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

5. Beneath the Planet of the Apes

The immediate sequel to the original film picks up right after the shocking conclusion. Taylor is in the Forbidden Zone with Nova before being lost in what appears to be an illusion of a hill. The downside of this film is the makeup effects. If you are not a hero ape with a talking role you were relegated to wearing a pull-on mask that was very noticeable.

This film was also the first in the franchise to show the Gorillas at their full military power being led by General Aldo and didn’t shy from the biggest bit of social commentary showing that mankind worships war when the subterranean mutants pray to the Doomsday Bomb left over from the final war to end humanity.

This was also the final Planet of the Apes film featuring Charleton Heston in any kind of recognizable role, saying that he would only come back to do another Planet of the Apes film if he was killed off, and boy did they oblige.

It would have been great to have gotten more into the mutants, or even the Astronaut Brent who was sent to find Taylor but the character development on both was a little lacking for my taste, and are more maguffins than actual characters. Still, a great follow-up to the original.