Planet of the Apemen: Battle for Earth

Planet of the Apemen: Battle for Earth

2011, Science  -    -  Playlist 101 Comments
8.07
12345678910
Ratings: 8.07/10 from 56 users.

Planet of the Apemen: Battle for EarthThe story of how Homo sapiens once shared the Earth with other species of hominid, and how, against all the odds, we survived.

Homo Erectus. In the not-too-distant past, humans shared this planet with other species of hominid. This series tells how, against all the odds, Homo sapiens survived.

This episode is set 75,000 years ago in India, following a catastrophic super-volcanic eruption which forced a showdown between our ancestors and a completely different species of human, Homo erectus, who up until that point had reigned supreme.

Neanderthal. This episode is set 35,000 years ago and depicts Homo sapiens's encounter with Homo neanderthalensis. As the ice caps retreated, the Neanderthal stronghold in Europe weakened, providing a window of opportunity to which modern humans owe their existence.

More great documentaries

Subscribe
Notify of
guest

101 Comments
Newest
Oldest Most Voted
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Niki
Niki
2 years ago

Oddly.... in order to convey the experience of the people in this story.. they had to speak English. It would have been better for them to be speaking some other indistinguishable gibberish and just let us read the English subtitles. It was just hard to imagine these people speaking fluent, modern day English, while having to accept that the setting was thousands of years ago. After about 24 minutes, I went on to look for something else to watch.

Mario
Mario
7 years ago

Neanderthal was an egalitarian society, nomadic by necessity, which likely contributed to its demise (or absorption). Everyone went in the hunt, adult (pregnant or not), elderly, young; not necessarily the most effective strategy for stocking ones genes. Our ancestors, cousin to Neanderthal, settled, gathered possessions, left the frail, young and pregnant in villages, to hunt. Apparently a, genetically speaking, wiser strategy. Did this strategy inevitably lead us to this current state of hording?! Had Neanderthal survived would we (absorbed) have been a minimalist society?

Shaney-ney
Shaney-ney
7 years ago

This documentary is a POS and a waste of time. as discussed by other people it voices a very outdated anthrophological view of the other human species and its plainly bad. also it is in the horrible form of movie-like documentary which is used for a load of non-sense. acting is cringeworthy, plot is idiotic, overly PC, costumes are designed conveniently not to upset anyone. you also don't really hear the experts, as they hired like two guys whom they talk to in these two episodes and the rest of the budget went to filming this C class film.

If you are interested in the subject and you don't have cognitive disabilities like the production team of this documentary, I suggest you take a look at BBC's Walking with Cavemen series, First Peoples and The Ape that Took Over the World.

Audrey Hendon
Audrey Hendon
7 years ago

I do trust all the concepts you have offered on your post. They're very convincing and can certainly work. Still, the posts are very brief for starters. May you please prolong them a bit from subsequent time? Thanks for the post.

heather
heather
9 years ago

It was good not just all data there were underlying stories which made it interesting.

Ann Longford
Ann Longford
10 years ago

worse doco. good info but the drama was rather unbelievable.

aj
aj
10 years ago

One set of cut marks on a bone does not make a complete case for

cannibalism. If there had been more then you could say they were
cannibals, but that isn't the case.

Plus there hasn't been any proof that we killed each other.

In resent years research has found that many humans today have neanderthal dna, which means at some point we mated with them, so how can you claim we killed them?

Mating with Neanderthals helped us get stronger. It made our immune system better and thats how we have coped with viruses to this day,.
It's believed that they were like us in many ways and also capable of speech.

If we killed them at all, we killed them with kindness.

We didn't murdered them or outcompeted them.

We mated with them and, in time simply folded them into our species until they disappeared.

bringmeredwine
bringmeredwine
10 years ago

I really enjoyed this doc. I felt like I was watching a movie. There was plenty of action and drama to keep my interest.
I learned the difference between Homo Sapiens, Homo Erectus and Neanderthals.
I was taught many moons ago, that Neanderthals were hairy, short, and could not speak.
My only complaint about this doc was the character named "Biana", ("Bannana" is more like it!).
I found her very annoying and was rooting for the Neanderthals and the cat that were chasing her.
But that's just me.

Mykl Clark
Mykl Clark
11 years ago

This was a really brilliant doc. I highly recommend it to everyone!

Guest
Guest
11 years ago

ughhh blocked

Mick
Mick
12 years ago

copyright bullshit

amiableone
amiableone
12 years ago

Why do scientific documentarians feel the need to insert these lame dramatizations? I think the people who would watch a documentary like this would be alright with the narration and the academic's commentary.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

So our breed are all racist. We chased the neanderthals to the rock of gibralter and we did not allow them to live beside us in another nation. So we are the bad ones (if we all came from africa) as this says. I don't believe in this propaganda.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

Soon this era will come to an end. The free ride is over. There will be no mcdonalds and rebellious people without the ability to backup their words. Talent and strength will once again dominate the world and not those who wish to oppress others for idiology. Each race and sex will know it's place because the cream always rises. And, it will probably be all the good people mixed races together who will dominate the earth, and not the violent ones.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

