Planet of the Apes
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{{infobox Book | <!-- See Wikipedia:WikiProject_Novels or Wikipedia:WikiProject_Books -->
| name = Planet of the Apes<br>(Monkey Planet)
| title_orig = La planète des singes
| translator = [[Xan Fielding]]
| image = [[Image:PlanetApesBook.jpg|200px]]<!--prefer 1st edition-->
| image_caption = 1970s film tie-in edition
| author = [[Pierre Boulle]]
| cover_artist =
| country = {{FRA}}
| language = [[French language|French]]
| series =
| genre = [[Science fiction novel]]
| publisher = [[Livre De Poche]]
| release_date = [[1963]]
| media_type = Print ([[Hardcover|Hardback]] & [[Paperback]])
| pages =
| isbn = <!-- first published before ISBN system started -->
| preceded_by =
| followed_by =
}}
{{Two other uses|the book|the 1968 film|Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|the 2001 remake|Planet of the Apes (2001 film)}}
'''''Planet of the Apes''''' is a novel by [[Pierre Boulle]], originally published in 1963 in [[French language|French]] as '''''La planète des singes'''''. As ''[[:fr:singe|singe]]'' means both "[[ape]]" and "[[monkey]]," [[Xan Fielding]] called his translation '''''Monkey Planet'''''. It is an example of social commentary through [[dystopia]].
==Plot summary==
The main events of the book are placed in a [[frame story]], in which Jinn and Phillys, a couple out on a pleasure cruise in a spaceship, find a message in a bottle floating in space. The message inside the bottle is the log of a man, Ulysse Mérou, who has written down his story in hopes that someone else, somewhere, will find it.
Ulysse begins by explaining that he was friends with Professor Antelle, a genius scientist on Earth, who invented a sophisticated spaceship which could travel at nearly the speed of light. Ulysse, the professor, and a physician named Levain fly off in this ship to explore outer space. They travel to the nearest star system that the professor theorized might be capable of life, the red sun [[Betelgeuse]], which would take them about 350 years to reach. Due to [[time dilation]], however, the trip only seems two years long to the travelers.
They arrive at the distant solar system and find that it contains an Earth-like planet, which they christen ''Soror'' ([[Latin]] for ''sister''), "because of its resemblance to our Earth." They land on the planet and discover that they can breathe the air, drink the water, and eat the local vegetation. They soon encounter other human beings on the planet, although these others act as primitive as [[chimpanzee]]s and destroy the clothing of the three astronauts. They are captured by the primitive humans and stay with them for a few hours.
At the end of this time, they are startled to see a hunting party in the forest, consisting of [[gorilla]]s, [[orangutan]]s, and chimpanzees using guns and machines. The apes wear human clothing identical to that of 20th century Earth, with the exception that they wear gloves instead of shoes on their [[prehensile]] feet. The hunting party shoots several of the humans for sport, including Levain, and capture others, including Ulysse.
Ulysse is taken off to the apes' city, which looks exactly the same as a human city from 20th century Earth, with the exception that some smaller furniture exists for the use of the chimpanzees. While most of the humans captured by the hunting party are sold for manual labor, the protagonist winds up in a research facility which is doing experiments on human intelligence. The apes perform experiments on the humans similar to [[Ivan Pavlov|Pavlov's]] conditioning experiments on dogs, and Ulysse proves his intelligence by failing to be conditioned, speaking and drawing figures of [[geometry]].
Ulysse is taken in by one of the researchers, Zira, a female chimpanzee, who begins to teach him the apes' language. He learns from her all about the ape planet. Eventually, he is freed from his cage, and meets Zira's fiancé, Cornélius, a respected young scientist. With Cornélius' help, he goes to make a speech in front of the ape President and several representatives, and is given specially tailored clothing. He tours the city and learns about the apes' civilization and history. The apes have a very ancient society, but their origins are lost in time. Their technology and culture have progressed slowly through the centuries because each generation, for the most part, imitates those of the past, considered to be a recognized ape-like characteristic. The society is divided up between the violent gorillas, pedantic and conservative orangutans, and intellectual chimpanzees.
