHED UPON THE PLANET AT AN EARLIER TIME, depending on what part of the time changing area they hit. The planet was not earth, but every single human and ape/monkey/chimp were descendants of the originals from the ship that held all of their "ancestors". ALL ORIGINALS FROM EARTH!!!

I said:

One thing that puzzles me is that considering that the apes originally came from the Oberon spaceship, crewed by Americans (I'm presuming, because we didn't hear any other accents, so maybe there's an easy argument against this), then how the hell did southern English accents managed to come about? Oh the fun that can be had with silly discussions. ;)

It's already been said that the apes and the humans on the planet have come from the Oberon that crashed on the planet in previous times, so nothing missed there. ;)

My only issue was the different accents that survived, not the language used (your point is right). In an American crewed ship, somehow British English accents have not only sprung up, but have survived (Ari and her father had British English accents). Even if there were some Brits on that ship a few thousand years prior to Leo crash landing on the planet, I'd have expected the accents to have either merged to the dominant one (which seems to have happened... bar the exceptions) or to have diversified dramatically beyond both American and British English accents. Still, it's a small issue and one that I can let go. I mean, there are horses on the planet, so other things have sprung up that are a bit more puzzling (even if novels based on the film explain it to some degree).

[–] scarrett1031 14 years ago

Good point, sorry I mis-understood this part of your message. I do believe, though, that this was also used to prove that not every current thing could have been brought by Oberon. This simply means that we explain the entire movie we saw based on the footage from the small rooms that our personal characters were being shown from.

The fact is that a space craft like this should have been large with plenty of things that would take much too long to show us...for example gardens to keep food available, as well as a farm that would raise things such as cows and even horses (which is why they would be on the new planet as well).

I need to watch it again to remember if it was an American crewed ship, or if in the future ships that are used are actually run by several countries together. English language may explain that....but maybe USA just invested a larger portion. Who knows? LOL

[–] Lucy9596 14 years ago

Ari was played by HBC, right? English actress - English accent.

Reed Rothchild: "Hey, are those lizard?"
Dirk: "No, they're Italian."

[–] savagebiscuits 14 years ago

Ari was played by HBC, right? English actress - English accent.

Yes, but she also played in Fight Club with a put-on American accent. She's done other films where she puts on an American accent, so could have done so here. I tend to think, though, that the English accent was deliberately used, arguably for the idea that Ari and her father (David Warner, also English) came from, for lack of a better word, genteel heritage, so a soft English accent was used to note that difference.

[–] Bluedusk 12 years ago

"My only issue was the different accents that survived, not the language used (your point is right). In an American crewed ship, somehow British English accents have not only sprung up, but have survived (Ari and her father had British English accents)."

And Thade, played by Tim Roth who is also English.
IMHO it may be a simple homage to the 1968 movie, where the chimpanzees were all played by British actors (like Roddy McDowall) or with British accents, whereas the orang-outangs and the gorillas had an American accent.
Considering that Americans are more "famous" for warmongering (like the gorillas) and theology/religion (like the orang-outangs) than for philosophy and science (Europeans), it kinda makes sense as a metaphor. NRA spokesman Charlton Heston as the dying chimpanzee who damns mankind for its brutality is another wink at this metaphoric aspect of the tale.
Heston's character is the only chimp that speaks with a US accent.

[–] savagebiscuits 12 years ago

IMHO it may be a simple homage to the 1968 movie, where the chimpanzees were all played by British actors (like Roddy McDowall) or with British accents, whereas the orang-outangs and the gorillas had an American accent.
Considering that Americans are more "famous" for warmongering (like the gorillas) and theology/religion (like the orang-outangs) than for philosophy and science (Europeans), it kinda makes sense as a metaphor. NRA spokesman Charlton Heston as the dying chimpanzee who damns mankind for its brutality is another wink at this metaphoric aspect of the tale.
Heston's character is the only chimp that speaks with a US accent.

I just have to nitpick a bit. Kim Hunter, who played Zira, was American and so was her accent. Maurice Evans (the actor who played Dr Zaius) was English (born in Dorset in south-west England). Sure, he became a US citizen and his Zaius didn't have an English accent, but just thought I'd throw in that curve ball. As for Heston's character being the only chimpanzee who speaks with an American accent in Burton's film, might I also remind you of Nova (the chimpanzee who's married to the orangutan during the dinner scene), who's played by Lisa Marie, an American, and spoke with an American accent. Still, she's hardly representative of science and reason, which strengthens your point. ;) Leeta, Ari's friend at the beginning, spoke with an American accent. However, she's identified as a bonobo, although that's not stated in the film (stated later in the comics that spawned from the film), and you'd of thought of her as a chimpanzee during it.

I suppose the softer spoken ones with "refined" accents compared to the "harsher" sounding ones would be more of a distinction than whether they had English or American accents. The implication possibly being that the less harsh the accent the more educated they'd seem.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] LightningLad 14 years ago

I think the possibility of other earth-like planets is not so remote, it's a gigantic universe. There was a time when people thought no other planets would exist and now planets are being found all the time. There is an estimated 50 billion planets in our own galaxy. 10% of sunlike stars have planets. So if I crash landed on a planet after traveling through a space warp, I would not necessarily assume it was earth, even if the chances of actually landing on a planet like earth, or earth itself, would be pretty small.

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Reason is a pursuit, not a conclusion.

[–] 12 years ago

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[–] 12 years ago

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[–] terryperring104 11 years ago

Karen,

I like your thinking. You have said it all for me.
So much for 'intelligent' science fiction eh?

Terry

[–] 11 years ago

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