The final scene with the Statue of Liberty represents the scroll verse that Dr. Zaius cited about man before he let Taylor go. "You may not like what you find" and this verse described the reality of man. Taylor meant that humanity had a nuclear war that destroyed human civilization. That's the significance of the final scene of this movie.

You're overthinking the ending. The Statue of Liberty shows that they actually landed back on Earth after humans "blew it up."

Fun fact...Rod Serling wrote the screenplay (Twlight Zone creator) for the movie. He's from my hometown of Binghamton, NY. Met him a few times at my old high school when he came back to talk to the class. Pretty cool guy.

Man that ending is still one of the most iconic twists in all of cinema. Imagine seeing that, after believing that you were on an alien planet the whole time. Crazy.

I love how jaded and cynical Charlton Heston is at the beginning of the film, then throughout the second act he starts to regain his pride for the human race only for it to be utterly destroyed by the twist. That really is a 360 in character development.

“Get your stinking paws off of me you damn dirty ape!” This is one of cinema’s most iconic quotes, right up there with “Frankly my dear I don’t give a damn” and “I am your father.”

Amazing movie and still holds up to this day.

"-Spaceballs! -Oh shit, there goes the planet." :)

Traveling near the speed of light slowed down the time on their ship. Plus the cryo chambers also made them not age. The ship actually flew in a big circle returning to Earth 2,000 years after they launched. All this time Taylor thought he was on an alien planet but it was actually Earth the whole time. There was clearly a nuclear war and humanity almost destroyed itself. And I would highly recommend watching the sequels too.

They got an Oscar for the makeup, it was the same year 2001 a space odyssey was released. The only reason 2001 did not win the best makeup for the apes was that the judges etc assumed the apes in 2001 were real.

"Oh my God! I was wrong! It was Earth all along! You finally made a monkey out of me! I love you Doctor Zaius!"

He can talk. He can talk. He can talk. He can talk. He can talk… I CAN SIIIIIIIIIIIIING!

Good job catching the “see no evil,hear no evil,speak no evil”I actually didn’t notice that the first time I saw it.I think it’s one of the best science-fiction movies ever,and I hope you do more science-fiction and/or horror.Also,thanks for always giving me something to look forward to so that,even during those relatively rare times I’m feeling down I have something to turn to.

‘Oh no I was wrong, it was earth all along’ Troy McClure’s take is still the best version of this story.

They thought they landed on a strange planet at first. But in fact they just didn't recognize it because it had been over 2000 years into the future. So yes he realizes that he has in fact been on earth all along at the end.

And now "Soylent Green" and "The Omega Man", please. ^^

The sound track is just amazing!

I saw this film when it premiered in 1968. After viewing it, I learned that Rod Serling had something to do with the screenplay. The acting was superb. For its time, the special-effects makeup was very good. It's been a long time since I read the novel, "The Planet of the Apes" by Pierre Boulle. "Thanks, Kazzy!

One of the great movies from the '60's. Early on they make reference to the 'strange luminosity', a foreshadowing of the fact that it is from the nuclear war that man waged against each other that destroyed human civilization and allowed the apes to become the dominant species. Taylor just discovers at the end that they had not landed on another planet, the landed back on Earth 2,000 years later. Dr. Zaus notes that The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise, "Your greed destroyed it". The movie makes a lot of comment on human failings and human society, much of it like this is true. Escape From The Planet of the Apes and Beneath The Planet of the Apes are must watches as well.

The make-up was state of the art at the time, still holds up today despite living in an era where almost everything is Cgi. I think one of the reasons this film is so great, besides the excellent screenplay, is the level of talent in the film. The cast list reads like a who's who in terms of talented and respected actors at the time. Still one of my all-time favorite films.

The spaceship accidentally brought them back to a post-nuclear war earth , so transformed that the crew did not recognise it as home . This is a terrific movie . One of my all time favourites . And the end reveal is such a fantastic punch to the guts .

A real classic and still holds up even now. Glad you reacted to this and really looking forward to Young Frankenstein!

1968 was such a great year for movies: 2001: A Space Odyssey, The Producers, Rosemary's Baby, The Odd Couple, The Lion in Winter and Planet of Apes.

I was 14 when this movie came out. It was unlike any movie I'd seen before. It was a period when filmmakers were escaping the cookie cutter Hollywood films and taking chances, experimenting and pushing boundaries. Easy Rider, 2001, Yellow Submarine and more.

That ending scene! give me Chills every time. You will never find a more stronger dark ending to a movie. PLANET OF THE APES. Masterpiece!

