Movies

[June 8, 1970] Beneath the Planet of the… Mutants? (Not Apes)

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BW photo of Jason Sacks. He's a white man, with short light hair, rectangular glasses, and headphones.
by Jason Sacks

Before you start reading this essay, let me warn you: I will be discussing major plot details from the latest Hollywood blockbuster, Beneath the Planet of the Apes. This will include the movie’s conclusion. For that matter, this article also ruins the ending of the original film. So be warned in case you haven't yet been to your local multiplex to see these in double-feature. On the other hand, you may well wish to go in with your eyes wide open… because Beneath the Planet of the Apes is both a fascinating continuation and a jaw-dropping pivot.

A color movie poster for Beneath the Planet of the Apes.  At the top in an orange block font is written, The bizarre world you met in Planet of the Apes was only the beginning.. What lies beneath may be the end! In the center are three images.  On the left, a military group of apes are in formation facing left, brandishing weapons and a pink and black striped flag.  They stand in front of a ruined building with obscured writing across the top, mostly buried in sand. At the center, the title Beneath the Planet of the Apes is written in yellow block capitals against a black rectangle. the left leg of the N in Beneath descends into an arrow pointing downward.  Beneath the title a circle is superimposed over the rectangle, in which there is an image of a man and woman wearing skimpy primitive clothing.  They appear to be stepping through the door of a building.  On the right, black text reads An army of civilized apes... A fortress of radiation-crazed super humans... Earth's final battle is about to begin -- Beneath the atomic rubble of what was once the city of New York! Beneath the text is a smaller picture of apes in military formation, perhaps an extension of the first picture but further away.

When last my friends and I journeyed to the Planet of the Apes, we witnessed astronaut Taylor (played by the redoubtable Charlton Heston) howling about “you damn dirty apes” as he pounded sand at the foot of a destroyed Statue of Liberty. The new sequel to that instant classic takes a different turn – we get Taylor, and lots of apes, and, well, much more than we expected.

Thus, we all sojourned back to the Northgate Cinemas, ready to delve into the sequel of Planet of the Apes, expecting more philosophical musings about human nature through the lens of intelligent primates. We pictured apes in Romanesque armor, their spirited debates, and that haunting vision of a decaying human world. But wait a minute—what’s this we got along with the apes? Mutants? Telepathic, nuclear-bomb-worshipping mutants?

A color still from Beneath the Planet of the Apes. A hairless humanoid with nearly transparent skin, such that all of the veins and arteries on their face are visible. They are wearing a white robe with a high shawl collar and standing in front of a gray rough stone wall.  They are looking to the right of the viewer and their mouth is open as though speaking.
One of the mutants from the world Beneath the Planet of the Apes

Yes, you heard that right. This 1970 sequel dives into a narrative far removed from the ape-centric drama of its predecessor. Strange, radiation-irradiated people are still alive on that wasteland planet, and they kind of take center stage over our beloved Cornelius and Zira.

The film starts innocently enough. Taylor (Charlton Heston), our rugged protagonist from the first film, has disappeared into the Forbidden Zone with Nova, his mute human companion. All seems normal in this post-apocalyptic ape-ruled world – even when Taylor seems to disappear into a solid rock when walking around the landscape, no sign of the Statue of Liberty in sight.

After Heston vanishes, we’re introduced to Brent, played by James Franciscus, an astronaut who happened to crash-land on the strange planet while on a mission to find Taylor. So far, so good—another human to navigate the ape society and unravel its secrets. Franciscus has a minor resemblance to Heston, so maybe, just maybe, we’re going to get a kind of rerun of the original.

But hold on. Something feels… off.

As Brent ventures into the Forbidden Zone, the film takes a surreal turn. The apes are in their local villages and debating war. Nasty old General Ursus is rallying for war against the heretical humans in the Forbidden Zone, and Dr. Zaius is still grumbling about humanity's destructive tendencies. Yet, the story starts steering us away from these familiar simian power struggles and plunges headlong into something much darker.

A color still from the movie shows black-haired apes wearing black leather jackets and black pants marching in a circle in front of horse-drawn cages on wheels.  The apes are carrying anti-war signs with slogans painted in black on brown fabric.
One nod to modern society: a group of apes protests the war agains the humans. Of course the apes attack and kill the protesters.

Here’s where the weirdness sets in. Beneath the surface of the Forbidden Zone lies a subterranean world of survivors. They are humans, yes, but not the kind of humans you’d expect. These people are mutants, grotesquely scarred from generations of radiation exposure. But that’s not even the shocking part. These mutants have developed telepathic powers, allowing them to communicate without speaking and even manipulate the minds of others.

Creepy? Absolutely.

