Planet of The Apes (Saga)

Parts in yellow are parts that are linked to the other films or A Bathing Ape/Bape references.


This past weekend I saw Rise of the Planet of the Apes (I'll get to that in a second) and it made me want to check out the original 1968 version. Upon downloading the original I found that there were several sequels. I watched Planet of the Apes, Beneath The Planet of the Apes, Escape From The Planet of the Apes and Conquest of The Planet of The Apes. I still have one more to watch Battle for the Planet of the Apes. The movies alone by today's standards are pretty laughable. The costumes were pretty good and the music is cool.

Planet of the Apes --- This starts off with Charlton Heston's character Taylor navigating a ship in space preparing for hyper sleep and a return to Earth. They say that they were gone 6 months their time but 700 years our Earth Time. When they land they discover that they have actually been gone 2000 years and one of the crew mates (the woman) died in hyper sleep. Upon exploring this seemingly strange new planet ( I still don't understand why they didn't think they were on Earth. They could breath the air, the sky was blue regular clouds etc.) They run across primitive humans and then get captured by Apes on horses. Interestingly enough the black guy gets killed, and later the other guy gets his brain meat cut out. Taylor was shot in the throat in the field chase and was not able to talk for a few days. The first word he shouted was "NO," when they tried to hurt his new cave girl friend Nova. Taylor is befriended by two scientist Apes Zira and Cornelius. He is then set free and learns that he was on Earth thee whole time.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes --- In this sequel a space crew is sent out to find Taylor's group on a rescue mission of sorts. It was only two of them and the one guy died as soon as they landed. The main guys name is Brent (which is very odd for the charcters to be named Brent and Taylor in these movies it really bugged me out). Brent acts just like Taylor its like the same movie as the original for a while. Taylor gets lost in a way and Nova is just kinda roaming around on this damn horse when Brent finds her. He tells her to take him to Taylor but since she is like thee dumbest person of all time she takes him back to the Ape village. Insert Zira and Cornelius... insert rescue. Now this is where the movie takes a turn. Brent learns that under the village in the "Forbidden Zone" are the ruins of New York City. He has his moment of "what has the world I know come to" blah blah. He then follows this weird humming noise and discovers a race of Super Humans with telepathic (pathetic) powers. They are a defenseless people but they have a huge Doomsday Atomic Bomb that they pray too. (Yeah this one gets wacky) The problem with this part is that they have telepathic powers and can make you see visions but they didn't use them on the Apes??? Plus the Apes found where they were very easily and based on no information. Taylor and Brent finally meet up in a cell in the Super Humans quarters. They are made to fight each other but they manage to get out of that situation. Unfortunately Nova dies during this part I think she managed to mumble something before she died. *Shrug* So the Apes are pillaging the Super (dumb) Humans lair and the leader is about to fire off the Doomsday missile. He gets shot. Brent gets shot to hell and Taylor gets blasted too. Upon his last breath Taylor pushes the button to release the Bomb thus destroying the entire Planet. Which then becomes ironic by the way the first one ended and Taylor thinking that we (humans) ruined the planet, b/c now sir you have blown it to shit. Also the styling of the General Gorilla's uniform is used again in the 2001 remake of Planet of the Apes. And the General Gorilla says the line "Ape Shall Never Kill Ape" that is used in A Bathing Ape t-shirt designs.

Escape From The Planet of the Apes --- Zira, Cornelius and Milo escape the Planet in what seemed to be the ship that Taylor used to get there. They follow his flight pattern back and they end up in 1973. They are apprehended by the military and taken to the Zoo. There they are put through tests and the base for the Ape house keeper character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes is seen antagonizing them while in there Cages. Milo was killed by a Gorilla in the cell next to them. When they were found to be harmless and intelligent they were put in front of a hearing for press and the world to ask them questions. When questioned what happened to the original humans Zira says a virus wiped us out. After the world sees that they are harmless and intelligent they become celebrities. (this ones kinda wacky). They say they escaped the planet because the Gorillas and Orangutangs were at war. Which was a lie b/c the Humans and Gorillas were at war. They said that they saw a bright flash and that the world was destroyed. Which was the effect of Taylor pressing the button for the Doomsday Bomb. Turns out Zira is pregnant and the bad guy in this one Dr. such and such says he wants the child killed and the parents too. For fear that they will one day rule this world knowing that 2000 years in the future they come to rule the Earth. The President says that the parents should live be the child should not. Insert chase scene. Zira names the baby Milo....which is wear Bape gets Baby Milo. She throws a fake baby in the water and both of them are killed.

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes --- in this we find that Baby Milo has been saved by Ricardo Montalban and renamed Caesar. The setting is 1991. A virus kills all the worlds pet type creatures so humans use apes as the new pets, because they are so smart as they learned from Zira and Cornelius 20 years ago. The thing is humans started using the apes as slaves. Training them to be waiters, janitors and lowly workers. Caesar gets separated from Ricardo. Ricardo then gets questioned by the government about him knowing the whereabouts of the "talking ape." He passes one test then refuses to take another and jumps out of the window for some reason. Caesar left alone to fend for himself gets bought by the Governor. He is sort of befriended by the Governors assistant and is helped to be freed. Caesar puts together an army of Ape slaves to over throw the human captors thus giving you how the Planet became ruled by Apes.

Battle For the Planet of the Apes ---- DIDN'T WATCH IT YET

Rise of the Planet of the Apes --- James Franco stars as a scientist that thinks that he has discover the cure for Alzheimer's. And as with most things we test this drug on animals, Apes in specific. During a sort of show and tell session the Ape named Bright Eyes (which is what Zira called Taylor) flipped the hell out and was killed. Turns out she was just trying to protect her baby. The program is shut down and Franco takes the baby Ape named Caesar. He cares for Caesar and he becomes part of the family and grows smarter and smarter. Franco gives the drug to his father who then gets better. After learning that the human body starts to fight the drug and that his father condition worsens Franco makes another version of the drug. Caesar gets into an altercation with the neighbor and is court ordered to be placed in a Ape Shelter. After Caesar feels abandoned (Franco didn't really do a good job of acting like he wanted him when he bribed the dude to release him) he settles in and stages a revolt. He steals more of the drug from the lab and exposes the other Apes to it. Somewhere in here Caesar yells "No" as his first words to the shelter keeper guy. Somewhere in between they make sure they let you know that a Space Shuttle was launched for a deep space program, hopefully for a (good) Planet of the Apes remake. Eventually Caesar and his new friends end up in the woods of Southern California where he tells Franco that he "is home." The drug that was developed turns out to be deadly to humans thus wiping us all off the planet!

I think these movies tie in very well with the new one. I like how they took parts from each film and incorporated it in the prequel. The space exploration, time factors and virus concepts are all very interesting. The idea that the two Apes that had compassion and helped a stranded astronaut and that astronaut destroyed their Planet and then their baby basically destroyed ours is pretty fucking DEEP if you ask me. Had the President listened to the Dr. in Escape ... and killed the baby the planet would still be run by humans. Had Taylor would have died the Gorillas would have never searched the "Forbidden Zone" and the Earth as a whole would still be in existence. There are many if's and then's to this story and that's what I enjoy. I like how linear it is as well. Unlike Star Trek or Star Wars' Sagas this is just about Apes and Humans nothing more. And for films that were made from 1968 - 1973 they aren't that bad production wise.

Damn Dirty Ape

DRAG