Planet of the Apes Retrospective – Escape from the Planet of the Apes Review

Hello and welcome to episode 254 of the Cinema

Geeks. I am one of your Cinema Geeks Optimus

Solo and joining me as he always is, the Comic

Concierge. Hello, Dan. Hey, how's it going? We're

getting into ape territory again. Yeah, I can't

keep track of where we're at, Dan. We're in the

Wild West. We're in ancient Greece. We're on

a planet full of apes. I don't know. I'm interested

to get back. yeah and we're in the future now

we're in a movie that takes place during present

day although present day is the past so you know

it's hard to kind of put it all together yeah

yeah so we're getting back into the planet of

the apes retrospective for those of you that

have been enjoying our walk through the history

of western film and cinema uh you should also

join us on this journey through the planet of

the apes we've already covered the original Planet

of the Apes from 1968 and Beneath the Planet

of the Apes 1970. We're going to cover all 10

films. So up next is 1971's Escape from the Planet

of the Apes. And just to remind folks, Dan, what's

your history with this one? Was this a first

time watch? This was the first time watch for

this. You know, the original films, the only

one I watched previously fully was the first.

So this was brand new for me. Although I guess

I saw like pits, you know, very small bits of

it back in cable when I was a kid. I remember

seeing one with the monkeys on Earth. I guess

there are on Earth. That's the whole thing. But,

you know, during like present day. So this one

I knew existed. I just didn't know anything about

it. Yeah. And this was a second time watch for

me, but about 15 years ago or 15 years since.

the first one so before we get into kind of how

dan thought after this first time watch or how

it was for me 15 years later let's let dan kind

of lay the groundwork for you guys on all of

the facts that you're going to need to know for

escape from the planet of the apes take it away

dan the end of the world was just the beginning

as this week we continue the planet of the apes

retrospective with a look at escape from planet

of the apes from 1971 directed by Don Taylor.

The movie begins shortly after the events of

Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Earth in the

future has been destroyed by a nuclear weapon,

so end of movie. Nope, turns out not. But before

the destruction, Cornelius Zira and another chimpanzee

scientist, Dr. Milo, manage to recover and repair

Taylor's spaceship. The explosion somehow sends

them backward through time. They arrive in 1973

California, where the spacecraft was discovered

by the U .S. military, and U .S. astronauts appear

to emerge, and it shocks everyone when those

are actually chimpanzees and not humans. The

three are taken to the Los Angeles Zoo, where

scientists Dr. Louis Dixon and Dr. Stephanie

Branton begin studying them. At first, Cornelius

and Zero pretend that they cannot speak. They

know that revealing who they are could be dangerous.

Unfortunately, Dr. Milo is killed when a gorilla

attacks him and chokes him out. Brutal. Cornelius

and Zira are eventually brought before a presidential

commission. They explain that they have come

from the future, but initially conceal the horrifying

truth about the Earth's fate and the destruction

that awaits everyone. Instead of being in prisons,

they become international celebrities. They're

taken shopping, interviewed by the press, showered

with gifts, and treated almost like Hollywood

stars. For a while, the movie becomes something

of a fish -out -of -water comedy with the age.

exploring modern human society. But there's a

major problem. Zira is pregnant. The government

scientific advisor Dr. Otto becomes increasingly

concerned about what this means. He knows from

ape's history that humans will eventually be

dominated by these intelligent apes. He fears

that Cornelius and Zira's child could be the

ancestor of the apes who eventually take over

Earth. Talk about a time conundrum. He begins

to question them very aggressively. Eventually,

Zira is given a true serum and she reveals much

more than she intended, including that she and

Cornelius had experimented on humans in the future

and she knows about Taylor. That changes everything

and the government turns against her. Dr. Otto

convinces the government that Cornelius and Zira

represent a major threat. The authorities decide

that Zira's unborn baby must be destroyed and

the couple should be sterilized. Cornelius and

Zira, of course, are horrified as they're confined

and orderly makes an off -color joke about their

unborn child. Cornelius loses his temper and

knocks him down and out. The man dies from the

fall, although Cornelius initially doesn't realize

he has actually killed him. Otto uses this incident

to prove the apes are dangerous. With the help

of Dixon and Branton, Cornelius and Zira escape.

