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| - As Conquest opens, Armando (Ricardo Montalban) explains to Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the now grown-up progeny (having undergone a name change) why apes are slaves. During a monologue explaining Earth's destiny/history (in Escape from the Planet of the Apes), Cornelius explained that humans took small monkeys as pets after a plague wiped out all cats and dogs. Cornelius then went on to explain that apes become slaves and that after many centuries of slavery, one ape, who he says was named Aldo, spoke the first word of resistance - "No". Now however, events have moved at a far greater speed than Cornelius predicted, taking less than twenty years rather than 'many centuries'. It seems that Dr Otto Hasslein’s efforts from the last movie have proved futile, even though the US president was aware
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| abstract
| - As Conquest opens, Armando (Ricardo Montalban) explains to Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the now grown-up progeny (having undergone a name change) why apes are slaves. During a monologue explaining Earth's destiny/history (in Escape from the Planet of the Apes), Cornelius explained that humans took small monkeys as pets after a plague wiped out all cats and dogs. Cornelius then went on to explain that apes become slaves and that after many centuries of slavery, one ape, who he says was named Aldo, spoke the first word of resistance - "No". Now however, events have moved at a far greater speed than Cornelius predicted, taking less than twenty years rather than 'many centuries'. It seems that Dr Otto Hasslein’s efforts from the last movie have proved futile, even though the US president was aware of the dangers presented by the talking apes. Circus owner Armando has avoided cities, staying mostly in the provinces, in an effort to protect Caesar, who has been trained as a bareback horse rider. Armando and Caesar arrive in an unnamed city (which is really Century City in California) to give out flyers for the circus. Caesar also experiences first-hand the brutality on the apes. Unfortunately, he cannot contain his anger and frustration, and during a brutal assault on a simian messenger (named Aldo, incidentally) he cries out, "Lousy, human bastards!" The security force overhears him, but Armando takes the blame, enabling Caesar to escape. In the confusion, Armando briefly reunites with Ceasar, who is not angry at the outburst, but says now he will have to hide among the ape slaves while Armando goes to the authorities in an attempt to smooth things over. With Armando detained and subsequently forced to kill himself to protect what amounts to his adopted son, Caesar infiltrates Ape Management as part of a shipment from Borneo (along with three orangutans). His abilities soon have him working for Governor Breck (Don Murray), a tyrannical official. When the talking ape hears of his adopted father's death, he resorts to revolution, using his face and body mannerisms to communicate with fellow apes. Gradually, Caesar begins to build an army of apes, and they gather in the basement of a building, where they stash their weapons and make plans for the revolution. Caesar finds an ally on the human side in one of Breck's assistants, a man by the name of MacDonald (Hari Rhodes). MacDonald, a descendent of slaves, sympathises with Ceasar, so much so that when the talking ape is discovered and Breck orders his execution, MacDonald sabotages the plan. The intelligent Caesar realises the sabotage and fakes his own death. After killing a guard, he manages to escape and ignite the revolution. The conquest begins as Caesar leads his chimp brothers in rebellion against the human oppressors. When an ape revolt becomes clear, Breck sends his soldiers into the street. Though Caesar is the only ape who can talk, he can still communicate with his fellow simians, and they ambush the soldiers and engage in a series of well-directed and exciting battle scenes. The film is particularly brutal in its depictions of violence against both beast and man. The finishing battle royale is a brute of a thing with apes blindly knifing Nazi styled guards and soldiers and bullet based massacres of charging apes. Image:Caesars army.jpg The movie finishes with Caesar rejecting violence towards man but aiming to dominate them none-the-less with this speech: "But now... now we will put away our hatred. Now we will put down our weapons. We have passed through the night of the fires, and those who were our masters are now our servants. And we, who are not human, can afford to be humane. Destiny is the will of God, and if it is man’s destiny to be dominated, it is God’s will that he be dominated with compassion, and understanding. So, cast out your vengeance. Tonight, we have seen the birth of the Planet of the Apes!" It was a tacked on ending. The first cut of the film was much more militant (and powerful), and had Caesar call for all-out rebellion and order the the execution of all the humans. This is where the original ending would close the film, but test audiences found this too bleak and so more of Caesar's speech was added in. Roddy McDowall was called in to record additional dialogue. As a result, the new ending has Caesar’s girlfriend Lisa (Natalie Trundy) uttering the word "No" (in the previous film, Cornelius claimed that Aldo had been the first to utter this word) to prevent the now armed gorillas from killing Breck. Upon hearing her objection, Caesar softens his tone, stating that humans should be dominated with compassion and implying that one day both species would live together in harmony. The final shot is only of Caesar's eyes and is of a grainy quality - the shot was just a cropped piece of footage from earlier - while film of the apes raising their riffles is played in reverse so it appears they are lowering them instead. The original ending was restored for the Blu-ray release in 2008.
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