When he sees the shattered remains of the Statue of Liberty he goes into a rant about Humanity destroying itself most likely with atomic weapons. Yet only a few minutes earlier he was explaining to Dr Zaius that Humanity could well have been destroyed by some natural calamity like a meteor storm.
shareUp until he discovered the statue, he'd believed he was on another planet formerly inhabited by a different race of intelligent humans. Zaius insisted that those humans had been evil and Taylor was defending them, as there was no direct evidence that they were belligerent.
But after reaching Lady Liberty, not only did he realize he was home all the time, but that Zaius was right.
Exactly right!
shareYes I understand that. However Taylor instantly jumps to the conclusion that his Humanity destroyed itself with atomic weapons when their was plenty of evidence that some natural calamity had wiped out modern civilisation allowing for the apes to rise, much like the giant asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs allowing mammals to take a foothold. Why the instant conclusion from Taylor, or was it just his cynical nature perhaps?
shareTaylor instantly jumps to the conclusion that his Humanity destroyed itself with atomic weapons when their was plenty of evidence that some natural calamity had wiped out modern civilisation
much like the giant asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs
Zaius told Taylor "The Forbidden Zone was once a paradise. Your breed made a desert of it, ages ago". And the Statue of Liberty looked pretty singed.
shareIf you're thinking of Taylor's line "You blew it up!" he wasn't referring to man destroying himself with atomic bombs, but of Dr Zaius blowing up the cave that contained the evidence that modern ape sprang from man and not vice versa.
shareTaylor didn't know about the cave's destruction. Zaius didn't even tell Cornelius and Zira about his plans until Taylor was on his way to the statue.
shareI think he was holding onto a very slim chance he could make it back home. When he saw the statue all his hopes were dashed.
shareTaylor was having the same feeling most people are on Earth are having right now ... god damn you, you've blown it up.
shareYou're right, Taylor jumps to the conclusion that man has destroyed himself with nuclear weapons without any implicit evidence that that is actually what happened. But Zaius does imply quite exactly that his breed made a desert of the Forbidden Zone ages ago, so it's a reasonable conclusion on Taylor's part, and it's certainly what the filmmakers wanted the audience conclusion to be.
shareI always thought it was a commentary on the politics of the time. During the Cold War, the big fear was man destroying humanity with nuclear weapons.
shareThere are a couple things happening here. First off is that Taylor doesn't challenge Dr. Zaius's assertion that it's a deep secret part of ape lore that man had made a desert of the Forbidden Zone, so it seems Taylor accepts that there's likely at least a kernel of truth to it. Zaius's words still leave it vague enough that he still doesn't know how or why the Forbidden Zone was ruined, so it's all still just an abstract concept for him.
Second is that this whole time Taylor's been running on the assumption that he's not on Earth, which itself means a couple things: while these humans are humans, they're not from Earth, they're not "his" humans. Also, if humanity developed on multiple planets, it likely meant that humanity was more or less inevitable on any planet that breeds life long enough - there could be countless civilizations all over the universe, what does it matter if some of them destroyed themselves as long as most of them survived?
Then Taylor finds the Statue of Liberty. Suddenly:
(1) this is no longer abstract history, it's very, very real for him,
(2) the statue being blown in half was probably not the result of an environmental catastrophe but something much more direct,
(3) when Taylor left Earth the threat of nuclear war was a hot topic, which was definitely something that could result in wiping out civilization and blowing the Statue of Liberty in half,
(4) this was not just some "other" planet's humans, these were specifically "his" humans,
(5) there is no longer any reason to believe humans developed on any other planet (in fact, the more he thinks about it, the sillier that whole idea probably seems to him). This was it. Humans had their shot, and they blew it.
As for why this angers him so much, it's because through this whole ordeal with the apes Taylor had finally learned to appreciate humanity. Then he discovers humanity let him down, and for the exact reasons he'd previously become such a cynical cold-hearted jerk in the first place.
Uh, why does Taylor think that he is speaking English?
shareForget the statue, riding off into the sunset with Nova seems like the start to a pretty great life
share