
Human Ape
Humans belong to the superfamily Hominoidea and, more specifically, the family Hominidae, the group of great apes that also includes chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans. This National Geographic production starts from a blunt biological fact: human DNA differs from chimpanzee DNA by less than two percent. From that starting point, the film sets out to test what that genetic closeness actually means in practice, comparing human abilities against those of our ape relatives task by task. Where chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans show real skill, tool use, problem-solving, social cooperation, the film measures it against what humans do differently or better, and where the great apes fall short of human capability, it says so plainly. The framing is comparative rather than narrative: less a story than a running scorecard between species that share almost all of their genetic code but not their behavior.