In 2029, an Air Force astronaut crash-lands on a mysterious planet where evolved, talking apes dominate a race of primitive humans.
In the year 2029, astronaut Leo Davidson boards a pod cruiser on a Space Station on a rescue and recovery mission, but an abrupt detour through a space time wormhole lands him on a strange planet where talking apes rule over the human race. With help from sympathetic chimpanzee activist Ari and a small band of human rebels, Leo leads the effort to evade the advancing Gorilla Army led by General Thade and his most trusted warrior Attar. Now the race is on to reach a sacred temple within the planet's Forbidden Zone to discover the shocking secrets of mankind's past--and the key to its future.—Tim1370
An astronaut trying to rescue a chimpanzee astronaut in space ends up landing on a planet inhabited by talking human-like apes. Leo Davidson finds himself captured by the apes and placed in a cage with other humans. All the apes take this same 'human hating' attitude, with one exception. A kind female ape called Ari sees something different in these humans and plans to help them in whatever they need to do.—FilmFanUK
In 2029, aboard the United States Air Force space station Oberon (Orbiting around Saturn), Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) works closely with primates who are trained for space missions. The training takes place in a simulator with the primates being presented with various failure scenarios to deal with while piloting their shuttles. Leo has been on mission for 2 years on-board the Oberon.His favorite simian co-worker is a chimpanzee named Pericles. With a deadly electromagnetic storm approaching the station, a small space pod piloted by Pericles is used to probe the storm. Leo was against using a primate for the mission and wanted to go himself but is reminded that SOPs call for primate intervention before a human is committed to the task.
Pericles's pod heads into the storm and disappears. Against his commanding officer Lt. Karl Vasich's (Chris Ellis) orders, Leo takes a second pod and goes in pursuit of Pericles. Entering the storm, Leo loses contact with the Oberon and crashes on a planet called Ashlar in the year 5021.
Leo is found by humanoids Karubi (Kris Kristofferson) and his daughter Daena (Estella Warren). The humanoids are captured by apes. Leo discovers that the world is ruled by humanoid apes who can speak human language and treat human beings as slaves.Electricity has not yet been discovered, and the ape "city" is a hill covered with large trees, which provides accommodation. The captured humans are sold to slave trader Limbo (Paul Giamatti). Little human girls are sold as playthings to ape daughters. Slaves are branded with hot irons.
Leo comes across a female chimpanzee named Ari (Helena Bonham Carter), who protests the awful treatment humans receive. Ari decides to buy Leo and a female slave named Daena to have them work as servants in the house of her father, Senator Sandar (David Warner). The apes are worried that the humans outnumber them 4:1 in population. Ari says that most of the evidence against humans is based on propaganda and the army led by General Thade is needlessly brutal against humans. An ambitious and brutal chimpanzee military commander who wants control over the ape civilization. Thade intends to marry Ari, but she denies him due to his cold soul.Ari says that humans are capable of having a real culture, but the apes are convinced that the humans are only interested in procreation, just like any other animal. Thade is livid that Ari defends humans with such passion.Thade finds Leo's ship and hides its discovery.
Leo escapes his cage and frees other humans (Tival (Erick Avari), Birn (Luke Eberl) and Gunnar (Evan Dexter Parke)). Ari sees them, but Leo convinces her to join a human rebellion against the apes. Karubi sacrifices his life to allow the human slaves to escape the city.General Thade (Tim Roth) and Colonel Attar (Michael Clarke Duncan) march ape warriors in pursuit of the humans. Thade spins a narrative that the humans kidnapped Ari, to save her from the charges of treason.Thade meets his dying father, who tells him that in the time before time, humans used to rule over apes. He hands over a firearm to Thade, as proof of the human superiority (power of invention and of technology) over all other beings.
While in the jungle, Leo learns that apes cannot swim. Leo finds his shuttle at the bottom of a lake and retrieves his supplies, including his firearm from it. He also activates his radio beacon and finds another radio source in the vicinity. Leo and the rebels follow the beacon to its source.The source is surrounded by a contingent of the ape army, as Thade knew that the humans would try to reach Camila.
Leo fights through the ape army contingent, by surprising them in the middle of the night, and reaches Calima (the temple of "Semos"), a forbidden, but holy, site for the apes. Calima turns out to be the remains of the Oberon, Leo's space station, which has crashed on the planet's surface and looks ancient (the name Calima coming from the sign "CAution LIve AniMAls", the relevant letters being the only ones not covered in dust).According to the computer logs, the station has been there for thousands of years. Leo deduces that when he entered the vortex he was pushed forward in time, while the Oberon, searching after him, was not, crashing on the planet long before he did.
The Oberon 's log reveals that the apes on board, led by Semos, organized a mutiny and took control of the vessel after it crashed. The human and ape survivors of the struggle left the ship, and their descendants are the people Leo has encountered since landing.In the present, a battle ensues between the humans and the apes, as Thade reaches Calima with his army. A familiar vehicle descends from the sky and is identified immediately by Leo as the pod piloted by Pericles, the chimpanzee astronaut. Pericles was pushed forward in time as Leo was and had just now found his way to the planet. When Pericles lands, the apes interpret his landing as the return arrival of Semos, the first ape, who is their god. They bow, and hostilities between humans and apes disappear.
Pericles then runs into the Oberon and Leo runs after him, followed by General Thade. Inside, Thade and Leo fight, with Pericles trying to help Leo, only to be thrown hard against a wall. Thade gets hold of Leo's gun but does not understand how to use it at first. Seeing that Thade is in the pilot's deck, Leo closes the automatic door of the entrance, trapping Thade as he shoots the gun, the bullets ricocheting off the door harmlessly. Thade thrashes around to escape, but after all attempts to do so fail, he finally gives up. Leo then decides that it is time for him to leave the Planet of the Apes, so he gives Pericles to Ari, with her promising to look after him, also saying farewell to Daena.
Leo climbs aboard Pericles's undamaged pod and uses it to travel back in time through the same electromagnetic storm. Leo ends up crashing in front of the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C. on Earth. He looks up at the Memorial, and sees it is now a monument in honor of General Thade. A swarm of police officers, firefighters, and news reporters descend on Leo, but on closer inspection, they are all apes.
