Plot hole: The "video history" of the crashed USAF ship makes it very clear that the planet is uninhabited when they "landed". I can understand how a race of apes develops - they had a bunch of them on board. I can understand how a race of humans develops - they are descendants of the original crew. What I don't understand is...where the heck did all the horses come from?
Planet of the Apes (2001)
Plot summary
Directed by: Tim Burton
Starring: Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, Paul Giamatti, Michael Clarke Duncan, Estella Warren
After a spectacular crash-landing on an unchartered planet, brash astronaut Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) finds himself trapped in a savage world where talking apes dominate the human race. Desperate to find a way home, Leo must evade the invincible gorilla army led by ruthless General Thade (Tim Roth) and his most trusted warrior, Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan). Now the pulse-pounding race is on to reach a sacred temple that may hold the shocking secrets of mankind's past - and the last hope for its salvation!
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Suggested correction: Humans refer to parts of their own planet as uninhabited even though they are crawling with animals - vast areas of the Arctic are "uninhabited" even though polar bears and seals are found there. Were we to find a planet with nothing but primitive horses on it, we would label it as uninhabited. Apes and humans came from the crashed spaceship, horses were always there.
Which still makes no sense whatsoever.
I agree with you Charles. Horses are native to Earth but, the Oberon lands on a planet light years from Earth so it's a big plot hole how horses from one planet could end up on another when the planet was not only uninhabited but, the Oberon was believed to be lost.
Again, the Oberon was a massive space station, genetically experimenting with many earthly lifeforms, including horses, apparently. The time/space-rift was very near Earth (Mark Wahlberg made the journey in about 25 seconds at the end of the film. Not years but seconds). The implication is that the Oberon passed through the rift, and much of the crew survived to continue their genetic research on what later became the Ape Planet. So, the Oberon initially arrived on a barren planet and introduced all of the biological and botanical species, including apes, horses, and everything else.
Suggested correction: According to the backstory, the space station Oberon was dedicated to genetic modification sciences. They were actually experimenting with animal genes in the safety of space (which kind of makes sense). Given that the Oberon was a truly gigantic space station, it's not too much of a speculation that they were experimenting on many different types of animals (not just apes). When the Oberon crashed on Ashlar, half its crew was killed, but half survived with a number of ship's systems still functional, and they continued their genetic research, possibly producing a number of Earthly species on the otherwise uninhabited planet.
I think this should've been posted as a question, rather than a plot hole.
That's just a wild guess. There hasn't been a single mention of horses on board the Oberon. Even if there were, why only horses?
Wild guess? The Oberon was experimenting in genetic modification, which implies a broad range of research...and not just on great apes. The Oberon was gigantic enough to be an Ark.
So where are all the other animals?
Exactly. Where are the birds, lions, lizards, etc?
Trivia: Makeup artist Rick Baker has a cameo appearance in this movie. He appears as one of the apes in the city who is seen smoking from a water pipe.
Question: Can someone please explain how the apes ended up taking over present-day Earth since the future apes never got hold of the time machine? I can't find anyone who can make heads or tails of it.
Chosen answer: Tim Burton has been quoted MANY times as saying it isn't supposed to make sense. Best guess is Leo travelled not just into the future, but into another dimension as well. Ironically, this ending is far more true to Peirre Boulle's original ending than the first Apes movie.
Answer: I have, if not an answer, then a sharpening of the question. A number of fanboys have suggested Thade retrieved Leo's pod from the bottom of the lake, then used it to travel into the MagnaStorm, thereby reaching Earth centuries before Leo's arrival, and inciting Earth Apes to rebel. The problem with This explanation is, once you get past how helpless the Apes are in water, How did Thade, a person who comes from a society without even gunpowder level technology, Repair A Spaceship?! Nevermind learn to use it?!?!?.
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