Someone explain the POTA ending. (Spoilers)

CiaranC

I downloaded this tripe the other day. I watched it. I didnt get it. The ending made no sense to me.

What the hell was it all about?

P.S. You may as well explain the ending to fight club as well, cos i didnt get that either. Must lay off the wacky tobacco.

ObeyGiant

The remake?
(please, noone bring in the "The remake is ****, the original is much better" argument, I think that will make me cry actual tears)

I think, basically, the point is.. you're not meant to understand what's going on. The final shot is of Mark Wahlberg's face, looking absolutely bewildered, unable to understand what's happened.. and then *fin*. Now this bewilderment is transferred to the audience. It's there, I guess, to make people think/talk about the film well after they leave the cinema, allowing people to draw their own conclusions.

I think, my favourite use of this plot device is the final scene of "Man on the Moon".. such a sweet movie.

CiaranC

So when he gets back to earth and sees the apes theres, its just setting us up for a sequel then, and has nothing to do with the rest of the movie?

ObeyGiant

There's certainly the possibility of a sequel, although I doubt it.. I think it's purely there to leave you not understanding what's happened.

Kix

SPOILERS: Fight Club Ending Explained

I've put it in a new thread lest somone read this one and hate me for life because the subject said nothing about Fight Club spoilers and they track me down and kill me and everyone I care about and micturate* on my corpse.

Go get it:

http://www.boards.ie/bulletin/Forum12/HTML/001000.html


* Take it censor.

CiaranC

"I think it's purely there to leave you not understanding what's happened."

It doesnt fit in with the rest of the plot, it is entirely illogical, there is nothing in the film that would have caused the apes to be there when he got back to earth.

What a big load of **** that film was.

ObeyGiant

I'm sure there is a reason.. it's just not handed to you on a plate. It's being left for you to look at and decide for yourself. Heh, remember the stink kicked up when Ridley Scott came out and said "Deckard was a replicant"? Deciding for yourself is half the fun.

<edited cos I'm a 'tard>

[This message has been edited by ObeyGiant (edited 17-08-2001).]

whitetrash

fight club and blade runner are different to pota though. they had clues to understanding the ending. they didn't just come out of nowhere. i mean i know they were twists and all, but when you look back through the films you see the little things that lead up to it and make way for it. pota on the other hand....made no sense at all. there is no ****ing way that could have happened that i see. the statue is supposed to be of the general in the future, wtf? and we see (going by the ships clock) that he did travel back in time.

if burton did want to puposefully confuse us, that's a really pathetic way to generate that "after movie conversation". he could have just made a better movie :P

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The present is indefinite, the future has no reality other than as a present hope, the past has no reality other than as a present memory.

whitetrash

and of course Deckard was a replicant

you did watch the movie...right?

ObeyGiant

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">if burton did want to puposefully confuse us, that's a really pathetic way to generate that "after movie conversation". he could have just made a better movie :P</font>

Heh.. the very fact this thread exists kinda makes what you're saying a little reduntant, huh?

[-Morpheus-]

I was looking forward to POTA for ages then today 6 of us went in to see it and we came out with < this look on our faces

When we walked out there was no "that was a very good film!" All i heard was silence out of 200people
Everything made sense up till the end before i thought wtf and "they just ruined a classic"
Favourite film this year still has to be Sword Fish

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"It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to hide the truth ... a prison for your mind." im talking about CS not the matrix

Red Moose

I haven't seen it yet (and there wasn't even a spoiler in the thread - damn!), but could someone explain it to me?

In the original good ol' Charleton walks along the beach and sees the head of the Statue of Liberty, and realises that he was on earth all along.

The original was meant to have been a view of the slavery/racism situation in the 60s of America (remember, only 30-40 years ago black people would have to give up a seat on a bus for a white person), and how if the situation reversed itself the same arrogance and corruption would prevail - hence we should all live happily in harmony, etc., and not prejudge people and so on.

Basically I thought this new version was a remake, so I am not planning on going to see it, and I'll wait for the DVD to come out.

Could someone explain exactly how the ending in the remake is different? The Slashdot discussion said similar things - that it's a great remake if you just ignore the last 30 seconds was the general comment, and that Burton (Tim Burton made it didn't he) was contracted to make an opening for sequels, so he basically was ****ed and didn't like that idea, and created a "OK, you want a sequel, make a sequel out of *this* ending, dickheads" situation.