They find refuge with Signor Armando, the kindly

owner of a traveling circus played by Ricardo

Montalban. There, Zira gives birth to her son.

They name him Milo after their friend who was

killed at the zoo. Knowing they'll eventually

be found by the government, Cornelius and Zira

make the decision to flee the circus and hide

out in an abandoned ship in Los Angeles Harbor.

They're eventually discovered and the government

demands that Zira surrender the child, but she

refuses. That refusal leads to tragedy. A shootout

occurs, Zira is shot, the baby is killed, and

Dr. Otto is also killed by Cornelius, who eventually

also is shot and falls to his death. It appears

that Cornelius, Zira, and their child have all

perished, but then comes the final twist, something

of course this franchise is known by. Before

they fled to the circus, Zira switched their

child with the other infant child at the circus,

so Milo actually lives, and it ends with Milo

saying mama, mama, mama. as credits roll fox

gave escape a budget of around 2 .5 million dollars

which is less than half the final cost of the

original planet of the apes the thing is that

restriction helped shape the story instead of

spending an enormous amounts of money on futuristic

cities armies and ape extras and elaborate sets

and huge action sequences So they moved to contemporary

Los Angeles, which meant filmmakers could use

existing sets, and importantly, they didn't need

dozens and dozens of actors to sit in expensive

ape makeup. The result is why Escape feels a

bit different than the first two films. It starts

almost like a fish -out -of -water comedy, becomes

a political thriller, and eventually into quite

the tragedy. Of the first two films, this tried

to go back to the original novels, even consulting

the author to try to incorporate more of the

satirical qualities of the book. The original

screenplay had it titled Secret of the Planet

of the Apes, and the title makes more sense when

you consider the movie's central mystery, how

do intelligent apes eventually come to dominate

humanity? Although the budget was smaller, the

success remained, earning $12 .35 million in

the domestic box office, and that success allowed

two more sequels to occur, films we'll eventually

cover on our Planet of the Apes retrospective.

Critically, it was also well -received. Critics

enjoyed the more character -focused and tragic

ending, and currently has the 75 % on Rotten

Tomatoes, and over the years, it's much more

appreciated by fans compared to the direct sequel.

But what do Kevin and I think? Back to us to

discuss. No excuses. Everybody knows what's going

on here in Escape from Planet of the Apes. They

know the background. So be able to follow us

right along here. So, Dan, the first question

that I have to ask is an obvious one. We were

left last time with the question of how do you

do a sequel when you blow the entire planet up?

And as you can guess, when it comes to science

fiction, you just. introduce time travel dan

that's all of course that's the key or for the

avengers like you said we're we're time traveling

from the future to the present but the present

now for us is like the past of more than 50 years

ago so it's interesting um so i'm curious a couple

things obviously We did talk about when we were

talking about the original 1968 film that the

original original plan was to have that set in

more of a futuristic society where instead of

kind of this wasteland post -apocalyptic landscape

that the apes in the original one were in a fully

functional society with think of it like I always

think of like Jetsons, right? Like, or something

like that. Like you're, you have all of the stuff

or like a back to the future when you're in the

future, right? Like they're, they're in a, a

futuristic society with technology and things

that we, you know, maybe don't even understand

or would later come to exist, but that was kind

of the original idea. So we're not doing that

because it's not as like high tech and in the

future, but we are now getting the apes into

a non dystopian type of setting. um so i'm curious

what your take is as they kind of flip the script

of the first one and instead of humans being

the quote -unquote fish out of water in the ape

society now we have the apes the fish out of

waters in the human society and i'm curious kind

of how that sets up because as you mostly do

get when it comes to fish out of water stories

especially when the the water is um america or

our society you're usually injecting some humor

in there right like it's usually a type of thing

crocodile dundee or coming to america or whatever

you want to do like it's somebody that's coming

in and there's going to be some some humor as

they try to understand the world in our society

so i'm curious number one how you kind of thought

of the flipping of the script between the apes

and the humans and number two how did you feel

not that there wasn't humor in the first one

but that you're definitely going to have a heavier

dose or or more kind of like hit you in the face

humor in this one so what was your first reaction

to um escape from planet of the apes i was intrigued

to see we know what exactly we're having here

because it it opens and mirrors very much the

first film in some ways with you know we see

a shift in the ocean well in this case in the

ocean and what what that means and three individuals

come out And they're apes. And I do feel like

it's like with all these different sequels, it's

like they just seem to like introduce a character

and act as if they're there the entire time.

