10 More Disturbing Plot Twists In Non-Horror Movies
7. Planet Of The Apes - It Was Earth All Along
More than with any other example on this list, it's likely many will know this twist before sitting down for their first viewing. It's such an iconic scene at this point, after all.
Having said that, does foreknowledge diminish this ending's power? Not by one iota.
Protagonist George Taylor (Charlton Heston), an astronaut marooned on an 'alien' world peopled by talking apes and mute, savage humans, desires to understand more about humanity's history on this planet and how they came to be savages. One of the film's ape antagonists warns Taylor that he might not like what he finds, a warning that Taylor only understands once he and Nova (Linda Harrison), a mute human woman, escape the apes at last.
Taylor and Nova come across the remains of the Statue of Liberty, at which point the terrible truth finally emerges: this was never an alien world. It is a future Earth, destroyed after a nuclear war. Nova, oblivious to the statue's significance, watches on in bewilderment as Taylor falls to his knees screaming, cursing humanity for destroying the world.
It's absolutely chilling, one of the most haunting and powerful conclusions in film history. Retrospectively, some commentators have wondered why Taylor didn't work it out sooner, given that the planet looks like Earth and is populated by humans and apes, but give the guy a break. This was a truth so terrible that he couldn't possibly have considered it, right until it was staring him in the face.