Is it worth seeing? I am thinking of maybe seeing it just to see how the ending is screwed up now. I loved the old one "it was Earth all along.......why......WHY....." .

And surely that old ending created possibilities to Episode-1 style sequels and show the downfall of humans, and say the creation of an super-intelligent ape/monkey species due to genetic engineering or something in the preceding 1200 years or whatever it was before the space ship crash landed back on Earth.


[This message has been edited by Red Moose (edited 18-08-2001).]

daveirl

This post has been deleted.

_CreeD_

Havent seen the movie, but from what you've described they could be hinting at 2 things.

1. The good old sci-fi pet of parallel dimensions. He didn't just move in time, but also 'sideways' into an alternate reality.

2. If you suspend your disbelief enough to trust that he has gone back in time, then he could be seeing the results of another time jump further into the past, that he is still to make in his personal future.


Fight club's ending? er....ya did watch the movie didn't you?...

Illkillya

here is the POTA ending as I understand it:

After the big war, the main character has a chance to stay on the planet and become a leader figure and aid in the construction of a society where humans and apes can co-exist peacefully. Instead, he chooses to leave, and possibly because of this, the desired society does not come about.

He returns in the future, and the twist becomes apparent when he lands. At first I had expected him to crash into the white-house and see Humans and Apes together in the government, confirming that the peaceful society actually worked out, but instead, it shows the statue of the bad ape as the hero, and there are no humans to be seen, so since the bad ape is held in high regard by the present population, we can only assume that humans are despised. Then the apes appear with guns and technology, and i'd say that means they are now what humans were in the year 2000, and the roles of humans and apes have been completely reversed.

Illkillya

now could somebody please explain the ending of the matrix to me?

Loomer

The way the film went suggested to me that while Mark Wahlberg went forward in time. The apes on the ship he was travelling on as intelligent as they were revolted and overpowered the ship, which crashed to earth leading to the evolution of the Apes. Perhaps the crash of the ship caused some nuclear fallout of sorts. There seemed to be hints to the apes having some resilience to radiation etc. Only stunned after the blast from the ship while the humans behind the rocks would've been killed, surely. If my reasoning is correct it is a nice idea. But all the way through the film was riding on the traversing of time forwards and backwards. Fair enough. But the bit at the end after he travelled through the "space magnetism" and the ships clock showed him going back in time. He arrives in an alternate reality ala "Sliders". Dangerous crossover of themes in my mind. And to the best of my knowledge the general premise behind these alternate universe is that there is a mirror image of you (possibly with different characteristics, etc). But he has gone back years in time and sees this ape Thades, revered as a statue in the form of Ape, I mean Abe Lincoln. Incomprehensible! But all in all I thought it was an well done enjoyable film and an excellent touch having Charlton Heston as Thades father.

whitetrash

the clock in marky mark's ship shows that he travelling backwards in time. and if it was an alternate reality as was suggested then the least burton (or the writers) could have done was GIVE US A FUKKING CLUE!!!

how are we supposed to think the film's ending through after the movie if there is no hint at what the fukk it all means?

And Obeygiant, discussion and criticisim are different things....

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The present is indefinite, the future has no reality other than as a present hope, the past has no reality other than as a present memory.

ObeyGiant

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">And Obeygiant, discussion and criticisim are different things....</font>

Of course - criticism is reserved for a non-interactive forum, such as TV/Newspaper reviewers.. the minute someone can actively disagree with someone's criticism, it becomes a discussion.

Anyway.. back to the discussion...

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">the least burton (or the writers) could have done was GIVE US A FUKKING CLUE!!!</font>

Easy there, Stephen Hawking... I didn't realise we were dealing with an authority on space travel and electromagnetic storms. If you want to nitpick, there are a lot more interesting things in that movie to choose from. Any explaination you come up with is not going to satisfy me, and vice versa.. best to leave it to the individual, hmm?

Supercell

Maybe this will offer some hint (is the best i could capture )

[-Morpheus-]

Im still confused

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"It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to hide the truth ... a prison for your mind." im talking about CS not the matrix

-Serpico-

The planet the movie took place on was NOT Earth, unlike the original movie. I think that's fairly obvious if you follow the movie, and that's why everyone is so confused, because we KNOW that planet isn't Earth, (it has TWO moons), so how the FÉCK do the apes actually take over Earth?

