Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
|
Related e |
|
Featured: |
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes is a 1972 science fiction film directed by J. Lee Thompson and written by Paul Dehn. It is the fourth of five films in the original Planet of the Apes series produced by Arthur P. Jacobs. The film stars Roddy McDowall, Don Murray and Ricardo Montalbán. It explores how the apes rebelled from humanity's ill treatment following Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971). It was followed by Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973).
The first film in the 2010s reboot series, Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), has a similar premise to Conquest, but it is not officially a remake.
Plot summary
North America – 1991: Following a pandemic from a space-borne disease that wiped out all dogs and cats in 1983, the government has become a series of police states that took apes as pets before establishing a culture based on ape slave labor. These events were foretold in 1973 as testimony by Cornelius, prior to him and his wife Zira being killed. While it appeared their baby was also killed, he evaded death and was secretly raised by the circus owner Armando as a young horseback rider. Now fully grown and named Caesar, Armando brings him to one of the cities to distribute flyers for the circus's arrival, explaining to the curious ape the events that led to their new reality while advising him not to speak for fear for his life.
Seeing apes performing various menial tasks and shocked at the harsh discipline inflicted on disobedient apes, Caesar shouts out "Lousy human bastards!" after seeing an ape messenger being beaten and drugged. Though Armando takes responsibility for the exclamation while defusing the situation, Caesar runs off in the commotion. Finding Caesar hiding in a stairway, Armando tells the ape that he will turn himself in to the authorities and bluff his way out while instructing Caesar to hide among a group of arriving apes for safety. Caesar follows Armando's instruction and hides in a cage of orangutans, finding himself being trained for slavery through violent conditioning. Caesar is then sold at auction to Governor Breck, allowed by his owner to name himself by randomly pointing to a word in a book handed to him. The chimpanzee's finger rests upon the name "Caesar", feigning coincidence. Caesar is then put to work by Breck's chief aide MacDonald, whose African American heritage allows him to sympathize with the apes to the thinly veiled disgust of his boss.
Meanwhile, Armando is being interrogated by Inspector Kolp, who suspects his "circus ape" is the child of the two talking apes from the future. Kolp's assistant puts Armando under a machine, "the Authenticator", that psychologically forces people to be truthful. After admitting he had heard the name Cornelius before, Armando realizes he cannot fight the machine and jumps through a window to his death after a brief struggle with a guard. When Caesar learns of the circus owner's death, he loses faith in human kindness and begins secretly teaching the apes combat while having them gather weapons.
By that time, through Kolp's investigation that the vessel which supposedly delivered Caesar is from a region with no native chimpanzees, Breck learns that Caesar is the ape they are hunting. Caesar reveals himself to MacDonald after he covered for the ape twice when called by Breck on Caesar's whereabouts. While MacDonald understands Caesar's intent to depose Breck, he expresses his doubts about the revolution's effectiveness along with Caesar being dismissive of most humans. Caesar is later captured by Breck's men and is electrically tortured into speaking. Hearing him speak, Breck orders Caesar's immediate death. Caesar survives his execution because MacDonald secretly lowers the machine's electrical output well below lethal levels. Once Breck leaves, Caesar kills his torturer and escapes.
Caesar begins his revolution by first taking over Ape Management to build his numbers, proceeding to the command center with the apes killing most of the riot police that attempt to stop them, while setting the city on fire. After bursting into Breck's command post and killing most of the personnel, Caesar has Breck marched out to be executed. MacDonald attempts to plea Caesar not to succumb to brutality and be merciful to the former masters. Caesar ignores him and in a rage declares:
As the apes raise their rifles to beat Breck to death, Caesar's girlfriend Lisa voices her objection, "NO!" She is the first ape to speak other than Caesar. Caesar reconsiders and orders the apes to lower their weapons, saying:
Cast
- Roddy McDowall as Caesar
- Don Murray as Governor Breck
- Ricardo Montalban as Armando
- Natalie Trundy as Lisa
- Hari Rhodes as MacDonald
- Severn Darden as Kolp
- Lou Wagner as Busboy
- John Randolph as Commission Chairman
- Asa Maynor as Mrs. Riley
- H. M. Wynant as Hoskyns
- David Chow as Aldo
- Buck Kartalian as Frank (Gorilla)
- John Dennis as Policeman
- Paul Comi as 2nd Policeman
- Gordon Jump as Auctioneer
- Dick Spangler as Announcer
