--- title: "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" year: 1971 kind: "film" canonical: "https://film.one/film/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes" fi1m_score: 77 critics_score: 81 critics_reviews: 9 published: "2026-09-19T16:47:40.486851+00:00" updated: "2026-09-19T16:47:40.855738+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." --- # Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971) Directed by Don Taylor · 1h 38m · MPA G · Action, Science Fiction **Fi1m score: 77** · Critics 81 from 9 reviews *In a sentence:* Two chimpanzees try champagne, a hotel bath and a Presidential commission, and one man in a grey suit has already done the arithmetic > Don Taylor turns the series inside out: two talking chimpanzees land in present-day California and are lionised, then feared. Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter make it the funniest entry and, in its second half, the saddest. The budget shows in every frame. ## Synopsis A spacecraft splashes down off the California coast and three chimpanzees in flight suits climb out. Taken to a zoo in Los Angeles, they are studied by two animal psychologists, Dr. Lewis Dixon (Bradford Dillman) and Dr. Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Branton (Natalie Trundy), who set them intelligence tests and get more than they expected when Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) speaks. Zira and her husband Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) have come from the future, from a world where apes rule, and their cautious companion Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) would rather they said nothing at all. Instead they are brought before a Presidential commission, made famous overnight and put up in a hotel. Watching them is Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden), the President’s science adviser, who wants to know exactly what future they came from. ## Review The first two [*Planet of the Apes*](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes) films sent men into a world run by apes. *Escape* runs the idea backwards. A spacecraft comes down off the California coast and three chimpanzees in flight suits climb out: Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter) and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo). They are taken to a zoo in Los Angeles and examined by two animal psychologists, Dr. Lewis Dixon (Bradford Dillman) and Dr. Stephanie ‘Stevie’ Branton (Natalie Trundy). Then Zira, bored of being tested, says so aloud. Paul Dehn’s script builds a proper film from that moment on almost no money, and it is the best of the sequels by some distance. We recommend it to anyone who liked the first film and gave up on the rest. The first half is a comedy of manners with the manners the wrong way round. The apes are brought before a Presidential commission chaired by John Randolph, where Zira announces that she does not care for bananas and the commission laughs with her rather than at her. They are put up in a hotel, taken shopping, toasted at parties. Hunter plays Zira as a woman delighted to be the cleverest person in every room, and McDowall gives Cornelius the careful good manners of a husband who suspects the invitations will stop. We laughed, and often; the scene in which Zira discovers a hotel bathroom is the happiest stretch in the whole series. Watching from the edge of the frame is Otto Hasslein (Eric Braeden), the President’s science adviser, and he is the reason the film is more than a novelty. Braeden does not play him as a villain. He plays a tired, reasonable man who asks the apes where they came from, listens to the answer, and starts to do the sums. The second half takes a turn we will not describe. We can say that ten minutes after laughing at Cornelius in a lounge suit, we watched Hasslein lay out his reasoning to the President (William Windom) and felt cold. Nobody shouts. He sounds like a man ordering stationery, and that frightened us more than any gorilla on horseback the series has produced. It looks cheap, and it is. Joseph F. Biroc shoots Los Angeles in the flat, even light of television, and the zoo, the hotel and the committee room could be sets from any American series of the period. That suits the film. The apes are the only strange thing on screen, and that is as it should be. Marion Rothman cuts fast through the montage of the apes as celebrities and slows right down once the mood turns; the last twenty minutes have few cuts they do not need. Jerry Goldsmith, who scored the 1968 film with drums and scraped metal, writes something jaunty here, brass and electric guitar, and then takes it away almost entirely for the closing stretch. The chimpanzee make-up has not improved since 1968, and Hunter and McDowall act through it anyway; you can read every thought in Zira’s eyes. The flaws are the ones a film made quickly usually has. Dillman and Trundy are pleasant and have almost nothing to play; Dixon and Branton exist to be kind and to drive cars. Mineo, as Milo, gets the least to do of the three apes, which is a waste of him. A few of the first-half gags, a shopping trip, a night at the boxing, run past their laugh, and Don Taylor does not stop them. The business of how the apes got here is explained in one speech and then everyone agrees not to mention it again. Against the series’ own standards this is the one that remembers the 1968 film was about ideas. It has none of that film’s scale and none of the bleakness of [*Beneath the Planet of the Apes*](https://film.one/film/beneath-the-planet-of-the-apes), and it is the better for both. Most critics put it a little higher than we do, and we see why: the ending takes a risk few studio films of its period would have taken. We cannot pretend the middle half hour is as sharp as what surrounds it, or that the sets would survive a large screen. The certificate is PG. Children will enjoy the first hour. Sit with them for the second. *Fi1m score 77, published 19 September 2026.