Go Ape: How to Watch All the Planet of the Apes Movies and TV Shows in Order | PCMag
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In 1963, author Pierre Boulle’s novel La Planete des singes debuted in France and the US. On this side of the pond, it was renamed Planet of the Apes (which is much better than the UK’s hokey name for it: Monkey Planet). The book was a massive hit even though Boulle didn't consider it his best. (In his defense, he did write The Bridge Over the River Kwai.)The novel was so popular that the owner of the US movie rights hired the legendary Rod Serling, creator of The Twilight Zone, to adapt it for the screen. Once star Charlton Heston was on board, 20th Century Fox decided to make it. The studio did so for almost half the original budget. The screenplay was also rewritten to make the world more primitive (and thus less costly), but kept Serling’s amazing new twist ending. It probably shouldn’t have worked. But it did. The success of the original in 1968 led to four sequels up through 1973, a couple of TV series (including one for kids!), a remake almost 30 years later, and the latest four films, which rebooted everything with fantastic new motion-capture technology for the apes, replacing the (honorary) Oscar-winning makeup of the originals. You May Also Like
Do you want to watch every single scene of the Planet of the Apes franchise on streaming services? Some of the movies are available on Hulu, HBO Max, Tubi, and Plex, but others require buying or renting digital copies. I'll point them out as I examine the whole franchise and beyond. Original Films and Series Almost everyone who's into Sci-Fi has seen the original movie. It is widely hailed as one of the true greats, winning accolades from the Academy, the American Film Institute (“Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!” is considered AFI’s 66th favorite movie quote of all time), and the National Film Registry. The sequels tend to diminish as they go. However, the makeup is always stellar, as are the performances of series star Roddy McDowall, first as Cornelius, later as his son Caesar. Planet of the Apes (1968)IndieflixPlexRent/Buy - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeBeneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)Buy/Rent - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeEscape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)Buy/Rent - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeConquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)IndieflixPlexBuy/Rent - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeBattle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)Buy/Rent - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeAll five are available to buy or rent on just about every streaming platform that supports purchases. You can also purchase the Blu-ray 40th anniversary Planet of the Apes Legacy Collection with all five films.The Forgotten Television Series After the films ended, a Planet of the Apes TV series was commissioned in 1974 and ran on CBS. It was canceled by the first season’s halfway point, running only 14 episodes. The plot involved two astronauts traveling through the same time warp as the characters in the first movie and landing on a future Earth (apparently 900 years before Charlton Heston arrived). They encounter the same monkey planet and team up with a chimpanzee named Galen after he realizes the truth: humans were not always subservient to apes. They travel the countryside, helping out strangers at each stop while always on the run from the villainous gorilla General Urko. Yeah, just like on The Fugitive. Seventies TV didn’t care to reinvent the wheel.The big selling point: PotA’s MVP film star, Roddy McDowall, returned for the show to play Galen. (Hey, he even wore the full works on The Carol Burnett Show that year.) Urko is also played by sci-fi royalty. Under the mask is Mark Lenard, the famed character actor who played Spock’s dad on Star Trek. Later, episodes of the series were reworked as “TV movies” for syndication in the 1980s by re-cutting select episodes. They were given terrible names (episode titles in parentheses):Back to the Planet of the Apes ("Escape from Tomorrow" and "The Trap")Forgotten City of the Planet of the Apes ("Gladiators" and "Legacy")Treachery and Greed on the Planet of the Apes ("Horse Race" and "The Tyrant")Life, Liberty, and Pursuit on the Planet of the Apes ("The Surgeon" and "The Interrogation")Farewell to the Planet of the Apes ("Tomorrow's Tide" and "Up Above The World So High")You can’t officially stream these or even buy or rent them, but you can buy the complete series on DVD. The whole series is also available on the Internet Archive.The Animated Series Produced by DePatie–Freleng Enterprises and run by the co-creator of Johnny Quest, the animated Return to the Planet of the Apes took the franchise in new (or old) directions, making the ape society much more high-tech and advanced, which is more in keeping with the original novel. Yet somehow, this was targeted at kids.Like the live-action show, it only lasted a handful of episodes (13), which NBC burned off in three months on Saturday mornings at 11 a.m., never even finishing the story (which essentially retells the first movie, but with fewer scantily clad humans). You can stream it on YouTube, but it’s not exactly official, so don’t expect it to withstand a copyright cease-and-desist. However, it did get a DVD collection release in 2006, if you can still find it. The Simpsons: From Chimpan-A to Chimpan-Z Even among the stellar seventh season of The Simpsons, episode 19 from 1996 is legendary. It’s called “A Fish Called Selma,” and it features (among many other jokes) a stage musical adaptation of PotA starring Troy McClure (Phil Hartman). If you haven’t seen apes breakdancing to “Help Me, Dr. Zaius,” then you’re not really a fan. Like all episodes of The Simpsons, you can find it on Disney+. Recommended by Our Editors A New 'Punisher' Premieres: How to Watch All the Marvel Movies and TV Shows in Order How to Watch Every Star Wars Movies and Show in Order Finished Starfleet Academy? Brush Up On Your Star Trek Lore By Watching Every Movie and TV Show in Order
Tim Burton's Remake In the 1980s and 1990s, there were numerous attempts to revive the franchise. Directors like Peter Jackson, Oliver Stone, Chris Columbus, and James Cameron all took a whack at it, and Arnold Schwarzenegger was attached for a while. None of these efforts took off. In 2000, 20th Century Fox finally went full steam ahead into remaking the films, hiring Tim Burton to direct a "reimagining" of the franchise with hopes for future installments. Everything about it was rushed, but the make-up effects by the legendary Rick Baker were good to go since he’d been working on all the previous attempts for years. Released in 2001, the film had a great opening weekend and broke some records, but was ultimately considered a dud. The twist ending attempted to replicate the thrills of the 1968 original, but ultimately came across as weird, despite adhering more closely to the book.Anyway, can you stream it? Yes, you can. But do you want to? It is, after all, a winner of the Golden Raspberry for Worst Remake. Planet of the Apes (2001)HuluBuy/Rent - Amazon, Apple TV, YouTubeReboot Series These films are spoken of with (almost) the same hallowed tones used for the 1968 original. Fox got this franchise right when it rebooted things in director Rupert Wyatt’s Rise. It paid to go in a direction that didn’t retell the original, nor did it care at all about the established lore. Instead, the films have a somewhat plausible “uplift” premise, depicting what would happen if man handed over increased intelligence to simians. With Dawn and War, Matt Reeves ably directed the films; he has since moved on to The Batman. The latest, Kingdom of, was helmed by Wes Ball, who directed the Maze Runner trilogy. The true MVP, however, is Andy Serkis, who plays Caesar in the first three films. The master of motion-capture characters, he fully makes every move of the CGI chimp come to life. Rise of the P