This female wondering around without permission from her father would not be so lucky to find a cliff and the lion would eat her and her gene pool is over. And, the girl wouldn't be pretty. The beautiful women are mating and they are smart enough to listen to the good men. This movie is disgusting propaganda and a big disappointment because time is wasted on this garbage and not on trying to explain bone history and evolution in the movie part.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

Definitely, a smart young man or older man about age 30 in his prime developed the spear thrower and this movie is propaganda because there is no woman who will do this and there is no desire in an ancient woman to make a weapon. Rebellious woman is a phenomenon of the modern era. This idea of a spear thrower is an idea which would be worked out in the creative mind even by looking up into a tree. And, he throws a ball and he could also think to extend his arm. If you ask me the "lever" is common sense and nothing clever at all. Some of us think clearly and don't need physics courses to realize how a lever works. It comes naturally to us.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

Young girls have no status in society and do not talk back to older women nor to men who hunt. Girls do not act and talk this way to ancient man. They wish to make babies because this adds value to them in the society. But for modern man to get pregnant has been said as shameful and is also perversion and twisting nature and god's design. Men have a larger and smarter brain in general and better vision also in general. Good men think to help the entire tribe while women usually guard their own baby and thus have more selfish nature not suitable for leadership of the tribe. However, older women possess the experience and lost most of their selfish natures and thus become advisors and doctors. They are stronger and dominant and push into women who accept and receive. Any tomboy who tries to become rebellious would quickly become a victim of the predators and her genetics will not survive. It's only in this modern era that younger women assume they are smart just like a 21 year old boy thinks he has all the answers when his Grandfather is usually right and disciplines him to obey and take good advice. There are few rare exceptions of a true genius and that young man or woman would use tact and bearing to give ideas to the Elders. And, this is more natural and more godly to make as your philosophy. But today we enjoy the food from grocery stores and the luxury of alimony checks without any price to pay in return for the benefits given by the courts after a divorce. It's totally one-sided philosophy today and man is getting beaten down today in the western cultures. And, the result is a huge financial deficit and less children, more cancer and shorter lives than our grandparents.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

Female in this film is cross bread with some caucasian we called that "high yellow" and probably it was a Frenchman in Louisiana. And, learn how to spell caucasian. It's missing the MS dictionary and why is that? We are not going to become the minority either because we are tired of being told not to fraternize and make propositions for sex. That's part of life and normal.

Joni
Joni
12 years ago

By the way, it's an ignorant and manipulative to accuse humans of unrighteous acts and to use English improperly for your own agenda, and people don't "Prey" only animals do that. People only "hunt". Also females will never walk out to a hunting party of men alone while predators prowel the range to eat her up. Face reality you are all spreading your own propaganda. And, Kain and Able went out of Egypt and one tribe went south to Africa where the heat made his skin dark and the other Brother went north to the cold where he grew hair and in the darkness his skin became white. This is how it went. Find the bones you want and write the story correctly. We did not originate at one end of the globe. We started in the ripe gardens in the center. Face it.

dks2012
dks2012
12 years ago

i hate those drawn out dramatisations, even tho im into the subject matter, i coudnt finish watching it

taxfatcats
taxfatcats
12 years ago

Proves beyond a shadow of a doubt, the Medicis of Florence were Neanderthals and that homo sapiens are the only surviving, hominids because they are homicidal SOB's - now that they have murdered all the other apes, they are cannibalizing themselves to extinction.

jack mac lean
jack mac lean
12 years ago

the word redundant seems apparent if as i have viewed many docs on this topic the insight has made no progress factually the linguistic term for this film is remake if u see 2 or 20 your opinion can conclude extinct is any fresh info realized with this film

drinker69
drinker69
12 years ago

why did that black lady take a piss in front of the black teenager? Was it to show how raw life was back then in the '30s?

« - - -
« - - -
12 years ago

the name says it all. Battle for Earth stills!

Mike Staffieri
Mike Staffieri
12 years ago

Neanderthals were lousy runners so there is no way they would have caught homo sapiens in a chase

HUMMDRUMM
HUMMDRUMM
12 years ago

I am glad to see no Alien involvement in this conversation :)

Carmen Antonio
Carmen Antonio
12 years ago

What evidence is there for white pigment.. i didn't hear any supporting evidence for that kind of classic anthropromorphisizing...

Stephen Pazian
Stephen Pazian
12 years ago

LOL..... wait until you see the next part. Its even worse in that regard.

Stephen Pazian
Stephen Pazian
12 years ago

It was fun to watch but I don't think it was likely very accurate at all. Why do they assume the hunter-gather types of 30k years ago had more "Evolved" sensabilities when it came to certain concepts than the today's hunter-gathering cultures? If you want to know how these people lived, go look deep in the jungles of Africa and South America and you'll see tribes that still live like the tribes of 30lk years ago. I would advise you to take a gift. however, as they're likely to kill you at first sight. You're not likely to have a "Liberated" Lesbian to stick up for you like the one they showed in this "ancient" tribe.