It's like, oh, we get a new astronaut. And it's

like he was always planning to go there. Or in

this case, it's like another ape that apparently

was like the best ape ever because he got the

ship and found it from the water. And like the

amount of stuff that they were able to say have

happen off screen is amazing. But, you know,

whatever, you know, you need to get. them there

i guess it makes sense but i thought it was getting

back to as much as it possibly could what worked

with the original which was again oddly just

kind of people in a room talking and just the

ideas that it presented and debated about within

this kind of crazy concept and what it would

it mean for the world if they were faced with

understanding of what would lead to their ultimate

destruction what exactly does it mean you know

like although i found its explanation of time

travel far more confusing than you know the models

we got back to the future i don't know if it

really made sense but uh but hey what have you

i i thought the comedy like it didn't overdo

it per se like it i felt like it could have been

far more uh you know them going to like uh i

don't know considering you know fish out of water

or i guess it's ape out of the jungle although

ape was a derogatory term so we shouldn't say

that to them but i thought like it didn't overdo

it it was pleasant i think it was far superior

to what came previously in the sense of i was

never embarrassed by what i was watching on screen

per se and i thought at least try to get back

to the the core of what worked with the original

like the you know again feeling like a twilight

episode thinking of these ideas and what it would

mean approaching some difficult topics although

some of them i feel like it left open and kind

of gave up on but i don't know again it's nowhere

near the original but i felt it was an improvement

compared to what came before because one it wasn't

just trying to redo what happened and i i thought

like you know it was i enjoyed my time with these

characters again and their crazy hijinks and

again that uh that comedy was counteracted by

perhaps maybe even the most bleak ending yet

i don't know uh so what what you know 15 years

later i know you mentioned you liked some of

the sequels than some of the other ones you didn't

know which ones were which though because it

was been so long so where did this fall was this

you know one uh when you ended up enjoying, or

was it one that like, and what were your feelings

generally regarding this return to the planet

of the apes? Well, my, like I said, last time,

my memories were definitely that some of the

sequels worked for me and some of them didn't.

And I had no recollection of which was which

because of the way that they named these films

mostly. And it makes it really confusing because

there's no numbers involved. And it's just like,

some of the words mean the same thing. Like Dan

and I were talking before the record. So it's,

you know, battle conquest. That doesn't separate

them enough for me when it, when it comes to

that. So, uh, so I definitely was struggling

remembering which was which, but I am happy that

I was at least correct that some are, are quote

unquote, I guess, bad and some are better. And

this is for me, one of the better ones. I would

actually say that I feel like maybe for me, the

gap between the first one's better. I don't know

if I would say the gap for me is as large as

it, as you just said, I think you said it was

a. a far cry i don't know i don't want to put

words in your mouth but you you said you know

there's a large gap between this one and the

first one i think there's a gap i don't know

if it's as big for me as it is maybe for you

um or maybe that's just coming off of the second

film being what i thought was so terrible and

this was like hey we're we're going back to what

a lot of the aspects that i liked about the first

one we're going back to some actual like when

you think about it like the first one there's

not a ton of action in this one there's there's

a couple like getaway type sequences and obviously

there's some action at the end but we're doing

a lot more talking in rooms right we're doing

a lot more talking with groups talking in rooms

talking with that whatever council nonsense name

that they came up with for that or whatever it

was so so we're getting back into having discussions

and i do feel like the discussions are have some

substance to them like it has some stuff that

would be thought -provoking has some stuff to

to think of in your head and how it relates to

the real world that we're living in and and all

of the different things right like it does deal

with some topics that uh are have some heft to

them so i i enjoyed that right i also enjoy the

fact that we're getting a lot more of cornelius

and zero right like those are two characters

that we enjoyed from the first one that kind

of get sidelined in the second film and i think

the third film is better for coming back to those

characters have no explanation for dr milo didn't

know he existed apparently he's super smart we'll

just take that for the grain of salt he basically

serves the same purpose as i guess two of the

astronauts from the original film in a way i

guess like they're part of the crew but they

don't last very long into the story so It is

what it is. So I do enjoy that we're getting

more into those two characters. I do enjoy that

we're getting more into topics that are substantive.

