Continuity mistake: When the spaceship first springs a leak and begins to sink, the interior shots show it tilting to starboard; Taylor falls against the starboard bulkhead and the other two survivors need to brace themselves from slipping. All of the exterior shots of the ship show it level from port to starboard.
Planet of the Apes (1968)
Plot summary
Starring: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, Maurice Evans
In the year 3978 A.D., a spaceship with a crew of four crashes down on a distant planet. One of the crew members had died in space and the other three head out to explore the planet. They soon learn that the planet is much like their own. They then find the planet is inhabited by intelligent apes. One of the men is shot and killed and the others are taken to the apes' city. There, one undergoes brain surgery and is put into a state of living death. The other (Heston) befriends some of the apes but is feared by most. After being put through ape trial he escapes with a female human native (Harrison) to the planet. After helping his ape friends escape a religious heresy trial he escapes out into the wilderness with the female. There he learns the planet might not be so distant after all...
Trivia: During breaks, the ape makeup couldn't be removed. It is interesting to note that the chimps naturally hung out with other chimps during breaks, the gorillas natually hung out with other gorillas, and the orangutans naturally hung out with other orangutans.
Question: Since World War 3 was the cause of the nuclear devastation, as evidenced in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, how is it that Dr. Zaius doesn't know the full story of the rise of the apes over the humans? Wouldn't the story be passed down?
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Chosen answer: Dr. Zaius did know the true history of man and ape, but he deliberately hid the truth from the other apes. For Zaius (and other high-ranking apes who were guarding the secret), it would be shameful and demoralizing to ever admit that humans were far superior to apes in the past and that they could, potentially, conquer the apes. In more than one scene (such as the paper airplane scene in the first film), we see Zaius obviously frustrated that Taylor's very existence threatens to expose the truth.
Charles Austin Miller