The Planet of the Apes film series (1968 - 2017)

Since I can't find a single thread that brings this entire legendary franchise together—at least not one I could track down—I figured I'd just start one myself. This series is one of my absolute favorites...

The whole series spans nine films...

1. Planet of the Apes. (1968.)
The first one is easily my favorite in the series, and honestly, one of the best sci-fi movies ever made. It kicks off with a crew of astronauts landing on an unknown planet in the year 3978 after a long voyage. Once they start exploring, they quickly realize the natural order has been flipped—humans have been reduced to mute animals, while intelligent apes rule the world. To me, the film works as a brilliant critique of our own society, highlighting how destructive humans can be. We really are our own worst enemy... Everyone should see this at least once.

2. Beneath the Planet of the Apes... (1970.)
I’ve always had a real problem with the sequels to the original Planet of the Apes film. I hated the direction they took right after the first one... This movie just picks up where the last one left off, basically repeating the exact same formula. More astronauts land on the planet, more bitter truths are revealed about the world... Then, out of nowhere, the story shifts. An astronaut discovers mutated humans living underground with telekinetic powers. It’s such a shame they didn't just pick up exactly where the previous story ended. It leaves a bad taste in my mouth... just a poor sequel.

3. Escape from the Planet of the Apes... (1971.)
The third installment decides to flip the script on the previous movies, landing the apes on a planet where humans actually hold the upper hand. I saw this one ages ago, and if memory serves, it didn't really hit the mark for me... though it was still better than the second film.

4. Conquest of the Planet of the Apes... (1972.)
Back in 1991, after some global pandemic wiped out every dog and cat on Earth, people started taking apes as pets instead. One ape named Caesar saw how his kind was being treated and decided to train them for war to take over the planet. That’s basically all I remember about this Planet of the Apes film, just enough to bring it up...

5. Battle for the Planet of the Apes... (1973.)
This movie kicks off a few years after the events of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. Nuclear war wiped out humanity, leaving the apes to take over Earth. I saw this one a long time ago too, and honestly, I just remember how incredibly boring it was. The plot is just some endless conflict between humans and apes, or apes against apes, or something like that... The fact that it holds the lowest rating of all the sequels says everything you need to know.

6. Planet of the Apes. (2001.)
A reboot. Tim Burton directing. The cast features Mark Wahlberg, Helena Bonham Carter, Tim Roth, and Michael Clarke Duncan. On paper, that sounds like a winner... but reality had other plans. The plot kicks off in 2029 when a pilot named Leo heads into space to find his chimpanzee co-pilot after she vanishes in an electromagnetic storm. Leo gets caught in the same storm and wakes up on a remote planet ruled by intelligent apes who treat humans like slaves. Critics absolutely trashed it, and honestly, I wasn't impressed either—especially since it just leans so heavily on the original story. Still, I guess it was somewhat entertaining...

7. Rise of the Planet of the Apes... (2011.)
In modern-day San Francisco, a young chemist named William is testing out new drugs meant to treat Alzheimer's using chimpanzees. One day, a young chimp gets a dose of his latest formula. Before he can even show his bosses the results, the chimp is killed after attacking some lab staff. It turns out she was just trying to protect her infant... so William takes the baby in to raise him. He names him Caesar, and the rest is history. Since the title includes "Planet of the Apes," you can probably guess where this is headed. I'm not entirely sure if they intended this as a prequel to the original or just another reboot, but it’s easily the second best movie in the Planet of the Apes series, right behind the original...

8. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
This one picks up right after Rise of the Planet of the Apes. It’s ten years later, and while chimps are living pretty comfortably in the woods, humanity is fading out due to a virus. The tension kicks off when people venture into ape territory looking for a hydroelectric dam to power their cities. The whole movie is really about how this collision affects both species, mostly through the dynamic between Caesar and his sidekick, Koba. On my scale, it sits just below its predecessor...