I do think, even though I think they did it fairly

well with them being in America and the whole

kind of fish out of water concept, I do prefer

being in the setting of the first one. Yeah.

And I do enjoy seeing some of the groundwork

for like exploring what. society was like between

the chimpanzees and the orangutans and the gorillas

and how humans fit in or don't fit into that

and kind of all of that element like i found

that a more intriguing concept and setting than

what we're going to get here i do also think

this is a fascinating film in the respect that

as you progress through this film we go from

a comedy to a science fiction film to a political

thriller and then we end with a tragedy yeah

like i don't know if this film 100 knows it's

like knows its identity but it's interesting

that they kind of navigate those four different

completely different types of genres i guess

so to speak within this film and they do it in

a way that seems somewhat seamless like it flows

in a way that sort of makes sense like it's not

jarring that it's like well we were a comedy

for the first third and we're thrilled second

third i'm not as big on the comedy third i guess

like it's cool they're in suits and whatnot i

don't think i need like i get that they like

become sort of celebrities which i guess could

be seen as a problem with this film because we've

we've talked about it in some recent movie discussions

that we've had but we know society doesn't act

like that like we know society is not going to

be that accepting we know that's not the better

you know this is not going to bring out the better

parts of the human nature when three apes arrive

on your planet like i don't know like it's it's

interesting because like in some ways i agree

in some ways like in the sense of we also have

had like all that information released regarding

like ufos or whatever and it's not like it said

ufos exist but it was you know it was basically

admitting that they've covered up a bunch of

stuff and no one really cared in the sense of

it was like so maybe maybe we'll become numb

to that type of stuff eventually and we'll be

able to introduce and we won't like dissect them

immediately people do love you know celebrities

maybe they would give them a reality show and

then you know there we go who knows i could have

done without the the sequence where she's at

like a some sort of like round table with some

sort of movement and it's giving like an opinion

on some sort of social political issue i can't

remember what it was like do you remember that

it was it was like a montage it was like a i

don't know i don't like a woman like women's

liberation you know movement yeah i was like

I don't know if she would under like, she just

got here. Does she understand anything that's

happening with these different movements or would

she be able to like, maybe her society was, I

guess in the sense of they were saying that,

you know, the society of the, you know, apes

were very similar. So perhaps that, you know,

some things transcend species apparently. I don't

know. Yeah. The celebrity montage, it is what

it is. Like I get it. Like they're trying to

paint the picture of like that they're being

accepted and that they're, you know, loved by

a lot of these people. I guess if that happened

today, they'd probably be influencers immediately.

And like, yeah, they'd have followings and whatnot.

So I guess it works. They'll do the ape TikTok

dance or whatever. Yeah, sure. How did you feel

like with the, with the switch? Or with the elements

that we have in here from comedy, science fiction,

political thriller, tragedy. How do you think

those all work together or flowed? I think it

all made sense because the comedy was never too

slapstick. It made sense. It never became a different

movie. The comedy existed within the world it

was setting. And we get that scene with them

doing the shapes and whatnot. And it's comedic,

but it's not like... laugh out loud like forced

laughter type of you know comedy it's just it's

just it's comedy because of what we know and

what the other people don't and their ignorance

like it's giving letting us be on on the joke

where some of those characters aren't and you

have those and and then like you mentioned the

fish out of water moments which i think you would

expect like if it didn't have those i think it

would be someone disappointing be like what do

you mean you bring them to the to the you know

real time and you don't do something like that

so again i feel like it all made sense and when

it did get more serious i think it was gradual

and how it would get there and uh especially

like i also thought one thing within this is

that a lot of this drama comes from withholding

information and sometimes that can be really

frustrating in like movies and tv shows where

it's like if people would just talk to one another

like none of this would happen And it's like,

why are they not giving information? But I thought

it did a good job of explaining why they weren't

and making that part of the drama and having

it come back and, you know, kind of doom them

in a way or like it became an issue like it.

