| abstract
| - Four astronauts; George Taylor, John Landon, his son Dodge and Irena Stewart, are in deep hibernation in their spacecraft when they are blasted by something unknown. The shuttle begins to fall toward a nearby planet as it begins to rip itself apart. The astronauts are awoken and attempt to climb into the escape pods, but Irena is sucked out to her death. Taylor, Landon and Dodge manage to make it in just intime and eject themselves from the craft as it smashes into the planet's surface and explodes. The escape pod also crashes and Landon is killed in the collision. Taylor inflates a raft and he and Dodge escape down a river as the pod sinks into the water. They eventually happen upon a group of primitive, mute humans dressed in torn clothes. Taylor attempts to communicate with an attractive female slave, he eventually names Nova, but she is unable to speak. Suddenly, armed and uniformed humanoid gorillas arrive on horseback, and try to arrest Taylor and Dodge. Dodge resists and is fatally shot in the process. Taylor and Nova are taken by the gorillas back to the capital Ape City, where it is revealed that the planet is ruled by these humanoid apes. Taylor and Nova are thrown in prison and he is visited by a chimpanzee psychologist Zira, who tries to question Taylor. He is at first uncooperative, but develops a rapport with her and begins to learn more about the system the apes live by. Gorillas are the police and military, orangutans are politicians and lawyers, chimps are scientists and humans are slaves. He learns that the apes worship the legendary "white ape" Caesar, who is their god, and also finds that Zira is being forced to marry the ruthless Generald Thade. Zira admits that she is disgusted by the way the apes treat humans, but feels powerless to do anything. She introduces Taylor to her colleague Dr Zaius, who shares an intense dislike of the gorillas. One day, Zira overhears Thade and Colonel Attar discussing their plan to exterminate the slave camps in the desert outside Ape City using something called Oberon, although Attar is having doubts. She tells Taylor, who convinces her to free him so that they can stop Thade's plan. She is reluctant, but eventually does so with help from Zaius. Zira and Taylor ride out into the desert and witness a space station landing in a place called the Forbidden Zone. They realize that this is Oberon, fitted with a large industrial laser, which Thade plans to fire at the slave camps in order to wipe out the humans there. Meanwhile, Thade dispatches Attar to find Taylor. Taylor deduces that is was a test firing of Oberon that blasted his ship out of the sky in the beginning. Upon further investigation of the Forbidden Zone, they discover a cave containing artifacts of a non-simian civilization. Before they can explore more, Attar arrives and captures them. Taylor is reimprisoned, as is Zira. Taylor convinces Zira to rally the humans to revolt against the apes and stop Thade. They manage to cause an uproar, but are unable to get out of the prison. Unexpectedly, Attar arrives and frees the prisoners, revealing his defection. The humans charge into Ape City while Thade prepares to depart for Oberon. A battle breaks out between the humans and the apes. Thade battles Attar, who fights valiantly until Thade stabs him. Meanwhile, Taylor runs off toward Oberon to shut it down as it begins to lift off, but is knocked to the ground by Thade. As Thade is about to kill him, Attar tackles Thade away and breaks his neck before dying of his wounds. Taylor, Zira and Zaius race onto the Oberon as it lifts off of the planet. Together, they kill the guards stationed on board, but Zaius unexpectedly shoots and kills Zira. Zaius reveals that he plans to fire Oberon at Ape City to destroy the gorillas instead, but Taylor is disgusted by the idea of committing an act of genocide. He fights Zaius and eventually defeats him by shoving him out of the airlock. Oberon veers of course and begins to burn up as it reenters the planet's atmosphere. Taylor manages to briefly regain control of it, long enough to avoid hitting Ape City, and crashes it into the sea. Taylor is pulled out of the water by Nova, riding on horseback, and they escape together. Further down the beach, Taylor stops dead in his tracks and dismounts, falling to his knees. Nova is unable to comprehend his horror. The film ends with the shocking reveal of the charred remains of the Statue of Liberty sticking out of the shoreline, revealing that this supposedly alien planet is in fact post-Apocalyptic Earth.
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