ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES

'''Escape from the Planet of the Apes''' is a 1971 science fiction film starring Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Bradford Dillman. It is the second sequel to the ''Planet of the Apes'' movie of 1968, the first sequel being ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)''. This sequel is considered by critics to be one of the better of 4 sequels made. Its plot centers around many social issues of the day including race, social status, scientific experimentation on animals, nuclear war and government intrusion as well as women's' rights.
In this film actor Roddy McDowall returns to recreate the character of Cornelius which he created but did not portray in its entirety in the previous film. A new character of Dr. Milo is introduced played by actor Sal Mineo, who hoped his career would be gain from the new project much as McDowell's career had from participating in the first film.

Contents

Plot summary

Trivia

External links

Plot summary

The preceding film, ''Beneath the Planet of the Apes'', ends with a nuclear weapon destroying all life on the apes' future Earth.
''Escape from the Planet of the Apes'' begins by establishing that three apes (Cornelius, Zira, and Dr. Milo, played respectively by Roddy McDowall, Kim Hunter, and Sal Mineo) escaped the Earth's destruction. They have managed this by salvaging and repairing the astronaut Taylor's spaceship (which sank in the first movie) and piloting it through the shock wave of Earth's destruction sending the ship through a time warp back to the 20th century.
The apes arrive on present-day Earth, splashing down on the Pacific coast. The navy hauls the ship to the beach, and the apes remove their helmets. They are quickly transported to seclusion for examination and are later moved to a secluded area of the Los Angeles Zoo. Milo is killed by a primitive gorilla who was agitated by an argument between himself, Zira and Cornelius, leaving the two remaining apes under the observation of two scientists, Stephanie and Lewis. Both discover the apes' power of speech. Meanwhile, a Presidential Commission has been formed to investigate the return of Taylor's spaceship and how the apes, which they already are aware are atypically intelligent, came to be aboard it. The apes then are brought before the Presidential Commission, where they reveal publicly their ability to speak, and are welcomed as guests.
The apes at first become celebrities, being lavished with presents and media attention. But they are soon watched by a scientist, futuristic consultant Dr.Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden), who discovers Zira is pregnant and fears for the future of the human race. He is determined to force the issue, gives Zira a truth serum to get information out of her and convinces the Commission to have the apes taken for proper questioning. Both are questioned under numerous means, and Hasslein learns for himself that Zira examined and operated on humans in the future. Suspicion had already been aroused by Zira's letting slip, during public hearings, that she had dissected humans in the course of her work. More importantly, Hasslein learns how the human race will eventually meet its downfall and be dominated by simians, and will eventually lead to Earth's destruction.
The government and the U.S. President order that the unborn child's birth be terminated and that both be sterilized, though Hasslein prefers they die. But after the ape Cornelius accidentally kills an orderly while imprisoned (the orderly teased Zira), Hasslein uses it as an illustration of the future danger the apes present, thus calls for the apes' execution. Running for their lives, Cornelius and Zira (assisted by Stephanie and Lewis) find shelter in a circus run by Senor Armando (Ricardo Montalban), and there Zira gives birth to a son whom she names Milo (later known as Caesar).
Hasslein, knowing Zira will imminently give birth, orders a search of all circuses and zoos. As a result, Armando must send the apes away. The drama climaxes aboard a derelict ship in an abandoned ship yard. Hasslein tracks the apes down, and finds Zira resting with her infant. The arrogant and ruthless Hasslein shoots Zira in cold blood after she refuses to hand over her infant and then proceeds to fire several shots into the infant, and is immediately shot to death by Cornelius and falls overboard. Cornelius killed Hasslein with a pistol given to him by Lewis after he and Zira decided to take their own lives, if necessary. After Cornelius kills Hasslein, he is shot by a Marine Corps sniper and falls to the deck of the ship. Stephanie and Lewis watch in horror as Zira tosses her dead baby over the side of the ship before crawling to lay with her husband, and dying by his side.
The survivors, however, are unaware of the real fate of the infant ape; Cornelius, Zira and Armando switched babies before their final escape. Armando now watches over the infant Milo, who will grow up to become Caesar, the main character in the third and fourth sequels, ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes'' and ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes''. The film ends by showing the baby ape Milo sitting in a cage, plaintively speaking the words "Mama? Mama?" with the voice of a human child.

Trivia

★ The ending of this film was purposely written so that the writers would have something to work with, in case Fox wanted another sequel.

★ The story of the plague that killed off all dogs and cats as well as that of Ape slavery and subsequent uprising is a possible retcon of both prior movies, where the apes do not know of their true past. Cornelius's claim that he had read history scrolls (kept secret from the masses) that detail the human downfall could be a way to rationalize the change, but it doesn't explain why he's just as clueless as the rest of Ape society in the previous movies. (He possibly had access to them off screen during the presumed months prior to ''Beneath'', when Zaius made Cornelius his proxy, or while he and Zira were traveling in the spaceship.) Another conflict is that, according to Cornelius, the day of Aldo speaking the word "no" is an annual observance in their society.

★ The concepts of Ape slavery and Ape uprising became the central theme of the next sequel, ''Conquest of the Planet of the Apes''. Aldo, the legendary Gorilla that Cornelius believes was the first Ape possessing the power of speech, will make his (altogether different) speaking debut in the fourth sequel, ''Battle for the Planet of the Apes''.

★ Many of the scenes in this movie were inspired by the original Pierre Boulle novel. Zira's pregnancy parallels Nova's pregnancy in Boulle's original work. Also, the scene in which scientists give Zira an ‘intelligence test,’ especially her decision to make the boxes into a staircase to get closer to out-of-reach food, is based on a similar scene from the novel (in chapter 16, when Earth astronaut Ulysse Merou is tested by ape scientists). Additionally, just as happened to Zira and Cornelius after humans became aware of their intelligence, so Merou is initially lionized by ape society, before soon arousing their fears.

★ This movie marks the first appearance of Dr. Otto Hasslein. The character was referred to in both previous ''Planet of the Apes'' movies, but was never seen until this film.

★ James Bacon is the only actor to have appeared in all five of the Ape movies, playing an ape, except in "Escape", where he played General Faulkner, a human. Along with Natalie Trundy and Lou Wagner, he is one of the few actors to play both an ape and a human. Roddy McDowell appears in all 5 movies as well; however for the 2nd movie he only appears in the opening scene flashback from the final scene of original movie #1.

★ Ranked #100 on Rotten Tomatoe's Journey Through Sci-Fi (100 Best Reviewed Sci-Fi Movies)

External links

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