Planet of the Apes tells the story of a future Earth ruled by intelligent apes, with humans reduced to mute animals. The original saga runs from Taylor's discovery that the planet is Earth through a time loop in which Cornelius and Zira's son Caesar starts the ape revolution; the modern saga retells that revolution, from Caesar's rise in 2011 to his death after the war with humanity. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes picks up generations later, with a young chimp, Noa, and a human, Mae, who sets out to bring back human technology.
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No. 01 · 1968 · Film
Planet of the Apes recap
Three astronauts led by George Taylor crash on a strange planet after a long voyage at near light speed, and the ship's clock reads 3978. They find mute, primitive humans being hunted by armed, talking gorillas. One astronaut is killed, another is lobotomised, and Taylor is shot in the throat and caged. In Ape City, chimpanzee scientists Zira and Cornelius are amazed when Taylor, his voice returning, speaks. The orangutan Dr. Zaius, Minister of Science and Chief Defender of the Faith, wants Taylor dead because his existence threatens ape doctrine. Zira and Cornelius help Taylor and a mute woman, Nova, escape into the Forbidden Zone, where an excavation finds proof of an earlier human civilisation.
How Planet of the Apes ends
Zaius admits he knows humans once ruled and destroyed their world, and lets Taylor go. Taylor rides along the beach with Nova and finds the ruined Statue of Liberty half-buried in the sand. He realises the planet is Earth, after a nuclear war, and falls to his knees cursing humanity.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 02 · 1970 · Film
Beneath the Planet of the Apes recap
Astronaut John Brent, sent to find Taylor's lost ship, crash-lands in the same future and meets Nova, who leads him toward Ape City. The gorilla general Ursus is preparing an invasion of the Forbidden Zone, convinced something there threatens the apes. Brent and Nova go underground into the ruins of New York and find a society of telepathic, mutated humans who worship an armed nuclear bomb, the "Alpha-Omega", and who use illusions to keep the apes away. The mutants capture Brent and Taylor, who is their prisoner, and force them to fight each other.
How Beneath the Planet of the Apes ends
The gorilla army invades the underground city. Nova and Brent are killed, and Taylor, shot and dying, refuses to help Zaius and sets off the doomsday bomb, destroying the Earth. A narrator says that a green and insignificant planet is now dead.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 03 · 1971 · Film
Escape from the Planet of the Apes recap
Before Earth's destruction, Cornelius, Zira and their friend Dr. Milo repaired Taylor's ship and flew it into space. They land off the Californian coast in 1973. Milo is killed by a gorilla at the zoo, and Cornelius and Zira reveal they can talk. They become celebrities, but Zira is pregnant, and the President's science adviser, Dr. Otto Hasslein, learns the future they came from: apes will one day rule and humans will destroy Earth. Hasslein wants their child dead to change history. The apes flee with help from sympathetic scientists and hide in a circus run by Armando, where Zira gives birth.
How Escape from the Planet of the Apes ends
Hasslein tracks them to an old ship in the harbour and shoots Zira and the baby; Cornelius kills him and is shot dead, and Zira dies with her child. But Zira had swapped her baby with a circus chimp, and the real child, named Milo, is safe with Armando, who hears him say "Mama".
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 04 · 1972 · Film
Conquest of the Planet of the Apes recap
In 1991, a plague from space has killed all the world's dogs and cats, and humans have kept apes as pets, then enslaved them as servants and labourers. Armando brings Cornelius and Zira's son, now named Caesar, to a city to see the world, and warns him not to speak. When Caesar shouts at police beating a chimpanzee, the authorities hunt for a talking ape. Armando is interrogated and dies. Caesar hides among slave apes, is bought by the governor, Breck, and secretly organises the apes, teaching them to fight. Breck's aide MacDonald, a descendant of slaves, quietly sympathises with him.
How Conquest of the Planet of the Apes ends
Caesar leads an ape uprising that overwhelms the city. He prepares to execute Breck and declares the rise of the apes, but after the plea of his partner Lisa, he spares the humans and promises a more merciful future.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 05 · 1973 · Film
Battle for the Planet of the Apes recap
Years after a nuclear war, Caesar leads a community of apes and humans living together, with humans as second-class citizens. The gorilla general Aldo wants humans wiped out. Caesar travels with MacDonald's brother and the orangutan Virgil to the ruins of the old city to hear recordings of his parents, and learns that humanity will destroy the world. Mutated human survivors in the city discover them and attack Ape City. Aldo kills Caesar's son Cornelius and plots to take power.
How Battle for the Planet of the Apes ends
Caesar's forces fight off the mutants. Caesar learns Aldo killed his son and chases him up a tree, where Aldo falls to his death. Caesar names humans and apes as equals. Hundreds of years later, a Lawgiver tells a mixed group of ape and human children the story, and a tear falls from a statue of Caesar.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 06 · 1974 · Series · optional
Planet of the Apes recap
Astronauts Alan Virdon and Pete Burke pass through a time warp in 1980 and crash on Earth in 3085, a world ruled by apes where humans are a lower class. A young chimpanzee, Galen, helps them and is branded a traitor, and the three go on the run together. The orangutan Zaius, head of the council, wants the humans caught quietly, while the gorilla Urko wants them dead. Each episode, they meet a new community, apes and humans, and help them while looking for a way back home. The series ran for 14 episodes on CBS.
How Planet of the Apes ends
The series was cancelled after 14 episodes without a finale. The astronauts and Galen are still on the run, still hoping to find a computer that can send them back to their own time.
