Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Noa's Character Arc

or

"Decency. Morality. Strength. Compassion."

"It's all in the eyes, isn't it?"

Laurence Olivier

Caesar is dead. Long live Caesar.

The new entry of the re-booted "Planet of the Apes" series continues with a fourth one, titled Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Taking place "many generations later" than the previous one, we're introduced to an entirely new set of characters and circumstances as Earth starts to adjust to the population upheavals of "The Simian Virus" (we've been told that only 1 in 500 humans were immune to the deadly virus, which came from developing a cure for Alzheimer's*). It has become apparent that the re-boot series has a slightly more ironic demise for mankind, choosing Good Intentions over Nuclear Stupidity. 

Another difference from the original series is that this time around (or in this Universe, if you want to get all science-fiction-y about it) the Apes filled a void left by Mankind's decimation. In the Apes series 1.0, another virus killed all dogs and cats, and apes became their replacements-and mankind being unkind-found them handy as slaves. All it took was the progeny of a time-traveling future ape couple to light the spark of revolution.**

Up to this point, the reboot series has been pretty binary...it was only apes and humans. The occasional horse, of course (of course), but the Planet of the Apes has, of late, been a poor example of bio-diversity. Kingdom changes that. Our first shot is of an eagle swooping down and snagging a fish out of a lake. And before anyone can suspect they're seeing a Planet of the Eagles movie, it swoops onto the waiting arm of an ape, just like Grub-hub. We are in the midst of the Eagle Clan, who have a neat little system of farming and hunting, while letting the eagles do the work. Not much conflict there, but it's a thriving self-sustaining community.

But, getting down to particulars, we then follow a trio of apes on a mission. Noa (Owen Teague), Anaya (Travis Jeffery), and Soona (Lydia Peckham) are climbing their way up the sides of dilapidated skyscrapers hunting for unhatched eagle eggs. The next day is bonding day where they will be paired with their eagle hatchlings that will join them in the hunting/gathering expected of them. And it's the way of the Eagle Clan to claim an egg—leaving one in the nest for the perpetuation of the species in the wild—fighting off dizzying heights and outraged eagles to find that one egg that "sings to you."

All well and good, despite some complications. These chimpanzees are basically young adults, and they spook easily, given the stories told to them from their forefathers, particularly of creatures they call "Echoes" that (legend has it) live beyond the tunnel kilometers away from the village. Plus, they've been having trouble with "scavengers" who have been stealing crops and helping themselves to the fish in the smoke-house. Noa has a night-time confrontation with one, and in the struggle, his eagle egg gets crushed, and despite warnings from friends and his parents, he decides to make a last-minute excursion to get another egg before the ceremony starts.

And it's here that I have to stop any synopsis because the spoilers start coming pretty fast and loose 20 minutes into the movie. Things get complicated—in the way it's happened in quite a few Westerns—and Noa must go on a hero's quest that pretty much follows the Joseph Campbell playbook of the noble cause mixed with the righting of wrongs. At the same time, there are "echoes" of the past films that any history with the series, past or present, will recognize.***

How is it? Really good, in the way the previous three re-boot films have been very good (as opposed to Apes 1.0 that was a series of diminishing returns). And—as critic Glenn Kenney used the term in his review of Rise of the Planet of the Apes—it delivers a couple of genuine "Holy Shit!" moments. The art design is really impressive, showing a United States—specifically—that Nature has taken over. A couple apes will be riding horses in the foreground, and when they move enough that you can see where they've been, you goggle "Ohmigod! That's an airport!" (I had the same reaction to some of the scenes in Civil War recently). There's a nice depth to the imagining of an ape civilization done by the WETA wizards that says a lot about the society by the junk it keeps...and values. And the writers provide wonders a-plenty that you just know in your gut are going to be used as sequel fodder—they "sing to you."

And the acting in these things are always better than they have a right to be, given the obfuscation of masks or CGI face-grids, and Kingdom has a lot of talent on display despite the fact that you never see their faces and you wouldn't recognize them if you passed them on the street. There's something about their choice of how an ape will sound speaking English that's fun to experience. One of the actors (Kevin Durand), playing a populist-leader-with-eyes-towards-dictatorship does a lovely spin that sounds remarkably like James Earl Jones. 

