Hey guys! Just fyi, YES, I am fully aware that the photo at 3:11 is of actor Karl Malden, not Franklin J Schaffner. It is a photo of him accepting the Oscar for Franklin J Schaffner for Patton (the movie mentioned in the video). You don't need to keep telling me! It was a mistake made due to a mix up in my editing assets folder that I did not notice at first and has since been fixed for the future. Thank you!

Charlton Heston: "I'll only do this movie if Taylor gets killed off." Producers: "Got it. Taylor kills everyone." Charlton Heston: "... okay, sure."

I enjoy this film. It is my 2nd favorite of the series. I always thought how ironic that Taylor cries out in the first film about “them” blowing it up. HE then in the 2nd film reduces the entire planet to a cinder. He decides that neither man nor ape is worthy to exist.

The scene where they peeled off their faces freaked the hell out of me as a child. The only problem with this film is no Roddy McDowell.

Ursus was a pre-Vader Villan, the leather outfit including the helmet. When I saw Star Wars at age of 12, Vader remind me planet of the apes.

Nova carries this film. Her reactions are gold.

I just love the insanity of Beneath! The dream logic that drives the series from this point on is nonsensical but so much fun if you just go with it.

I watched all the Apes sequels in a binge the first time too. From what little I knew, I expected Beneath to be some extended punchline. But then I found James Franciscus a charismatic lead, I really fell in love with Nova, and I was smacked upside the head with the Mutants and the Bomb cult. I found it really interesting

I had the reverse experience - This was the first Apes film I watched as a child, blew my mind and gave me a love of post-apocalyptic fiction that I've had my whole life.

Despite the retread of the first half (meeting Nova, capture by gorillas, escape from Ape City), and the amount of obvious pullover masks, I think the new stuff with Ursus, the mutants (the costumes/makeup, sets and matte paintings are a fitting new, bizarre addition to this world) and the bleak ending are great enough to make it a worthy, memorable sequel. Plus the wonderful score by Leonard Rosenman!

Films are a product of their time, and unless you grew up in the 1960s with the Cold War, Mutually Assured Destruction, the Vietnam War, and US cities burning with protests you can't understand how this film felt at the time of its release. I was 11 when the first PotA film came out and the film was mesmerizing, scary, and disturbing. It perfectly resonated with the mood and reality of the time. As a newly-minted teenager I saw Beneath and I completely loved it. The storyline of the scientists protesting against the military was exactly what we were actually experiencing every day due to the Vietnam War. We didn't have the hindsight later generations had about the Cold War and Vietnam War ending, we were in the middle of it and couldn't see a way out.

I always liked beneath, it's my favorite sequel. I love all the action scenes and what a ending!

The ending of the film still gives me chills after all these years!

It still blows my mind that the producers of the original Apes films fell ass-backward into an amazing cyclical story arc across a series of films they never intended to keep making.

What confused me the most about this movie was how the mutants kept on going on about how they dont directly kill others and that they let their enemies destroy one another through mind control/mental influence, but yet they didn't even try to do that with the ape invasion on their city/compound. I do remember them saying that their illusions didn't work as well on apes as they do on other humans because of their thick skulls and smaller brains, but a scene showing the mutants at least trying to use this tactic would have been appreciated. It was filmed in a way that made them look like they were rolling over and allowing their people to die.

For me, this film drags until Brent and Nova flee into the underground cave. Up to that point, the film has pacing issues. But once Brent and Nova discover the underground subway, the film totally f-ing ROCKS!!!! The apocalyptic tone of the second half of this film is like an intense LSD trip or even a quasi-religious revelation.

Of all the sequels "beneath"and "conquest"are probably my favourites

About the music, I used to work as a studio musician in Hollywood and when a film is rushed nobody is as rushed as the composer. Remember, they can't score a scene until the editor has finished cutting the scene, and sometimes the composer is only getting the scenes a few weeks before release. I was working on one film where we would record the music for a scene, then the composer would receive a NEW cut of that scene. (We were in LA, the editor was working in NY.) The music had to be thrown out, new music written then recorded. We spent most of one day just on one scene which the editor kept changing. When the film was released the music I recorded on that scene had been binned and due to the rush the composer had no choice but to use crappy synth music for that scene. The whole film was a mess, just a few weeks before release they fired the original composer and quickly hired a new one, who had to do what he could with the little time and budget remaining (due to the original composer using up most of the time and most of the budget). I'll bet that Jerry Goldsmith got a lot more time for the first film.