9. War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
The final chapter of this reboot trilogy—and the series as it stands now. We jump ahead two years, and it's full-on war between humans and apes. After the villainous Colonel kills Caesar's wife and son, he goes on a path of vengeance. He eventually learns the virus that was killing humans has mutated to strip away their intelligence, taking their ability to speak and think clearly. Basically, Earth is finally becoming the Planet of the Apes. It's a solid film that ties this trilogy back to the original perfectly.

So, that's the Planet of the Apes series in a nutshell. Which one is your favorite?

I just finished watching the latest trilogy—those three new ones—and honestly, "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" was my absolute favorite...

The original one with Charlton Heston is still number one for me, though.

The first one was a total classic; everything else since then has been absolute garbage.

A few interesting tidbits about the original Planet of the Apes:

1. The original 1968 film was based on the book Planet of the Apes by Pierre Boulle. Interestingly, most studios back then—even the author himself—thought the whole project would turn out to be a disaster. The issue was that talking monkeys were almost always associated with cheap B-movies in the 60s. The producer actually got rejected by nearly every studio he pitched to. In the documentary Behind the Planet of the Apes, it’s revealed that Pierre Boulle actually considered the book one of his lesser works and never imagined it would ever come to life on screen...

2. Eventually, producer Arthur P. Jacobs caught the eye of Richard Zanuck, the former head of 20th Century Fox. For Zanuck, the massive hurdle was the makeup and costumes. Back then, chimps in movies were either actual animals or people stuck in terrible suits. To convince Zanuck to greenlight the project, Jacobs shot a test footage demonstration showing the high-quality makeup they intended to use. He spent about $5,000 on that clip, but it was enough to impress Zanuck into investing $5 million to make the movie happen.

3. The film's first screenwriter, Rod Serling (already famous for The Twilight Zone), had a very specific vision. His script depicted an advanced monkey civilization—apes driving cars, helicopters, and all that. Of course, the problem was that such a concept wouldn't fit within the $5 million budget, even though his version stayed much closer to the book than the final screenplay we actually saw...

4. During the early stages, producer Arthur P. Jacobs and the original director, Blake Edwards, struggled with how to end the movie. In Pierre Boulle's book, the story actually takes place on another planet, but the filmmakers wanted something less predictable. One day, while grabbing lunch at a deli near the Warner Bros. lot, the idea hit Jacobs: what if the main character, Taylor, has been on Earth the entire time without the characters or the audience realizing it? They still needed a way to deliver the twist, though. As they were leaving the deli, they spotted a picture of the Statue of Liberty near the register. As Jacobs put it, they had found their "Rosebud" (a nod to Citizen Kane)...

The first one and the last three are top-tier; everything else is total garbage.

The older ones are just better after Heston... I haven't actually sat down to watch the newer ones yet.

Look, Escape from the Planet of the Apes isn't actually that bad compared to the older ones, but yeah, the sequels are total garbage. They should have just stuck with Heston as the lead, though I honestly can't think of a single smart way to evolve the story without it turning into pure trash... On the flip side, that 2001 reboot had such a wild "WTF" ending; I almost wish they’d made a sequel to explain it. But hey, Burton himself said he'd rather jump out a window than film a follow-up to that one. 😁

Well, I suppose Heston did star in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970) , though one might argue the film is considerably inferior to the original, which leads me to believe that a lead actor isn't necessarily the deciding factor for quality, but rather the crew working behind the scenes.

mistyotter35 said:Look, Heston was in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970), but honestly, the movie is way worse than the first one. It just proves that a big name isn't what makes a movie good... it's the crew behind the scenes.

I know he was in it, but he was barely even a lead. He shows up at the end and blows up the planet, if I recall correctly. Might have to rewatch the sequels soon just to refresh my memory.
Anyway, my point is that they probably should have stuck to following Heston's character after that final twist in the original, instead of all this nonsense about mutated, "telepathic" or whatever people living under Earth...

I was never really a huge fan of the first movie, so I ended up skipping the sequels.