Wonderful film. I’ve seen it at least 50 times. It’s fun to deconstruct. I originally saw this in a theater in 1968.

As a kid in the early 70s I loved the action scenes and couldn't get enough of the apes. As an adult the scenes in the courtroom, Dr. Zaius saying "...your kind made a desert of it", and Cornelius's reading the article about man's killing for sport, lust, or greed etc.. are so compelling. One of the orangutans on the three-judge panel in the courtroom scene is James Whitmore. He also played Brooks in The Shawshank Redemption.

When I was in elementary and junior high school, the entire Planet of the Apes franchise was hugely popular. The original led to sequels and merchandising and television...

As a guy in his 30's, I don't really care for a lot of the older movies from this era but this whole series was just amazing. It was something completely different and a new concept. The remakes were good only for the CGI and visual effects but the classics are better by far...

As others have noted, they landed back on Earth thousands of years after a nuclear war destroyed everything. Heston only realizes it at the end. Dr. Zaius knew all along. More is revealed in the sequels that followed into the early 70s. The new movies that tell Caesar’s story do a great job of telling the setup story. If you pay attention in the first one, there’s mention in a news story of a missing space mission that’s meant to be Heston and his crew.

The screenplay was co-written by Rod Serling creator of the Twilight Zone, hence the ending twist. The man was a master of pulling the rug out from under the audience. Great film.

Thank you for not laughing at the makeup. So many reactors laugh at that.

When this movie came out, the only Planet of the Apes that existed was the French novel. In the novel, 2 French astronauts travel to an Earth-like planet in orbit around the star Betelgeuse. That's why the movie keeps up the pretense that this is an alien planet! This film was made for 1) fans of the novel, 2) people familiar with the novel; & 3) people who think a scifi about intelligent apes sounded interesting. That's why the Statue of Liberty was such a shock at the end! It completely caught 2/3 of the audience off guard! The "statues" are taxidermied carcasses...the way that natural history museums used to feature posed, stuffed bears, raccoons, bobcats, etc. No difference, since the apes consider humans to be primates much lower on the evolutionary tree than the modern ape. Just like in the novel, the reversed human/ape roles are used to examine morality, science, & social developments.

I was born in 1961. By 1968 the Vietnam War, racism, pollution and "women's liberation" were issues that threatened to tear the United States apart. End of the World movies were popular. Charlton Heston starred in two, in addition to "Planet of the Apes" -- "The Omega Man" (1971) and "Soylent Green" (1973). He also appeared in "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" (1970)

Their ship apparently looped around and came back to earth. A nuclear war wiped out humanity, and apes evolved after. The sequel explains more. I was 13 and the shock and silence in the audience at the end was almost scary.

This is my favorite movie of all time. The social commentary and satire is brilliant and still feels relevant to this day

"Damn you all to hell" was his finishing line.

At the end, he realized that he was back on Earth, and not on a different planet. Dr Zaius knew that the entire time, and that's why he hated/feared Taylor... and he told Taylor "You won't like what you find", because he knew he'd discover he was basically home. Truly mind blowing ending. Taylor's realization at the end was that he understood that some sort of nuclear holocaust happened, and that's why everything was upside down with talking sentient apes, and mute humans, and why he made the statement "You blew it up!", referring to the nuclear holocaust that (obviously) must have happened.

The ending reveals they were on Earth the whole time. Humanity was all but destroyed in WW3. And for some unknown reason humans devolved while the apes evolved. Best cinematic reveal in movie history.

The apes makeup was designed by a makeup artist called John Chambers, who was kind of a genius. He worked on loads of movies over the years but this is what he's remembered for. He did stuff for the government as well, coming up with easy to apply facial disguise appliances for secret agent types in the field. If you saw the movie "Argo", the character John Goodman plays was based on Chambers. 😊

It is quite simple really: They accidentally travelled through time instead of space (some technical error not further addressed in the film). They travelled approx. 2000 years into the future, but this was not obvious to anyone. In this time, the civilizations of humanity has fallen and apes have become the dominant species of the planet.

1. Back in 1968 ratings weren't taken as seriously as they are today. 2. NICE present man. 😍😋 3. See no evil, hear no evil and speak no evil = Clueless apes (Dr. Zaius on purpose) 4. I was just a child when this came out and I was amazed at how well the main apes looked. 5. There was a very short lived (budget) tv series in the early 70s. 6. The next movie isn't as good. IMVHO "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" was the best. Cornelius and Zira go back to the early 70s. Ricardo Montauban is featured. 7.. Dr. Zaius/Maurice Evans played Samantha Steven's warlock father in "Bewitched" 8. Charlton Hesston played in the Omega Man (early I am Legend) and "The Ten Commandments" Both of which are good first time/shares. 10. Long story short they were in space a very long time. Kind of a time machine like episode. They didn't go anywhere. 11. I can't wait for you to do Young Frankenstein. You'll LOVE it🤣

I watched all the old planet of the apes movies a few weeks ago for the first time, I still like the new movies but the older ones are Brilliant and have become my favourites.