I did actually enjoy this movie, but I always find that my favorite two sequels in this original series was "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" and "Battle for the Planet of the Apes." I felt how interesting it was that "Conquest" touched upon the themes of racism, slavery, and revolution, and was quite moved by the plight of the apes. I also felt that the governor's monologue at the end to Caesar and his ape army was really powerful in how it showed great insight into the mind of the oppressor as a person constantly afraid of the oppressed. And in "Battle" I really liked the fact that four points of view took center stage in the film, with the characters Caesar and McDonald on the side of coexistence and General Aldo and Governor Kolp were the individuals set on the path of genocide. Furthermore, watching the battle at the film's climax between Governor Kolp's army and Caesar's ape city, it was quite amazing to see the brilliant camera techniques that were applied to the scene to give the illusion of a massive engagement.

Here’s something that finally occurred to me with 50 something years of being a fan: after re-reading the novels, one line stuck out to me. The book talks about heading north at the end of the original film. That’s when it struck me. Ape City is not in New York. It’s in New Jersey. Something there all this time, and I never realized it...

Linda Harrison was gorgeous.

Beneath is my favorite Apes movie. The weirdness is what I like.

As a kid I had never seen Beneath, but in the early days of home video I was able to find and buy it on VHS. I was thrilled to see it as I was a fan of the franchise. Beneath seemed more imaginative to me because of the underground world of the mutants and I loved and still love General Ursus. While the singing in the church seemed a little weird and not my favorite part.

General Ursus 🦍 is the 🐐! Great actor/acting by Gregory! Yes, sad when Nova died. Harrison great job acting! The mutant make up amazing!

I like a lot about this movie. I think it’s fun to follow the astronaut, knowing where he is before he does. That’s a bit of a twist from the original. I think when you get to the mutants up to the end of the movie it’s pretty awesome. I think it actually drags in the middle. Some of the “action“ scenes feel really slow to me and it takes a long time to get to the mutants. I would also argue that in one way this is the most important film in the sequels. The ending is referenced and motivates, almost everything that’s happening in the rest of the films.

I think Dr Strangelove should be packaged as a double-feature with Beneath the Planet of the Apes. They take place near the start and near the end of the national nightmare that was the 1960s.

Traumatized me as a kid. What an ending!

A couple of things. One - Although they probably didn't know it at the time, the scene with Cornelius and Zira where she mentions what kind of future world, if there is one, she wants her unborn child to grow up in, foreshadows her pregnancy in the next film, "Escape". Second - There's a story in one of the 'Making of'/'Behind the Scenes' books where James Franciscus was so disappointed in Brent's dialogue in the script, that he spent a weekend rewriting it.

Universal pictures wanted Heston for their Colossus The Forbin Project film, but had to look elsewhere when they found out he was contracted for Beneath The Planet of the Apes. I wonder if Heston asked them, "you can't wait 8 days?"

It was my favorite sequel.

The scene from #3 in which Zira is recounting the date of Earth's destruction plays back in my mind a lot, for some reason.

This one is my favorite of all the films. I hope they address this again in a new film

I had no idea until later in life that people didn't like this one. Back in the 70s it was my brother and I's favorite. Taylor disappearing was jarring but the insanity of the mutants worshipping the bomb made it awesome. The ending was almost as shocking as the first one. I'll always love this movie. Edit. After reading the comments i see that I'm not alone. I notice people around my age seem to like it as much as we did. I'm glad. It's a cult classic.

I've come around to really loving this film. It moves like a rocket, has more intense action, REALLY goes hard on huge story developments that expand the world in interesting ways, and I love how damn nihilistic old school blockbusters could be.

11:50 you have to remember that when this movie was shown on TV in the late 1970s and 80s, the pull over masks weren’t that much of a distraction on the analog broadcasts of the time. Well, at least as a child I didn’t notice them.

A plot point you may be overlooking in this film is that Taylor, who collapses at the end of Planet Of The Apes when realizing mankind has reduced the earth to a point where a new dominant species could rise above humans by way of nuclear destruction ultimately pushes the button and wipes out everything. I love this movie.

It's so weird that this film with some really graphic violence in it was rated G back in the day. Hell, the first film was rated G with the violence and nudity in it!!

Those that do not like Beneath the Planet of the Apes are not worth a subscribe.

I really wished they spent more time with the two astronauts in the mutant land, but of course, Chuck Heston could only have a limited screen time, and I wish they had a longer time fighting with the apes at the end.. oh well, the general ape was worth watching alone..

