Eljumaily-Planet of the Apes

Tim Burton’s film Planet of the Apes connects both ape and man by utilizing their many common dualities. One of the most obvious dualities was the battle between science and primitivism. Many key points in the film involve a metaphorical stare-off between technology and primates. Two of these points occur when Leo Davidson takes advantage of the technology in front of him and uses it to either forcefully control the apes or trick them into defeat. These scenes show the build of character that occurs when Davidson finally has his comfortable tools. He becomes much more of a leader and really gains the upper hand with his guns and spaceships.

            When Davidson and the rest of the crew escape into the forest and find the space-man’s gun and messaging unit, he really shows superiority and control. He takes Limbo as a hostage with the gun and tells everyone he has a spaceship to get to with his messenger, therefore making him the leader and navigator of the group. This is a shock to the rest of his group, because they have all lived in a time where Apes were always the rulers and superiors of humans. Until the weapon is ironically destroyed by one of the stronger apes, Davidson had full control of any of the apes. This powerful moment gains Leo the respect and wonderment that leads the rest of the apes and humans to follow him.

            The other scene I chose as an obvious display of the science-primitivism duality was the second to last scene in the movie, in which the battle takes place and Davidson’s chimp comes back to save the day. Other than the first engine burst that Leo uses to blast the initial attack from the apes, the humans lack any sort of upper hand or piece of technology. This commences the slaughtering of some apes and many humans, until the chimp in the pod comes back. All the apes cease their violence and begin to bow down to who they think is the god of all monkeys, Semos. Davidson totally takes advantage of this moment to grab his gun, but in turn starts a fight with Thade that injures the chimp and brings them to a final stand-off in the hub of the broken down ship. Finally, primitivism holds the science that allowed humans the upper hand on apes.

            This cross of the duality ends up showing, however, that humans were still bound to come out on top. Davidson uses his knowledge of the hand-automatic door lock and locks Thade in a cage. This is a build of character again because it shows the power Leo can have and gains him more respect and awe with the apes. He leaves in confidence and swagger, kissing the two different species women and flying off in his ship, only to find that his world is now apes with technology. This twist is very much similar to the old 1968 twist in which the main character was on earth the whole time. Overall, the duality between science and primitivism runs rampant in many of Planet of the Apes scenes.