The makeup took 8 hours a day and won awards. There were no special effects. Everything was done as you see it practically.

"Spaceballs? Oh shit, there goes the planet"...

Lucius: We won't need the guns... Taylor: FROM MY COLD DEAD HANDS!!

28:08 when Taylor recreates a possible life from the ruins in cave, you realize he's talking about a 20th century man who wore glasses and lived with an artificial heart. He probably tried to flee the nuclear holocaust and whatever world it left behind by taking refuge in a cave with his family. One of the kids brought a talking squeeze doll. The man died in the cave and was buried there by other survivors. He probably died with the rest of his family and carried whatever knowledge of advanced human civilization was left. This needs to be made into a graphic novel and added to Apes franchise canon immediately!

Greatest ending in motion picture history. 💜🍸

Not really mentioned in the film, but Hestons character 'Taylor' is a misanthropist. He saw the mission as a chance to escape humanity. Explaining why he was (purposefully) such a jerk. That is how Heston 'interpreted' Taylor.

If you loved Gladiator than you will really enjoy Ben Hur. Starring Charlton Heston. Made in the late 50s it held the record for most Academy awards at 11 for years. Great musical score also

"DAMN YOU ALL TO HELL!!!" They arrived back at Earth thousands of years later. They didn't realize they hadn't landed somewhere else.

Since there's nothing I can say about Charlton Heston's ability to make any movie seem epic that hasn't already been said, can we focus on how Kazzy looks like Linda Hamilton in Terminator 2 with that outfit/hairdo?

Thank the brilliant Rod Serling (wrote the screenplay) for the Twilight Zone twist ending. Time travel instead of space travel to be home. For me It works better finding humans and apes on earth, unlike in the book where the humans and apes happen to be found on another planet.

The Forbidden Zone was off-limits in the Lawgiver's time because it was intensely radioactive and deadly, thanks to an atomic war.

"You blew it up" = World War III, nuclear apocalypse. That's why humans got demoted and apes ascended. That's why Zaius says he'll find his destiny. Taylor's contemporaries were responsible for their own destruction. For all his pride and feelings of superiority, at the end there Taylor gets it all thrown back in his face. This script was written by the guy who created The Twilight Zone and it shows. The writing is way better than it has any right to be in a genre movie like this. The apes aren't prejudiced against humans just out of random bias. Their religion, religion usually being a vehicle in movies for crazy beliefs, actually has valid reasons for saying the things it says. Being Earth, it explains why there's water and horses and oceans and everyone speaks English. The movie was not spoiled for me when I saw it the first time, so seeing the Statue of Liberty at the end was a completely mind blowing experience. This already excellent movie has one of the greatest twist endings of all movie history. As to how they wind up on Earth, I think there are two things at play here. One, the Twilight Zone had an episode where the astronauts crash landed on a planet and it turned out to be Earth although they didn't know that. I think Rod Serling really liked that idea. Two, they were asleep during the trip. This means they had no idea where they were really going. If the ship developed problems it might autopilot itself back to Earth. The problem is they were traveling faster than light speed, so due to time dilation A LOT of time has passed by the time they get back.

They traveled near the speed of light ,and while only a couple of years passed for them, hundreds, or possibly thousands, of years passed back on earth, leading to them back to the shock ending .

I saw this movie 8 times in the theater. For an 8 year old in 1968, that was a big deal.

saw this for the first time when I was very little. The idea apes could be so smart freaked me out. I've loved the whole series of these movies. Some were better than others. This pretty much being the best. But the premise behind it all was great.

The MPA ratings system was introduced in 1968, the same year this movie was released. Even though there's a lot of violence, graphic scenes, partial nudity, etc, I think they rated it G for General Audience because the system was still so new and they didn't have much to compare it to.

I loved this movie so much, charlton heston is one of the best actors of golden era of hollywood

You got it right. The intention was to have Taylor find out that he had arrived back on Earth. The actual words he spoke were 'God damn you all to hell!", referring to humans of the past who caused the damage.

It's a brilliant ending. When he discovers that the apes have built a copy of the statue of liberty he's like "WHY!? You crazy apes? Why would you build a copy of a statue on a planet 200 light years away? WHY!? It makes no sense! Arrrgh!!!!". He's understandably enraged. And we never do find out why the apes did that.