This is either my second or third favorite in the series. I originally saw the film as a child and it was more frightening than the original to me. The reason being you still had the scary apes but the mutants were also terrifying, especially when they unmask. This might just be me but the addition of the mutants religious system was also a bit disturbing (in an entertaining way lol). Love this one! I just wish the mutants were more willing to fight and maybe use their mental powers to at least make the apes work for the victory- take longer to storm the holy sanctuary. Instead they were as weak as the rest of the humans on the outside. Even though the mental projection powers ultimately proved to be ineffective against the "primitive ape mind" it would have been interesting to see other powers such as telekinesis. Using their mind powers to bring down bits of wall onto the ape soldiers for example. Hiding in the shadows as they attack. They could even force a few soldiers to fire upon their fellow ape by making them think they were shooting mutants only to see they shot their own kind. That would have had a psychological affect on the apes as well. Oh well. If they had the money and 20 more minutes of film time maybe they could have incorporated some other elements into the ending. Take care!

Leonard Rosenman also scored Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home, which has grown on me these past 35 years, as it's personally more emotional than other soundtracks.

Although I do come across Planet of the Apes stuff from time to time a lot of fresh videos on it have been coming up lately. New movies are really failing us but it's still great to see older movies getting fresh love and attention. Although I have seen all the movies of all the iterations, it's a long time since i've seen the original sequels. I listened to the audiobook, a lot of differences but a lot of parallels too. There is so much dignity in the writing.

I really enjoyed your review. It was very thorough and well done. Personally I love this movie and find the mutants very interesting but still loved the review.

For all the problems with Beneath, like the first-half being an uneven/lesser revisit of the original, I just love they had the balls to go with that ending. For me, it was chilling to watch that as a kid as I found it more shocking than the ending of the original.

James Gregory does a great job. It could have been a great sequel but it does has its good points.

Love the channel keep up the good work, huge fan, awesome to find someone who articulates my same passion for classic sci-fi, and especially planet of the apes

I was creeped out looking at the mutants. I found them a bit gross and scary for me as a seven year old.

One thing that goes a long way to understanding these movies, is to understand an element of the movie business prior to Star Wars. While studios would make sequels of popular movies. Sequels tended to make less than the original. The result was Hollywood had an almost universal policy that each sequel would have half the budget of the one before it. Instead of the modern increasing budgets. The Planet of the Apes franchise is one of the places where you can really really see the effects of these ever decreasing budgets. Another good one is the Christopher Reeve Superman movies (especially if you count Supergirl among them.)

I didn't know about your channel and have just caught this video on 'Planet of the Apes'. I was amazed that you were so hard on this film in the first quarter of your video. You were honest, but I was amazed none the less. Here is a different perspective. I've been an avid movie goer since I was 12, but somehow how I missed 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968. In 1971, I did see 'Beneath' at a theatre on a visit to California. I must say 'it blew my mind' and I just loved it! So, try to remember that often sequels are '1st films' for people who did not see the original. So the film maker has the challenge of introducing a 'new' film to the audience and yet satisfy the 'veteran' who saw the original. I still love the film today and of course I have now seen them all several times having a 'binge' festival by watching them all. I have not been able to bring myself to see any of the 'new' franchise of the films since I love the originals so much. Thank you for this video and I will see some of your other ones.

I'm rewatching the hole saga and I just discovered your channel. I just finished the second movie and I didn't remembered much of it, besides the fact that there was sometingh beneath the planet, and oh boy, what a great surprise. The first half of the movie is really hard to wath, specially considering how similar it is to the first one. But as soon as they get to the train station the movie changes, and I realy love the political aspect of the movie, the way that many groups are represented, and I feel like tha's the best part of the movie. I'm looking forward to see all the other movies again and remember why I love so much them, and now I get to watch with one more person to hear about it. Looking foward to the next one!

Loved the review-like Battle, there are parts and characters I can barely stand to watch, just difficult to keep with it (like Brent, the pacing, etc.), but other aspects that can be appreciated for being innovative (for the time it was made)

This movie just reminds me of when MST3K had several episodes referencing Planet of the Apes starting in season 8. In the episode "The Deadly Mantis", Bobo and Peanut help their neighbors active their thermonuclear device without knowing what it does. Mike accidentally helps them and the planet gets blown up. "I felt a great disturbance. As if a million monkeys cried out and were silenced. Good one, Mike!"

I'm with you on this movie. What I like about it most is the addition of the mutants and the bomb, it really did something new there. While the first half was just more of the same. At the same time, the movie is too depressing for my taste. I do agree that it was a ballsy ending, though. My favorite sequels are Conquest (unrated cut) and Escape. Actually I prefer Conquest over the original movie.

I think if Heston had wanted to contribute more to this story they could have left out the Brent storyline completely. A story of Taylor and Nova discovery of the mutants, and capture along with a parallel tale of the power struggle between the apes, concluding with their invasion of the forbidden zone, would have been better in my opinion. The studio over investment in dr dolittle didn't help 😂

Loving these reviews, but one note, the picture used when you talk about Franklin J Schaffner is in fact a picture of Karl Malden who accepted on behalf of Shaffner for the film "Patton".