So I thought that was actually well done because

I think of shows like. lost or enjoy the show

from where it's a lot of that where it's like

if people just would talk to each other like

just once this would all be sorted and you know

it's just you know a misunderstanding those can

be funny but like also really frustrating and

this it could have been but i thought it actually

was surprisingly handled well and even like small

bits when she makes that like um when zero's

talking and she mentions dissect and like she

quickly like catches herself And like, did people

not really notice that? Like it's pretty often,

but then they went back to it. So it's actually

kind of happy that, you know, it did that. Like

it was, it set itself up pretty well, which I

think talking about a transitioning from, from

genres or being able to do a lot. I think it,

a lot of that was because it, it set itself up

pretty nicely regarding how it was able to create

drama within the situation. I can't think of

too many other examples of a movie that has a

fish out of water concept or ape out of the jungle

concept with. uh still going to the places where

it goes to from a dramatic standpoint and from

the tragedy standpoint i don't know if i can

pick another film that does that like i'm not

saying that there's not a little bit of drama

here and there in some of those movies but this

one goes pretty dark so i don't know yeah i don't

know how many other films can like fit that same

mold and pull it off yeah even i i thought it

was even going to go darker at first because

they're going through and they're you know eventually

we get to the point where it's like okay we need

to i forget deal with these apes and part of

it was also like having an abortion of her baby

and like like whoa like that like it was dealing

with some yeah and then i was like how are they

gonna deal with that exactly and then they then

end up not and you know she has the baby so it

ends up not being it doesn't really revisit that

again which probably was i don't know maybe the

right decision maybe not i don't know probably

wise at that time period yeah but like i still

think that they were they were i give them credit

for even bringing it up because they still are

at least touching on the on the concept yeah

and whether it's okay or not and kind of that

but i was curious because it kind of goes into

another thing i was going to ask you about like

obviously we have a main through line here being

like these two different doctors so we have like

dr i think dixon is the one that is is somewhat

friendly with cornelius and zira and supportive

and then he has a i don't know if it's in the

what level they're on if it's a colleague or

if it's a assistant but he has the the female

doctor i can't remember what her name is and

then we have the doctor has has line has line

who is seemingly got more power than most doctors

that i've come in i don't know what his exact

position was politically here in the government

but he had a lot of power but what did you think

of kind of those two characters those roles did

it i i can see some people saying it kind of

gets almost um caricature -ish or kind of like

trope -ish yeah with with some of that stuff

how did you feel those two characters and kind

of the the doctor element of this film worked

or didn't work that it was a good mirror of what

we got in the first film obviously right where

you know zira and whatnot like they they were

there helping you know charles hesson in the

first movie and now we see that kind of return

their favor so i thought that was a good like

way of building upon that uh the villain like

i i do think the one thing i struggled with was

was trying to figure out just like what he was

like what his ultimate goal was like it obviously

wanted to just like get rid of these apes but

he also seemed really intrigued by them but i

that's the one thing i seem like it changed throughout

throughout the film like i got a different opinion

of or a different feel from him in the first

half than i did in the second for sure yeah yeah

so i that and that changed i don't know if i

fully ever understood beyond just like you know

getting the information regarding the world eventually

ending but i also wonder you talk about you know

that's how society doesn't act that way i also

feel like society like wait that's happening

4 000 years from now or whatever i don't care

like it's so i always i don't know if like people

would react that way but whatever uh that was

my only thing like i felt like his i i struggled

