Goofs

At the beginning of the film, when Taylor and his crew are trekking out of the Forbidden Zone, Taylor's backpack disappears and reappears between shots.

Several of the outside shots of the spacecraft show the outer hatch removed long before Taylor orders it to be blown.

The font Taylor writes the "My name is Taylor" note on is drastically different from that he later writes notes for Zira and Cornelius while in their home. Also, when Julius knocks Taylor onto the floor of his cage for mugging Zira of her note pad, his note "My name is Taylor" is clearly facing up on the ground, but it's suddenly facing down when Julius picks it up to return it to Zira.

(at around 20 mins) When the astronauts walk up a sandy hill, a single astronaut is shown walking uphill from behind, yet there are two sets of footprints side by side.

(at around 1h 22 mins) When Lucius comes to liberate Taylor, he clobbers Julius whose cigar falls out of his mouth. The next shot shows it back in his mouth.

(at around 7 mins) In the opening crash sequence, water is seen flooding into the space ship under tremendous pressure. The crew compartment is the part in the air, and since the ship is "floating" half-in and half-out, there would not be that kind of water pressure in that section of the ship.

The speed of the spaceship would be very close to the speed of light, so that it would travel at least 2,000 light years in the 2,006 years it was in flight, but Taylor says the are 320 light years from Earth. A light year is the distance light travels in one year, approximately six trillion miles.

For the nerds, the speed of the ship would be 99.99997% the speed of light based on six months ship time corresponding to seven hundred years Earth time.

Time dilation (slowing of time) is part of EINSTEIN'S Special theory of Relativity, and has been proven tens of thousands of times, so it is not an UNPROVEN theory as stated.

The ape civilization does not know any advanced technology except for primitive cameras and guns. Producing of energy sources seems to be totally absent. Therefore it is impossible to use a hose to spray Taylor in his cage. That demands some kind of pressure and will need energy from a generator or some other mechanical device. Contrary to the foregoing, it is possible to produce a pressurized jet of water by gravity alone. The gravity-fed fountains at Chatsworth and Stanway in the UK, project vertical jets of water to a height of 200 feet.

The wound dressing on Taylor's neck would not continue to show a red spot of coagulated blood (and possibly pus). It would rapidly change into a brownish colour.

The astronauts conclude that no life is possible on the planet. But the air is breathable, the temperatures are congenial, and the water is not hurting them. They forgot to check these while checking the soil. Dodge checked the air when the astronauts landed and said that it was "okay." Additionally, they checked the soil and concluded "nothing will grow here."

Early in the film several gorillas pose for a picture with dead humans. Camera technology is very advanced, required various chemicals and processing, both to create raw film, develop film negatives once it is exposed, and create final prints. There isn't any evidence of electrical generation or chemical production facilities. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of modern technology to be seen, including firearms, which indicates industrialization.

(at around 9 mins) Just before the spacecraft sinks, all the power goes out, and the crew abandons ship. Taylor takes a final look at the stopped clock, frozen in the last moment it recorded, as clocks do in real life.

It should have been obvious that the three astronauts did not belong with the other humans since they were wearing garments, while torn and tattered, were woven and stitched while the primitive humans wore crude animal skins. The apes, however, despise and consider ALL humans as enemies to the ape society so even though the astronauts wore something different than the primitive humans, it still made sense for the gorillas to hunt the three given that they're humans as well.

After the astronauts' clothes are taken and destroyed by the wild humans while the three of them are bathing in the lake, Dodge fashions a makeshift garment out of what appears to be the remains of the lifeboat they used to flee the sinking spaceship, and left behind when they began their trek several days earlier. That's not the lifeboat Dodge used for clothing, it's a sun tarp that had been packed with their gear; a deleted scene showed the tarp set up in the desert.

When Dodge blows the hatch, the windows fly out into the water; then, in the next scene, inside the spaceship, the windows are still in place.

Actors' lips and teeth can be seen behind the ape make-up at several points, giving the apes two rows of teeth. One example is Dr. Zaius in his first scene.

The exposed skin of the actors' necks can be seen beneath the ape masks in a few scenes where the actors suddenly turn their heads. Such as when Julius is questioning the order to release Taylor and when Cornelius is arguing on the beach at the end.

Nova has clean shaven legs and armpits even though she lives in the wild like an animal.

While being hunted, many humans dive prematurely, either before they get to the net or even before the net goes up.

