George Taylor

This page is similar in name or subject to other pages. See also George Taylor (disambiguation) for a complete list of references to clarify differences between these closely named or closely related articles.

"I can't help thinking that somewhere in the universe, there has to be something better than man. Has to be."

―Taylor

George Taylor
Aliases:	Colonel George Taylor Colonel Taylor Taylor Bright Eyes
Continuity:	Planet of the Apes
Notability:	Main character
Type:	Astronaut
Gender:	Male
Race:	Human
Location:	Fort Wayne, Indiana 40th century, New York City, New York
Status:	Deceased
First:	Planet of the Apes (1968)
Final:	Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
Actor:	Charlton Heston

George Taylor is a fictional astronaut featured in the Planet of the Apes film franchise. Played by actor Charlton Heston, he was first seen in the 1968 film Planet of the Apes, wherein he was the central protagonist. Heston reprised the role for the film's 1970 sequel, Beneath the Planet of the Apes, but in a diminished capacity. The character has also appeared in all media adaptations of the two films.

Biography

George Taylor was a male human born some time in the 1920s or 30s. Very little is known of Taylor's youth aside from the fact that he attended elementary school in Fort Wayne, Indiana. As an adult, Taylor grew embittered with the world around him. He despised his fellow man, and felt that they were capable of little more than waging war against one another. This inborn cynicism may have influenced his decision to join the ANSA program.

As a scientist and astronaut, Taylor achieved the rank of Colonel and was placed in charge of a special mission aboard the exploratory vessel, the Icarus. It was his hope that the universe contained life on other planets – life that was superior to that found on Earth.

Launching from Cape Kennedy in 1972, Taylor's crew, which consisted of fellow astronauts, Dodge, Stewart and Landon, traveled into the reaches of deep space. Their mission was to test out a theory developed by scientist Otto Hasslein with regards to a vessel traveling beyond the speed of light. Six months into their mission, the crew placed themselves into a state of suspended animation. Taylor administered a special drug to keep them sedated, and then confined them all to special stasis pods aboard the Icarus.

While the crew slept, the vessel passed through an astronomical anomaly known as a Hasslein Curve, which propelled them two-thousand years into the future. The vessel crash-landed in a lake back on Earth, somewhere near the ruins of old New York City. An emergency alert claxon activated, and Taylor, Dodge and Landon revived. Stewart however, had died during the journey due to an unforeseen air leak. While Dodge and Landon grabbed emergency supplies and evacuated the sinking ship, Taylor looked at the time readout on the ship's log. The year was 3978.

The three men leapt into a raft, and paddled to the shoreline. All of them believed that they had actually landed on some far away world. Even Taylor hadn't begun to guess that they had really returned to Earth. Landon and Taylor exchanged a few terse words with one another while Dodge tested the soil. Taylor felt that Landon was an ambitious idealist, and laughed heartily as he watched his fellow astronaut place a small American flag into the arid soil.

Before long, all three of them found vegetation and a tribe of savage humans. Taylor was the first to notice that the furtive natives were mute. They attempted to mingle with the humans and managed to forage some fruit and corn, but within minutes a shrill horn bleated across the field.

To his horror, Taylor noticed a squad of armed horseback riding gorillas thundering across the plane. Everyone ran for cover, but the gorilla hunters quickly overtook them. Dodge was shot, and Landon was captured. Taylor tried to flee the hunter's nets, but a gorilla soldier fired a rifle shot at him, which tore across his throat. Taylor fell backwards off of a small cliff into a pool of water.

As the hunt concluded, the gorillas gathered up the surviving humans and brought them back to their settlement at Ape City. Taylor was brought to the Animal Hospital for his wounds to be treated.

Animal psychologist Doctor Zira and her assistant Doctor Galen dressed his wound, but it would be some time before Taylor would be able to speak again. This came as no great surprise to his captors, as humans were incapable of articulating in this future time era. Zira placed Taylor in a cage under the watchful eye of a gorilla guard named Julius. At this time, Taylor met another surviving captive of the hunt – an attractive dark-haired female whom he named Nova.

Zira took particular interest in Taylor, and even provided him with the nickname "Bright Eyes". Taylor tried to communicate with her, but his throat injury prevented him from articulating. Frustrated, he reached through the bars of his cage, grabbing Zira's notebook and pencil. Julius repelled him with his truncheon, but when Zira recovered the notepad, she found the words "My name is Taylor" written across it.