I’d say Burton's version is probably the standout—it's got high production value, great design, solid costumes, and a decent villain, plus the ending actually lands.

As for this new trilogy... I wish it felt a bit more cohesive, you know? It would have been nice to have a human character threading through all three films alongside Caesar. Still, it isn't bad at all, and I’m definitely hoping for a fourth installment down the road.

It’s been over two or three years since I last sat down to watch

But here’s my take

Planet of the Apes (1968)
-A masterpiece, 9.5/10
Even though it’s sci-fi and plays with some humor, the movie is actually a top-tier critique of humanity. It was filmed during the Cold War, back when nuclear annihilation was a very real threat. I can only imagine what it felt like to sit in a theater back then and experience that twist ending for the first time.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
7.5/10
-I think this was the weakest link in the trilogy for me. Between the direction and the early atmosphere, it felt a bit too much like watching a Marvel Spider-Man flick, but it's still very solid. That sense of imprisonment and the animals starting their rebellion? Powerful stuff.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
-9/10
This one was my favorite. It’s a war drama through and through—full of tension, grudges, hatred, and revenge.

War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
-8.5/10
To me, it felt like a strong second act and a very decent finale. I wish I could remember more specific details, but basically, they all function as war dramas reflecting on the state of mankind. I didn't even view them as "fantasy" movies; I almost forgot I was even watching apes. I did dig the little nods to the original film, like the "Nova" references and things like that.

The one and only original
Man, what a total shock seeing this for the first time
Seriously—what a masterpiece, and that ending? Just wow.
I've gone through and watched every single installment in the series.

That first one belongs to a class of its own..
I find myself revisiting it quite often..

But honestly, I really ought to sit down and properly watch those 70s flicks sometime soon..
As for everything else that came after? Just mindless commercial products, nothing worth mentioning..

Kenneth Perez15 said:The new trilogy... I wish they'd made it feel more cohesive... Aside from Caesar, there's some human character running through all three films... It definitely wasn't bad. I'm hoping we see a fourth film sometime in the near future...

Caesar is the heart of this new trilogy. We see the whole rise of ape civilization through him, which is exactly what the series is about—showing how we actually ended up on the Planet of the Apes. The director clearly avoided overemphasizing specific human characters because this isn't their story; humans are just a dying civilization here. They're struggling as nature pushes them off the top of the food chain, which directly shapes how the apes view humanity, much like in the original film. As for why the human leads change every time... maybe it's just meant to show how fleeting our species is. Here today, gone tomorrow...

Jose Myers87 said:It’s been over two or three years since I last watched it...
War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)... Not what I expected...
-8,5
I think it works as a solid second installment. I wish the details stuck with me better, but at its core, it’s mostly just a war drama and a commentary on humanity... I didn't really get any sci-fi vibes from it. Honestly, I could almost forget there were even apes involved... I liked how the trilogy sprinkled in those little nods to the original, like the "Nova" stuff and things like that...

Take Bright Eyes in Rise of the Planet of the Apes... she uses that exact same name for Taylor in the original. The trilogy is packed with these little nods to the first film... 👍

The first one stands as a true masterpiece, though I suppose the latest trilogy is quite good as well; it’s probably worth a look.
As for everything else, I suppose *Beneath the Planet of the Apes* is rather poor, and Burton's remake doesn't fare much better; I haven't sat through the rest, though given their reputation, I probably won't bother. 😁.

The fourth one is just a disaster. The first is a total classic, but I haven't bothered with the rest.

I was kind of torn between the original and the 2011 version... ended up leaning towards the newer one in the end—though I have to say, the sequels to both are just straight-up terrible.

Unlike some of the other folks in here, I’m actually a huge fan of the original Planet of the Apes movies—well, except for the fifth one. That one was honestly pretty rough. But that first film? It’s totally untouchable. That final scene is just pure perfection! 🙏
Barton's movie is a total disaster! 👎
I still haven't gotten around to checking out the new trilogy yet...