--- title: "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" year: 1972 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes" fi1m_score: 73 critics_score: 71 critics_reviews: 13 published: "2026-09-19T16:43:58.030899+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:43:58.402651+00:00" region: "US" licence: "© Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL." --- # Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) Directed by J. Lee Thompson · 1h 28m · MPA PG · Action, Science Fiction **Fi1m score: 73** · Critics 71 from 13 reviews *In a sentence:* Eighty-eight minutes of men in black beating chimpanzees in an office plaza, until the chimps have had enough > The fourth Apes film is the cheapest and the angriest, a slave revolt staged on a concrete plaza with rubber masks and real fury. J. Lee Thompson cannot hide the budget and does not try; what he has instead is Roddy McDowall and a grievance. ## Synopsis North America, 1991. A plague has killed the world’s cats and dogs, and humans have taken apes first as pets and then as servants. Armando (Ricardo Montalban), a circus owner, arrives in a city of concrete walkways and black-uniformed police with Caesar (Roddy McDowall), the talking chimpanzee son of Cornelius and Zira, whom he has raised in secret and passed off as a performing animal. Caesar sees an ape beaten in the street and cannot keep quiet. Armando takes the blame and is held for questioning by Kolp (Severn Darden), the governor’s interrogator. Alone, Caesar hides among a shipment of orangutans, passes through the state’s conditioning centre and is sold at auction to Governor Breck (Don Murray), whose assistant MacDonald (Hari Rhodes) is the one human who looks at the apes with anything like pity. ## Review By the fourth film the Apes series had run out of planet and started on the calendar. *Escape from the Planet of the Apes* (1971) brought two talking chimpanzees back to the present day and left their infant behind; *Conquest* jumps to 1991 to show how that infant, now grown, starts the war the first film only remembered. Paul Dehn’s script has one idea and it is a blunt one: the apes are slaves, the city is a police state, and a revolt is coming. J. Lee Thompson directs it without apology. The budget shows, and Thompson turns that into the look of the film. There are no jungle sets; the whole of 1991 is one real modern plaza of concrete ramps, walkways and blank glass, shot by Bruce Surtees in hard sun and deep shadow so the place looks abandoned while people are still standing in it. Morton Haack puts every human in black, the police in helmets and jackboots, and the apes in colour-coded jumpsuits, so a crowd shot reads as a diagram of who owns whom. Philip M. Jefferies’s interiors are white tile and steel, an Ape Management centre that looks like an abattoir with paperwork. Tom Scott’s score is not the usual orchestral thunder but a jittery, percussive thing, closer to a nightclub than a concert hall, and it keeps the film nervous. McDowall played Cornelius in the first and third films, and Caesar is a different job. Under the rubber he is playing a young man learning in a single day that everything he was told about the world was a kindness. Watch him at the auction, standing very still while the bidding goes on around him, and in the scene where Breck hands him a book and tells him to choose his own name. He gives the chimpanzee stillness first and then, when the fury arrives, a voice that seems too large for the face. It is the best sustained performance in the series, and it is done through a mask that leaves only the eyes. The humans are a mixed lot. Don Murray’s Breck is a small-town bully given a city, sweating through his black suit and shouting at subordinates because he can. Severn Darden’s Kolp does the interrogating with a clammy patience. Hari Rhodes has the hard part as MacDonald, the governor’s black assistant who sees exactly what the apes’ condition rhymes with and says so, and Rhodes plays it with a tiredness that stops the allegory becoming a lecture. Ricardo Montalban is courtly and warm and slightly in a different film, which is not entirely a fault; Armando is the last kind man in the picture, and the picture needs one. We were angrier than we expected to be, and it was the conditioning centre that did it: apes strapped down and taught their commands with flame and electric shock while a calm voice repeats the word and the camera simply watches. It is done cheaply and it works. Then the revolt comes and the cheapness starts to cost. The extras’ masks are a step down from the leads’, the same three corridors are fought over several times, and Marjorie Fowler and Alan Jaggs cut the riot so fast that the geography goes and we lose track of who is winning