Maybe the "harmony" that materialised at the end of the battle didn't last? Maybe Thade escaped, built a spaceship, bailed BACK in time to early Earth with a bunch of apes, and colonised it?? But then we start with all the paradoxes inherent with time travel : if apes went back in time and colonised Earth, then the original space mission Marky Mark was on with his Funky Bunch wouldn't have taken place... Which would have, in turn, prevented Thade from travelling to Earth... ad infinitum...

So you see, it really was a confusing piece of ****é ending!

Serp
ps: And what the hell was up with the apes "waking up" after they all got fried by the engine blast?? Are apes fire-resistant or something?

adnans

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by -Serpico-:
ps: And what the hell was up with the apes "waking up" after they all got fried by the engine blast?? Are apes fire-resistant or something?</font>

i think that the blast only knocked them out for a small amount of time. plus, they are really powerful and can jump like grasshoppers in the air and land no problem.

there is no way Tim Burton would have made a movie that doesnt make any sense.

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Tim Burton
"It may not seem to have logic, but it does," he says.
"It's meant to make you use both sides of your brain at the same
time."</font>

adnans

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To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

Winning Hand

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by -Serpico-:

Maybe Thade escaped, built a spaceship, bailed BACK in time to early Earth with a bunch of apes, and colonised it??</font>

This I find extremely unlikely, remember the monkeys in the film were genetically engineered, so.... unless thade went to medical school, mastered the art of genetic manipulation, escaped, went to an engineering school, repaired the spaceship, went back in time to early apes, injected them with this.... lets call it "mojo". Even if this "mojo" worked It would of taken decades for thade to teach basic the apes basic heirarchy & language, notwithstanding the manipualtion of basic tools.

Then we have to believe that thade survived thousands of years (until 1775 ) discovered america.....................

The plot gets more and more confusing

adnans

hehe, good one Tim Burton. the man really knows how to confuse people. I saw it and thought it was very entertaining and i it made me laugh in few scenes (was that something else?).

the whole game with the ending has to have a logical explenation which cant be explained now and only Tim Burton knows it. he also knows that people will go and see the sequel just to see how can that ending be possible (the sound of cash register starts to go off!!!).

i predict that in the next sequel Marky Mark finally gets it on with another ape prostitute which spawns another sequel. class stuff

adnans

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To me, boxing is like a ballet, except there's no music, no choreography, and the dancers hit each other.

-Serpico-

Ah, you misunderstand me on two very important points...

Number 1: I didn't mean that he bailed back in time and hastened the evolution of the apes on Earth. I meant that he bailed back in time with a ship chock full o' apes from the Planet of the Apes, the upright, walking, talking, fighting apes, and they colonised the Earth. (Though, of course, you're right about 1775 and so on.)

Number 2: I was joking! The whole idea that we're having to invent wild plotlines to explain the ending of what was, essentially, a big-budget hollywood blockbuster is crazy! This movie was essentially a no-brainer. I thought it was deadly, I really enjoyed watching it, but I really wasn't expecting to have to invent, out of thin air, a chain of causality to explain it!

Hey, the original 5 movies are being released in a DVD box set, which includes a 6th disk with an hour long documentary about the movies on it! Maybe Burton is going to have to make 4 more movies and a documentary JUST to explain the ending of this one?
Serp

Hecate

Just been to see it and I'm of the opinion that the ending wrecked the rest of the film. It was believable up to that point; and there was an interesting twist halfway through when he discovered the ruin of the oberon and it's true nature.

But the reproduction of Washington D.C. filled with apes just seemed stupid and lazy, it insults an audiences intelligence more than anything else. It just seemed to be there for it's own sake (which was a criticism of plot developments throughout the film as a whole).

Sure Tim Burton was working in the shadow of the original film, and anything he did would have been judged in comparison to it but surely he could have done MUCH better than this.

I reckon POTA could have done without those last 5 minutes, and would have been a much better film for it

the fnj

My understanding of it is.

The planet were most of the movie is played is not earth but the planet where the ship crashed and was luckily able to support life. The monkeys and humans populate it with the monkeys become the ruling race. When he leaves he does not go back in time as planned but actually stays at the year he is at. When he arrives on earth in the future monkeys have evolved into the superior race and are now the planets rulers.

