Publisher's Synopsis
Box set containing six movies and two television series from the hugely popular 'Planet of the Apes' franchise. In 'Planet of the Apes' (1968), a group of astronauts, led by George Taylor (Charlton Heston), crash land on a strange planet where mute humans are treated as slaves by intelligent apes. Taylor is hunted down and captured by horse-riding gorillas, and then taken for experimentation by sympathetic chimpanzee Dr Zira (Kim Hunter). When Zira discovers Taylor's intelligence, she and her fiancé Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) appeal to the governing council on his behalf, but the appeal fails, leaving the astronaut no choice but to go on the run. Fleeing for his freedom, Taylor soon makes a shocking discovery about the provenance of this strange planet. 'Planet of the Apes' (2001) is Tim Burton's re-make of the 1968 sci-fi classic.The year is 2029, and Capt. Leo Davidson (Mark Wahlberg) is aboard a spaceship trying to teach apes how to become space pilots. During a routine reconnaissance mission outside the mothership, Leo is sucked into a space-time hole and minutes later makes a crash landing on a strange planet where humans are subjugated by talking apes. Just as a quick death at the hands of the violent ape leader General Thade (Tim Roth) seems inevitable, Leo is rescued by the ape scientist Ari (Helena Bonham-Carter). Ari suspects mankind has more skills than the sacred documents of the apes describe and soon the race is on to outwit Thade and discover the true history of the planet and its original population. 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' (1969) is the sequel to the original 'Planet of the Apes'. Astronaut Brent (James Franciscus) is on a special mission to rescue George Taylor (Heston). Teaming up with Taylor's mute former comapnion, Nova (Linda Harrison), Brent travels to the ape village where he was imprisoned. After meeting Dr Zira (Hunter), Brent learns that Taylor was last seen in the Forbidden Zone. He sets off in pursuit, and discovers that his colleague has been taken prisoner by an underground society of telepathic mutant humans who worship an atomic warhead. Meanwhile, Dr Zaius (Maurice Evans) has joined a gorilla expedition to investigate the strange goings on in the Zone. 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes' (1971) is the sequel to 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes'. Zira (Hunter), Cornelius (McDowall) and Dr Milo (Sal Mineo) escape the nuclear devastation of the Earth by travelling back in time in Taylor's spaceship, arriving in Los Angeles in the year 1973. They are initially held in captivity in a zoo, where Milo is attacked and killed by a savage gorilla. When Zira and Cornelius prove their intelligence they are released and hailed as celebrities, but some resent the apes' arrival, seeing them as a threat to human supremacy. 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' (1972) is the sequel to 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes'. The year is now 1991. Caesar (McDowall), the son of Zira and Cornelius, has been sheltered for 18 years by circus owner Armando (Ricardo Montalban). Following a plague which wiped out all cats and dogs, apes have been adopted as pets by humans, but when Caesar sees them being treated as slaves, he leads his brother simians in rebellion against their overlords. 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' (1973) is the sequel to 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' and brings the series to its conclusion. It opens in 2670 with the ape Lawgiver (John Huston) relating how, following the 1991 simian rebellion, mankind embarked on a terrible nuclear war. In the devastation which followed, Caesar (McDowall) and the apes seized control, ruling benevolently over the human survivors, and working to rebuild society. However, civil war was being fermented by ambitious gorilla general Aldo (Claude Akins), and when Caesar ventured into the devastated city to seek out recordings of his late parents, Cornelius and Zira, he incurred the wrath of a group of mutant human survivors. 'The Planet of the Apes' TV series follows and features all 14 episodes: 'Escape from Tomorrow', 'The Gladiators', 'The Trap', 'The Good Seeds', 'The Legacy', 'Tomorrow's Tide', 'The Surgeon', 'The Deception', 'The Horse Race', 'The Interrogation', 'The Tyrant', 'The Cure', 'The Liberator' and 'Up Above the World So High'. Completing the collection is the animated series 'Return to the Planet of the Apes'.