Posted on IMDB by slackline70, May 24, 2016

I was born in 1968 - so obviously I don't remember what people thought of the twist of The Planet of the Apes actually being Earth at the time.

I first saw the movie on TV when I was about 13. I thought it was a good movie - but I also remember not being terribly shocked by the ending. Particularly because they made such a point to say the astronauts had awoken in the distant future - and because in the 60s and 70s pretty much EVERY movie set in the distant future had mankind's Earth getting it's *ss handed to it in some way or another. If we hadn't blown ourselves up in a nuclear war, been taken over by pale-skinned vampires in over-sized Jawa hoodies, or found out our favorite candy bar was made out of people - we would have at least been enslaved by apes. By the time Chuck and co. found the talking doll, I remember thinking he had to be pretty thick if he didn't see it coming that he was in fact on Earth - especially since he had recently starred in so many other end-of-the-world movies.

However, I may have at some time in my early childhood seen the Statue of Liberty scene without fully processing it - but remembering enough of it subconsciously to know what was going to happen by the time I watched the entire movie. In retrospect it was pretty obvious that Bruce Willis was a ghost in The Sixth Sense - but I admit I definitely didn't see that coming at the time.

So - how big a surprise was the ending in 1968? Were people in the theater genuinely surprised?

RESPONSES

by haristas I was eight when I first saw this movie in early April, 1968 (I turned nine that year in June, '68), so take what you will from the eight-year-old that I was then when I tell you the ending of PLANET OF THE APES was a shock then, not just for the kid I was, but for the packed theater audience of mostly adults I saw it with. I can also still remember the gasps from that audience,

More than any other movie I saw as a kid (pre-teen years), this one had the biggest impact and remains my favorite movie to this day.

by rpn313 I first saw this movie as a 10 year old on TV in the mid 80's. My sentiment was the same as yours, utter shock at the twist ending, never saw it coming. And it left such an impression on me that it remains on my all time favorite movies. Showed my two kids the movie today aged 9 and 7 and they were both surprised at the ending and won't stop talking about it. This a classic movie that will be enjoyed over and over again through the generations.

by keith123300-1 I'm shocked that the twist would surprise anyone considering the cave reveal prior to the twist spells it out.

If people couldn't figure it out after the findings in the cave then they can't be very intelligent.

Same way The 6th Sense twist is predictable from the start - why show him being shot at the start unless it means something.

by Fletcherj119 I was eleven when I first saw this movie, and Taylor had me convinced it was a different planet until the ending.

by onerichard I don't necessarily believe people were shocked! by the ending. For me it felt more like a confirmation than a complete reveal.

They could have been in many places on Earth.... Taylor himself could have believed it, or thought maybe they were on earth.. I mean it looked like earth, didn't it? What planet did they think they were on?

The reveal was that they were spoiler alert! on North America's East coast of New York City !!! And not some far off (from where they launched) continent like a jungle of Africa for example.

it was the slow reveal of a statue half buried at the ocean beach that made it such a wow moment.

by Fletcherj119 Taylor thought they were light-years away from Earth, so did I. If the humans were able to speak, maybe that would've made it more evident that it had been Earth.

by Kompressor_Fan I was 6 when it came out and I first saw the movie. Totally did not see that ending coming! Then again....I was only 6.

by Fletcherj119 On my first viewing I thought the beings sneaking through the shrubs by the waterfall were the apes until we saw they were human. I didn't have a clue it was really Earth.

by JoeKarlosi I was 6 when the movie came out but I didn't catch up with it until it aired on TV in 1973 so I already knew the whole concept. But I went to see the film the other night theatrically (Fathom Events) with my nephew, and I remarked afterward that it's incredible to conceive now that audiences truly had no idea this was Earth back in the '60s. What I mean is, these days people are so conditioned to expecting "twists and turns". Same thing holds true for people being duped by the revelation in Hitchcock's PSYCHO (1960) -- though that's another topic!

by cada123 "If we hadn't blown ourselves up in a nuclear war, been taken over by pale-skinned vampires in over-sized Jawa hoodies, or found out our favorite candy bar was made out of people - we would have at least been enslaved by apes. By the time Chuck and co. found the talking doll, I remember thinking he had to be pretty thick if he didn't see it coming that he was in fact on Earth - especially since he had recently starred in so many other end-of-the-world movies".

Slack, This movie was first shown in the theaters in 1968. Other films such as Star Wars, Soylent Green, Omega Man, etc. did not appear until the 1970's - so original audiences had not been influenced by them - and Taylor (Chuck) would not have been, either.

The generally innocent feeling of the early 1960's had been eroded by 1968 (the Assassinations of ML King and Bobby Kennedy, the Vietnam War - etc. etc!). But the more jaded feeling of the late 60's had not Quite Yet pervaded the entire population (hence, "Don't trust anyone over 30" - widely quoted by youth & young adults of the era, and thus a bit of comic relief in the movie).

I had later seen Planet/Apes on TV as an adult, and I found the ending to be Very shocking. I had not (quite Yet!) entirely acquired the more global cynicism which Taylor so eloquently gives voice to.

*btw, I have not read the book - but I understand (from someone who has) that the ending is Quite different.

(I won't give spoilers here because I heard about it years ago, and might get part of it wrong. I will just say that from what I do remember, it would be hard to make a believable ending of it - even harder than the Heston version is to believe.)

by hachmom-1 I've read the novel several times, and the biggest problem would be to keep secret on film, a visual medium, what isn't revealed to the reader until the very end, especially given the characters appear at the beginning as well (literally finding a message in a bottle).

by rainbird131162 I've seen the movie more times than I can remember over the last five decades and that ending never fails to impress. I think it's because one of the strengths of the film is that it so convincingly drops you into a world where everything is upside down that the possibility of our heroes being on Earth never seems obvious. That's a hard trick to pull off in this kind of story and it relies on the viewers attention being constantly distracted, something the movie achieves quite brilliantly. I just watched it again the other night and it hadn't lost any of its power. It is one of cinema's great SF masterpieces (and as good as Charlton Heston is Roddy McDowell and Kim Hunter steal every scene they're in!)

by wxray1 I was about 9 when I saw it on TV with my parents. It was the first network broadcast. My parents didn't see it in the theaters (they were more into James Bond).

They were shocked. At 9 years old, I got it totally and remember being blown away. We had just been to NYC and visited the statue. Wow!