Now that I have seen a few of the installments in the Planet of the Apes franchise, I believe that they are meant to be regarded as horror films.  This is something I have hinted at in other reviews in the series, but have never fully articulated.  This is particularly the case for the original movies, as with at least the first two, the human characters have to come to grips with something going terribly wrong in Earth’s now distant past.  You see, astronauts from the twentieth century have somehow traveled forward in time, returning to a planet where apes are the dominant species and humans have taken their place below them in the pecking order.  In Planet of the Apes (1968), the big reveal of this tragedy does not come until the end when George Taylor (Charlton Heston) sees a derelict Statue of Liberty.  As it fades to the credits, he is yelling something about how “they finally did it!”  This enigmatic line is not made . . . well, I cannot say “clear,” but at least more understood in the sequel, today’s entry, Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970).  How we get to this revelation, for lack of a better word, is typical for these flicks, until it ceases to be so.

Regarding the aforementioned scene in front of the Statue of Liberty, Beneath the Planet of the Apes begins with George and his non-speaking human girlfriend, Nova (Linda Harrison), wandering farther into what the simians refer to as the Forbidden Zone.  It is meant to pick up where the last one stopped, and this takes care of the opening credits.  We then shift to a downed spacecraft nearby, evidently having crash landed, though luckily not in water this time, unlike George’s arrival.  The two surviving crew members, Brent (James Franciscus) and Skipper (Tod Andrews), are lying next to the wreckage.  Skipper is on the verge of death, and Brent explains what the computers tell him about their location and, more importantly, the year.  Not long thereafter, Skipper passes away, dejected by the thought of his family being long dead.  As Brent finishes burying Skipper, he hears the approaching hoofbeats of a horse ridden by Nova.  She has not mastered speech, but Brent notices dog tags around her neck belonging to George.  We see that Brent’s predecessor has disappeared into . . . something, following a burst of fire and an earthquake.  Before dematerializing, George gets Nova to go to see Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), their one ally among the primates seemingly ruling the planet, in case something happened to him.  Brent sees George’s name and demands that he immediately be taken to his friend.  Instead, Nova brings him to the ape city.  Brent gets there in time to overhear General Ursus (James Gregory) orate on how humans need to be wiped out, and to do so they need to send an army into the Forbidden Zone.  This is Brent’s introduction to this strange new world.  All the same, Nova manages to get him to Dr. Zira’s home, which she shares with Dr. Cornelius (David Watson), chimpanzee descendants who share a sympathetic outlook on humans.  They are able to share with Brent the last known location of George, a human they befriended in the previous film.  They agree to help Brent because they, too, would like to know that George is safe.  After a pointless interlude that sees Brent and Nova captured, and then released again by Dr. Zira, they make their way into the Forbidden Zone.  With simian forces trying to track them down, they find shelter in a cave.  This proves to be no ordinary hole in the ground.  It turns out to be the Queensboro Subway station, a fact Brent finds horrifying because he is from this area.  The apes after them are part of the military force meant to make war on what they think is a dangerous colony of humans, something which their law says must be dealt with lest it mean the collapse of their civilization.  That supposed threat is why marching along with them is their head scientist and high priest, Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans), who is uneasy about their endeavor.  Seeing their way back cut off, Brent and Nova journey deeper underground . . . and this is when the movie goes off the rails.  What is less surprising is the fact that they are wandering through the ruined streets of New York City.  What I did not expect was an enclave of surviving humans with telepathic powers that worship an atomic bomb as a god.  Oh, yeah, and later we see that they wear normal faces that act as masks to cover a hideous, veiny visage underneath.  Right.  These superhumans, I guess, torture Brent for information before throwing him into prison.  This is when we finally get the reunion of Brent and George.  They do not have long to catch up, however, as one of the humans comes along to mentally force Brent and George to fight each other to the death.  George is about to kill his friend when Nova shows up and manages to cry out his name.  This startling development is enough to distract their tormentor, breaking the spell and giving Brent and George the means to escape.  It is also at this moment that the apes, once they realized the frightening images that are barring their path are illusions, attack the humans.  In the midst of the ongoing slaughter, the human leader, Mendez (Paul Richards), orders the launch of their doomsday weapon at the ape city.  It takes some time, apparently, for this to happen, and everyone converges on the cathedral where the bomb is housed, save for Nova, who dies on the way.  There is a bunch of shooting in which Brent and George are gunned down, and with George’s dying hand pressing the lever that launches the missile.  The end.

As the action-packed conclusion of Beneath the Planet of the Apes fades to white, there is a voice over (Paul Frees) informing us that this means the destruction of the planet.  Initially, Brent and George are dedicated to stopping this from happening, but when Nova dies, George does not see the point of civilization continuing.  George is also the one who explains the “they finally did it” phrase discussed in the introduction, which pertains to the atomic weapon.  When Brent mentions the Greek letters alpha and omega painted on the tail fins, George realizes that it is a nuclear weapon he had heard about before he left Earth.  According to him, it has enough destructive power to set off a chain reaction in the atmosphere, ending everything.  And this is what the humans of this millennia worship as a god.  I am not being hyperbolic, or an oversensitive Catholic.  Still, as a member of the Faithful, I have every right to be a little miffed about this development.  After all, everything about how they approach the bomb is made to look like a Catholic service, from the cathedral in which it is kept to the chants they make during their service when they decide to utilize it.  Indeed, the only time this futuristic mankind uses their physical voices is to pray or sing to the bomb.  This, in particular, is a perversion, which is amplified when you factor in that they refer to it as a “holy weapon of peace.”  The words “weapon” and “peace” should not be used in such a fashion, especially in a Christian context.  Some of this can be explained by the era in which the movie was made.  Coming out of the 1960s, there was a great deal of questioning of traditional institutions.  This is underscored also in the ape city when you see the chimpanzee protesting the army going to war.  I guess this is its version of Vietnam?  Regardless, the chimps are correct: war is not the path to peace.  Neither is blowing up the world as happens in the last shot.  God calls us to better.

It is the way Beneath the Planet of the Apes concludes that drove home the idea that these are meant to be horror movies. Yet, despite the final narration, they made three more of these things?  Not that I am looking forward to seeing how they get around this plot point, but I guess I will have to continue seeing the rest of the franchise.  Pray for me.