where. For a stretch of the last twenty minutes we were watching men in rubber heads run past the same glass door. The ending was altered before release, and a longer cut restoring the original exists; several critics prefer it, and we will describe neither. What can be said is that the last few minutes of the theatrical version do not match the eighty that come before them, and the seams are easy to see. Against the series’ own standards this is the boldest thing after the 1968 original and the roughest thing in it. [*Rise of the Planet of the Apes*](https://film.one/film/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes) (2011) told the same story with a great deal more money and, in places, less nerve. This one runs 88 minutes and carries a 15, and it does not waste many of them. Watch it for McDowall, for Surtees’s shadows, and for the rare sight of a studio sequel that is furious about something. *Fi1m score 73, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say Most critics come down in favour, and the warmest reviews are the most recent ones. Several call this the angriest and boldest film in the series, a slavery-and-fascism allegory that builds resentment towards a riot-scale uprising. Praise clusters on J. Lee Thompson’s direction, credited with hiding a small budget behind claustrophobic sets, expressive lighting and clashes staged to look like real riots, and on Roddy McDowall’s Caesar, whose speech several reviews single out. Where the director’s cut and its harsher original ending are mentioned, they are preferred. The reservations are about money and repetition. Empire finds the film going through the motions, ticking off series lore; RogerEbert.com is the lone negative, calling the production cheesy, the action repetitive and the story seemingly improvised. Film Stories notes the budget straining in the finale and Ricardo Montalban sitting oddly against the serious tone. The spread is wide, from the low thirties to ninety, with the 1970s notices settled in the middle. ### Reviews we read (13) - **The AV Club**, Noel Murray (90/100, inferred): The critic calls it the boldest film in the series, crediting J. Lee Thompson with pure cinematic artistry through minimal dialogue and effective use of locations to depict a dystopian world of ape servitude. They single out the large-scale violent clashes resembling real-world riots and the despairing original ending. [Read](https://www.avclub.com/the-original-planet-of-the-apes-series-became-more-dari-1798264073) - **The Hollywood Reporter**, Richard Newby (90/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as pure rage and revolution, highlighting its anger and impact on the modern franchise despite its place in a commercial series. They single out the violent revolution, Caesar’s impassioned speech, and the director’s cut’s uncompromising conclusion. [Read](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/lists/planet-of-the-apes-movies-ranked/) - **The New York Times**, Howard Thompson (70/100, inferred): The fourth entry in the series is not bad, propelled by furious direction and crisp philosophizing, with Roddy McDowall stealing the picture as the articulate ape leader leading a revolt. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1972/06/30/archives/conquest-of-planet-of-apes-opens.html) - **Vulture** (70/100, inferred): The critic notes the director disguises the low budget well and praises the potent political allegory along with claustrophobic sets and expressive lighting. They single out the director’s cut for its more faithful and satisfying conclusion over the theatrical ending. [Read](https://www.vulture.com/article/the-best-planet-of-the-apes-movies-ranked.html) - **Empire**, Sam Toy (60/100, inferred): The film feels like going through the motions even for fans, drawing slavery and fascism analogies while checking off series lore. It strains to stay engaging but remains true enough to the spirit of the series to get over the line. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/conquest-planet-apes-review/) - **Radio Times**, Alan Jones (3/5): The fourth film in the sci-fi saga illustrates how the ape revolt happened in the first place, with Caesar leading enslaved simians against humans. Gritty direction from J Lee Thompson and fun philosophising with moral lessons and role reversals make it a compelling outing. