An astronaut crew crash-lands on a planet in the distant future where intelligent talking apes are the dominant species, and humans are the oppressed and enslaved.
The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission searches for the only survivor of the previous expedition. He discovers a planet ruled by apes and an underground city run by telepathic humans.
Director:
Ted Post
Stars:
James Franciscus,
Kim Hunter,
Maurice Evans
The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.
Director:
Don Taylor
Stars:
Roddy McDowall,
Kim Hunter,
Bradford Dillman
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity.
Director:
J. Lee Thompson
Stars:
Roddy McDowall,
Don Murray,
Ricardo Montalban
Ten years after a worldwide series of ape revolutions and a brutal nuclear war among humans, Caesar must protect survivors of both species from an insidious human cult and a militant ape faction alike.
Director:
J. Lee Thompson
Stars:
Roddy McDowall,
Claude Akins,
Natalie Trundy
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier.
Taylor and two other astronauts come out of deep hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. Escaping with little more than clothes they find that they have landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized while apes have learned speech and technology. Taylor is captured and taken to the city of the apes after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes.Written by
John Vogel <jlvogel@comcast.net>
Early in the movie during the establishing shots when the crew are marching through the desert through to the Forbidden Zone, a panoramic shot of the surrounding canyons shows a man next to an automobile in the distance. See more »
Quotes
[first lines]
George Taylor:
And that completes my final report until we reach touchdown. We're now on full automatic, in the hands of the computers. I have tucked my crew in for the long sleep and I'll be joining them soon. In less than an hour, we'll finish our sixth month out of Cape Kennedy. Six months in deep space - by our time, that is. According to Dr. Haslein's theory of time, in a vehicle travelling nearly the speed of light, the Earth has aged nearly 700 years since we left it, while we've aged ...
See more »
1968 seems to have been something of a watershed year for cinematic science fiction. It was the year that both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes were released. Both films were game changers in that they were big budget sci-fi made by the major studios. Up until that time, the genre had been very much mostly the province of the B movie. After the massive success of those two a series of often extremely interesting science fiction films were released by the studios. In effect these movies created a situation where the genre could flourish, with bigger budgets and more seriousness. Of course those films were quite different; while both dealt with some serious themes, 2001 is by far the more intellectual and is pure hard sci-fi – Planet of the Apes, on the other hand, lay somewhere between 2001 and traditional action-adventure fare.
It does deal have definite social commentary and like many sci-fi films, it's about the time it was made as much as it is a look into the future. It considers the dangers of nuclear war and comments on the racial tensions of 60's America – both through allegory in its post-apocalyptic world. I guess this is one of the things that makes it work so well, the upside down society of the Planet of the Apes allows for an underlying message while at the same time offering up a thrilling sci-fi adventure scenario. To be perfectly honest, it works great as the latter. For me, the best parts are the early scenes leading up to the capture of the astronauts. The mystery of the strange world and the unforgettable arrival of the horse-riding apes in the fields are terrific. While John Chambers has been rightly praised for the ape make-up, a lot of credit should also go to Leon Shamroy for his stunning cinematography which is particularly brilliant in these early scenes, with great shots from unusual high angles that makes the planet seem so very ominous. Kudos too, to Jerry Goldsmith for his soundtrack whose strange tones compliment the visuals. When we reach the ape town, it's the fantastic set-design that takes centre stage with those houses that seem to come out of the rocks organically. Charlton Heston leads the picture of course and he does provide star charisma but it's the character actors in the heavy make-up that make the best impression, namely Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. And of course, well there's that ending .
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1968 seems to have been something of a watershed year for cinematic science fiction. It was the year that both 2001: A Space Odyssey and Planet of the Apes were released. Both films were game changers in that they were big budget sci-fi made by the major studios. Up until that time, the genre had been very much mostly the province of the B movie. After the massive success of those two a series of often extremely interesting science fiction films were released by the studios. In effect these movies created a situation where the genre could flourish, with bigger budgets and more seriousness. Of course those films were quite different; while both dealt with some serious themes, 2001 is by far the more intellectual and is pure hard sci-fi – Planet of the Apes, on the other hand, lay somewhere between 2001 and traditional action-adventure fare.
It does deal have definite social commentary and like many sci-fi films, it's about the time it was made as much as it is a look into the future. It considers the dangers of nuclear war and comments on the racial tensions of 60's America – both through allegory in its post-apocalyptic world. I guess this is one of the things that makes it work so well, the upside down society of the Planet of the Apes allows for an underlying message while at the same time offering up a thrilling sci-fi adventure scenario. To be perfectly honest, it works great as the latter. For me, the best parts are the early scenes leading up to the capture of the astronauts. The mystery of the strange world and the unforgettable arrival of the horse-riding apes in the fields are terrific. While John Chambers has been rightly praised for the ape make-up, a lot of credit should also go to Leon Shamroy for his stunning cinematography which is particularly brilliant in these early scenes, with great shots from unusual high angles that makes the planet seem so very ominous. Kudos too, to Jerry Goldsmith for his soundtrack whose strange tones compliment the visuals. When we reach the ape town, it's the fantastic set-design that takes centre stage with those houses that seem to come out of the rocks organically. Charlton Heston leads the picture of course and he does provide star charisma but it's the character actors in the heavy make-up that make the best impression, namely Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter and Maurice Evans. And of course, well there's that ending .