What does the tip of the world appear to be? It is a query that is been requested by many a style filmmaker, particularly because the post-apocalyptic (and simply plain apocalyptic) movie rose in recognition following the invention of nuclear weaponry. For many filmmakers, the setting for the apocalypse tends to fall into certainly one of two classes: It is both a sprawling city break, with once-gleaming skyscrapers now in disarray, or an unlimited desert panorama the place the detritus of the previous world is scattered all through miles of sand and rock. Only a few movies depicting the tip of the world determine to make the apocalypse appear to be an idyllic ocean view trip.
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But, that is exactly what 1968’s “Planet of the Apes” did, because the manufacturing selected to stage its climactic twist on and round Malibu’s Level Dume. Sitting on the outskirts of Los Angeles in Southern California, the mixture of seashore and a outstanding rock cliff makes Level Dume feel and look like a spot exterior of time, a high quality that extends to the world’s identify itself. In response to a promotional piece for the close by Malibu Seaside Inn, Level Dume was meant to be named after Padre Francisco Dumetz, with the final identify being pronounced “DUM-MAY.” Nonetheless, somebody misinterpreted the spelling based mostly on the pronunciation, and “Dume” caught as a substitute.
All through cinema historical past, Level Dume has loved a life pitched someplace between opulent magnificence and eerie ominousness. It has been the setting for all the pieces from a celebration in “The Huge Lebowski” to Tony Stark’s mansion within the “Iron Man” movies, but it is also the place the surreal 1974 horror film “Messiah of Evil” was shot, and it is the place the place style legend Vincent Worth had his ashes scattered upon his demise in 1993. One might argue that the Level’s look within the conclusion of “Planet of the Apes” helped contribute to this distinctive legacy. The scene is definitely probably the most iconic second ever filmed on the Level, because the shot of a damaged Statue of Liberty (apparently constructed from paper maché and cardboard) overlooking the seashore whereas astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) realizes he is been again on Earth your complete time is emblematic of the movie, the “Planet of the Apes” film collection, and style cinema typically. It is a twist that presumably would not have hit as laborious had been it not for the distinctive look of Level Dume.
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Level Dume contributes to the bait-and-switch twist ending of Planet of the Apes
One of many ingenious points that made the ending of “Planet of the Apes” — the revelation that Taylor and his spaceship had inadvertently traveled into Earth’s future, by which people had develop into mute and subjugated by a race of intellectually superior apes — an all-timer of a plot twist was that it slyly remixed the Pierre Boulle novel that the movie was adapting. Within the ebook, it is revealed up entrance that its astronauts journey to a totally separate planet dominated by clever apes, the place people are a decrease species. The novel’s twist concerned the astronauts returning to Earth and discovering that clever apes had begun to rise there, too. It was the selection of screenwriters Michael Wilson and Rod Serling to make the novel’s political and social metaphors hit tougher for a Chilly Battle-era viewers by using a twist that Serling had already workshopped on his collection “The Twilight Zone” (particularly, the episode “I Shot an Arrow into the Air”).
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The trick to the twist could be to not reveal that Taylor was having his journey inside a post-apocalyptic Earth till the final second of the movie. Whereas this was achieved by setting nearly all of the film within the desert (places like Lake Powell and Glen Canyon Nationwide Recreation Space had been used), the true bait-and-switch was utilizing Level Dume for the climax. The placement considerably resembles the tip of the world in literal phrases, with the earth, rock, and sand coming proper as much as an unlimited, blue ocean. The most important incongruity comes from the long-lasting visible of the Statue of Liberty damaged (or buried) within the seashore, a visible cue to Taylor (who’d left from the then-slightly futuristic 12 months of 1972) of the place and when he was. The sight of a fallen Liberty thus grew to become a robust shorthand for dozens of style movies to observe when trying to evoke the U.S.’ downfall on a grand scale: Every thing from “Independence Day” to “Cloverfield” and the poster artwork for “Escape From New York” owes a debt to “Apes.”
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Equally, “Planet of the Apes” owes a debt to Level Dume, a location that might appear stunning one second and bleak and barren the subsequent. If the ultimate twist within the movie had been set in some inside location, or some nondescript exterior, it will nonetheless have been intellectually participating and had some emotional weight. But, it would not have had the identical affect as seeing Heston on Dume’s seashore, beating his fists helplessly in opposition to the sand. The movie definitely helped contribute to Level Dume’s recognition as a vacationer attraction subsequent to its launch, too. Sarcastically, these filmmaking maniacs, they blew it up.