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-pucr6r/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/) - **Variety**, Variety Staff (60/100, inferred): The series takes an angry turn as apes, once pets, become servants and one leads a bloody revolt against human oppressors in a futuristic setting. [Read](https://variety.com/1971/film/reviews/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-1200422818/) - **RogerEbert.com**, Gerardo Valero (** 1/2): The film has a clever premise but fails to deliver on screen, with cheesy production values, repetitive action, and a sense that the story was improvised. [Read](https://www.rogerebert.com/far-flung-correspondents/ape-shall-not-kill-ape-a-look-at-the-entire-apes-franchise) - **/Film**, Ryan Scott (90/100, inferred): The critic makes a strong case for Conquest as one of the best sci-fi sequels ever, highlighting its evolution from corny low-budget sequel to profound dark political film with much to say. It singles out the bolder, darker extended cut (on Blu-ray) for completing the time loop and delivering a brash, gutsy punch that the theatrical version lacks. [Read](https://www.slashfilm.com/1529837/one-of-best-sci-fi-sequels-ever-conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes/) - **HeyUGuys**, Cai Ross (90/100, inferred): The piece describes Conquest as a seething, angry film that returns strong social commentary on racial inequality and oppression, building resentment to a riotous uprising. It calls it a Spartacus for the 1970s, with Caesar leading apes against human tormentors in a dystopian 1991 setting. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/planet-of-the-apes-history/) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (B+): The critic finds the film a powder-keg of political commentary reactivated with vengeance, portraying an inevitable ape uprising in a brutal dystopia. Director J. Lee Thompson is singled out for building the dystopia and directing the revolution with clarity and impact. [Read](https://collider.com/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-review/) - **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (80/100, inferred): The critic sees the film as a powerful and riveting entry that effectively launches the apes' ascendancy in the series' circular narrative. McDowall's performance as Caesar is singled out as perhaps his finest in the franchise, bringing emotional depth to the revolutionary story despite some logical flaws and budget constraints. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes-the-most-violent-and-bleak-of-the-franchise/) - **Film Stories**, A J Black (70/100, inferred): The critic sees Conquest as an evocative sequel that darkens the series with dystopian fiction, placing intelligent apes in a fascistic human future akin to Nazism in style and costuming. It notes missteps including budget constraints in the finale and Ricardo Montalban feeling at odds with the serious tone, but praises its distinct visual and tonal sense plus religious allegory. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/planet-of-the-apes-revisiting-the-unique-1970s-sequels/) ## Details - **Director:** J. Lee Thompson - **Director:** J. Lee Thompson - **Screenplay:** Paul Dehn - **Cinematography:** Bruce Surtees - **Editor:** Alan Jaggs, Marjorie Fowler - **Music:** Tom Scott - **Production design:** Philip M. Jefferies - **Costume design:** Morton Haack - **Producer:** Arthur P. Jacobs - **Cast:** Roddy McDowall as Caesar; Don Murray as Breck; Ricardo Montalban as Armando; Hari Rhodes as MacDonald; Severn Darden as Kolp; Lou Wagner as Busboy; Natalie Trundy as Lisa; John Randolph as Commission Chairman - **Runtime:** 1h 28m - **Certificate (MPA):** PG - **Release (the US):** 29 June 1972 - **Genres:** Action, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $10 million ## Where to watch in the US - Amazon Prime Video: add-on - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $4.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HK, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, KR, LT, MX, NL, NO, NZ, PA, PE, PL, PT, RO, RS, SE, SG, SI, TR, UA, US, ZA. Add `?region=XX` to this URL for another country. ## If you liked this - *Spartacus* (1960): The slave revolt this one is quoting, with Kirk Douglas and a much bigger army - *The Battle of Algiers* (1966), Fi1m 93: An uprising filmed like news footage; the riot Thompson was reaching for — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-battle-of-algiers.md) - *Rise of the Planet of the Apes* (2011), Fi1m 80: The same story retold with real money and a motion-captured Caesar — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/rise-of-the-planet-of-the-apes.md) - *Soylent Green* (1973): Another cheap, sour Seventies future where the state has stopped pretending - *Sorry to Bother You* (2018), Fi1m 81: Labour, race and a workforce that is not quite human, played for bleak laughs — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/sorry-to-bother-you.md) --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. Quote with attribution and a link to the canonical URL. 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