In Tim Burton’s 2001 film Planet of the Apes, what species rules the planet?

Intelligent apes rule the planet in Tim Burton’s 2001 film Planet of the Apes.

The film follows astronaut Leo Davidson after he travels through a space-time anomaly and lands on a world where apes occupy positions of political and military power. Humans are treated as an oppressed species, reversing the familiar social order of the original Planet of the Apes story.

The ruling society includes chimpanzees, orangutans, and gorillas, with each group associated with different roles and status. Thade, a militant general played by Tim Roth, is one of the film’s principal ape antagonists. Mark Wahlberg plays Leo Davidson, the human astronaut trying to survive and return home.

The movie is based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel La Planète des singes and serves as a reimagining rather than a direct remake of every event in the 1968 film. Its extensive makeup effects were central to presenting the apes as expressive, speaking characters.