- The liberated female who wanted to hunt... total joke, this did not exist nor would it have been tolerated 30k years ago.
- The total lack of any superstitous beliefs or rituals was also a joke... every hunter-gathering tribe of today exibits these traits.

Fun Doc but the tribe they show is wayyyy more modern in their thinking than the humans at the time would have been. The tribe in this documentary was more modern in its thinking (even though it was supposed to be 30k years ago) than the tribal cultures of today.

harry nutzack
harry nutzack
12 years ago

having just finished the "homo erectus" story-line portion, i really have to say this is no more a documentary than "quest for fire" would be... it may touch upon some basic facts, but "dramatic license" appears to have over-shadowed all else.... not really my cup of tea, though it appears many others enjoyed it... also, what's with the pale skinned erectus' living on the edge of the subcontinents desert?? last i checked, the vast majority of folks living in india are fairly dark skinned, and the evidence mentions vitamin a poisoning, not d (which is the major "plus" of dark skin in an equatorial sun pressure environment)... i know, nitpicking perhaps, but it just seems the producers went a bit overboard to establish "difference" between the species that would be obvious to the least informed potential viewer...

HUMMDRUMM
HUMMDRUMM
12 years ago

I don't understand how no one not even the scientists and archeologists dont even come around the? possibility of homosapiens anihilating the neanderthal population simply because they had a challenger for food, territory and war its kind of in our genes no? I am sure that there was more than just the neanderthals that have felt our rath as we left Africa in the thousands searching for new territories . The archeologist statement about changing climate killing of the neanderthals is rubbish!The neanderthals were there for 50.000 years before us ,so what a bit of cold weather would kill them of ? I think homosapiens suffers form a great case of amnesia ,it was the first genocide of its kind ,we killed every single one of them and then we just forgot about it. We? did mix with them too that is where the white man originates from so does G W Bush lol,the man that left Africa was dark skinned ,the neanderthals are lets say our great great great grandpap .

LINDAM
LINDAM
12 years ago

I tried to watch this but channel 5 have blocked it in Scotland can anyone tell me how I can get round this censorship crap totally disappointed was looking forward to it too.
//..\
-

RileyRampant
RileyRampant
12 years ago

there is a theory that one of the barriers modern hss faced in getting out of africa prior to 90ka or so ago, was the more robust nearderthal types they were encroaching upon.

these tough customers dominated the levant, europe and central asia, until such time that the taller, lighter branch (modern homo sapiens, our ancestors) finally emerged. the newer folk got its bearings after facing droughts, and various environmental and thus cognitive challenges and thus technological, cultural & strategic repertoire cranking, faced the likely dire necessity of finding new territory & ultimately walked out of africa a world beater.

humans were 'anatomically modern' perhaps 100ka before they left africa. there were presumably cognitive/cultural factors elaborating and environmental limitations at work to account for that time gap.

Anthony Pirtle
Anthony Pirtle
12 years ago

While it makes for good television to think we fought and defeated our contemporaries like Neanderthal, most recent evidence is that we simply absorbed their much smaller numbers into our population. We out bred Neanderthal Man more than we outfought him.

Mad
Mad
12 years ago

Easily the best documentary/movie I've seen in a long time thank you Vlatko

AndyA121
AndyA121
12 years ago

If you look at the "Who built the Pyramids" video it pretty much confirms what the Bible says about it. In Genesis chapter 6 it states that the sons of God saw that the earth women were "fair and took wives of them.
So that started a mixing of the DNA's human and alien from there. It says their children became men of "renown" and even became giants in the land and built cities. Maybe that's how they built Egypt's Pyramids? It makes better sense to me anyway.

John Cury
John Cury
12 years ago

The part that was amusing to me was the fact the tribal leader’s daughter was pushing feministic ideas….. During those days, the authority of the leader was unquestioned by female and by male alike. And also, if I am not mistaking, the concept of daughter, son and so on was not established, the leader mated with pretty much whoever he wanted.

Simple Simon says
Simple Simon says
12 years ago

Channel 5 have blocked it in the UK, make a note channel 5 i will never buy one of your dvd's or watch your channel.

sarah post
sarah post
12 years ago

awesome doc! it is funny that they talk in english lol. makes me feel lucky to be homosapien :) the title is really funny too, i almost didn't look at it based on its name, but when i saw what it really was about i was super interested!

nebra
nebra
12 years ago

its funny they talk in english

Sieben Stern
Sieben Stern
12 years ago

BBC should make this into a scripted drama XD I'd watch it!!

Morthund
Morthund
12 years ago

"Why did we,against all odds, win the battle for planet earth"

Well, I reckon the announcer might have answered her own question whe she asked that question at the begining of this doco.
Its maybe because we instinctivly saw it as a battle with anyone slightly different, wheras the other species were perhaps less competitive and combative?

alans
alans
12 years ago

Homo interneticus

Atom Colideer
Atom Colideer
12 years ago

Homo erectus

BeardHero420
BeardHero420
12 years ago

Wow. Just wow. Terrible name.