These mutants live inside the ruins of the New York Subway system. We don't see the ruins of the Statue of Liberty, but we do see destroyed versions of Grand Central Station, the New York Stock Exchange and the New York Public Library. We had to give the filmmakers credit for keeping the film centered in New York and for the impressive sets, but we, the viewers, were also getting impatient. When would we go back to the apes on a rampage?

But wait, it gets weirder.

A color still from the movie shows a room seemingly carved into the interior of a mountain.  A double-sided grand staircase curves up both sides of the frame to a balcony at the top center.  Five mutants stand, three on the balcony and one at the center of each staircase. They wear white suits, and each has a long jacket of a different color of the rainbow. Beneath the balcony a set of double doors is open, and three men are walking through it.  The center man is not a mutant, and wears only a brown loincloth. The two men flanking him are mutants and wear white suits with a yellow stripe down the center of the shirt.

The mutants worship a doomsday weapon. Their deity is the Alpha-Omega Bomb, an old nuclear missile they’ve preserved and venerated like a god (and which they somehow either transported to New York or found there—I’m not sure which is scarier).

And when I say worship, I mean full-on religious rituals, hymns, and the works. It’s as if Stanley Kubrick’s Dr. Strangelove took a detour into the Planet of the Apes franchise. This plot twist is so left-field that you can’t help but ask: is this movie series still about those damn dirty apes?

Because you'd expect apes to be the stars here, given the franchise’s title. After all, the first film introduced us to a world dominated by intelligent apes with a rigid caste system: the militaristic gorillas, the scholarly orangutans, and the compassionate chimpanzees. Their society was a brilliant mirror held up to humanity’s own flaws. But in Beneath the Planet of the Apes, the apes feel more like supporting characters to the mutant storyline.

A color still from the movie shows a group of apes armed with rifles are running through the stone room.  The railing from the stairs in the previous still is visible in the foreground.  At the center of the photo, one ape looks down mid-run at a mutant who has collapsed on the ground.
The apes attacking the mutants

When we do finally get back to the primates, General Ursus is leading an aggressive campaign into the Forbidden Zone. At least his motivations are fairly straightforward—he wants conquest, and he fears what he doesn’t understand. Dr. Zaius, always a voice of cautious wisdom, tries to temper Ursus' bloodlust, but even his role feels muted compared to the grandeur of the first film. It’s as if the apes are here to remind us we’re still in their world. But the spotlight has shifted to the menace lurking beneath.

Why mutants? Why a nuclear bomb? I still scratch my head on that question. Why take such a dramatic swerve against fans’ expectations, and what was served by going under the planet, anyway?

A color still from the movie shows the shirtless man from one of the previous photos standing with his back to the viewer, gazing up at a white tiled wall, on which black tiles form the words Queensboro Plaza.

On closer inspection, it seems Beneath the Planet of the Apes uses these shocking elements to further explore the themes of humanity’s self-destructive tendencies. The mutants are a haunting representation of what humans could become—physically deformed, morally compromised, and so warped by their reverence for power that they literally worship a weapon of mass destruction.

The mutants’ telepathic abilities, though fascinating, make them unsettling antagonists. They manipulate Brent and Nova in cruel ways, forcing us to question whether their survival justifies their methods. And their blind devotion to the Alpha-Omega Bomb? That’s a chilling reminder of humanity’s capacity to create and idolize tools of its own annihilation.

A color still from the movie shows Brent and Taylor looking toward the right of the frame.  Brent, wearing a white suit similar to the ones the mutants were wearing, stands behind Taylor, still wearing only a loincloth.  Taylor is holding a metal object and Brent appears to be wrapping a bandage around Taylor's midsection.

Finally Heston reappears in the film. He delivers a jolt of energy when we see him again, and my friends and I reveled in the charisma ol’ Charlie brought to the screen. He wakes up from a trance just in time to help lead a gun-toting battle in which Beneath momentarily gets good.

That is, until the ending.

Ah, the ending. If the mutant storyline wasn’t shocking enough, the conclusion of Beneath the Planet of the Apes is nothing short of apocalyptic. The conflict escalates, and Taylor’s violence leads to catastrophe. The Alpha-Omega Bomb, the very symbol of humanity’s destruction, becomes the centerpiece of a finale that leaves you reeling. It’s a bold move for a sequel, one that leaves you questioning what’s next for the franchise—or if there even can be a “next.”

A color still from the movie shows a carved-out cave room, in which rows of mutants stand at attention. They are facing away from the viewer, toward the center of the photo where a solitary mutant stands on a stage in front of a large metallic bomb.
The mutants worshiping The Bomb.

Beneath the Planet of the Apes is one of the stranger, most head-scratching films of 1970 so far – and this has been an odd year for American films. 20th Century Fox had a perfect setup for a long series of Apes sequels, but they seem to have thrown that idea away in a fit of nihilism.

At least we’ll always have the Statue of Liberty.

Two stars.

[New to the Journey? Read this for a brief introduction!]


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