But, like Olivier said, "it's all in the eyes, isn't it?" Despite the overlay of CG, the expressions in the eyes always shine through, making a connection with audiences whatever the mood they're conveying. And given the encumbrances of the motion-capture suits the actors are forced to wear, that it all comes off seamlessly, and one just gets used to seeing the apes as characters, like any other biped. One becomes fascinated with the macro and the micro of the ape

It's quite extraordinary, really. And there are just enough threads for future stories that one wants to see what will evolve in future installments, keeping in mind that there is still a spaceship out there "lost in space" (that the San Francisco Chronicle paper headlined) on its way to Mars. Like the way-laid mission from the 1968 film, that ship should be coming down sometime—it was called "Icarus" after all. And one wonders what those astronauts will find when they get there.

Will ape and human be able to get along and co-exist peacefully? Will those astronauts find a better society than the one they left? The indications in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes points to a negative answer. But the question is still intriguing.

* The development of this cure also radically increased the intelligence of our genetic first cousins...apes. Hence, their rapid rise in the food-chain.

** And talk about irony: those apes came to 1970's Earth using Charlton Heston's spaceship from the original movie, the one that took him to the future planet of the apes in the first place. You want to blame somebody for the planet going topsy turvy? Blame Heston!

 

*** At one point a character is given the name "Nova" and when asked why, the name-giver says "We always call them 'Nova.' I don't know why."

Don't Make a Scene (Redux): Planet of the Apes

The new "Planet of the Apes" film—Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the fourth in the re-boot series—is out now. We'll have a review of it this week...

The Story: There's one section of this script by Michael Wilson that cracks me up every time—the descriptive line for Dr. Zaius: "His face is a mask..."

No kidding?

Wilson's re-write of Rod Serling's initial story drafts is a deft melding of the two men's ideas. They were both fire-brand liberals, Wilson being black-listed during the 50's. He has one of the more interesting marks of the black-list, one that ties in with this movie.

Wilson wrote the screenplay of The Bridge on the River Kwai, which, like Planet of the Apes is also based on a novel by French novelist Pierre Boulle. But because Wilson's participation would not be acknowledged by the producers—a practice broken in 1960 with Dalton Trumbo's credits for Exodus and Spartacus—the credit for the screenplay went to Boulle himself. And when the film won an Academy award for Best Screenplay the same year it won Best Picture, it was Boulle who collected the statuette for the project he did not adapt. In 1984, to redress the incident Columbia Pictures issued a new release of the film with Wilson's name (and co-scenarist's Carl Foreman) and AMPAS awarded posthumous statues to the writers.

Again, I have a chance to use the final script as the basis for this scene, and its interesting to see what was left out: a lot of small changes have been made, tiny little ones mostly in Heston's lines, making them simpler in language and more declarative in intent. But the major changes are more interesting. For example, there's an exchange between Taylor and Zira after their good-bye kiss where the two races are united by a common recognition of God (that acknowledgement makes Taylor's final outburst more literal); the send-off to Lucius about dissent came at a time of student unrest across college campuses during the Viet-Nam war. Wilson's promotion of dissent as the way to change is muted by substituting the youth joke-line "never trust anybody over thirty" which got a laugh at the time the film was released, but gets mystified looks nowadays.

And then there's the Taylor concession speech, of sorts, saying that he was "an intelligent being who means...no harm"*

The reading from the Lawgiver's Scroll (the 29th Scroll; Sixth Verse), however, is...word for word.

The Set-Up: Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) is marooned on a desolate planet where apes are the dominant life-form, subjugating human beings like himself as animals. Now he's running for his life, with the help of three chimpanzee scientists (Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Lou Wagner), escaping from the orangutan overlords who want to kill him (or worse!) led by Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans). An ambush has been thwarted. And now in that section of the planet called "The Forbidden Zone" by the apes, all the parties have found an archaeological dig unearthing evidence of a technologically advanced human civilization preceding apes. To avoid a gorilla ambush, Taylor has taken Zaius hostage for a chance to escape and for provisions. But the conversation and the animosity continues...