After sending Julius away, Zira brought Taylor into her private study. She contacted her fiancée, the archaeologist Cornelius, and told him what had occurred. Initially, Cornelius felt that Taylor merely had a knack for mimicry, but within moments he proved his intellect beyond a shadow of a doubt.

Zira addressed her findings to the Science Minister Doctor Zaius. Zaius dismissed her claims that Taylor was a human gifted with an ape's intelligence, and had both Nova and he relocated to the stockade. Once again, Taylor attempted to prove his identity. He scrawled his name on the dirt floor of the stockade, but another mute prisoner disrupted him, resulting in a small scuffle. Zaius took note of Taylor's writing and quickly erased the words before anyone else could see them.

Before long however, Taylor escaped from his prison confinement. He raced through the thoroughfare of Ape City, desperate to evade capture from the gorilla militia. Taking a shortcut through a natural science museum, he found the remains of his colleague, Dodge, stuffed and encased in a glass display case. A posse of soldiers waylaid him at a bridge, scooping Taylor up into one of their hunting nets. By this point, Taylor's throat had healed enough for him to finally speak, and he violently voiced his admonition.

The revelation of a talking human sent shockwaves throughout the ape settlement. Officials brought him back to the Animal Hospital where he was caged and looked upon as a biological oddity. Doctor Zira, thrilled with the idea of a talking human, did her best to shield Taylor from further abuse, but she was unable to prevent the jailor, Julius, from punishing the Earth man at every given turn. Julius took great delight in pummeling Taylor with water from a fire hose, declaring him a "Freak".

Doctor Zaius decided to hold an official inquest in order to determine Taylor's future. The science ministry, consisting of the President of the Assembly, Doctor Maximus, and the prosecutor, Doctor Honorius interrogated Taylor at length, pressing him for the truth behind his origins. Doctor Zira and Cornelius were permitted to speak on Taylor's behalf, but were unable to satisfy the prejudicial orangutan panel. The assembly concluded that Taylor was a mutant, and that he was to be gelded, experimented upon and ultimately executed. Moments after the tribunal commenced, Doctor Zaius brought Taylor into his private office. He confessed to an awareness of mankind’s origins and dreaded the day that he might one day return.

Meanwhile, Doctor Zira, aware of what was to become of Taylor contacted her young nephew, Lucius. Lucius went to the Animal Hospital late at night and assisted Taylor in disabling the keeper, Julius. Free from his cell once again, Taylor insisted that Nova was to come with them. Lucius was apprehensive, but ultimately acquiesced.

The three fled the city and traveled East towards an area known as the Forbidden Zone. There, they met up with Cornelius and Zira who supplied him with a fresh horse, a gun and supplies. They took momentary shelter in a cave at Cornelius' archeological dig.

Doctor Zaius and a gorilla cavalry quickly tracked them down with orders to kill Taylor on site. He also declared that Cornelius and Zira were to be charged with scientific heresy. Zaius entered the cavern where Cornelius showed him evidence that human beings once ruled this world – a fact that repudiated nearly every religious tenant set forth within the Sacred Scrolls (the ape equivalent to a Christian Bible).

Taylor decided that it was now time to put this topsy-turvy society behind him. He tied Doctor Zaius to a rock, while Lucius kept the gorilla soldiers at bay with a shotgun. Saying goodbye to Zira and Cornelius, he rode off with Nova in search of his destiny.

Taylor and Nova rode along the shoreline for several miles, trekking deeper into the regions along the perimeter of the Forbidden Zone. Taylor found the half-buried ruins of the Statue of Liberty, and realized that he had been on Earth this entire time. Overwhelmed with shock and anger, he theorized that the people of his own time must have destroyed the world through nuclear Armageddon. With no hope of ever returning to the world he knew, George Taylor, who once despised his fellow human beings, was now the custodian of the human race.

It was his intention to establish a new life for himself with Nova. Taylor even tried to teach Nova how to speak. During this time, Nova became pregnant with Taylor's child.

As time passed, Taylor and Nova journeyed deeper into the Forbidden Zone. The Forbidden Zone was a grey wasteland of ash and debris – the skeletal remains of what was once New York City. Little did Taylor realize however, was that the Zone was also occupied by a subspecies of telepathic human mutants. Using their mental powers of illusion, they captured Taylor and held him prisoner. Nova managed to escape and rode Taylor’s horse back towards Ape City.