sometimes understanding like what was motivating

him to go down the route that he was like at

first it seemed like he was just curious or intrigued

and then went pretty uh pretty quickly went down

the like okay um other route but outside of that

i thought i i liked how i was able to be a sequel

with but without having to be repetitive and

how sometimes just changing the setting like

this did can allow you to do that yeah i i agree

um i i'm also curious dan we're keeping the taylor

through line uh on through this third movie right

like they they make reference they're asking

zero about taylor and things of that nature did

you find it funny at all that they don't give

a rat's patootie about the dude from the second

movie yeah no i they they won't they retcon that

second movie out of existence almost maybe in

a lot of well i guess not because the the bomb

and the ending of it still exists and maybe maybe

like that's that part hasn't taken place yet

like maybe the oh there we go so i don't think

you know technically it didn't say well did they

say when he left i don't remember i don't know

the time part was a little bit confusing but

i do appreciate that they they still are uh recognizing

that taylor was a person that existed also yeah

not to mention all the other astronauts that

were with him like he was one of four but like

the other ones we don't really need to care about

just taylor you know he yes he's still alive

yeah so that's that's funny but no no question

who is the most important astronaut amongst those

groups like there's you know there's the neil

armstrong's of the world and then there's the

other buzz aldrin but you know yeah right um

so i'm also curious do you are you somebody that

keeps track of like all the names that are popping

up on the screen in the beginning of a film or

do you kind of just like not pay attention to

that i uh i do now sometimes like especially

now i'm going into this i was wondering and especially

like going back to these old films i've never

seen before i'm always you know interested to

see like who's popping up most of the names i

didn't recognize in this all that much but how

about you was there a name that popped up in

this one that you recognized and then proceeded

to watch two -thirds of the film without seeing

him pop up uh maybe i'm trying to think i so

the one name obviously i saw roddy mcdowell ricardo

montalban is that yeah you see in ricardo montalban's

name pop up he was like one of the last ones

that pops up and then he does not appear for

like two -thirds of the film i swear and i couldn't

remember what character he played and i kept

waiting i was like when is he gonna show up um

but I feel like that was a little fun, fun little

character to throw in there here. Some Montalban,

a circus aficionado, I guess, or ringleader,

whatever you want to call him. So what did you

think of his character in kind of that part of

the film? Yeah, that, yeah, interesting to say

the least. I also don't know what I know him

from. Ricardo Montalban is a name I know. But

I don't know why I know that name, if I'm being

honest. I'm trying to think of what he's known

for. So he was in Star Trek. He's Khan. Oh, okay.

That's why. That's why I know his name. Okay.

Yeah. I was like, I know that name. I think that's

the most known thing he has. I mean, he has other

stuff as well. But from our standpoint, I would

think that would be the most popular thing he

did. I mean, it's a great name. it was good like

he he had a lot of energy he had it was certainly

a strong character and you know like this circus

you know circus guy or whatever uh it was very

convenient in a way like and now like he had

this connection to the other doctor but i don't

know i enjoyed him like he has presence and i

guess if i'm not mistaken i think he's the next

one too so i don't know like how far in the future

the next one takes place or or the past present

i don't even whatever it may be I think one thing

we can agree on, Dan, is that the first movie

ends and you're like, I don't know how there's

a sequel to this one. Second movie ends and you're

like, well, now I really don't know how there's

a sequel. This one does not end the same way.

This one ends and it's like, I know exactly what

the sequel is going to go. I wasn't also sure

where it's going to go, but you know it's going

to exist. You're understanding the setup that

this movie is doing. I was surprised for the

baby, they just used a normal chimpanzee. Are

they trying to say... They did not for its mother.

