History Film / PlanetOfTheApes1968

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The apes are only familiar with unintelligent, non-speaking humans. So when Taylor starts writing, it scares Cornelius and Zira before it impresses them. ''Everyone'' is scared when his throat wound heals and he's able to say his iconic line: "Take your stinking paws off me you, damned dirty ape."

'''Dr. Zaius:''' Because you're a man! And you're right, I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand and hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike creature who gives battle to everything around him, even himself.\\

* YouCalledMeXItMustBeSerious: Publicly, Dr. Zaius insists that Taylor must be an animal trained in mimmickry or some other fraud, and insists on calling him by Zira's original nickname for him, Bright Eyes. When meeting privately with Taylor to negotiate, however, Zaius dispenses with all such political double talk, talking to Taylor as a fellow intelligent being, and calling him by his real name. Taylor even thanks him for it.

** A major contributor to the stigma between the humans and the sentient apes is the idea that humans are not apes, and (to some) not animals. ''Both'' of those are false, and while the apes in the first film may be forgiven for it by not being advanced enough to be able to prove the former through genetic sciences, the humans [[spoiler:in the modern day in later films]] have no excuse whatsoever.

* AdaptationNameChange: Ulysse from the book becomes Taylor. Antelle becomes Landon.

A team of astronauts flies into space at near light speed. They are influenced by time dilation: eighteen months for them is over two thousand years for the Earth. They crash onto a mysterious, seemingly desolate planet (losing the [[MarsNeedsWomen sole female]] on the crew in the process), specifically into a dead lake; this loses them their spacecraft and most of their supplies.

* EiffelTowerEffect: [[spoiler:The movie ends with Taylor finding a demolished Statue of Liberty. "You animals! You finally gone and done it!"]]

* HumansAreUgly: When Taylor wants to kiss Zira goodbye, she says he is damn ugly.

* LegendFadesToMyth: The religious myth held by the apes in the first movie turns out to be a distorted version of Caesar's rebellion and the human war that allowed apes to come to power, as depicted in the sequels. [[spoiler:Though to be fair, Cornelius and Zira end up indirectly jump-starting the ape rebellion in the sequels by somehow transporting themselves back to Earth in the 1960's, so it's possible that Cornelius' account of the original rebellion was accurate.]]

%%* MeaningfulName: Played with with Dodge.

* MonumentalDamage: [[spoiler:The Statue of Liberty]].
* MonumentalDamageResistance: [[spoiler:In the 40th century, the Statue of Liberty lets the audience know that most of the movie takes place in a very post-apocalyptic New York]].

* MotherlyScientist: Chimpanzee Zira, notable psychologist and zoologist, calls Taylor "Bright Eyes", at least until he manages to write his own name, to her surprise. [[spoiler:She ends up kissing him goodbye - even though, as she tells him, "You're so damned ugly."]]

* NoEnding: The movie abruptly ends after the [[spoiler:EarthAllAlong reveal.]]

* OOCIsSeriousBusiness: The apes are only familiar with unintelligent, non-speaking humans. So when Taylor starts writing, it scares Cornelius and Zira before it impresses them. ''Everyone'' is scared when his throat wound heals and he's able to say his iconic line: "Take your stinking paws off me you damned dirty ape."

* SpiritualSuccessor: As Creator/JamesRolfe pointed out in his review of the film, it's easy to consider this story a missing episode of ''[[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 The Twilight Zone]]''. Many of the same themes pop up: a fantastical (and somewhat goofy) science-fiction situation, AnAesop about the follies of Man, and the MandatoryTwistEnding. It helps that the initial draft of the screenplay was actually done by Creator/RodSerling, and that a previous episode of ''The Twilight Zone'' ([[Recap/TheTwilightZoneS1E15IShotAnArrowIntoTheAir "I Shot an Arrow into the Air"]]) dealt with the same story situation and even had a similar TwistEnding.

* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: [[spoiler:The Statue of Liberty]] appears on the DVD cover... and also on the cover of many reeditions of the original book. Not as bad as most other examples, given that the "spoiler" has reached ItWasHisSled levels of awareness in pop culture.

* JerkassHasAPoint Dr. Zaius at the very end, although the point is not made by him

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: When the movie starts out, the year on the ship's onboard calendar reads 1972. When they crash-land on the titular planet, [[spoiler:it's 3978.]]