No. 07 · 2001 · Film · optional
Planet of the Apes recap
In 2029, astronaut Leo Davidson, on a space station, chases a chimp test pilot sent into an electromagnetic storm and crash-lands on a planet ruled by talking apes, where humans are slaves. Ari, a chimpanzee activist for human rights, buys him and helps him escape with a human, Daena, and others. General Thade, a ruthless chimpanzee, hunts them. Leo leads them to Calima, the apes' holy site, which turns out to be the wreck of his own space station, which had crashed there thousands of years earlier. The station's apes revolted against its human crew and became the ancestors of the planet's apes.
How Planet of the Apes ends
Leo's chimp, Pericles, lands and the apes take it as a sign, ending the battle. Thade is trapped in the station. Leo flies home to Earth and crash-lands in Washington, D.C., where the Lincoln Memorial has a statue of Thade, and police officers turn out to be apes.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 08 · 2011 · Film
Rise of the Planet of the Apes recap
In San Francisco, scientist Will Rodman tests a gene therapy for Alzheimer's on chimpanzees. A test subject, Bright Eyes, is killed after an outburst, and Will secretly raises her newborn son, Caesar, at home. Caesar inherits the drug in his genes and grows up highly intelligent. Will treats his father, who has dementia, and falls for vet Caroline. When Caesar attacks a neighbour to protect Will's father, he is put in an ape sanctuary, where he is abused and learns that he is not human. A stronger version of the drug, ALZ-113, kills Will's colleague Franklin and spreads to a pilot neighbour, Hunsiker.
How Rise of the Planet of the Apes ends
Caesar steals ALZ-113, makes the sanctuary apes intelligent, and leads them out. They break more apes free and fight police on the Golden Gate Bridge, heading for the redwoods. Will finds Caesar and asks him to come home, and Caesar answers: "Caesar is home."
Post-credits scenes
Yes. In a mid-credits scene, Hunsiker, infected and sneezing blood, goes to the airport for a flight, and a flight map shows the virus spreading worldwide.
No. 09 · 2014 · Film
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes recap
Ten years later, the "Simian Flu" has wiped out most of humanity. Caesar leads a thriving ape colony in the woods north of San Francisco with his family. A group of human survivors, led by Malcolm, enters the forest looking for a hydroelectric dam that can restore power to their city, and one of them shoots an ape. Caesar warns them away but lets Malcolm work on the dam if they surrender their guns. The bonobo Koba, scarred by human experiments, distrusts the humans and discovers they have an armoury. He steals a gun, shoots Caesar and blames humans, and leads the apes into war on the city.
How Dawn of the Planet of the Apes ends
Malcolm helps the wounded Caesar recover. Caesar returns and fights Koba in a tower, and lets him fall to his death. The human leader blows up the tower, and Malcolm warns that the military is coming. Caesar tells him there will be war.
Post-credits scenes
Yes. After the credits, rubble shifts and an ape is heard breathing, but nothing is shown.
No. 10 · 2017 · Film
War for the Planet of the Apes recap
Two years later, Caesar's apes are at war with a paramilitary unit led by the Colonel. The Colonel kills Caesar's wife and eldest son in a raid. Caesar sends his apes to a new home and goes for revenge with Maurice, Rocket and Luca, taking in a mute human girl, Nova, and a talkative chimp, Bad Ape. They learn the Simian Flu has mutated and is making humans mute and primitive. The Colonel has killed his own son, who caught it, and has captured Caesar's apes, working them as slaves at a base where he is building a wall against an army coming to stop him.
How War for the Planet of the Apes ends
Caesar finds the Colonel infected and mute, and the Colonel shoots himself. The approaching army attacks, and an avalanche wipes out both armies while the apes escape up trees. Caesar leads his apes to a new home across the desert, then dies of an arrow wound, with Maurice promising his son will know who he was.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
No. 11 · 2024 · Film
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes recap
Many generations after Caesar, apes live in clans and humans have become mute and wild. Noa, a young chimpanzee of the Eagle Clan, sees his village burned and his father killed by raiders who serve Proximus Caesar, a bonobo who claims to follow Caesar's legacy but has twisted it. Noa sets out to find his clan, meeting the orangutan Raka, who teaches him Caesar's real teachings, and a human woman, Mae, who can speak. Proximus has enslaved apes at a coastal camp to break open a sealed human bunker, and he keeps a human, Trevathan, to teach him old human knowledge.
How Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes ends
Mae gets into the bunker for a key to satellite communications, and Noa summons eagles to drive off Proximus, who falls to his death. The sea floods the bunker. Mae takes the key to human survivors who can now talk to orbiting satellites. Noa leads his clan home and wonders about the future of apes and humans.
Post-credits scenes
No. There is no post-credits scene.
Common questions
What is the Planet of the Apes story so far?
Planet of the Apes tells the story of a future Earth ruled by intelligent apes, with humans reduced to mute animals. The original saga runs from Taylor's discovery that the planet is Earth through a time loop in which Cornelius and Zira's son Caesar starts the ape revolution; the modern saga retells that revolution, from Caesar's rise in 2011 to his death after the war with humanity. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes picks up generations later, with a young chimp, Noa, and a human, Mae, who sets out to bring back human technology.
Where did Planet of the Apes leave off?
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024) is the latest. Mae gets into the bunker for a key to satellite communications, and Noa summons eagles to drive off Proximus, who falls to his death. The sea floods the bunker. Mae takes the key to human survivors who can now talk to orbiting satellites. Noa leads his clan home and wonders about the future of apes and humans.
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