Best of all the ape films, I always think of this film out of the series, the buried new york city, the strange mutants and the fascinating doomsday bomb , excellent script and directing👍👍👍

Before CGI is where you find the real filmmakers. Now, with a big budget, everything is possible. 🌟 As I see the wars that didn’t stop to happen in our planet, even with atomic weapons that can destroy our civilization, Planet of the Apes is growing as a dark prophecy of our future. Eerie as when I saw these films for the first time in a theater, back in the late 60s and early 70s🌟✌️

and yet Brents blond hair remains perfectly combed and styled in every scene

Great review, looking forward to your take on Escape. Long live Dr Milo

I always loved this movie. POTA 1, 2, & 5 are my favorite Apes movies.

As I said in your other video Beneath is my favourite it's up there with the original I love the matt paintings of the destroyed city (we don't really get Matt paintings these days thanks to CGI) and I love the bleak ending Where everyone dies Another great video sir thanks for sharing your thoughts with us

Well I gotta say this is my favorite next to the first. I love the sometimes horror-ish vibe of it. And I like that it also takes place in the far future. Speaking of…have you noticed that Brent said the ship’s earth time reading was 3955 and in the first film when Taylor looked at the ship’s time reading it said 3978?

It's my favorite sequel. Escape? Silly. Conquest? Preachy to an awful extreme. Battle? Meh.

Why was Paul Frees chosen for the ending narration?

I loved General Ursus. He definitely represented American fears of runaway military power during the Vietnam war. His character needed more fleshing out.

Its great when Taylor destroys the world. That's awesome. And when Brent gets drilled against the wall. That's cool.

I love this movie for two thing: the wrecked ship in the beginning and the nuclear NYC scenes. That’s it. The story is hokey,but in a fun way. Now I’m gonna go watch it again while I play with my NuMego Taylor, Brent, and Mutant 😂😂

Thought the film was a great sequel, a sci-fi mind bender. As a teenager in the 70's we all thought that was our world's destiny.

I remember hating this as a kid too, but as a teenager I came to appreciate it. My take is that the first half of the movie is TRASH, just a cheap rehash of the events in the first film... and then at the end of the second act it just goes completely off the rails in a wonderfully bonkers way.

Cutting the budget gave the film a TV Movie of the week feel and Ted Post being a TV Director mostly. It’s shows. But I liked it.

Thanks for the posting. My favorite picture in the series

I think you gave a fair observation of this movie it's interesting to watch but it does drag right after Brent discovers he's actually back on Earth. What I like I'd the tie in to what the apes called the forbidden zone in the first movie where Taylor Landon and Dodge were experiencing strange phenomenons happening all around them for no reason, we know Dr Zaus knew to stay away but even he didn't know the deep secret about it. As for the mutants I was confused at first about them having these mind manipulation and telekinetic powers, but I feel it was the result of the nuclear fallout that mutated them. And finally about the mutants (spoiler alert) in the final movie battle for the Planet of the Apes the human Holocaust Survivors who didn't go to war with the Apes decide that the alpha omega bomb should be used as a weapon of peace,and that show their own paradox taking place due to the Cornelius and Zera timeline.

these videos are getting me so pumped for Kingdom thank you

Brilliant Film With Short-Comings. But ultimately really interesting and I could see a serialized television series (adult) and there's much more in the way of possibilities.

This was the first of the PofTAs series that I saw in the movies. It was frustrating bc I was so young and expected a more straightforward story. I got over it very fast as I saw the original right after that. You are correct, I only really cared about Nova.

Planet of Men sounds so lame, glad they rejected that one lol

I guess I am one of the few who actually like this movie as it has been maligned by quite a few over the years. No it isn't the 1968 film nor was it intended to be. Heston placed conditions on his appearance in this sequel and the studio had to work with what it had available. I was 5 years old when it hit the theaters in 1970.

This actually my favourite ape movie of them all 🤔🤷‍♂️🙌

I hope Kingdom stays with the main theme of all the films in this franchise: The huberous of humanity and its consequences

I dont get your point on the double lock door and taylor disappearing . The cart has two locks for each door . She says to the gorilla , i need to double lock it so that she can unlock it for them to escape. Taylor disappears into a wall thats fake illusion to hide the entry into the mutant city .

Most of this movie’s problems would be fixed if it were Cornelius and Zira going out to find Taylor instead of spending the first act retelling the first movie’s story to Bootleg Taylor.

