Don Taylor's Escape from the Planet of the Apes is both a good sequel to Planet of the Apes (1968) and an excellent stand-alone film. It's an almost ingenious solution to the problem of how Hollywood could make another Planet of the Apes film after the eponymous planet was annihilated at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970): set it in earth's past. Of course, the film isn't a strict prequel because it follows three chimpanzee scientists who managed to escape from the fiery cataclysm from the last film. Stunned by the sight of a world ruled by men, the three chimpanzees, Cornelius, Zira, and Dr. Milo (the former two of which had appeared in the first two films), are captured and put into a zoo for further study. After Dr. Milo is accidentally killed by a gorilla in an adjacent cage, Cornelius and Zira reveal that they are from a future where mankind destroyed itself and apes came to rule the earth. Fearful of that possible future, government agents decide to exterminate them and their unborn child. I'm simplifying the plot, of course. But the plot is so well executed that it could legitimately work as a stand-alone film. I'm not kidding. If you showed somebody just this film and none of the other Planet of the Apes movies they would still have an enjoyable, rewarding experience. The screenplay by Paul Dehn brings a much more focused philosophical and scientific punch than Beneath the Planet of the Apes and confronts some truly fascinating ethical dilemmas. I know that some people may be disappointed that the film only has a handful of talking apes, but I still believe that Escape from the Planet of the Apes is both a worthy and entertaining follow-up to one of the most important sci-fi classics of the 60s.
7/10
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