All 9 Planet of the Apes movies ranked from worst to best

1. Planet of the Apes (1968)

From the novel based on an episode of The Twilight Zone comes a film co-written by Rod Serling. Convoluted, we know, but this is one of those films that is as close to perfection as you can really get.

The story is amazing and pits faith and science against each other and shows how humans and apes are really not that different. Both are willing to use who they see as the lower species for experiments in the case of the Chimps and target practice in the case of the Gorillas. All in the name of science and faith.

Charleton Heston plays Colonel Taylor., the first human that any of the apes have ever seen speak or show any kind of real intelligence. Having traveled from Earth’s past and crash landed with crewmates in the Forbidden Zone.

Through a series of events, Taylor gets captured and it’s up to Cornelious and Zira to save him from mental and physical castration. The end of this film is so shocking and has become such a part of the lexicon that it has been parodied over and over again.

This is the one that started it all, and will forever be the best in the franchise. But like as said before, all of these movies, sans one, are worth your time. When you start the original you will find yourself on a binge to watch them all.