Planet of the Apes is a 2001 American science fiction adventure film directed by Tim Burton from a screenplay by William Broyles Jr., Lawrence Konner, and Mark Rosenthal. The sixth installment in the Planet of the Apes film series, it is loosely based on the 1963 novel of the same name by Pierre Boulle and serves as a remake of the 1968 film version. The film stars Mark Wahlberg, Tim Roth, Helena Bonham Carter, Michael Clarke Duncan, Kris Kristofferson, Estella Warren, and Paul Giamatti. It tells the story of astronaut Leo Davidson (Wahlberg) crash-landing on a planet inhabited by intelligent apes. The apes treat humans as slaves, but with the help of an ape named Ari (Bonham Carter), Leo starts a rebellion.
Development for a Planet of the Apes remake started as far back as 1988 with Adam Rifkin. His project nearly reached the pre-production stage before being canceled. Terry Hayes's script, titled Return of the Apes, would have starred Arnold Schwarzenegger, under the direction of Phillip Noyce. Oliver Stone, Don Murphy, and Jane Hamsher were set to produce. Creative differences ensued between Hayes and distributor 20th Century Fox. Chris Columbus, Sam Hamm, James Cameron, Peter Jackson, and the Hughes brothers later became involved. With Broyles Jr.'s script, Burton was hired as director, and the film was put into active development. Konner and Rosenthal rewrote the script, and filming took place from November 2000 to April 2001.
Planet of the Apes was released in the United States on July 27, 2001, by 20th Century Fox. The film received mixed reviews from critics, who criticized the confusing plot and ending, but praised Rick Baker's prosthetic makeup designs, visual aspects, and musical score. Despite its financial success, Fox chose not to produce a sequel, and later rebooted the film series in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
Plot
In 2029, aboard the United States Air Force space station Oberon, Leo Davidson works closely with apes who are trained for space missions. His favorite ape co-worker is a chimpanzee named Pericles. With a deadly electromagnetic storm approaching the station, a small space pod piloted by Pericles is used to probe the storm. Pericles's pod heads into the storm and disappears. Leo takes a second pod to find Pericles. Entering the storm, Leo loses contact with the Oberon and, in 5021 A.D., crashes on a planet called Ashlar. He learns that the world is ruled by humanoid apes who speak English, use domesticated horses for transportation, and treat human beings as slaves.
Leo meets a female chimpanzee named Ari, who protests the mistreatment humans receive. Ari decides to buy Leo and a female slave named Daena to have them work as servants in the house of her father, Senator Sandar. Leo escapes his cage and frees other humans. Limbo, an orangutan trader in captured humans, sees them but is taken prisoner to ensure his silence. The murderous General Thade and his gorilla junior, Colonel Attar, march ape warriors to pursue the humans. Leo discovers Calima, the forbidden, but holy temple of "Semos", the first ape whom the apes revere as a god.
Calima turns out to be the remains of the Oberon which had crashed on the planet's surface and now looks ancient (the name Calima comes from the sign "CAution LIve aniMAls", the relevant letters being the only ones not covered in dust). According to the computer logs, the station has been there for thousands of years. Leo deduces that when he entered the vortex, he was pushed forward in time, while the Oberon, searching after him, was not, crashing on the planet long before he did.
The Oberon's log reveals that the apes on board, led by Semos, organized a mutiny and took over the vessel after it crashed. The human and ape survivors of the struggle left the ship and their descendants are the people Leo has encountered since landing. The apes arrive and attack the humans who have gathered to see Leo, although he is able to even the odds when he uses the Oberons last fragments of fuel to fire a final blast at the first wave of apes. The battle stops when a familiar vehicle descends from the sky, which Leo immediately identifies as the pod piloted by Pericles, the chimpanzee astronaut who was pushed in time as Leo was and had just now found his way to the planet, the electromagnetic storm actually releasing people from it in an opposite direction in time to their entrance because they were actually traveling backwards not forward in time. When Pericles lands and the pod opens, the apes bow, interpreting his arrival as the return of Semos, and hostilities between humans and apes suddenly cease.