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Charlton Heston stars as astronaut Taylor who crash lands in a lake on what he estimates to be a distant planet. When he happens upon the local humans, mute and ragged, foraging like sheep, he figures he'll be running things in less than a year. But, just ten minutes later they're practically wiped out by the actual dominant species. Silenced by a throat wound and captured, he observes dumbfounded a society that has evolved differantly. Here, the dominant species are apes and humans are the mute animals to be hunted for sport and experiments.
Their society has class divisions based upon species. Orangutans are the politicians and priests, Chimpanzees are the scientist and critical thinkers, and Gorillas are the brute soldiers and military police in a Theocracy. His life comes to depend upon the friendly chimp scientist Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) who takes notice of Taylor's "superior" intelligence.
The government will not tolerate science that challenges the official dogma and so there is a "Forbidden Zone" where apes are not allowed to go, evidently a cover-up. The existence of Taylor, who regains his speach, is a threat to the authoritarian Dr. Zaius, who has been suppresssing the archeological findings in the Forbidden Zone which contradict the teachings of the church. Taylor not only challenges Zaius's status quo, he fulfills a dreaded holy prophecy that a New Man will come and destroy ape civilization.
Taylor, with the help of Chimpanzees McDowall & Kim Hunter, finds a possible mate with cavegirl Nova, a fellow prisoner and avoids the scalpel. Zaius sees Taylor off from the Forbidden Zone with a private conversation that makes his fears painfully obvious. He wants Taylor eradicated because Man by his very nature is naturally evil: arrogant, violent, destructive. He tells him that humans destroyed their world and are capable of doing the same to the Ape world. His parting words, "You won't like what you'll find out there...
With one of the cinema's first twisted, downbeat shock endings, the immense popularity of the film spawned four sequels establishing a franchise, both an animated and live action TV series, a re-make and a prequel trilogy over the years.