Silver Age Movies are films starting with 2001 (1968) and continuing up to Star Wars (1978),
the first sci-fi movie of the modern age.
The Planet of the Apes Movies
Planet of the Apes (1968) 112 min. color
- This the first movie in the popular series taken from Pierre Boulles� 1963 novel. Charlton Heston is a
astronaut returning after a long deep-space voyage whos ship crash lands on a planet where apes are the
dominant species, and man is an animal. After escaping with the help of some chimpanzees, he discovers
that the planet is actually earth in the far future.
Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1969) 95 min. color
- James Franciscus is another astronaut, who also crashlands on earth in the far future and suffers a similer
fate as Heston did in the first film, but this time he discovers a race of mutant humans who live under the
ruins of New York City who worship a nuclear bomb. He also meets up with Heston, who has turned bitter,
and who detonates the device, wiping out the humans and apes alike.
Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) 97 min. color
- Three apes escape the destrustion of their planet in the future, traveling back in time to earth in the
1970s. Once their, they become the center of contoversy resulting from their revelation about the
destruction of the planet in the future. One of the chimps is killed early on in the film, and the other two
mate, resulting in a child. They are hunted down and killed, supposedly to forstall the coming future.
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) 86 min. color
- Roddy McDowell plays Ceaser, the chimp childborn of the two time-travelers from the previous movie.
Hidden in a circus by a kindly Ricardo Monteblan, Ceaser grows to adulthood resenting humans, as they
now make slaves of apes, using brutal conditioning techniques to insure their docility. As the authorities
search for him, Ceaser organizes the other apes in a slave revolt that overthrows the humans. This is where
the series starts to go downhill.
Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973) 86 min. color]
- A rather disappointing end to the movies, this one takes place shortly after WWIII, where apes and
humans have formed a community together, with Ceaser as the head of it. A three-way fight ensues,
between the community, irridated mutant humans from the old city, and the milataristic gorillas. The chimps
and their human friends win out, and they all live happily ever after, supposedly avoiding the nuclear disaster
predicted in the previous movies.
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