Although Ulysse's chimpanzee patrons Zira and Cornélius are convinced of his sentience, the society's leading orangutan scientists believe that he is faking his understanding of language, because their philosophy will not allow for the possibility of sentient human beings.
Ulysse falls in love with a primitive human female, Nova, whom he had met in the forest at the beginning of his visit to the planet. He impregnates her and this proves that he is the same species as the primitive humans, which lowers his standing in the eyes of many of the apes. However, their derision turns to fear with a discovery in a distant archaealogical dig and analysis of memory in some human brains. Evidence is uncovered which fills in the missing history of the apes. In the distant past, the planet was ruled by human beings, who built a technological society, and enslaved apes to perform their manual labor. Over time the humans became more and more dependent upon the apes, until eventually they became so lazy and degenerate that they were overthrown by their ape servants and fell into the primitive state in which our protagonist found them.
While some of the apes reject this evidence, others - in particular, an old orangutan scientist, Dr. Zaius - take it as a sign that the humans are a threat and must be exterminated. Ulysse gets wind of this, and escapes from the planet with his wife and newly-born son, returning to Earth in the professor's spaceship.
Again, the trip takes several centuries, but only a relative time of a few years to the protagonist. Ulysse lands on Earth, over 700 years after he had originally left it, and lands outside the city of [[Paris]]. However, once outside the ship, he discovers that Earth is now ruled by sentient apes just like the planet from which he has just fled (this is where his story on paper ends). He immediately blasts his ship off into space once more, writes his story, places it in a bottle, and launches it into space for someone to find. It is at this point in the story that it is discovered that the Jinn and Phillys, the couple who found the log, are chimpanzees. Jinn and Phillys dismiss the story written by Ulysse because a human would not have the intelligence.
==Other media==
This story of a dystopian ape society has been popular in other media as well. Boulle's idea has been made into movies, television series, additional novel adaptations, and a video game.
===Films===
''[[Planet of the Apes (1968 film)|Planet of the Apes]]'' (1968) was a groundbreaking science fiction film based on Boulle's novel, and was directed by [[Franklin J. Schaffner]] and starred [[Charlton Heston]]. It was the vision of producer [[Arthur P. Jacobs]], who commissioned [[Rod Serling]] to write the script, but the final version would be written by [[Michael Wilson (writer)|Michael Wilson]]. Jacobs enlisted Heston (who enlisted Schaffner) well before any production deal was made, and Heston's star status was instrumental in gaining support for the film. They gained the support of Mort Abrahams after producing a short film demo which showed that the makeups (initially created by Ben Nye, Sr., not to be confused with the design by [[John Chambers (make-up artist)|John Chambers]] for the actual film) could be convincing enough to not appear funny, as most "monkey suits" up to that time had. In the English-language films, the apes are insulted when called "monkeys," but in the original book, no distinction is made because "singes" is a French word for both "apes" and "monkeys".
There were four [[sequel]]s to Schaffner's film, creating a [[pentalogy]], which also deviate from the finer points of the storyline in Boulle's book:
*''[[Beneath the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1970)
*''[[Escape from the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1971)
*''[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1972)
*''[[Battle for the Planet of the Apes]]'' (1973)
The 1968 film was [[Reboot (continuity)|reimagined]] in 2001 - see ''[[Planet of the Apes (2001 film)]]''.
