4. The Apes Forget That Humans Exist, Until Some Come A-Knocking
What was so magical about the very first Apes film was the shock factor. Yes, from the title you knew that apes were going to be revealed as the species of the unknown world our heroes had crashed upon, but that didnt take away anything from their reveal. Apes upon horseback, apes talking, an ape civilisation; it was all mind-blowing, and surely would have been more mind-blowing back in the 60s. Cornelius, Dr Zaius and co. simply did not know how to comprehend the possibility of talking humans, and promptly set about experimenting upon them. Sickening though this is, had the tables been turned, humans would swiftly cut a talking ape apart to find out how, and why, it was able to talk. Rise of the Planet of the Apes saw a parallel with this notion, in that it was the apes which were experimented heavily upon. This notion was also touched upon in both Escape (1971) and Conquest (1972), but not as heavily. For this suggestion to work, we are going to have to travel hundreds of years into the future and completely bypass Caesar, Cornelia, Blue Eyes and Maurice, otherwise the apes would remember. Hundreds of years later an ape civilisation could thrive, whilst remnants of talking humans live on the verge of extinction amongst mute humans, until some apes happen upon them. What would then play out would surely be a carbon copy of the first Apes movie, only with sensational CGI as opposed to drab prosthetics. Again, this scenario is unlikely to unfold for the third movie - filmgoers surely deserve to see the near-extinction of humankind, so perhaps this plot could form the basis for a fourth movie. Although it would probably have some questioning why a complete remake of the original is necessary, it would work exceptionally well.
