I assume they only ever watched the awful 2001 version, which has a more faithful ending to the original Planet of the Apes book than the 1968 film. In the book it’s also an alien planet, rather than Earth.
They probably never bothered to watch the 60s film and just assumed that they knew what was happening because the ending is so iconic and has been widely parodied for 50+ years.
![Planet Of The Apes [spoilers]](https://lemmy.world/pictrs/image/377edf86-4864-4ca8-aac6-862ebfc5b260.jpeg){kind=link}
I assume they only ever watched the awful 2001 version, which has a more faithful ending to the original Planet of the Apes book than the 1968 film. In the book it’s also an alien planet, rather than Earth.
They probably never bothered to watch the 60s film and just assumed that they knew what was happening because the ending is so iconic and has been widely parodied for 50+ years.