Hollywood excess: were they beating this popular franchise to death? The post first ran in 2017.
So how did the producers of the first two highly successful Apes films manage to get three more sequels out of the series—especially after the Earth was blown to space debris in the fortieth century at the end of the second movie? Easy; go way back in time and show how humankind screwed up, and how apes became the dominant species.
ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES (1971)
Only a year after its predecessor, Escape from the Planet of the Apes was rushed to the silver screen. It would prove to be the most critically acclaimed of the four sequels in the original series, as it not only entertained but also addressed a number of social issues of the 1970s: nuclear war, testing on animal subjects, and big government, among others.
I imagine their rescuers found this an interesting sight.
A space ship splashes down in the Pacific Ocean in 1973, and three chimpanzees are rescued. They are Zira, Cornelius, and the brilliant Dr. Milo, who salvaged Taylor’s ship and got it working again. It is inferred that the three of them watched the destruction of Earth from space and that the shock waves sent it into a time warp.
Taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, the trio is befriended by two scientists, Stephanie Branton and Lewis Dixon. Milo is killed by a gorilla in an adjoining cage. The scientists soon discover that the apes can talk but decide to keep it to themselves, until Zira opens up at a presidential commission formed to learn how they came to be in the ship, and about the fate of Taylor. She says that they did not know Taylor, and that after finding the ship they left their planet when war broke out.
THE TRUTH REVEALED
In good old American fashion Cornelius and Zira become rock-star celebrities, but this is short-lived. The president’s science advisor, Dr. Hasslein, learns that Zira is pregnant, and after plying her with champagne he gets her to talk about the Earth’s shaky future. He also learns about the apes becoming the dominant species, and that, as a scientist, Zira dissected humans, which really trips his trigger. She and Cornelius are detained, and Hasslein’s report to the president includes a suggestion that Zira’s pregnancy be terminated.
Under the influence (of champagne), Zira reveals more than she should.
When an orderly insults Zira, Cornelius knocks a food tray out of his hands. The orderly falls, hits his head, and dies. Hasslein now insists that the chimpanzees be executed. Branton and Dixon help them escape and place them in a circus run by the kindly Armando (Ricardo Montalbàn; yeah, Khan!), where a chimp named Heloise has just given birth. Soon after, Zira gives birth to a son.
When authorities begin searching circuses and zoos for the fugitives, Dixon stashes them on a derelict ship in the harbor and gives Cornelius a gun. Hasslein finds them there and, after killing Zira and the baby, he is gunned down by Cornelius. A sniper kills Cornelius, and it appears that the line is broken.
Wrong; back at the circus Armando holds Zira’s baby. She had switched infants with Heloise. The baby cries out, “Mama! Mama!” End of story.
CONQUEST OF THE PLANET OF THE APES (1972)
It is 1991, and in what appears to be a police state, apes have become slaves to humans. Circus owner Armando explains to young Caesar, the son of Zira and Cornelius, that a worldwide epidemic killed all dogs and cats. The apes being immune, they first became replacement pets, but their intelligence doomed them, and they were assigned menial chores. Walking around the big city (apparently New York), Caesar is appalled at the cruelty shown to the apes.
Witnessing one especially brutal act, Caesar shouts, “Lousy human bastards!” The police are stunned. Armando takes the blame for it and is arrested as Caesar runs away and hides among other apes being trained for their new owners. Under harsh interrogation, Armando tries to escape through a window but falls to his death.
The apes revolt under Caesar, their leader.
Caesar learns of Armando’s death, which devastates him. The authorities, believing Caesar to be the progenitor of the talking apes of the future, torture him, which becomes the last straw. He kills the man torturing him and escapes.
Long story short: Caesar leads the ape revolt against the humans, killing many of them, which heralds the birth of the Planet of the Apes. He also takes a mate—the intelligent Lisa—so we know there are progeny in the future.
BATTLE FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES (1973)
With each sequel garnering smaller numbers at the box office, Battle for the Planet of the Apes became the last gasp for the original series. An orangutan Lawgiver standing in front of a statue of Caesar narrates this story from the twenty-seventh century. In the early twentieth century, he says, nuclear war has devastated the planet. Caesar and Lisa, with their son—named Cornelius after the father Caesar never knew—live in an early version of the ape city from the future. Humans also live there, as the wise Caesar hopes that they might be able to co-exist. But the gorillas, under the nasty General Aldo, would just as soon see all humans exterminated.
Caesar and two friends go to the ruins of the Forbidden City, where Caesar finds a video of his parents and sees them for the first time. The earliest mutants still living in the city—they have the Divine Bomb that will destroy Earth in the future—learn that the apes still exist and, blaming them for their troubles, vow to kill them all. They will march to the ape city, and if all else fails, they will unleash the planet-killer.
NO BETTER THAN HUMANS
Young Cornelius, hiding in a tree, overhears Aldo plotting to overthrow Caesar. Aldo sees him and cuts the tree limb, causing him to fall. He is unconscious and near death as Lisa and Caesar stay by his side.
When the mutant humans attack, Caesar joins the battle. The leader is killed, and some of the humans escape, only to be slaughtered by Aldo and the gorillas. Caesar spares the rest of the humans.
Caesar, Virgil, and MacDonald go to the Forbidden City.
Cornelius dies, which devastates Lisa and Caesar. When Aldo returns, it is revealed that he was responsible for Cornelius’s death. He has broken the apes’ sacred law, Ape shall not kill ape. The infuriated Caesar chases Aldo high into a tree, causing him to fall to his death. Seeing that apes can be just as awful as humans, he vows that they will begin a new society emphasizing co-existence.
The final scene takes us back to the Lawgiver, six hundred years later. He has been relating this story to youngsters, both ape and human. So far, so good. But when asked about the future, he replies that it is perhaps only the dead who know. The camera pans to Caesar’s statue, and we see a tear fall from its eye. End of original series.
But you had to figure that, at some point in the future, Planet of the Apes would be resurrected in some form or another. With regard to feature films, that very thing occurred in 2001. I’ll talk about that, and the more recent incarnations, in the next installment.