===Television series===
There were also two [[television series]]:
*''[[Planet of the Apes (TV series)|Planet of the Apes]]'' ([[1974]])
*''[[Return to the Planet of the Apes]]'' (animated) ([[1975]])
===Comics===
{{seealso|Planet of the Apes (comic)}}
===Novels===
====Original novel====
*''Planet of The Apes'' ("Monkey Planet") by [[Pierre Boulle]] [[1963]]
==== Original film adaptations====
*''[[Beneath the Planet of the Apes]]'' by [[Michael Avallone]]
* ''[[Escape from the Planet of the Apes]]'' by [[Jerry Pournelle]]
* ''[[Conquest of the Planet of the Apes]]'' by [[John Jakes]]
* ''[[Battle for the Planet of the Apes]]'' by [[David Gerrold]]
====Film adaptations and prequels to the 2001 version====
*''[[Planet of the Apes (2001 film)|Planet of the Apes]]'' by [[William Thomas Quick]] [[2001]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes: The Fall]]'' by [[William Thomas Quick]] [[2002]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes: Colony]]'' by [[William Thomas Quick]] [[2003]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes: Junior Novelization]]'' by [[John Whitman]] [[2001]]
*''[[Resistance (Planet of the Apes)]]'' by [[John Whitman]] [[2002]]
*''[[Force (Planet of the Apes)]]'' by [[John Whitman]] [[2002]]
====Graphic novel====
*''[[Planet of the Apes (comic)|Planet of the Apes: Movie Adaptation]]'' by [[Scott Allie]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes (comic)|Planet of the Apes: The Human War]]'' by [[Ian Edginton]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes (comic)|Planet of the Apes: Old Gods]]'' by [[Ian Edginton]]
*''[[Planet of the Apes (comic)|Planet of the Apes: Blood Lines]]'' by [[Dan Abnett]] & [[Ian Edginton]]
====''[[Planet of the Apes (TV series)|Television series adaptations]]''====
*''Planet of the Apes #1 - Man The Fugitive'' by [[George Alec Effinger]]
*''Planet of the Apes #2 - Escape to Tomorrow'' by [[George Alec Effinger]]
*''Planet of the Apes #3 - Journey into Terror'' by [[George Alec Effinger]]
*''Planet of the Apes #4 - Lord of the Apes'' by [[George Alec Effinger]]
====''[[Return to the Planet of the Apes|Animated series adaptations]]''====
*''Return to the Planet of the Apes #1'' by William Arrow [ [[William Rotsler]] ]
*''Return to the Planet of the Apes #2'' by William Arrow [ [[Donald J. Pfeil]] ]
*''Return to the Planet of the Apes #3'' by William Arrow [ [[William Rotsler]] ]
===Children's filmstrips===
Chad Valley, a U.K. toy company, produced 32 short filmstrips containing an original TV-series-era story, packaged as the Chad Valley Picture Show Planet of the Apes Sliderama Projector (very similar to the many Give-a-Show projector sets of the 1970s. These strips are extremely rare and difficult to come by.
===Video game===
*A "Planet of the Apes" PC game was released by [[Ubi Soft]] in 2001, but did not gain much popularity due to poor graphics, repetitive and simple gameplay, and lack of promotion. The game revolves around the struggle of main character Ulysses to find a way to protect the fate of the remaining humans. In this game world, all humans speak and ape technology is much more advanced than that of the "Planet of the Apes" films (computers, laser guns, etc.)
*In 2001, a "Planet of the Apes" video game developed by [[Torus Games]] and published by [[Ubi Soft]] for [[Game Boy Advance]] and the [[Game Boy Color]].
*In 2002, a "Planet of the Apes" video game developed by [[Visiware]] and published by [[Ubi Soft]] for [[Sony]] [[PlayStation]].
*A "Planet of the Apes" video game was canceled for [[Sega Dreamcast]].
*A "Planet of the Apes" game was planned for the [[Atari 2600]] but was cancelled because of the [[North American video game crash of 1983|1983 game crash]].
===Articles===
*''Planet of the Apes'' (Magazine) #2, October 1974. P. 41-45, "Simian Genesis" by Gary Gerani. A review of Pierre Boulle's classic novel, Planet of the Apes.
