@socketwench - I love that end narration. "The Planet Earth is now dead."

That ending was suggested by Heston, if I remember right, as a way to make sure "NO MORE SEQUELS." The original ending was that the bomb goes off, supposedly killing everyone inside, but life goes on.

Decades later, though, a hand breaks through the rocks, and it's the hand of a gorilla. A MUTATED hand of a gorilla. With a rifle. And...get this...the first thing it does is kill a dove.

SYMBOLISM.