Posted 21 February 2013 - 11:04 AM
I never spent a lot of time researching the subject, but I always suspected that the ending was not part of the original script. It feels like something a studio exec came up with after wandering onto the set one day.
'Hey, you know what everyone remembers from the first POTA movie? That crazy ending! That's what this movie is missing. And you know what the best part of that ending was?'
'Well, the fact that Charlton Heston realizes that this is Earth, and that humanity had already destroyed itself...'
'No, no, no! The best part of the ending is it involves a national monument! We need an ending that involves a national monument!'
'Uhh, okay, well I guess...'
'The Washington Monument? No. Mount Rushmore? No, that's been done. Oh, I've got it! The Lincoln Memorial!'
'The Lincoln Memorial? Well, I guess we could come up with something...'
'Oh I've already got it! Mark lands on Earth and the Lincoln Memorial is an ape! Not just any ape, but Tim Roth's character!'
'But uhhh, we left him trapped in a broken spaceship with no fuel? How could he possibly...'
'It doesn't matter! Don't you see what a crazy mindfuck that ending will be?'
'That doesn't really make sense, though.'
'We've found our ending! Let Tim know.'