That’s my take on what happened.

Lucutus

Thade get's out, Thade gets hold (somehow) of Marky Marks FIRST POD, (remember, it's still under the water!), Then he uses it (somehow) to travel after Marky Mark, except he ends up on Earth a long time before Marky Mark arrives back...

hence all the confusion.

What's the moral of the story?

Don't send Dirk Diggler into space.

Cloud

I don't believe the theory that Leo Davidson went to the future - too confusing... We saw the clock on the ship go backward.

Also, the computer on the ship says "Washington DC" - preprogrammed map or a hint that Thade came after Washington?

John.
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[This message has been edited by Cloud (edited 24-08-2001).]

Spunog UIE

okay just seen it, and what a load of boring shít.

i just think they ****ed up the plot really. like it wasn't earth where he crashed landed and so anything that happened there should of affected the real earth. Even if the monkey dude went back to earth some how (extreamly unlikely) did he go around lookin to get laid in zoo's? or was it all wild at the time. maybe he went back to when the ol' humans were dumb too. hmmmmmmmmm, and why the **** would the apes go around drivin human designed cars and wear human clothes? eh eh eh?
Kinda had an orignal society in the first place. well nearly. if the ape dude went back to the present day earth (kinda futureistic still to us) who could one of them take the whole earth on eh eh.

TOTAL ****!!!!

If you haven't seen it. well don't, the orignal was well cool. did i mention that this one was ****ed up and crap. the blonde chick was hot tho. WHY DIDN'T MARKY STAY WITH HER> duhhhhhhhhhhh.

anyway... i'll just get my coat...

yankinlk

<font face="Verdana, Arial" size="2">Originally posted by _CreeD_:
Havent seen the movie, but from what you've described they could be hinting at 2 things.

1. The good old sci-fi pet of parallel dimensions. He didn't just move in time, but also 'sideways' into an alternate reality.
B]</font>

MOvie = Loved it. Ending = I think Creed got it in one.

BlitzKrieg

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN BOW BEFORE ME I HAVE THE ANSWER (i think)


-Planet of the apes the original film is the fake not the new one (notice confused looks)


-the new film is closer to the original then the original how???


in 1967 (i think) there was the BOOK! Planet of the apes...DADADAAAA!!!!!!!!

ANd it ends like the newer film not like the old.... I havnt read it all, i didnt even buy it i saw it in virgin picked it up and read the back cover and it reads like the newer film so i pick a page at random and i read things mixed from both films (nova not being able to speak etc etc) Not bothering to actually buy and read i decide to see which film was closer and read the final pages. He goes back to earth yadadada with Nova and a son when he lands he sees a car approaching and a gorrilla general gets out of it. Book ends there.

So i answered nothing but it explains tim burtons logic and maybe if someone reads the book they can tell us how it makes sense. Should we ask in literature. The general though was to give it a more personal look me thinx.

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People of the Boards

I have a cunning plan

and before u ask how cunning

just trust me its cunning

oooo thats cunning

Cloud

Someone told me that the book ending is that the guy sees Orly Airport instead of the Statue of Lib. I've just started reading it.

Tusky

well basically the man got into a relashionship with a toaster which tried to take over the world but woz spoiled by the adventure club!!!...oh wait your talking bout pota??????????oh i thought you were talking bout that low budget film by gerald brisco "the adventure club".....sorry

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"A Master vampire that can walk in day light.....unstopable...unless we stop him!" from John Carpenters Vampires

Victor

What if there are 2 films - the first 118 minutes and the second one thirty seconds long?

Getting back to the whole racism thing in the sixties. What if this 30 seconds is merely meant as a pun? If it is merely to show up our inherent speciesism?

Oh, man can fly - but a flying monkey is a dangerous thing ..... after all it is a satirical movie!

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Kill, kill, kill the laser mice.

Enygma

I had read the book years ago after watching the first movie. To be honest the ending in the new Planet Of The Apes really surprised me. They usually don't go for original endings.

In fact the new movie was closer to the book in that it wasn't earth that he landed on.

It might have been an ok ending for a book written decades ago, but for a modern movie? It's just annoying and cheesy.