===Other references===
*"[[A Fish Called Selma]]", an episode of ''[[The Simpsons]]'', featured [[Troy McClure]] as the lead in a [[Theatre|stage]] [[Musical theatre|musical]] ''Stop the Planet of the Apes I Want to Get Off'' based on ''Planet of the Apes''. The musical featured such hit [[showstopper]] songs as "Dr. Zaius" (to the tune of "[[Amadeus]]") and "You'll Never Make a Monkey Out of Me" with the lyrics "I Hate Every Ape I See, from Chim-pan-A to Chim-pan-ZEE".
*Many toy [[tie-in]]s to the 1974 television series were produced, such as [[toy weapons]] and [[playset]]s.
*[[Horror Punk]] band [[Frankenstein Drag Queens From Planet 13]] had a song named "Planet Of The Apes" on their album ''[[Viva Las Violence]]''.
*Alternative group [[They Might Be Giants]] included several hidden tracks named after the titles of each of the original films on their album ''[[Severe Tire Damage (album)|Severe Tire Damage]]''.
*[[Punk rock|Punk]] band [[Screeching Weasel]] had a song named "Planet Of The Apes" on their album ''[[How to Make Enemies and Irritate People]]''.
*In "[[Jay and Silent Bob Strike Back]]," Jay muses about Suzanne the orangutan being the cause for the downfall of humanity. He envisioned himself hitting the sand on a beach after seeing a half buried Statue of Liberty, much like Charlton Heston did in the movie version.
*In the movie [[Spaceballs]] in a scene after Spaceball 1 self-destructs, the head of Spaceball 1 is is spotted, having crashed onto the shore, by sentient apes riding horses and wearing armor similar to those in the movie.
* In The Series Raving Reporters Flame Ze Dragon Gets Stuck On The Planet Of The Apes In Episode 9
==See also==
*[[Twist ending]]
==External links==
*[http://www.potamediaarchive.com/ Planet of the Apes Media Archive] -- Multi-Media website including original One Sheet posters, Trading Card, Restored Comics Covers, an interactive Timeline, Rare Videos and much more.
*[http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/Pota/ Planet of the Apes Yahoo Group]
*[http://movies.groups.yahoo.com/group/PotaDG/ Planet of the Apes discussion group]
*[http://themoderatevoice.com/at-tmv/guest-contributor/17013/dvd-review-thoughts-on-the-planet-of-the-apes/ In depth review of the Planet Of The Apes franchise]
*[http://www.movieprop.com/tvandmovie/PlanetoftheApes/character1.htm Character information]
*[http://www.angelfire.com/pa2/trekker/POTA.html A good reference for the TV and movie franchises]
*[http://www.seedwiki.com/wiki/chronology_central/planet_of_the_apes.cfm?wpid=183424 Chronology Central's Planet of the Apes page] - Contains a chronological listing of all the Planet of the Apes material, including the television series, the films, and the comic book series
*[http://www.tvobscurities.com/articles/fall74_2.php TVObscurities.com] - includes 1974 CBS fall preview for the live-action series
*[http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A661673 h2g2 link on Planet of the Apes]
*[http://www.vmix.com/video/128175 ''Planet of the Apes Gag''] -- Courtesy of Twentieth Century Fox
*[http://pota.goatley.com/ Hunter's Planet of the Apes Archive] Extensive fan site with information on all original films and series, scripts, comics and other relevant material.
*[http://www.theforbidden-zone.com/ The Forbidden Zone] Large Fan site with information on the films, TV shows, comics, and more.
*[http://www.atariprotos.com/2600/software/planetoftheapes/planetoftheapes.htm] Information about the Atari 2600 game
*[http://www.megomuseum.com/pota/index.html The Planet of the Apes galleries] at Mego Museum
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[[Category:Planet of the Apes|*]]
[[Category:1963 novels]]
[[Category:French novels]]
[[Category:Dystopian novels]]
[[Category:French science fiction]]
[[Category:Time travel in fiction]]
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