I bought the whole Planet of the Apes series on DVD – and one Saturday, I watched them all the way through (6 DVD’s!) Anyways – the story gets goofed up if you really thing about it:
The story starts with astronauts in a spaceship, showing earth time as 1973, and ship time as 3955, because of time warps, and speed of light travel, etc (physics, worm holes).
When Taylor (Charlton Heston) crashed in 3955 (The Planet of the Apes), he was first introduced to the apes, and humans were dumb. He meets Zira and Cornelius, and they befriend him. Taylor realizes that the planet he is actually on is Earth, in the future.
Then, in “Beneath the Planet of the Apes”, Brent came looking for Taylor, still 3955
They were both there and saw the war happen, and they end up blowing up the Earth totally.
In “Escape from Planet of the Apes”, Zira, Cornelius, and Dr. Milo, come back to 1973 time on earth, following the trajectory Taylor took the first time.(First off, would it be like the year 5955 and there would be no Earth left because Taylor blew it up?) but anyways, the kicker is that only way Zira and Cornelius could EVER come back to 1973 earth was because Taylor and Brent came to 3955 earth (and crashed their ride, giving Zira and friends a way back)
OK, in the first movies, they talk about a lawgiver that told them of an ape that knew how to talk and rose up to be king of the apes. This is even more wierd because in the 4th movie, the apes are pets/slaves of humans because of a virus that killed all the cats and dogs (they tell us in the movie that Zira and the other apes brought the virus from 3955 back to 1973).
Zira has a son, Milo (Ceaser), and 20 years later Milo revolts, leading the pet/slave apes.
In “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”, Ceaser and some humans defeat all the bad humans; the year is now around 2003. The lawgiver is present in the beginning as a storyteller so the year there is probably around 2050 or 2060, but this really doesn’t matter.
The main point is,
If Taylor would have never went to 3955 earth, Zira would have never brought a virus to kill all the cats and dogs, making apes pets, later to revolt, and she would have never been able to give birth in 1973 earth time. Therefore Milo (Ceaser) could never revolt and then apes would have never taken over the earth.
But say if Taylor would have landed 20 years later, after Milo was already born in 3955 time, which would have been around 3975, then Milo couldn’t revolt in 1991, because he would never have been there.
ItÂ’s all an infinite loop, with each event dependent on the other with a lot of unanswered questions. I watched them all in series, all in a row, so it was easier to understand.
It sort of reminded me of 12 monkeys in a way, but ill let you think about it…
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