Yeah. That was interesting. Were they trying

to say the people from Planet of the Apes are

just meant to look like normal chimpanzees, but

just they walk normal? That I found was an interesting

choice. Did you realize that that's what was

going to happen immediately, that there was going

to be a swap? No. I thought she was going to

be... like hidden or something like that i didn't

even think about the swap but i think it was

a clever way to do things right yeah i think

that i think they try to do it in a subtle subtle

fashion as much i wish they wouldn't have had

they do have a scene where they kind of um before

it's revealed they do have a scene where they

go back to the cage and they kind of do a close

-up of the the baby yeah that's right i should

have realized i almost wish they wouldn't have

done that that just that one close -up because

i felt like it somewhat tips its hand a little

bit but i i do think it was somewhat subtle and

like what it was going to do it also got me thinking

dan and i'm really struggling to remember if

i watched these five films before i watched rise

or after i am now struggling to remember that

if i watch these in anticipation of the modern

series or if i watched rise and was so in love

with that film that i said now i got to go back

and watch all the original ones it was it happened

real close proximity to when i watched rise but

i just don't know i don't know now if it was

before or after because i do remember regardless

of what order it was when i watched whichever

one was second whether it was rise after this

or this after rise i did start to appreciate

things that i thought were linking some of the

the two series i guess or the two like i know

the ones on the neither of them are trilogies

and i keep wanting to say trilogy but the two

sets like yeah it was one where it's like oh

like is this like all is this going to have a

direct connection to this modern set of films

and i think it's an interesting thing that they

do between like there's little elements in rise

and in this one that you could almost like connect

some dots i don't think it's like they're 100

but it's it's some interesting clever concept

where you're like oh this is kind of how this

could lead to this um so i i thought there were

some intriguing things that this one's doing

i still have no recollection on the next two

of if i like them or don't so i don't remember

where it goes from now i want to say that there's

going to be one that i like and the one that's

again off the rails but i can't remember also

when they said like i was actually waiting for

when they like oh we're coming up with a name

i was waiting for it to be called caesar so that

that was disappointing yeah so but i guess it

made sense but then it made me wonder like was

the character that was that name ever used in

the new ones you know what his actual name is

i couldn't remember so i'm looking forward to

to you know continuing because yeah i know i

know even watching rise there was like a little

bit of like nods to the very first movie so now

as we're going through all these if there's nods

to some of these sequels as well because like

i said i my knowledge of these i had none so

now a little bit more yeah um i think it does

give us some stuff to like have hope for the

rest of the the five films here that were still

to cover right like i don't think it quite reaches

the strength of the first one but i think it

is a a large step in the right direction from

the second one where we're returning to social

commentary interesting discussions interesting

lead characters um i think you could almost make

a case that cornelius and zero as leads are are

just as interesting as taylor yeah first one

right i think i think zero is the really the

mvp of this franchise so far because even in

the first film and this i think in a lot of ways

she's the main character and she wasn't in the

second one as much of course but yeah so and

i and we didn't mention but i did really like

how it did wrestle with the ideas of like okay

she dissects these humans she does like these

barbaric things perhaps but at the same time

everything she does is stuff we do to animals

so is it i you know how it approached that idea

uh yeah like you mentioned that getting back

to the original by asking those questions or

approaching them and not having a exact answer

but it's makes you kind of just think and i thought

this this made me think the other one made me

hurt so that's it's a better and now now we have

a dilemma right because although it sets up the

sequel more so than the other two did on the

flip of that we also don't have any characters

that can continue really from the from our main

characters right like we had taylor in the first

one taylor's in the second one taylor's reference

in the third one we have zira and cornelius in

the first one kind of in the second one for sure

in the third one all of them are gone now so

like even though we have a an obvious transition

with the with the baby milo and and where this

could possibly go from it we're for sure gonna

have to go into new territory from a character

standpoint without any of our leads continuing

in this in the series well i guess you know we

have a character that will unless you do more

time travel i mean hey we do have khan khan will

still be there so khan and i'm a i'm assuming

if i'm you know some sort of baby milo or um

i assume if khan's still there that we're going

to be specifically dealing with milo and not

one of his offspring yeah i don't know so but

we're for sure not going to have taylor zero

or cornelia maybe dr zeus will also have found

a ship and gone back in time and you know so

who knows how weird is it though to be in a ship

and you're leaving a planet that's literally

you're watching get destroyed blow up and then

you land on that same planet in the past. It's

an interesting concept. Gotta love sci -fi. I

am kind of glad they didn't try to over -explain

it. It's a time rip. It happens. You go in those

sometimes, which is fine. Thank God for Dr. Milo

being so smart that he could explain some of

that for us. And then he dies. I didn't expect

them all to die at the end. They really do love

this. They didn't pull any punches. They show

him He doesn't just fall off the ledge or whatever

it's called. They show him land multiple times.

If not just even once. Sometimes you would see

the person fall off a ledge and then you would

cut and then you would go back and you would

show them lying there. No, they show him hit

and then they're like, hey, that's not enough.