I kind of feel that this movie is slightly art damaged because of the period in American History when they made it. It always kind of trips me out and leaves me melancholy. A lot of the sci-fi from that time has a gloomy picture of the future, didn't always bother me. I loved "Omega Man" because a world of just me was what I was living, and the idea of being the only living human left really appealed to me at the time. Ah the 1970's. Childhood without a net and parenthood without a clue.

Josh I loved this film .as a kid l was scared. My favourite scene is ending with Talyor blowing up the world and end voiceover by Paul Frees . The score not as good as Jerry's masterpiece score for the first film .

You’ve summed up all my points perfectly

It's one of those sequels that feels like it's trying to be a remake in a way of the original, but there is decent aspects to it my least favourite in the series though overall.

One thing I will say is I completely buy Taylor giving Zaius the nuclear middle finger in the final act

When I first came upon the Ape Franchise in the 90's, it was of course during one of its many marathons. I always enjoyed Beneath the most and not just because I share the main character's (last) name, Brent. His full name is Maj. John C. Brent. This review calls him bland but sometimes an everyman is what the audience needs when traveling through fantastic places. Taylor nuking the whole planet was indeed a ballsy ending but good old time travel fixed that!

Much the same I always skipped this one because as a kid it seemed weird to me at the time. I loved the original and Escape was one of my other favorites, so this one was skipped. I definitely need to give it a watch again.

As a kid we loved this scary sequel and depressing end.

I have a soft spot for Beneath because it was the first apes movie I saw when CBS first aired them in the early 70s. I was a kid and thought it was cool. I thought Brent’s death was particularly brutal. Speaking of which Linda Harrison was quoted a few years ago saying James Franciscus took it way too seriously.

I thought Beneath was an ok film. The problem with Beneath and Battle is that there is potential in the films, but unfortunately due to a low budget and bad writing in parts, it's not seen all the way through

Personally, I pretty much enjoyed "Beneath the Planet of the Apes" even though it was not an entirely perfect science-fiction film of the 1970's. I think it was because of the limited budget among other things such as the failures of previous 20th Century Fox films of the time as well. From what I also learned about the sequel was the writing process by Paul Dehn and some behind-the-scenes people, and for them, it was difficult indeed. Other than that, the sequel was a moderate success according to the late associate producer, Mort Abrahams, anyway.

Think you’ll ever do a video primarily on the lost sequel planet of the men, I just read the script a few weeks ago and it’s super dark and really want a KZfaqr to make some sort of video of it. as it’s very interesting and lots of people don’t know about it.

Der Orginal Roman war ja eine Parodie über uns. Daraus haben sie einen echt guten ersten Film gemacht. FILM 1 👍👍👍, FILM 2👍👍👍, FILM 3 👍👍👍(interessante Geschichte), FILM 4 👍👍👍 Erhebung der geknechtenen 👍👍👍, FILM 👍👍 da war das Thema ausgelutscht. Aber Planet der Affen wird sicher weiterleben, mit neuen Geschiten.

At 3:13 is a picture of actor Karl Malden, not the director you stated.

Saw it in the early 80s and loved it, I need to see it again

In the 1970s, NY on channel 7 had the 4:30 movie. Beneath could be so much more with a better budget and I understand the flaws but to a kid it was awesome.

This review made me think of a theory for Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes but i think it's highly unlikely, maybe the humans who retained their intelligence have a nuclear warhead and some humans in that society are against it. Also i forget to mention before that if the director still decides to do the idea of the astronauts appearing in a Planet with apes i think they can do it if they made a prequel and set it in a certain time when they can still be alive, also I'm curious to see if they do a tv show prequel about what happened before a million years ago, for instance how did the U.S. Navy get infected by the virus while they were at sea maybe one of the crew members off shore caught and spread it when they got back on the ship i probably answered my own question but still i would like to see something like this idea i mentioned if they do a tv show Update: now the question for Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes is can humans and apes coexist?

It's not a popular take, but this is my favorite one. Brent figures out he's on Earth quickly compared to Taylor. The nihilism is at an all time high. Everyone dies and it's rated "G".

I saw this at the cinema in 1970 and it blew my young impressionable mind. I'd never seen anything quite like it before. Also, I'd missed the first instalment being a little too young to see it in 1968, so this was my first experience at seeing something so bizarre on the big screen. Modern cinemagoers just won't understand how extraordinary and shocking this was to a young mind back in 1970 as they've been brought up on a staple of Star Wars, Alien and even Marvel movies since then. And that moment when they peeled off their masks to reveal their mutated faces beneath haunted me for weeks after. This is still the best sequel in the series IMHO.