A young inductee into the military is given the task of looking after some chimpanzees used in the mysterious 'Project X'. Getting to know the chimps fairly well, he begins to suspect there is more to the secret project than he is being told.
Acting
Willie the chimp out-acts most of the human cast, no notes.
Direction
Kaplan pivots from exploitation to genuine moral weight.
Practical Effects
Real chimps, zero CGI — every glance hits different.
Director
Jonathan Kaplan
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
The Air Force threatened to withdraw cooperation until the script was rewritten to be less critical of military research programs.
Released months before the real Project X scandal exposed Air Force chimp radiation experiments; life imitated art with disturbing speed.
US
