Planet of the Apes Page #5

Nova, you can't go there! It's not safe! Nova!

We'd better get started. If the mounted police

pick up our trail, they'll come this far.

Right. Let's get the water

and provisions into the wagon.

Cornelius!

Where does this river lead to?

It flows into a sea some miles from here.

That's where we'll find the diggings.

And beyond that?

I don't know. You can't ride

along the shore at high tide

and we had no boats on our last expedition.

You never told me -

why do you call this the forbidden zone?

No one knows. It's an ancient taboo,

set forth in the sacred scrolls.

The lawgiver pronounced

this whole area deadly.

Shouldn't we be moving on?

I'm for that.

Well? Do you like it?

Why did you do that? Scrape off your hair?

In my world, when I left it,

only kids your age wore beards.

Beards?

I don't go in for fads.

Somehow

it makes you look less intelligent.

When will you show me what's in that cave?

Right now, if you like.

Cornelius!

- Lucius, don't fire at them!

- You're all under arrest!

If there's any more shooting, Dr. Zaius,

you'll be the first to go. You can count on it.

You are not in command. Put down that gun.

Shut up!

Very well.

Lower your weapons.

Tell them to pull back around the rocks,

out of range.

Withdraw!

How did you know we'd come here?

It wasn't difficult. Only an apostate

would flee to the forbidden zone.

And only a fool

would give a gun to an animal.

I see you've brought

the female of your species.

I didn't realize

that man could be monogamous.

On this planet it's easy.

I'll ask you to reconsider

the rash course you've undertaken.

If you're convicted of heresy,

the most you'll get is two years, but

if you persist in pointing guns in

my direction, you'll hang for high treason.

We never meant to be treasonous, sir.

But up there, in the face of that cliff,

there is a vast cave,

and in that cave a fabulous treasure

of fossils and artifacts.

I've seen some of your fossils and artifacts.

They're worthless.

There's your minister of science.

Honor-bound to expand

the frontiers of knowledge.

- Taylor, please!

- Except he's also chief defender of the faith.

There is no contradiction

between faith and science - true science.

- Are you willing to put it to the test?

- Taylor, I would rather...

Take it easy. You saved me from this fanatic.

Maybe I can return the favor.

What is your proposal?

When were those sacred scrolls

of yours written?

All right. If they can prove those scrolls

don't tell the whole truth of your history,

if they can find some real evidence

of another culture from some remote past,

will you let them off?

- Of course.

- Let's go up to the cave.

Sorry, Lucius. You've got to stay here

and guard the camp.

Always giving orders.

Just like every other adult.

Relax. You'll get to see it all later on.

Present your evidence, Cornelius.

It was at this level that I discovered

traces of an early ape creature.

A stage of primitive barbarism really,

dating back some 1,300 years roughly.

It was at this level... I discovered

cutting tools and arrowheads of quartz

and the fossilized bones

of carnivorous gorillas.

But the artifacts

Lying here

were found at this level,

and date back... 700 years earlier.

That's the paradox.

For the more ancient culture

is the more advanced.

Now, admittedly,

many of these objects are unidentified.

But clearly they were fashioned

by beings with a knowledge of metallurgy.

Indeed, the fact that many of these tools

are unknown to us

suggests a culture which

in certain ways equals our own.

Some of the evidence is uncontestable.

Don't speak to me in absolutes.

The evidence is contestable!

I apologize, sir.

To begin with, your methods of dating

the past are crude to say the least.

There are geologists on my staff

who'd laugh at your speculations.

But there's the doll, sir.

What?

Oh, lying right there. The human doll.

What does this prove?

My granddaughter plays with human dolls.

The doll was found

beside the jawbone of a man

and no trace of simian fossil

has been found in this deposit.

Your conclusion is premature.

Have you forgotten your scripture?

The 13th scroll?

"And Proteus brought the upright beast

into the garden and chained him to a tree,

- and the children did make sport of him."

- No, sir, I have not forgotten.

Well, for a time the ancients

kept humans as household pets

until our lawgiver proved

that man could not be tamed.

Keep digging, Cornelius. You'll find evidence

of the master of this house...

An ape.

What are you doing?

Reconstructing a past life.

You say these things were found

at the same level as that doll?

Whoever owned them

must have been in pretty bad shape.

He wore false teeth.

And eyeglasses.

He had a failing heart.

Towards the end, he... had

this prefabricated valve put in it.

I don't say he was a man

like I knew at home,

but he must have been a close relative.

He had all the same weaknesses.

He was a weak,

fragile animal.

But he was here before you

and he was better than you are.

That's lunacy! I can offer alternate

descriptions of every one of those articles

which is just as ingenious as yours.

But it'd be conjecture, not proof.

Mamma!

Mamma!

Dr. Zaius, would an ape make a human doll

that talks?

Lucius!

You dirty...

Nova!

Nova!

Cornelius!

Zira!

Help me!

Mamma!

I oughta kill you right now.

Come on!

Tell 'em to pull back. Now!

Cease fire! Withdraw!

Up there!

Withdraw!

Get down!

Lucius, are you all right?

They took me by surprise.

Sneaked up on me

while I was feeding the horses.

What's happened to honor?

I got off two rounds to warn you.

- They've taken everything.

- Not quite everything!

They left a hostage behind.

- How are you feeling?

- Disillusioned.

You can't trust the older generation.

I know what you mean.

I want you to go round the rocks and tell

those gorillas I've got Dr. Zaius prisoner.

Yes, I can do that.

I want a horse, food, and water.

Enough for a week for me and this female.

- And 50 rounds of ammunition.

- What if they won't agree to your terms?

Tell them I'll shoot him.

Taylor, you can't!

Oh, yes, he can.

He's a born killer.

Deliver the message.

Over here.

Sit down.

Taylor, please! Don't treat him like that!

- Why not?

- It's humiliating.

The way I was humiliated... by all of you?

You led me around on a leash!

That was different.

We thought you were inferior.

Now you know better.

Cornelius was right, doctor. He proved it.

Man was here first. You owe him

your science, your culture,

- whatever civilization you've got.

- Then answer me this.

If man was superior, why didn't he survive?

Wiped out by a plague, some natural

catastrophe, a storm of meteors.

From the looks of some parts of this planet,

I'd say that was a fair bet.

But we can't be sure.

He is.

He knew all the time.

Long before you found your cave, he knew.

Defender of the faith?

Guardian of the terrible secret.

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