This one is definitely my favorite out of all the "apes movies" out there. I was expecting it to be cheesy when I first saw it......but needless to say, I REALLY got into it!

I've been a big fan of this movie since I saw it in the theaters in 68. The Forbidden Zone was a radioactive wasteland caused by man's nuclear war. At the beginning of the movie when they think they are on a distant planet and the first sign of live they find, the first thing they do is dig it up and you wondered why they did that. I've been wondering that for 53 years . . .

The astronauts assumed they landed on another planet. They in fact had encountered something in space that caused them to travel forward in time to the 40th century. Human civilization had completely collapsed and apes had evolved and become the dominant species. In the third film, Escape from the Planet of the Apes, we learn that it was the year 3955 AD.

It was the first time man traveled at the speed of light. They pointed the ship at the nearest galaxy and put the ship on autopilot. Something went wrong the ship turned back to save the crew. The malfunction got worse so the ship woke the crew, the crew didn't have time to see the data and they were back on earth but they did note the elapsed time and current year. So they assumed they went to the distant galaxy.

I'm glad you got to fully appreciate the final conclusion to the story, and didn't allow the modern 'Remakes' or 'Re-Envisionings' to ruin the surprise ending...

The spacecraft returned them to earth. There was some kind of malfunction. It was not supposed to land in water. the pod with the female astronaut was breached by something which may have caused the other malfunctions. At any rate, Heaston's character understands that there had been nuclear war (the territory the apes were forbidden to enter because of radiation) and he agonizes, "I'm back. I'm home. You blew it up!"

He didn't travel in space, he travelled in time.

Simple explanation for the ending - He was on Earth the whole time. It was just far off in the future after Humankind wiped itself out with war, and likely nuclear weapons. Hence his screams of "You BLEW IT UP!!!" Humankind is gone, and Apes evolved into intelligence to take their place as the dominant species.

Charleton Heston plays a similar persona in “The Omega Man” a few years later . Scene 1; Colonel Robert Neville driving in a red convertible thru empty city streets . Screeching to a stop he stands up in the front seat and opens machine gun fire at a perceived movement inside a windowed building.

Taylor and the others ASSUMED they had landed on another planet--their spacecraft actually went into a giant circle, and arrived thousands of years later. As he discovered at the end (the movie posits that Zaius is right)--mankind is inherently evil, per Zaius' exposition. Zaius is cast as the villain throughout--but in the end, we see he was right, and there are reasons for his hatred and fear of humans--evidence that human beings had risen to great heights, and lost everything--most likely through their own actions. The writers take a very dark view of humanity--essentially Zaius' view, and gave us one of the greatest twist endings of all time. This movie was enormously popular when I was a young kid, and spawned four sequels, a Saturday morning serial, and action figures and toys galore, Halloween costumes, and a short-lived TV series throughout the late 60s/early 70s, and continues to generate movies to this day.

Love this movie.. and yep they were on Earth all the time ...

Linda Harrison, who played Nova, is still alive, and still stunning in her 80s.

They left Earth and survived the apocalypse. The apes emerged thousands of years later as the superior species and that's when they landed back on Earth.

I believe what he meant by “reassembled“ is that they gathered the same group of humans that Taylor and his party were captured with.

Those beautiful waterfalls were firehoses in a Burbank backlot (way back lol). They were on their return trip home when "things went wrong" so they made it "home" but earth was 2000 yrs. older and man had obviously destroyed it either through war or global warming, or disease, neglect, abuse, or a combination of all of those things. Heston's character's "arrogance" was supposed to be an example and reflection of man's arrogance at the time of the making of the movie...and still continues.

Credits used to before the movie before Star Wars. It was a union issue. But Star Wars changed that in 1977. The idea behind the twist at the end is that, yes, they landed back on Earth but after a nuclear war. That's why he said, "You blew it up!"

“I’m back. I’m home?Damn you. You blew it up!” This was released in ‘68, the Cold War and Nuclear Holocaust was very prevalent in pop culture. WW3 happened. Civilization collapsed, apes evolved to be the dominant intelligent life on Earth. The crew of the spaceship including Taylor believed they were a lifetime of travel away from Earth, on another planet. The final scene he realized that the ship returned to Earth. His humans of the 20th Century blew it up. The Planet of the Apes rose from the ashes. The theme is there are consequences for our species … but it’s not too late, Mankind can / must find a better way.

I was 7 or 8 years old when my mom took me to see this movie. I didn't understand the ending. As I got older I realized what the ending meant. Great movie.

