10 Lame Movie Twists That Ruined Great Endings
5. It's Still The Planet Of The Apes - Planet Of The Apes
Tim Burton's 2001 re-imagining of Planet of the Apes was ill-advised from the get-go. And despite it never coming together as he probably envisioned it, the movie itself isn't as terrible as it's often made out to be. The majority of it is a perfectly serviceable B-movie with a hilariously over-booked cast and some very impressive makeup and costume designs.
Even the story, which is a supped-up version of the "space man finds society of intelligent apes with a human underclass to underline unfair racial issues" narrative that the 1968 original movie, wasn't all too bad, forced monkey romance not included. But what really killed this film, and the reason why it is so often disregarded today, is the bizarre and downright stupid twist at the very end.
As the film comes to a close, astronaut Leo is reunited with his chimp test pilot, offers said ape to be worshiped as a living god by the ape society, kisses his two potential love interests goodbye, and uses the chimp's escape craft to navigate his way back to the wormhole that brought him to the planet of the apes in the first place. However, returning to what he thinks is his own world, Leo crashes his ship on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. It is only when the camera pans up and reveals the infamous Ape-raham Lincoln that Leo, and the audience, realized just what a confused mess the whole ordeal had really been.