Action!
To properly chart the significant differences between script and film, sections have been color-coded:
Deletions are in RED; Additions are in Yellow

Zira and Cornelius look down at the captive mandarin. Their rebellious spirit has evaporated, and they are clearly afraid.
ZIRA: Taylor, please -- don't treat him that way.
TAYLOR: Why not?
ZIRA: It's humiliating.
TAYLOR: Wasn't I humiliated? By all of you? Didn't you lead me around on a leash?
CORNELIUS: That was different. We thought you were .... inferior.
TAYLOR (wintry smile): And now you know the truth.
(to Zaius)
TAYLOR: Cornelius has beaten you, Doctor. He proved it. Man preceded you here. You owe him your science, your language your culture...
TAYLOR: ...whatever knowledge civilization you have.
ZAIUS (quietly): Then answer this: If man was superior, why didn't he survive?
TAYLOR (shrugging): He might have been wiped out by a plague. Natural catastrophe. Like a fiery storm of meteors. From the looks of this part of your planet, I'd say that was a fair bet.
ZIRA (weakly): But we can't be sure.
TAYLOR (indicating Zaius): He is. He knew all the time. Long before your discovery, he knew.
(to Zaius)
Defender of the Faith. Guardian of the terrible secret.
TAYLOR: Isn't that right, doctor?

385-388 OUT

389 REVERSE ANGLE - CIRCLE - FAVORING ZAIUS
As Zira and Cornelius look at him expectantly.
ZAIUS: What I know of man was written long ago -- set down by the wisest ape of all -- our Lawgiver.
(to Cornelius)
ZAIUS: Cornelius. Open my breast pocket.
Cornelius crosses to Zaius, and takes a small book bound in black
leather from the breast pocket of his tunic.
ZAIUS: Read it to him: the twenty ninth Scroll, sixth Verse.
Cornelius thumbs through the book, finds the citation and reads aloud:
CORNELIUS: 'Beware the beast man, for he is the devil's pawn.'
CORNELIUS: 'Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport...
CORNELIUS: ...or lust or greed.'
CORNELIUS: 'Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land.'
CORNELIUS: 'Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours.'
CORNELIUS: 'Shun him. Drive him back into his jungle lair:'
CORNELIUS: 'For he is the harbinger of death'.
Cornelius falls silent and looks down at Zaius.
ZAIUS (quietly): I found nothing in the cave to alter that conception of man. And I still live by its injunction.
A-389 ANOTHER ANGLE - THE GROUP
Lucius hurries out of the rocks leading a saddled horse. Zaius' five mounted gorillas appear behind him. Taylor calls out to them:
TAYLOR: Stay where you are! That's far enough!
Lucius comes up with the horse. Taylor checks the provisions in the saddlebags. Lucius is frowning.
LUCIUS: They think you're behaving foolishly. I must say I agree. Where will you go?
TAYLOR (nodding o.s.): I'll start by following the shoreline. (a smile) And my nose.
ZIRA: But suppose you find nothing but a wasteland. How will you survive?
ZAIUS (firmly): He won't survive.
(all look at him)
ZAIUS: Do you know what sort of life awaits you out there, Taylor? That of an animal. If you aren't eventually hunted down and killed by apes, some jungle beast will devour you.
TAYLOR: Then there is another jungle?
ZAIUS (shrugs; then, sardonically): Of course, you could return with us. Our society might find a place for you and your mate.
TAYLOR: Sure. In a cage.
ZAIUS: Where else, but in a cage, does man belong?
TAYLOR: No, thanks. I'll take freedom.
TAYLOR: Nova!
Taylor mounts the horse, extends a helping hand to Nova, who vaults nimbly onto the horse's rump. Taylor looks at Zira and Cornelius.
TAYLOR: Would you like to come along?
ZIRA: We can't.
TAYLOR: It's better than going to prison for heresy.
CORNELIUS: They can't convict us of that. You proved our innocence. Besides, his culture...
CORNELIUS:(indicating Zaius) ... is our culture.
TAYLOR: Good luck then.
He reaches down, grasps Cornelius' hand, then grins crookedly.
He extends his hand to Lucius, who takes it.
TAYLOR: Lucius.
LUCIUS: I think you're making a mistake.
TAYLOR: That's the boy. Keep 'em flying.
LUCIUS: What?
TAYLOR: The flags of discontent. It's the only way anything ever gets changed.
TAYLOR: Remember, never trust anybody over 30.
TAYLOR: Dr. Zira, I'd like to kiss you good-bye.
ZIRA: All right, but....
ZIRA (tears in her eyes): ...you're so damned ugly!
Taylor smiles, leans down, kisses her.
ZIRA (softly): Go with God, Taylor. (half smile) That's an old expression. it comes from both ape and man.
TAYLOR: God bless you.
TAYLOR: (to Zaius) Don't try to follow us.
(pats stock of his rifle)
I'm pretty handy with things like this.
ZAIUS: Of that I'm sure. All my life I've awaited your coming and dreaded it. Like death itself.
Taylor looks piercingly at Zaius, more troubled than offended.
TAYLOR: Why?
TAYLOR: From the first, I've terrified you, Doctor. And in spite of every sign that I'm an intelligent being who means no harm, you continue to hate and fear me. Why?
ZAIUS (calmly, without rancor): Because you are a man. And you were right -- I have always known about man. From the evidence, I believe his wisdom must walk hand in hand with his idiocy. His emotions must rule his brain. He must be a warlike animal who gives battle to everything around him -- even himself.
TAYLOR: What evidence? No weapons were found in the cave.
ZAIUS: The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago.
TAYLOR (he waits, then wearily): We're back at the beginning. I still don't know the why. A planet where apes evolved from men. A world turned wrong side up. A puzzle with one piece missing. There's got to be an answer.
ZAIUS (softly): Don't look for it, Taylor.
ZAIUS: You may not like what you find.