The makeup from this episode was done by people who used to work on The Outer Limits TV series. Amazing work.

Saw this in grade school the first GP rated movie I saw a a child thanks Kazzy that was fun more Charlton Heston please he’s so great!

I love how these movies make you look at yourself, like you don’t like how they’re treating the humans? You think it’s wrong? Now flip it. That’s what we do to them and we find ways to justify it. Just like the apes did here.

"If that's the best they've got we'll be running this place." Wow spoken like a true colonizer.

Jesus H. This is the hardest I have ever seen anyone struggle with a simple movie twist ever.

Adapted from a French novel by Rod "Twilight Zone" Serling.. the king of ironic scifi "twist" endings.

Yes he was back on Earth, but because of all the changes (lack of civilization, primitive non-speaking humans, but mostly talking apes and chimps) he and his colleagues incorrectly assumed they were on another planet. Seeing the Statue of Liberty after the discovery of the human manufactured artifact found in the cave, he realized not only is he is back on his home planet of Earth but that the human civilization has destroyed itself. It is implied that their was a nuclear war since this fear was pretty commonplace at the time this film was made. Dr Zaius knew that humans used to be the dominant species but wanted that hidden from the rest of the apes, which explains most of his actions throughout the film.

These were great films back in the day. Ended up being a popular franchise. There were several movies that followed this one. Must watches. They even had a tv series of it in the 70's, and tons of toys and action figures.

Here are the lines from Taylor the Statue: Oh, my God! I'm back! I'm home. (meaning, yes, home on earth as you said). All the time, it was... We finally really did it. (meaning we had a nuclear war disaster and destroyed everything, just as the Apes' "Bible" proclaims). You maniacs! You blew it up! God damn you! God damn you all to hell! (meaning us, the people of the past who did this). In the theater, when this moment came up and people saw it for the first time, there was a gasp of horror. I was ten, and it chilled me.

It's a fairly common trope in early sci-fi stories to have a crew on a ship go out into space and somehow accidentally wind up back on an unrecognizable version of Earth far in the future (or past), or land on an inexplicably almost-but-not-quite identical planet on the other side of the sun. There are many variations on this theme. It's been a core sci-fi "What if?" scenario for a long time.

I saw a documentary of the making of this and I remember during Break's and lunch the chimpanzee's, gorillas and orangutans always stayed together in there species. Great movie, still holds up.

I've watched three reactions to this movie, and none understood that there had been a nuclear war, even though he clearly states 'YOU BLEW IT UP!'. Have people forgotten that this is a thing??? I saw this 40 years ago aged 8 and understood what had happened as soon as they found the doll. It didn't need any explanation even to a child. How quickly the world has forgotten how it used to be.

The thing that people overlook when watching this is, it's never specified exactly who "blew it up" - man, or the apes. Some useless knowledge: from what I recall, it took 4-6 hours to apply the ape makeup to each actor.

Beat 2001 for best makeup Oscar: Arthur C. Clarke joked that the Academy thought Kubrick's apes were real.

I remember a clever fan editor once took less than 30 minutes of footage from this film, turned the color down to black and white, added a classic Twilight Zone opening and closing to it, along with some choice Rod Serling narration at the start and end, and _voila!_ A new TZ episode. I don't know where you can find it, today, tho.

"You idiots! You blew it up! Damn you! Damn you all to Hell!" He's cursing his ancestors who allowed his species' civilization to die.

"Spaceballs! There goes the planet!"

The coolest thing is that the responsibles for the recent trilogy (Matt Reeves in the last two movies) definetly have showed respect for the 68's film. The 3 movies are about the rising of Ceasar until his death. However in the first one (in this trilogy) there is a scene inside a bus where a man is reading a newspaper and can be sight in the main Headlines in the front page an "easter egg" related to the classic movie from 1968: "Astronauts are lost in the space". That's the connection to what will happen with Taylor (Charlton Heston's Character) due the spaceship is lost for a long time and which being compared to the Earth's time, for those who are in the planet the time moves faster than the space - Albert Einstein's Theory of Relativity. Then 3000 years ahead (showed on spaceship dash in the begining of the movie) will make possible the apes reach a kind of development that is shown on the classic from 1968 in story presented and the iconic final scene. A special link for the fans: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/iMiapM-A2pOneqM.html Best regards from Belo Horizonte City - State of Minas Gerais - Brazil.

I had a bunch of the action figures and glue together models in the 70's from these films. I still wish I had those. They're probably worth a lot now.

Basically, yes, he was back home and never realized it! While he was gone, something 'nuclear' happened