Review of Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) by Archibald T — 09 Jan 2013

How do you carry on after you blow up the world? Paul Dehn, who returns as the screenwriter for a 2nd time, thought of the spaceship from the first film. It gave him an idea. What if the spacecraft was fixed and repaired and the chimp doctors, Zira and Cornelius as well as a third ape, Milo, had traveled back to the present day of Earth? Sounds plausible since in 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' we never saw Zira or Cornelius die in the explosion. Well, that's quite simple. Just have the two most entertaining characters of the series be given their very own story. Zira and Cornelius become the focal point of this sequel and I just love, love, love how they came up with the opening sequence.

When a spacecraft is found floating in the sea, the military is brought in thinking that what will be inside the spacecraft will be the missing astronaunts. Instead they're given a surprise when it turns out to be Apes. Yes, Apes! They're taken to a laboratory where they're to be experimented on by two nice scientist, Stephanie and Lewis, who are very much like Zira and Cornelius. When they begin to talk they don't get taken out back and shot, but are given full media exposure and fame. Their intelligence and good humor have captured the nation. It is until Zira gets pregnant when the government sees a threat to their own civilization.

This probably the most fun and cutest of the Ape films, but also it's VERY dark. Especially toward the end. Milo, before his death, discusses how they've come from Earth's future to it's past. At this point in Earth's past, Apes haven't readily gotten to the point of dominating the Earth yet. Combating views concerning the birth of Zira's baby would prove that Apes could one day rule, BUT if provoked a war would rage and before you know it the future of humans and Apes living in peace wouldn't be the norm. If the future is written than the humans themselves should, at least, have learned from Zira and Cornelius before deciding to poke around with changing their destiny. Because it only proved the apes right in the end. That man is the most evil thing in the world. There's a great scene between actors Eric Braeden and William Windom discussing the assassination of killing off Zira's offspring before it's even born yet!

Much more contained than the first two films with a message on racial prejudices, this one turned out to be just as successful as the first two. Even with it's unhappy ending the audience felt to accept it since it was more realistic. In fact, all of the Apes films always had unhappy endings, this one was more of a love story between Zira and Cornelius and like all love stories tragedy must be included or else they wouldn't be love stories after all.

At this point, the Apes pictures had turned into a full blown franchise which only meant that another sequel would be on it's way. If what was dark in the last act of this film would be nothing compared to the much darker path the franchise would later turn to in the next two films.

Overall, cleverly written with excellent performances by Kim Hunter and Roddy McDowell.