B-389 WIDER ANGLE - TAYLOR AND THE GROUP
Taylor shakes his head, still baffled, digs his heels into the horse's flank. It canters off along the sandy shore. Zira, Cornelius and Lucius sadly watch the departure.
ZAIUS: Untie me!
Cornelius moves quickly to remove the rope from Zaius' neck. Behind them, the five mounted gorillas gallop forward. Zaius gets up, waves them to a halt.
ZAIUS: No, no! Wait! Let him go!

C-389 MOVING SHOT - TAYLOR AND NOVA ON HORSEBACK
Taylor looks back, sees that Zaius has stopped the mounted apes, slows his horse to a trot, smiles at Nova.
390- OUT
405

406 MED. SHOT - THE APES
Zaius watches as Taylor's horse moves farther away along the beach.
Then he turns to an ape called MARCUS.
ZAIUS (quietly): Fetch your explosives. We're going to seal the cave.
MARCUS: Yes, sir.
He remounts his horse and rides o.s.
CORNELIUS (aghast): Seal the cave?
ZAIUS: That's correct. And you will both stand trial for heresy.
ZIRA: But the proof? The doll?
ZAIUS: In a few minutes there will be no doll.
ZAIUS: There can't be. (honest regret) I'm sorry.
Cornelius throws himself at Zaius.
CORNELIUS: You mustn't! You gave your word!
Zaius looks emptily at one of his apes.
ZAIUS: What I do, I do with no pleasure. Silence him.
A hairy hand is clapped over Cornelius' mouth. He is dragged off,
struggling, kicking. Lucius, unafraid, glares at Zaius.
LUCIUS: Dr. Zaius, this is inexcusable! Why must knowledge stand still? What about the future?
Zaius looks benevolently at Lucius.
ZAIUS:I may just have saved it for you.
Lucius and Zira look at each other, befuddled. Once more their eyes follow the retreating figures of Taylor and Nova. The beach separating the water from the canyon becomes narrower as they move downstream.
LUCIUS ZIRA: What will he find out there, doctor?

A-406 CLOSEUP - ZAIUS

His face is a mask, his tone enigmatic.

ZAIUS: His destiny.


Planet of the Apes

Words by Rod Serling and Michael Wilson

Pictures by Leon Shamroy and Franklin J. Schaffner

Planet of the Apes is available on DVD from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment.

* No one was going to quibble with Heston over line-changes on this one: he filmed a great deal of Planet of the Apes with a lingering flu—in a role played half naked on location most of the time!