-->'''Taylor:''' You Maniacs! You blew it up! Ah, damn you! God damn you all to hell!

* EverythingsBetterWithMonkeys: The whole series, really.

'''Homorius:''' [[DramaticallyMissingThePoint Ridiculous!]]

* SuddenlyVoiced: The human doll that says "[[IWantMyMommy MAMA]]!"

* TomatoSurprise: EarthAllAlong.

* TwistEnding: EarthAllAlong. Considering Creator/RodSerling had a hand in the 1968 screenplay, [[Series/TheTwilightZone1959 it really shouldn't have been that surprising]]...

* ANaziByAnyOtherName: Dr. Zaius, as despite being the high-ranking Science Minister he is still consumed by the ideology that Apes are the superior species, and Humans are nothing more than corrupt violent savages, and therefore it is his duty to pacify them... even if he is faced with evidence that Humans built a greater civilisation. And it is revealed that he ''knows'' Human Civilisation but argues that since they destroyed themselves in a nuclear War, then Apes are the superior species.

* SpoilerCover: There were videotape covers showing the Art/StatueOfLiberty on the cover, spoiling the surprise that Taylor was on Earth the whole time and not another solar system.
* StatusQuoIsGod: At the beginning of the film, Taylor believes humanity to be bastards, but changes his mind after meeting the apes, but goes right back to thinking it after seeing the ruins of the Art/StatueOfLiberty.

* HistoryRepeats: After humanity blew itself up with nuclear weapons, all surviving descendants of theirs have regressed into primitive, dumb animals much like ''Homo ergaster'' and ''Homo erectus''. Meanwhile, the Apes are repeating the exact same history of segregation, oppression and violence as the humans they despise so much.

-->'''Dr. Zaius:''' Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find.\\

* TwentyMinutesIntoTheFuture: When the movie starts out, the year on the ship's onboard calendar reads 1978. When they crash-land on the titular planet, [[spoiler:it's 3978.]]

-->''You cut up his braaaaaaiiiinnn!''\\

** Taylor himself becomes more desperate to escape after learning that he himself is scheduled to be not only lobotomized, but also stands to lose his two best friends.

* HistoryRepeats: After humanity blew itself up with nuclear weapons, all surviving descendants of theirs have regressed into primitive, dumb animals much like ''Homo ergaster'' and ''Homo erectus''. Meanwhile, the Apes are repeating the exact same history of segregation, opression and violence as the humans they despise so much.

* LargeHam: Charlton Heston ("''It's a '''MAAAAAAADHOOOOUSE!!!'''''")

* {{Lobotomy}}: One of the astronauts gets lobotomised by the apes.

* EmpathyDollShot: Used as a plot point. The ruling class apes are freaked out when a human doll talks.

** "Get your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!"

* WhamLine: '''"GET YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF OF ME, YOU DAMNED DIRTY APE!!!"''' Made all the more powerful when you realize that Creator/CharltonHeston was ''sick with the flu'' at the time, but the director felt that the hoarseness of his voice would add impact to that line. It did.

* WhamLine: '''"TAKE YOUR STINKING PAWS OFF OF ME, YOU DAMNED DIRTY APE!!!"''' Made all the more powerful when you realize that Creator/CharltonHeston was ''sick with the flu'' at the time, but the director felt that the hoarseness of his voice would add impact to that line. It did.

** Gorillas are portrayed as warlike and violent, chimpanzees as reserved and rational, and orangutans as wise and social. Gorillas are [[GentleGiant very gentle and docile]] animals while chimps have been known to exterminate other tribes, including the infants, to take the females and food. Orangutans have a completely anti-social society; males leave upon puberty and live on their own, attacking anyone that comes into their territory. Again, probably a case of [[ScienceMarchesOn Primatology Marched On]].

* HistoryRepeats: After humanity blew itself up with nuclear weapons, all surviving descendants of theirs have regressed into primitive, dumb animals much like ''Homo ergaster'' and ''Homo erectus''.

* LegendFadesToMyth: The religious myth held by the apes in the first movie turns out to be a distorted version of Caesar's rebellion and the human war that allowed apes to come to power, as depicted in the sequels.

'''Dr. Zaius:''' Don't look for it, Taylor. You may not like what you find.\\