Planet of the Apes | Teen Ink

Planet of the Apes

April 2, 2017
By Anonymous

Planet of the Apes is an original masterpiece from actor Charleston Heston featuring an astronaut whose ship crashes on an alien planet that just so happens to have highly developed primates who speak and walk as humans. He(Heston) struggles to lead a revolt against the ruthless government that appears in the movie. He finds reliable help in the last two apes whose minds were not brainwashed by the corrupt fascist government.

This original masterpiece portrays much racial anger and difference between two not so different groups of people. Communism is shown in the apes so called “perfect society” and the humans are treated as common household objects that have no inner value. However, there are a few who treat the humans equally and aid them in their quest to seek what became of the Earth. Racism appears in the movies military leaders and appears in everyday life.

The primates are much different from the humans, because their culture is seemingly more developed but still not perfect in any way shape or form. Military leaders are portrayed as violent and ruthless.  They show no mercy or remorse to the humans that have been stranded on the planet. The movie is centered around an astronaut who crash lands on a planet that he has never seen before. He is immediately pursued by a much higher intelligence in the form of live talking apes who show similar human responses and seem to have become better as a society than the humans. The astronaut successfully breaks free from his hostile rulers by getting help from some open minded primates. He learns that the despicable planet that he was on was not an alien planet, but that it was Earth.  The primates had taken captive all of humanity and now possessed the entire planet.

The astronaut realizes that humanity needs to take a stand for survival.  He learns that some apes are willing to work with him. In showing much promise as a leader, he survives the harshness of the dictators with the help of the apes.  We can apply what he learns into our own life and how we value and treat each other.  Racism is still very prevalent in many communities and hurtful stereotypes can be dangerous as well. You must be careful in how you treat everyone you come in contact with.  As the next generation of people, we should all look to stand up and stop racism once and for all.

A theme in Planet Of The Apes shows much character in the simple fact that where you go there will always be bad people but there will also always be good people. Many primates despised humans and thought that they were the scum of the earth. They believed that humans should not be given the right to live.  Humans were viewed as slaves to do all the work that they did not want to complete themselves. However, a select few apes were not prejudiced and hateful towards the dying human race. These few released the astronaut and the other captive prisoners to seek freedom.

The movie answers the question:  What if a proposed lower power or thought of lesser being worked as one to overthrow an entire race known as humanity? Although, it does not go into great detail on what events specifically took place for humanity's demise. We can assume that it was a violent rebellion. It could be said from the events that have taken place in more recent Planet of the Ape films, that humanity possibly deserved destruction because they mistreated and undermined the primates for generations. Humans treated them as though they were not fit to be taken care of. The apes presumably learned to speak and walk from studying the humans way of life. However, these apes did not become highly intelligent  on their own but by a drug.  They were all exposed to the drug which allowed them to unlock a bigger part of their brain.

Humanity could learn from this movie that they should respect every living thing and take nothing for granted in their daily lives. They should respect God's creation and use wise dominion over the Earth.

The apes in the movie seem to have secured a firm dominion over the planet as they have used horses to ride and have learned to use means of  farming for food on the land. They clearly have done a far superior job at filling out God's original design for humanity's way of life. However,they still mistreat the humans, ultimately making themselves no better than the humans in the way they handle each other as races.


It could be possible for the apes not to have learned their way from humans but may have been born this way.  It may be that the drug made them into a completely new species that is not a primate at all.  The apes could have evolved from the drug passing down characteristics and behavior from generations forcing them to be more civil and set up a we'll formed way of life.

What can be learned from this movie besides the core entertainment value, it serves as a warning to humanity as what could be the consequences of mistreating the earth and, it's creatures and  facing its  demise. The overall theme of this movie has to do  mainly with racism and hate, but focuses on the lesson of not mistreating each other. We must learn to gain a different perspective on working together.


The author's comments:

I believe that this article will further help the reader to understand the movie,Planet of the Apes. However,do not read this if you do not want to know much about other films in the series as it may spoil them for you.


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