We're going to give it to you a couple more times.

Let's put that on instant replay. break out the

uh you know the sketch pad from like the madden

days right do some commentary they are still

struggling with uh how to depict blood yeah and

just in general though like that's uh that's

something they haven't figured out yet here in

19 whatever year this is the blood is not even

close to the right color i'm sure the makeup

artist was like wait i only have to do two guys

that's people that's that is amazing that's that

saves me so much time yeah the other thing we're

dealing with just like kind of my final thoughts

here as we kind of close this one out is like

we talked about like these films are coming out

fast and furious right like it's like the first

one made a bunch of money second one they brought

out makes a decent amount of money and now they're

pumping these out like year after year after

year with like no time in between and this one

made some money but even less than the second

one so it's like that's kind of the landscape

that we have going on from a production standpoint

from a time standpoint from a return on the profits

like they're definitely adopting a method that's

like how fast can we punt pump out as many of

these films as possible before they no longer

make money and i'm interested to see if we can

see that did you feel like on this on the screen

that you saw less money spent or just as much

as the other ones or kind of kind of a final

thought of like the visual aspect of this film

obviously we're dealing with earth so that saved

him some money yeah i i would say it does like

as we're watching you know with the epic scale

westerns and things like that this does feel

like a really well done tv show i mean obviously

when you look at actual tv shows in the 70s it's

not near it's much better um but it it doesn't

feel like necessarily cinematic quality all the

time um outside of the makeup here and there

um but not to the point where it's overtly cheap

some of the like the the use of military vehicles

and stuff in that piece is is there but you can

kind of tell the budget's cut a little bit like

i said it doesn't feel like you know this is

not the spectacle of what we originally got um

so but there's enough there so it's not you know

horrible to look at or anything like that right

no i agree i agree all right so that means dan

next if i can get the title right is going to

be conquest of the planet of the ape which gives

me no indication whatsoever of which film that

is i don't know which one's conquest which one's

battle or what happens in either one even though

i've seen these all already so i am intrigued

to remember i'm gonna watch them and i'm gonna

remember which one it is like probably fairly

early on and like it'll all click for me but

i am still intrigued to see kind of your reaction

as we kind of make our way yeah through these

are you are you optimistic are you hesitant what

is your your kind of mental state going into

the conquest of the planet of the ape i don't

it's i like you said without have the characters

that we know so that's concerning we know that

the budget's probably going to be even cut more

it's i don't know the title doesn't tell me a

lot so is it are they conquering the planet of

the apes or the planet of the apes coming to

do the conquer you know what where does that

are there more apes this time around does it

take place like you said it can't be too far

into the future maybe recently so i'm i don't

know like it i have concerns in the sense of

is it stretching and too thin like how for what

more can they say exactly so i don't know i don't

have high hopes but maybe that'll be a good thing

come on tell the folks that you're really intrigued

as to some sort of origin story for more than

we already know like you want more about the

zombie telepathic humans that are living maybe

learn more about the uh you know the bomb that

they're creating and all that i'm yeah as long

as they keep those same headgear and stuff that

they have or bring back the guy that they literally

just called fat man like that was his name so

i want to know more about fat man please stay

as far away from beneath the planet of the apes

as you can if there was ever a ride at some type

of amusement park that was called beneath the

planet of the apes i'm just skipping that one

yeah never good when the name makes you think

of the sewer it's like that's not a good sign

absolutely so that's what we'll be bringing to

you next when we get back to our planet of the

apes retrospective obviously in between these

episodes you can also catch our western retrospective

we're currently making our way through some classic

westerns like red river high noon rio bravo and

shane so if any of those intrigue you like stay

uh stay tuned to the feed and you can catch our

thoughts on on those films as well um you can

check out dan on social media at comic concierge

you can check out myself at optimus solo you

can search out the show at um cinema geeks or

cinema geek cast or the cinema geek film podcast

am i gonna ever get it right if you search cinema

geeks you should be able to find it on facebook

you know perfect Do what Dan says. It's easier.

Yeah. All right. So that does it for this episode.

Tune in next time for another chance to listen

to more of the cinema.