* ## What the critics say The reviews are warm, and consistently so: eight of nine are positive, and several call this the strongest of the original sequels. The praise clusters on the script, which sends Cornelius and Zira back to 1970s California and turns the series round so the apes are the outsiders, and on Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter, whose likeable double act carries the fish-out-of-water comedy of the first half. Don Taylor’s direction is described as efficient and tactful, and most critics admire the way the film moves from satire to something much darker without losing its footing. The reservations are few and mild. Empire is the lone mixed voice, finding the opening potentially silly, the ending predictable and the central idea watered down by the job of setting up later entries. The New Yorker has quibbles about characterisation. Otherwise the spread is narrow, and the later writers are, if anything, warmer than the contemporary ones. ### Reviews we read (9) - **Variety** (85/100, inferred): The review deems it an excellent film, almost as good as the original, crediting an outstanding script, excellent direction by Don Taylor, and superior performances from Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter. It shifts from comedic antics to a horrifying dilemma in a literate and thought-provoking way. [Read](https://variety.com/1970/film/reviews/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes-1200422510/) - **Radio Times**, David Parkinson (4/5): The third film in the sci-fi series sees advanced apes Cornelius and Zira travel back in time to 1970s California. It is a movie of two halves: the first an amusing collection of observations on modern life through the eyes of the apes, the second much darker as humans resort to cruelty to protect their future. [Read](https://www.radiotimes.com/movie-guide/b-3cgghr/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes/) - **The New York Times**, Roger Greenspun (80/100, inferred): The critic finds it one of the better new movies in a science-fiction genre often invisible at the middle level, praising the time-travel premise and its development into dramatic inevitability. Direction by Don Taylor is efficient and tactful, with strong performances from Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter. [Read](https://www.nytimes.com/1971/05/29/archives/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes-proves-entertaining.html) - **The New Yorker**, Penelope Gilliatt (75/100, inferred): The critic calls the film rather splendid and encouraging, noting the striking effect of the talking chimpanzees and the cutting portrayal of how they are treated as outsiders. The script is shrewd and fast with some quibbles about characterizations. [Read](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/1971/06/05/the-upstanding-chimp) - **Empire**, Sam Toy (65/100, inferred): The film overcomes a potentially silly opening to explore humans embracing talking apes in a clever twist on the series, though it ends predictably and dilutes the central idea while setting up future entries. [Read](https://www.empireonline.com/movies/reviews/escape-planet-apes-review/) - **Collider**, Matt Goldberg (A-): The critic praises the film's shift to a more comic, heartwarming, and empathetic tone while staying true to the franchise's thoughtful darkness and fatalism. Singles out the warm relationship between Zira and Cornelius and the tragic, ominous ending with Baby Milo. [Read](https://collider.com/escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes-review/) - **Film Stories**, A J Black (90/100, inferred): The critic calls Escape their personal favourite of the original Apes films. It stands out for its thoughtful sci-fi time-travel elements mixed with lighter comedic moments thanks to the likeable performances of McDowall and Hunter, plus its bold narrative risks in the ending. [Read](https://filmstories.co.uk/features/planet-of-the-apes-revisiting-the-unique-1970s-sequels/) - **HeyUGuys**, Cai Ross (90/100, inferred): The piece praises the film as ground-zero for the rest of the series and probably the most purely enjoyable entry overall. It highlights the clever fish-out-of-water comedy in the first half contrasted with the tragic horror of the climax. [Read](https://www.heyuguys.com/planet-of-the-apes-history/) - **Den of Geek**, Don Kaye (85/100, inferred): The critic praises the film as the best of the original sequels for its smart script that cleverly flips the perspective to make the apes protagonists, creating a self-perpetuating cycle, along with witty direction and strong performances. They single out the satirical elements and the tense chase in the latter part for making it a standout entry. [Read](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/why-escape-from-the-planet-of-the-apes-was-ahead-of-its-time/) ## Details - **Director:** Don Taylor - **Director:** Don Taylor - **Screenplay:** Paul Dehn - **Cinematography:** Joseph F. Biroc - **Editor:** Marion Rothman - **Music:** Jerry Goldsmith - **Producer:** Arthur P. Jacobs - **Cast:** Roddy McDowall as Cornelius; Kim Hunter as Dr. Zira; Bradford Dillman as Dr. Lewis Dixon; Natalie Trundy as Dr. Stephanie 'Stevie' Branton; Eric Braeden as Dr. Otto Hasslein; William Windom as The President; Sal Mineo as Dr. Milo; Albert Salmi as E-1 - **Runtime:** 1h 38m - **Certificate (MPA):** G - **Release (the US):** 20 May 1971 - **Genres:** Action, Science Fiction - **Budget:** $2 million - **Box office:** $12 million ## Where to watch in the US - Apple TV: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: rent $3.99, hd - Amazon Prime Video: buy $4.99, hd - Apple TV: buy $19.99, hd *Checked 2026-09-19.* Also available in: AE, AR, AT, AU, BE, BG, BR, CA, CH, CL, CO, CZ, DE, DK, EC, EE, ES, FI, FR, GB, GR, HR, HU, IE, IS, IT, JP, 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 - *Planet of the Apes* (1968), Fi1m 84: Start here if you somehow have not; the last shot still does its work. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/planet-of-the-apes.md) - *Conquest of the Planet of the Apes* (1972), Fi1m 73: Picks up this film’s thread; angrier, cheaper and stranger than it has any right to be. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/conquest-of-the-planet-of-the-apes.md) - *The Man Who Fell to Earth* (1976), Fi1m 82: Roeg’s visitor in America, undone first by kindness and then by men in suits. — [Fi1m page](https://film.one/film/the-man-who-fell-to-earth.md) - *La Jetée* (1962): Marker’s half-hour of still photographs ties the same time-travel knot, tighter. - *Starman* (1984): Carpenter’s gentle take on the stranger, the road trip and the government car behind. --- © Fi1m Ltd. Written by AI under a human editor; checked against sources before publication. 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