Escape from the Planet of the Apes Page #4

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Zira, it is an excellent restorative,

I assure you...

especially in cases of pregnancy,

you know.

How long have you known?

Oh, since well before the war.

Mmm.

- Do you mind if I smoke?

- Mm-mmm.

Oh, no, I shouldn't

not in view of your condition.

Who won your war?

It wasn't our war.

It was the gorillas' war.

Chimpanzees are passion

pacifists!

We stayed behind.

We never saw the enemy.

But which side won?

Neither.

But how do you know

that if you weren't there, Zira?

When we were in space, we saw...

bright, white, blinding light.

And then we saw

the rim of the Earth melt.

Then there was a tornado in the sky.

Whoo.

Oh, I feel magnificently sleepy.

The date meter on the spaceship?

What did it read

after Earth's destruction?

And before?

Before the white light and the tornado?

something.

Before the white light and the tornado?

something.

So?

So you have evidence that one day

talking apes will dominate this Earth...

and eventually destroy it

by 3950-something.

I doubt that we shall

still be in office by then.

And according to the NASA experts...

who are still subjecting the spaceship

to microscopic scrutiny...

the precise year of what you merely

infer to be Earth's destruction...

is recorded on the flight synthesizer

as 3955.

A.D., presumably.

Now, what do you expect me

and the United Nations-

though not necessarily in that order

to do about it?

Alter what you believe to be the course of

the future by slaughtering two innocents?

Or rather three,

now that one of them is pregnant.

Herod tried that, and Christ survived.

Mr. President,

Herod lacked our facilities.

He also became very unpopular,

historically unpopular.

- And we don't want that to happen, do we?

- Are you actually saying

I am saying that our two visitors...

seem to be very charming,

peaceful people or rather creatures

and that the voters love them.

Do you want them and their progeny

to dominate the world, Mr. President?

Well, not at the next election, no.

But one day, if the progeny turn out

as well as the parents, who knows?

They may do a better job of it

than we have.

By destroying the world?

- Are you sure that what they saw destroyed was the world?

- Well, aren't you?

I consider it dispassionately

as a possibility...

not hysterically as a

fact.

Mr. President, we have their own testimony

that they provoked the war.

And they seemed to have provoked you

pretty thoroughly into the bargain.

I'm not saying that you're wrong,

Hasslein, but I am saying...

that before I have them

shot against the wall...

I want convincing that

the handwriting on the wall...

is calculably true.

Now, convince me.

By their own testimony, we know that apes one day

will acquire the power of intelligent speech.

By Zira's testimony,

we know that she's pregnant with child.

By my own testimony, we know that

it's genetically possible for this child

provided, of course,

always that we permit its birth

to bear or beget a talking ape

by a dumb one...

in a present-day jungle

or a present-day zoo.

But do you truly believe that

by deliberate present-day action...

we can neutralize that possibility...

that we can alter the future?

- Yes, Mr. President, I do.

- Do you also believe that we should?

Given the power to alter the future,

have we the right to use it?

I don't know.

I've wrestled with this, Mr. President.

I just don't know.

How many futures are there?

Which future has God, if there is a God,

chosen for man's destiny?

If I urge the destruction

of these two apes...

am I defying God's will or obeying it?

Am I his enemy or his instrument?

An assassin would say the latter.

Do you approve of assassination?

Well, we condoned the attempted

assassination of Hitler because he was evil.

Yes, but would we have approved killing him

in babyhood when he was still innocent?

Or killing his mother

when he was still in her womb?

Or slaughtering his remote ancestors?

We have no proof, Hasslein,

that these apes are evil.

- Mr. President, there are very strong indications.

- Such as?

There were hesitancies and small discrepancies

in their answers to the commission...

which suggests to me that if they

were properly interrogated

Are you suggesting that they

were improperly interrogated?

- Let us say "unprofessionally. "

- You want it professional?

- The full works, Mr. President.

- Tell that to the commission.

I'll abide by their findings.

Having convened in secret session...

at the request of the president...

the commission makes the following

interim recommendations.

The public should be informed...

"that the apes,

after their arduous space voyage...

"and the fatigue arising

from its attendant publicity...

"are to be afforded rest and privacy...

"in a location whose identity

will not be divulged to the public.

Since, however,

there is justifiable cause...

"for suspecting that they have withheld

vital information from this commission...

"the 'ape-o-nauts' will, in fact,

be escorted by Dr. Lewis Dixon...

"to the installation

known as Camp Eleven...

"held there in his care

for interrogation by the C.I.A...

under the guidance and supervision

of dr. Otto Hasslein. "

When we were in space...

we saw bright, white, blinding light.

Brighter than this?

- Ooh.

- Oh.

Then we saw the rim of the Earth melt.

Then there was a tornado in the sky.

That's yourvoice, isn't it?

How can I tell?

I- I don't even remember.

Why don't you remember?

Because Dr. Hasslein made me drunk!

Why did you tell something

to Dr. Hasslein when drunk...

that you never told

the commission when sober?

Because you and your husband

were frightened...

for the safety of yourselves

and your unborn child?

- I-I withheld nothing. Nobody asked me.

- But if somebody had asked?

I should have said that chimpanzees...

had no part in the destruction of Earth.

Only the gorillas and the orangutans.

What's the difference?

You're all monkeys.

Please!

Do not use the word "monkey. "

It is offensive to us.

As an archaeologist,

I had access to history scrolls...

which were kept secret

from the masses.

And I suspect that the weapon

which destroyed Earth...

was man's own invention.

I do know this.

One of the reasons

for man's original downfall...

was your peculiar habit

of murdering one another.

Man destroys man.

Apes do not destroy apes.

Cornelius.

This is not an interracial hassle,

but a search for facts.

We do not deny the possibility

of man's decline and fall.

All we want to find out

is how apes rose.

Well, it began, uh, in our prehistory...

with the plague that fell upon dogs.

And cats.

Hundreds and thousands

of them died...

and hundreds and thousands

of them had to be destroyed...

in order to prevent

the spread of infection.

- There were dog bonfires.

- Yes. And by the time the plague was contained...

man was without pets.

Oh. Of course, for man,

this was intolerable.

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