Escape From the Planet of the Apes (1971) ***1/2

Los Angeles Harbor, San Pedro, Los Angeles, California, USA

Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)

Lew Ayres, John Huston, Roddy McDowall, Claude Akins, Severn Darden, Natalie Trundy, and Paul Williams in Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Maurice Evans in Planet of the Apes (1968)

Karin Konoval, Andy Serkis, Terry Notary, Nick Thurston, and Scott Lang in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)

Andy Serkis and Amiah Miller in War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)

Peter Macon, Owen Teague, and Freya Allan in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

One might as well be talking to a parrot.

What did I tell you? Mechanical mimicry. Unique in an ape, vocally, without a doubt, but... does the other one talk?

"Escape From Planet Of The Apes" Kim Hunter, Roddy McDowall 1971 20th Century Fox

9774-5 "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" - Roddy McDowell, 1971.

9774-6 "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" - Roddy McDowall, 1971.

Poster for 1974 rerelease of complete series, 1 sheet movie poster 

How long is Escape from the Planet of the Apes?

Roddy McDowall

Kim Hunter

Bradford Dillman

Paul Dehn

Pierre Boulle

The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.

Don Taylor

Escape from the Planet of the Apes

You Hear the one about the Chimps as Astronauts?

The 3rd film in the Apes series (after &quot;Beneath...&quot;), this one is easily the most whimsical, at least in the first half. The writers had to stretch believability in getting the two primary apes of the 1st 2 films into our present times from the future, when Earth is destroyed by a doomsday bomb, but the first few scenes are almost classic farce disguised as science fiction storytelling. We view our central characters first as &apos;ape-onauts&apos; and then stuck in a zoo, followed by a brief turn at celebrity when our populace becomes enamored of the two as the latest fad. The best and most clever thing about this sequel is that it utilizes the already well-known captivating characteristics of the chimps, delightfully performed again by McDowall and Hunter. They&apos;re kind of like old friends by this time and seeing them get acquainted with our modern-day culture is just good times. It&apos;s also a neat reversal on the ape society of the first two films, which was visited by aberrant intelligent humans.

Things turn grim in the 2nd half, as the fad wears off and our leadership begins to take the threat of possible future ape domination rather seriously. The most interesting character becomes the chief human scientist, played by Braeden, who starts out typically dispassionate but soon reveals an intense personal desire to preserve the human race and society, to the point of fanaticism. In his coldly intelligent eyes, only he sees the truly apocalyptic threat presented by the chimps&apos; pregnancy. He&apos;s the nominal villain, but he sees himself as the only one who gives a damn. Some of the sf plot lines regarding time travel are very clever, while others are a bit clumsy. It&apos;s clever that the two evolved time-traveling chimps may now be the cause of the future time-line ruled by an ape society. But they reveal to have a knowledge of their history that did not exist in the previous two films. Also, rather than letting events evolve over a century or more following what happens here, the next film accelerates everything to change the world in the next 20 years - see &quot;Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.&quot;

Home Video Trailer from 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZDE2ODYyOTQtOWQ3Yy00NGYwLWEzNjAtODJmZjg4ZTIyYjRlXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg

The 3rd film in the Apes series (after "Beneath..."), this one is easily the most whimsical, at least in the first half. The writers had to stretch believability in getting the two primary apes of the 1st 2 films into our present times from the future, when Earth is destroyed by a doomsday bomb, but the first few scenes are almost classic farce disguised as science fiction storytelling. We view our central characters first as 'ape-onauts' and then stuck in a zoo, followed by a brief turn at celebrity when our populace becomes enamored of the two as the latest fad. The best and most clever thing about this sequel is that it utilizes the already well-known captivating characteristics of the chimps, delightfully performed again by McDowall and Hunter. They're kind of like old friends by this time and seeing them get acquainted with our modern-day culture is just good times. It's also a neat reversal on the ape society of the first two films, which was visited by aberrant intelligent humans.

Things turn grim in the 2nd half, as the fad wears off and our leadership begins to take the threat of possible future ape domination rather seriously. The most interesting character becomes the chief human scientist, played by Braeden, who starts out typically dispassionate but soon reveals an intense personal desire to preserve the human race and society, to the point of fanaticism. In his coldly intelligent eyes, only he sees the truly apocalyptic threat presented by the chimps' pregnancy. He's the nominal villain, but he sees himself as the only one who gives a damn. Some of the sf plot lines regarding time travel are very clever, while others are a bit clumsy. It's clever that the two evolved time-traveling chimps may now be the cause of the future time-line ruled by an ape society. But they reveal to have a knowledge of their history that did not exist in the previous two films. Also, rather than letting events evolve over a century or more following what happens here, the next film accelerates everything to change the world in the next 20 years - see "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes."

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