Planet of the Apes Trivia Quiz

Answer: Pierre Boulle

The French Pierre Boulle has also written 'The Bridge on the River Kwai'. Rod Sterling wrote the script for 1968 adaptation of the book, starring Charlton Heston. Cornelius Zaius is simply a name I made up composed of two important characters in the book.

Answer: a message in a bottle

A couple named Jinn and Phyllis find a bottle floating in space, while on vacation in their spacecraft. When they bring it aboard and smash it open they find a message recounting this amazing story.

Answer: 2500

Answer: Betelgeuse; 2 years

Their target is the red supergiant star in the constellation Orion. They will spend one year accelerating to almost the speed of light, then one year decelerating. Special relativity allows them to barely age at all, while centuries pass on Earth.

Answer: Professor Antelle

We never find out what Professor Antelle is a professor of (I would guess physics), but the ship was designed by him and he heads the expedition. Ulysse is the writer of the account of the journey found later in a bottle. He describes himself as 'a little-known journalist who had met the professor as a result of an interview'. Arthur Levain is the third member of the expedition.

He is described by Ulysse as 'a young physician with a great future'. Unfortunately for him, his future is tragic. Taylor is not in the book, though that is Charlton Heston's name in the 1968 movie.

Answer: Nova

She was so beautiful that Ulysse could compare her to a brilliant star. The men call the planet they land on Soror.

Answer: he is shot

Poor Arthur lost his mind in the extreme terror the hunt produced. He got up from the thicket where he and Ulysse were hiding and, without taking an precautions, began to run. Out in the open, one of the gorilla hunters shot him, 'adding his body to all those that already lay there'.

But this distraction saved Ulysse, allowing him to run for cover. Unfortunately, he was caught in a net and captured.

Answer: Zira

Dr. Zira was also in the movie version of the book. She is the fiancee of Cornelius.

Answer: both of the above

He was able to avoid electric shock, retrieve food that was dangling over his head, and call the apes he interacted with by name. Addressing Zaius as 'Mi Zaius' still didn't convince the skeptical orangutan scientist that Ulysse was as intelligent as an ape.

Answer: by illustrating the Pythagorean theorem

He also drew ellipses, parabolas, hyperbolas, and a right circular cone. He drew a map of the Betelgeuse solar system with it's four planets as well as a map of his own solar system. By drawing a dotted line connecting Earth and Soror he showed Zira that he had travelled there.

In the movie, the apes believed that flight was impossible (as shown in the scene in Zira's home). In the book, however, not only did they have airplanes, they were starting to launch their own artificial satellites.

Answer: a park

They meet in a public park, but Ulysse has to wear a leash and is not allowed to wear clothes.

Answer: there are no nations

To quote the paragraph from the book: 'The apes are not divided into nations. The whole planet is administered by a council of ministers, at the head of which is a triumvirate consisting of one gorilla, one orangutan, and one chimpanzee. In conjunction with this government, there is also a parliament composed of three chambers: the Chamber of Gorillas, of Orangutans, and of Chimpanzees, each of which attends to the interests of its respective members.' Pretty interesting.

Answer: hunters,authority; official science; intellectual element

The gorillas have a taste for authority and are the most powerful class. They are good at drawing up general directives and handling other apes. They are not very intelligent but are more cunning than orangutans and frequently use the latter. Gorillas who don't hold positions of authority either have lesser jobs requiring physical strength or hunt.

The orangutans are described by Zira as 'official science', although some indulge in the arts, politics, and literature. They are described as ' Pompous, solemn, pedantic, devoid of originality and critical sense, intent on preserving tradition, blind and deaf to all innovation, they form the substratum of every academy. Endowed with a good memory, they learn an enormous amount by heart and from books.' The chimpanzees represent the intellectual element of the planet. Most major discoveries are made by chimpanzees and most interesting books are written by them.

Answer: Professor Antelle

The professor acts just like the other humans, not speaking, begging for food. After several months of being exposed to that pathetic existance his intelligence is gone. Weird, I know.

Answer: that he is intelligent

He addresses the entire scientific congress (in their language, which Zira taught him...he also taught her French) and tells his remarkable story to them. Public opinion is on his side, so the Grand Council of Soror is forced to set him free and there's nothing Zaius can do about it.

Answer: True

Zaius had been given another post, however. Zira became the new director's assistant.

Answer: a talking human doll

The buried city was over 10,000 years old--farther back than ape history went. This, along with evidence of buried human skeletons (in a graveyard), seemed to show that there was a human civilization before there was an ape civilization. In the movie the doll was found in a cave, in the book it was just an unburied city.

Answer: she was pregnant

Here are Ulysse's thoughts on this: 'The tragi-comic side of the situation overwhelms me suddenly. I am about to become a father in the system of Betelgeuse. I am going to have a child on the planet Soror by a woman for whom I feel a geat physical attraction and sometimes even compassion but who has the mind of an animal. No other being in the cosmos has found himself involved in such an adventure. I feel like weeping and laughing at the same time'.

The Grand Council was keeping it very secret because they feared that Ulysse and his baby would start a new race of humans who could challenge the apes.

Answer: the humans had once had apes as pets, but they took over

Through the memories of humans long dead they discover that humans had tamed apes and granted certain privledges to those they used as servants. The apes were multiplying quickly and would soon almost outnumber humans. The apes began to get arrogant, looking humans right in the eye, making fun of the boss's tick behind his back, and whispering and chuckling at night.

Then the apes began to succeed in speaking. One of the chimpanzees uttered ugly threats. They used speech to protest when they are given an order.

A 'cerebral laziness' took hold of humans, making most things too much of an intellectual effort. They sleep, incapable of organizing themselves for resistance. The ape armies take over.

Answer: by using an artificial satellite to get to his orbiting ship

When he, the professor, and Arthur first landed on the planet they left their main ship orbiting the planet and took a smaller craft to the surface. Because of the Grand Council's fear of Ulysse and his child, Cornelius feared that they would either eliminate them or remove parts of their brains within two weeks. Cornelius arranged for some scientist friends of his to substitute Ulysse, Nova, and Sirius (his son) for 3 test subjects who were scheduled to be launched into space for a test.

When they had been launched and got to the ship Cornelius' friends pretended that the satellite had been lost. Ulysse and his family went back to Earth in their spaceship...only to find apes instead of humans on the planet!