Just like the original, this also had a very confusing ending. So he was on Earth the whole time, because he sees the statue of General Thade when he goes back thru the time warp. However the apes act more modern and drive cars and able to use cameras. So why did they regress like we saw during the movie? Thade was around during this time because of his statue. How come Thade still uses a horse and they have very little technology?
share"Just like the original"
THE ORIGINAL PLANET OF THE APES ENDING WAS *** NOT *** CONFUSING!!! CHARLTON HESTON WAS ON EARTH THE ENTIRE TIME!!! WHAT'S CONFUSING ABOUT THAT!?!?!?!
Yes, we all know he was on Earth the whole time now, thanks to the internet and online discussions. But before the internet, many people were thinking just how exactly the apes managed to transport the Statue of Liberty from Earth to their home planet. It confused a lot of people
shareOh, it's you.
It became clearer in the sequel in Beneath, that they were on Earth the whole time because Brent was in the old subway remains of NYC. When the original ended, many people were left wondering how the apes transported the Statue of Liberty to their home planet in another galaxy
share"When the original ended, many people were left wondering how the apes transported the Statue of Liberty to their home planet in another galaxy"
Really? Even though Taylor himself says the iconic lines:
"I'm home" (shocked)
"You maniacs! You blew it up!" (yells)
I think that makes it pretty clear that Taylor knew, finally, that he was on Earth.
Many people were saying that it couldn't be Earth because Earth doesn't have talking apes. Many like myself concluded that a past advanced apes society invaded Earth and stole the Statue of Liberty
shareEarth does have talking apes. Humans are considered apes 🤓
shareI just now did a simple Google search with the parameter:
"planet of the apes how far in the future did they travel"
And the first result I got was this:
"The crew is on a mission which involves traveling 700 years into the future."
So basically, Taylor's ship travelled to the future Earth when they didn't intend to.
" But before the internet, many people were thinking just how exactly the apes managed to transport the Statue of Liberty"
Nobody was wondering that. That was just you. Everyone else understood it just fine.
I remember back in grade school, round about 5th grade... One, rather dim fellow student told me about Planet of the Apes, which had just come out and which he had just seen. As he explained it; the ending was when Charlton Heston discovered that the apes had sawed the Statue of Liberty in half. See, he understood it was Earth anyway...
shareI have to admit, I wondered how the Statue of Liberty came to stick out of a rockface. I can only assume it broke free from its island and then floated in the ocean for years before becoming stuck there.
I was only ten years old and even I understood that the entire eastern seaboard of North America was radically altered in some cataclysmic event. The statue was buried under the sand except for the bit at the top.
Realistically a nuclear war wouldn't have done that. Fans speculate that the moon might have broken apart and rained down on earth. There was a throwaway line in the movie that mentioned the lack of a moon.
In the end, I don't think the writers put that much thought into it. They just wanted a dramatic way to illustrate that Taylor was back on a ruined Earth.
There's a long history of overestimating the effects of a nuclear war, particularly in movies. I recall the lava coming down the street in The Time Machine (1960) and the images of volcanoes breaking out all over and a sea of lava in Chosen Survivors (1974). Even Damnation Alley (1977), and the novella and novel on which it was based, had the Earth knocked off its axis and all kinds of craziness from a nuclear war. Reality just never seemed bad enough to some folks...
shareI didn't find it confusing, but enough people did that the DVD actually included an explanation of the ending complete with graphics.
Davidson wasn't on Earth the whole time. This Planet of the Apes really was a different planet on the other side of the space warp.
The beginning of the movie established the basic rule of the space warp: The first craft to enter the warp is the last craft to exit the warp. The chimp entered the warp first, then Leo Davidson, then the Oberon.
The Oberon exited first, crashed on the planet in the distant past. The apes on the Oberson escaped and evolved to take over the planet. Then Davidson crashed next and the movie as we see it takes place. At the end of the movie Davidson's chimp finally arrives on the planet.
When Davidson returns to earth via the warp the same thing happens. Davidson enters the warp and arrives in modern times. Thade -- left behind on the Oberon -- enters the warp sometime later using Davidson's crashed pod (shades of Beneath the Planet of the Apes) -- but arrives 'first' hundreds or thousands of years in Earth's past. He establishes apes as the masters of the planet which leads to the ape society that Davidson discovers when he returns.
The ending of this movie was not confusing. It was the ending of the original which was confusing. Was Taylor on Earth the entire time or did past ancient advanced apes steal the statue of liberty and take it to another planet? Thankfully the sequel in Beneath, everything became very clear since much of it takes places in the subway ruins of NYC
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