Every Planet Of The Apes Movie Ranked From Worst To Best
5. Escape From The Planet Of The Apes (1971)
What do you do when a crazed Charlton Heston blew your franchise eight ways from Sunday at the end of the last chapter? Time travel, of course!
Despite rendering the series' timeline more convoluted than Terminator's, there's beauty in Escape From The Planet Of The Apes, if you know where to look for it.
An ape couple (Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter) piloted a rocket away from the titular planet before that nuke went off in the second instalment and travelled back to our 1970s - and if you can suspend your disbelief long enough, you won't regret it.
Escape begins as a lighthearted, fish-out-of-water tale as the apes begin life on Earth as celebrities under the care of well-meaning scientists, but things take a turn for the darker once the government sets its sights on the couple's unborn child.
There are moments when Escape From The Planet Of The Apes is downright cheesy, but these are offset against shrewd satire, and some of the finest religious, political and racial commentary the series has ever delivered.