At beginning of movie Heston is smoking a cigar, clearly violating safety protocol in an oxygen rich environment.

When Dr. Zira first observes Taylor standing in his cage, the notepad she pulls out of her coat front pocket strongly resembles a 4x4 pad of yellow Post-It notes (which ironically were invented in 1968, the year of the film's release).

It is likely that if the astronauts crashed into Earth, they would crash into the ocean, since that is some 70% of the Earth's surface. It is even more likely that they would not happen to end up in the former north east U.S. where Taylor conveniently could run into Lady Liberty.

As the ship arrives at the water's edge during the opening sequence, there are white boats docked at the shore.

Opposite to the other savages Nova wears mascara and pink lipstick and nail polish.

When the crew first encounters the primitive humans, they are all dressed in skins and have no tools or technology. When they start running from the apes, a man is holding a small girl over his shoulder with her rear pointed toward the camera, and she is wearing modern panties.

At 58.29 you can see an equipment stand with a wheel.

(at around 15 mins) After Landon sets up his tiny American flag, Taylor lets out a howling laugh, but in the shot his teeth are clenched (as though he were giggling).

Early in the movie during the establishing shots when the crew is marching through the desert through to the Forbidden Zone, a panoramic shot of the surrounding canyons shows a man next to an automobile in the distance.

(at around 57 mins) The shadow of the camera is visible on the wall as Taylor goes down the spiral stairs in the "human museum".

When Taylor is running through the ape museum, the shot where the mom and child ape run into him, there is a grip stand leg/wheel seen in the far right of the screen for a few seconds.

Taylor and Lucius walk around the edge of a cliff and end up on a cliff on the opposite side of a river valley which is physically impossible without climbing down into the valley, crossing the river and climbing back up the opposite side.

Landon asks why he cannot read on Taylor, i.e., figure him out, then in the next breath he says, "but you, you're no secret," in clear contradiction to his previous statement. He even goes on to psychoanalyze Taylor. Both statements can't be true.

At minute 22, right after their water check, Dodge mentions the 'strange luminosity at night, yet there's no moon'. If the crew is in fact back on Earth, 2000 years in the future, the moon should still be there, although it might be 'new', i.e. not visible. (Note: It's not out of the question for the moon to have been destroyed by a wandering space body in the stretch of time since Taylor's ship had left Earth).

When the spacecraft starts sinking the crew of three men get into a life raft. The raft is barely large enough for the three men, however there were originally four crew members of the space craft. If the fourth member (Stewart) would have survived the flight and crash, there would not have been enough room for her in the life raft.

Shortly after crash-landing, the astronauts note that they believe they are on a planet orbiting a star within the constellation of Orion. The very first night they would have almost certainly seen several Earth-based constellations - very -possibly Orion itself - and quickly realized they were nowhere near Orion but rather back on Earth.

The astronauts find a plant which they declare their first "life" seen on the planet. They are oblivious to the grassy ridge behind them, seen when they are squatting. Scientist Dodge's first reaction to the "life" is to tear it up for no reason, something no sensible, ethical person would do.

Taylor says to the other astronauts - "Your loved ones are dead and forgotten for 20 centuries. 20 centuries! Even if you could get back, they would think you were something that fell out of a tree." The difference between a human in 1972 and a human in 3978 shouldn't be much different than that between a human from 1972 and one from the days of Caesar Augustus. (Note: Presumably, if they could get back home, Earth would age a further 20 centuries during their return trip).

It seems odd that Taylor, even with his neck injury, could not communicate until he wrote his name on a piece of paper. Prior to this he could have whispered something, or "spoken" with his lips in the hopes the apes could read lips, or if nothing else he could have let them know he understands the apes with pantomime. (Note: Taylor did move his lips but while doing so, he actually tried to speak, which caused pain to his throat wound - Zira: "Dr. Zaius, I swear he's answering you". He in fact does use pantomime in the very next scene with the map in Zira's office).

Shortly after the crew reaches the shore after their spacecraft sank, Taylor mentions to Landon that he now is 2031 years old. If you go with the year of 3978, Landon would have been born in 1947, making him just 25 years old during the mission. Ironically, the date of 3955, as established in the sequels as the date of Taylor's and Brents crashed ships, would place Landons birth year to 1924, making him around 48 years old, which is closer to the age, the character would be.

Nova has a wardrobe slip when Taylor is being loaded into the capture wagon.