Planet of the Apes

And that completes my final report

until we reach touchdown.

We're now on full automatic,

in the hands of the computers.

I've tucked my crew in for the long sleep

and I'll be joining them

soon.

In less than an hour we'll finish

our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy.

Six months in deep space.

By our time, that is.

According to Dr. Hasslein's theory of time in a

vehicle traveling nearly the speed of light,

the Earth has aged

nearly 700 years since we left it,

while we've aged hardly at all.

It may be so.

This much is probably true.

The men who sent us on this journey

are long since dead and gone.

You who are reading me now

are a different breed.

I hope a better one.

I leave the 20th century with no regrets, but...

one more thing.

If anybody's listening, that is.

Nothing scientific. It's... purely personal.

Seen from out here,

everything seems different.

Time bends.

Space is... boundless.

It squashes a man's ego.

I feel lonely.

That's about it.

Tell me, though...

Does man, that marvel of the universe,

that glorious paradox

who has sent me to the stars,

still make war against his brother,

keep his neighbor's children starving?

Are you all right?

Stewart?

Stewart?

We're in the soup!

She's sinking! Dodge, read the atmosphere!

Landon, get out a last signal!

What signal?

To Earth! That we've landed!

The air's OK!

Blow the hatch before we lose all our power!

It's no use! The power's gone!

Forget it! Abandon ship!

She's sinking.

Going...

Going...

Gone.

OK. We're here to stay.

Well, where are we?

Do you have any notion, skipper?

We're some 320 light years from Earth

on an unnamed planet in orbit

around a star in the constellation of Orion.

Is that close enough for you?

That could be Bellatrix.

It's too white for Bellatrix.

You didn't have time to read the tapes.

So you really don't know, do you?

What went wrong?

We weren't programmed to land in the water.

The question is not so much

where we are as when we are.

We've had enough sleep

to hold us for a while.

Let's start earning all that back pay.

Dodge, run your soil test.

- Got your sensors?

- Right.

- Geiger counter?

- Got it.

Let's see. One pistol,

We've got food and water

enough for three days.

How long is a day?

That's a good question.

Landon!

Hey, Landon!

Join the expedition.

Sorry. I was thinking about Stewart.

What do you suppose happened?

Air leak. She died in her sleep.

You don't seem very cut up about it.

It's a little late for a wake.

She's been dead nearly a year.

That means we've been away

from Earth for 18 months.

Our time.

You've gone gray.

Apart from that you look pretty chipper

for a man who's 2,031 years old.

I read the clocks.

They bear out Hasslein's hypothesis.

We have been away from Earth

for 2,000 years,

give or take a decade.

Still can't accept it?

Time's wiped out everything you ever knew.

It's all dust.

Prove it.

If we can't get back, it's still just a theory.

It's a fact, Landon. Buy it. You'll sleep better.

Nothing will grow here.

There's just a trace of carbohydrates.

All the nitrogen is locked into the nitrates.

No dangerous ionization?

No.

Well...

If there's no life here,

we've got just 72 hours to find it.

That's when the groceries run out. Let's go.

Which direction?

That way.

Any particular reason?

None at all.

Come on...

Everybody all right?

Water check.

Eight ounces.

It doesn't add up.

Thunder and lightning, and no rain.

Cloud cover at night.

That strange luminosity...

yet there's no moon.

If we could just get a fix.

What would that tell you?

I've told you where you are and when you are.

All right, all right.

You're 300 light years

from your precious planet.

Your loved ones are dead

and forgotten for 20 centuries.

you were something that fell out of a tree.

Taylor, quit riding him.

There is just one reality.

We are here and it is now.

You get hold of that,

or you might as well be dead.

I'm prepared to die.

He's prepared to die.

Doesn't that make you misty?

Chalk up another victory for the human spirit.

Clue me in on something, will you?

Why did you sign on for this trip?

You volunteered. Why?

Never mind. I'll clue you in.

You were the golden boy of the class of '72.

When they nominated you for the big one,

you couldn't turn it down.

Not without losing your all-American image.

Climb off, will you?

Oh, and the glory. Don't forget that.

There's a life-size bronze statue of you

standing out there somewhere.

It's probably turned green by now

and nobody can read the nameplate.

But never let it be said

that we forget our heroes.

- Taylor, I'm telling you to climb off my back.

- And there's one last item.

Immortality.

You wanted to live for ever, didn't you?

Well, you damn near made it.

Except for me and Dodge,

you've lived longer than anyone ever born.

And with our lovely Lieutenant Stewart dead,

it looks like you're the last of the line.

You got what you wanted, tiger.

How does it taste?

OK. You read me well enough.

But why can't I read you?

Don't bother.

Dodge, there. He's not like me at all.

But he makes sense.

He'd walk naked into a live volcano

if he thought he could learn something

that no other man knew.

But you... You're no seeker.

You're negative.

- And I'm not prepared to die.

- I'd like to know why not.

You thought life on Earth was meaningless.

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