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PLANET OF THE APES COLLECTIBLES #04 |
Updated: October 02, 2020
Loosely adapted from the novel by French author
Pierre Boulle, Planet of the Apes was released at
the height of racial and political unrest in
America, adding resonance to its story of a NASA
astronaut (Charlton Heston) stranded on a planet
where superior apes dominate inferior human
slaves. The film's final image - in which a
horrified Heston realizes the fate of humankind
-remains one of the most indelible in all of
science fiction cinema. Beneath the Planet of the
Apes (1970) continues the original's distant
future scenario, pitting militant apes against
mutant humans dwelling in the subterranean ruins
of New York City.
Its phenomenal success spawned Escape from the
Planet of the Apes (1971), in which simian scientists
Cornelius and Zira (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter,
reprising their roles from Planet of the Apes) travel
backward in time, setting the stage for the ape
supremacy of the first two films. McDowall returned in
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) as Caesar,
the son of Cornelius, leading an ape revolution that
bridges the historical gap of the previous films.
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) ended the
five-film cycle with McDowall again playing the
chimpanzee leader Caesar, defeating gorillas and
human mutants to establish the hierarchy introduced
in the original film.
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