7 Best Planet Of The Apes Movies, Ranked

Highlights

• The Planet of the Apes franchise spans back to the 1960s, featuring various films with great actors and captivating storylines.
• With multiple generations of films, the series explores themes of war, conflict, and humanity’s downfall in a fascinating and allegorical manner.
• Reboots and prequels like “Rise” and “War for the Planet of the Apes” have reinvigorated the franchise with modern CGI and emotional storytelling.

Though it is a bizarre franchise, many fans of the recent films will be surprised to learn just how many films there are in the Planet of the Apes franchise. The series stretches back to the 1960s and features a list of great actors and truly wondrous storylines, and as such there have been some fantastic and some not-so-great films in the time since it began.

With more films planned to continue the series, there is no shortage of hype from fans revisiting these previous entries. There are already multiple generations of films, and the variation in budgets and storylines have been wider and more insane than almost any other franchise in history.

7 Beneath The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 6.0/10

• Directed By: Ted Post
• Stars: James Franciscus, Kim Hunter & Maurice Evans

Though the entire idea of the Planet of the Apes franchise is apocalyptic, there is one time that they went much further. Beneath the Planet of the Apes was the sequel to the original film, and it featured a second astronaut, who had come looking for the first ones to crash there, crashing onto the planet himself and discovering both the animalistic humans and the intelligent apes.

Though the film is a little slow to get going, it quickly moves on from retreading old ground, and when new astronaut Brent teams up with Charlton Heston’s Taylor, the pair attempt to stop a destructive war between the apes and leftover, mutated humans from leading to the destruction of the entire planet. The analogies about the apes turning warlike after gaining sentience, and bringing about their own destruction through ignorance, made for a fascinating sequel and an ending that shocked everyone and made it seem as if the franchise might be over.

6 Conquest Of The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 6.1/10

• Directed By: J. Lee Thompson
• Stars: Roddy McDowell, Don Murray & Ricardo Montalban

A film that was in many ways retold later in the prequel films released more recently, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes focused on the smart ape left behind by his futuristic parents bringing about the fruition of the apocalypse which humans brought upon themselves. Having already started taking on apes as pets by this film, humanity were practically asking for the uprising which Caesar, having been readied by his parents’ death to rise up against humanity.

This film wasn’t the franchise’s best by any means, but the allegories about humanity putting down apes, preparing themselves and pathing the path for the future world where they themselves were enslaved by the apes. The back-and-forth nature of this relationship, and the vicious hatred that each race has for the other based on past transgressions, is a fascinating exploration.

5 Escape From The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 6.3/10

• Directed By: Don Taylor
• Stars: Roddy McDowell, Kim Hunter & Bradford Dillman

At the point where the franchise got truly bizarre, it was revealed that a married couple of ape scientists had escaped Earth before it was destroyed after Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Even stranger, the shockwave from the destruction takes them back to Earth in 1973, where the astronauts were originally sent from that crashed on the Planet of the Apes.

The apes, initially welcomed by humanity, are distrusted and in turn distrustful of the humans. This sort of paranoia was very relevant at the time, during the Cold War, and led to the humans bringing about their own destruction, as the apes hid their child safely in a zoo before being killed. The paradoxical nature of the plot is slightly confusing, but the themes of Escape From the Planet of the Apes were some of the very best in the franchise.

4 War For The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 7.4/10

• Directed By: Matt Reeves
• Stars: Andy Serkis, Woody Harrelson & Steve Zahn

The ending of the trilogy of prequel films, which seemed to bring many of the ideas from the original series full circle, War for the Planet of the Apes, saw Caesar losing even more. His wife and first-born son are killed, launching him into a war with the humans which felt truly final in nature. Caesar proved he really was willing to give everything for his people, as he attempted to protect them from the wrath of the humans, who still sought to enslave apes, as shown in examples by characters like Bad Ape.

With humans starting to become mute as the Simian Flu mutates and turns them into mindless animals, the world from the first film in the franchise seemed to be truly gone. This film was a great conclusion to the life of Caesar, despite continuing the series trend of being heartbreaking, and the allegories continued to stretch, showing compassion in the face of war and how the simplest lack of kindness can lead to your own demise.

3 Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 7.6/10

• Directed By: Matt Reeves
• Stars: Gary Oldman, Keri Russell & Andy Serkis

The second of the rebooted prequel films, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, took time forward ten years following the previous film. The fall of humanity had mostly occurred by this time, with the Simian Flu having wiped out most of the population and leaving a few sparse groups of people still standing.

The fascinating plot saw Caesar trying to control his large group of intelligent apes, including vicious ones like Koba, and hold them back from a larger confrontation with humans. Unfortunately, with dissenters on each side seeking violence, they were unsuccessful, and the movie had another heartbreaking ending as apes and humans turned irrevocably against each other. Dawn of the Planet of the Apesmade incredible statements about war and conflict and how communication is vital, and it was truly devastating.

2 Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes

IMDB Score: 7.6/10

• Directed By: Rupert Wyatt
• Stars: James Franco, Andy Serkis & Freida Pinto

The idea of a rebooted Planet of the Apes franchise with modern CGI was always going to generate a lot of interest, even after the failed reboot in 2001. And bringing in the iconic Andy Serkis to take up the role of Caesar was also a huge move, which provided Rise of the Planet of the Apes with a blueprint for success. Telling the story in modern-day, with scientists working on chimpanzees and accidentally giving them heightened intelligence, made for a brilliant origin story that moved slowly.

Only taking the first steps towards the eventual downfall of humanity, this film managed to be heartfelt and not need a great focus on action scenes in the first two acts to create something iconic. With a great cast, a heartstring-pulling story and a huge amount of rewatchability on its own, Rise of the Planet of the Apes remains one of the very best in the franchise, and it kick-started the end of humanity by ending with the spread of the Simian Flu.

1 Planet Of The Apes (1968)

IMDB Score: 8.0/10

• Directed By: Franklin J. Schaffner
• Stars: Charlton Heston, Roddy McDowell & Kim Hunter

The original classic Planet of the Apes film starred Charlton Heston as an astronaut who crash-landed on a strange planet ruled by talking apes. After finding out that humans also exist on the planet, he eventually comes to realize that he has landed on Earth, many years in the future after an apocalyptic war.

With Roddy McDowell’s Caesar introduced, and the fascinating allegories made by the film, it was an instant classic which remains beloved by many for the influences it has created on the science-fiction genre. It also set up the franchise with the shock ending, providing many potential places to go from there, a mantle which has been taken up over the years to create a truly lasting series. The story of this original film may be partially retold by the latest entry in the franchise, set to be one of the biggest movies of 2024.