She eventually encountered another time-lost astronaut from Taylor's era – Brent. Brent learned that Nova knew of Taylor and eventually found his way into the Forbidden Zone. A commune of mutants called the Fellowship of the Holy Fallout, captured Brent and placed him within the same prison cell as Taylor. A mutant jailor used his telepathic powers to force Taylor and Brent to fight one another. Nova managed to inadvertently distract the guard, and Taylor and Brent escaped.

At this time, ape military leader General Ursus learned of the existence of the mutants, and convinced Doctor Zaius to invade the Forbidden Zone. The gorilla soldiers raided the Fellowship's church (in the ruins of St. Patrick's cathedral), killing scores of mutants, as well as Nova.

Taylor and Brent found the worship hall where the mutants possessed a Doomsday device called the Alpha-Omega Bomb. They engaged in a gun battle with the gorilla soldiers, but were both struck down by return fire. Bleeding from a mortal gunshot wound, Taylor stumbled towards the altar where he encountered Zaius. He pleaded with Zaius to help him, who in turn merely scoffed, declaring that mankind was capable of nothing but destruction. As Taylor died, his body slumped upon the launch controls of the Alpha-Omega Bomb, detonating the weapon and destroying the entire planet.

Notes & Trivia

• The character of George Taylor was played by award winning actor, Charlton Heston.
• Taylor is not to be confused with George Taylor, one of the original signers of the Declaration of Independence.
• In the credits of both Planet of the Apes and Beneath the Planet of the Apes, Heston's character is credited only as Taylor. The 1998 documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes is one of the few official sources that references him by his first name, George.
• The physical representations of Taylor vary dependent upon the medium. In the Marvel Comics movie adaptations featured in Adventures on the Planet of the Apes, Taylor has curly, dark brown hair. In the adaptations featured in the Power Records book-n-record sets, Taylor is perpetually clean-shaven, and has a full head of bushy blonde hair.
• Originally, the studio heads at 20th Century Fox wanted actor Charlton Heston to return as the starring role in Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Heston didn't want to commit to a sequel, but agreed to make a brief appearance so long as his character was killed off early in the film. After several script drafts, it was decided that the Taylor character would function as a framing sequence for the second film. He appeared briefly in the beginning of the movie, where he falls into the Mutant trap, and returns towards the end of the film for the movie's climax. Heston donated his salary from Beneath the Planet of the Apes to charity. The original storyline for Taylor was later adapted for the character of Brent.
• It was Heston's idea for his character to destroy the Earth at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Originally, the Taylor character was to intentionally detonate the Doomsday bomb, but the script was slightly altered so that Taylor instead sets the bomb off accidentally. Heston believed that by destroying the entire planet, it would stave off future sequels. However, the Planet of the Apes franchise spawned three more films following Beneath the Planet of the Apes, as well as two reboot projects.
• DC Comics also created a character named George Taylor, but this earlier version has nothing in common with the character from Planet of the Apes. The DC Taylor was the city editor of a metropolitan newspaper called the The Daily Star. In the Golden Age continuity commonly referred to as Earth-Two, Taylor was the employer of reporters Clark Kent and Lois Lane.
• In pre-production, Taylor's original surname was going to be Thomas.
• Taylor is an analog to Bill Hudson, the blonde-haired, lead astronaut from the Return to the Planet of the Apes animated series. Whereas the movie version of Doctor Zira referred to Taylor as "Bright-Eyes", the animated Zira took to calling Bill Hudson, "Blue-Eyes".
• The March, 1973 edition of Mad Magazine lampooned the Planet of the Apes franchise in issue #157. The character Taylor was re-named Tyler.

Appearances

• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Planet of the Apes (Power Records)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Novelization)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (Power Records)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) (archival footage only)
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #1
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #2
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #3
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #4
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #5
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #6
• Adventures on the Planet of the Apes #11
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #1
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #2
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #3
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #4
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #5
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #6
• Planet of the Apes Magazine #11

See also

Planet of the Apes Planet of the Apes comics Planet of the Apes film series

Planet of the Apes characters Planet of the Apes cast & crew Planet of the Apes image category

External Links

• George Taylor at IMDB
• George Taylor at Wikipedia
• George Taylor at Comic Vine
• George Taylor at the POTA Wiki

---