Beneath the Planet of the Apes - Journey to the Forbidden Zone (1970)

0:03 Calarogus Shark Media. Welcome back to TV in the Basement, where we continue our Simian Cinema retrospective with Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Beneath the Planet of the Apes was the quickly produced nineteen seventy sequel to the massively successful Planet of the Apes. It's a much darker, weirder, and more action packed film that expands the Apes universe for better and for worse. While not as groundbreaking as the first movie, it still offers plenty of shocks and thought provoking moments. The story follows a new astronaut named Brent played by James Franciscus, who is sent to rescue Taylor and his crew from the first film. After crash landing on the future Earth, Brent encounters the Chimpanzee scientist Zira and learns that Taylor disappeared into the Forbidden Zone. Brent soon discovers Taylor, held captive by a colony of mutated humans with powerful SS psychic abilities, the result of nuclear war. As the Gorilla Army marches on the mutant's underground city, a brutal battle ensues, with the fate of the planet at stake. The cast sees the return of key players from the first film, including Kim Hunter as Zira, Maurice Evans as Doctor Zais, and Linda Harrison as the mute human Nova. James Franciscus does an admirable job stepping into the heroic astronaut role while still evoking memories of Charlton Heston, and Heston himself appears again as Taylor, although only briefly in the beginning and end. More on that later. The

1:34 standout new character is General Ursus, the ruthless gorilla commander, played with scenery chewing gusto by James Gregory. He's a memorable villain who embodies the worst of the Ape's militarism and prejudice. The telepathic mutant humans are in eerie addition, their powers conveyed through unsettling masks and distorted voices. Some of the best scenes involve the apes religious hysteria as the guerrillas whip up a holy war against the heathen mutants. It's appointed commentary on how dogmatic belief can justify atrocities. The action is also ramped up with shootouts, brawls, and explosions galore as the Apes and mutants clash and the hallucinatory sequence where the Mutants mentally assault Brent is a real trip full of disturbing imagery, but the film has some major flaws.

2:24 The story feels disjointed, with jarring jumps between the Ape and Mutant plot lines. The budget limitations are more apparent, with extensive footage recycled from the first movie. Some of the new Ape makeups are noticeably cruder, the Mutant city sets and costumes look cheap and silly, and the shock ending where Taylor and Brent parish as the Mutant's doomsday bomb destroys the entire planet is a real downer that seemingly wrote the series into a corner. Now, let's address the Charlton Heston controversy. Heston had no desire to return for a sequel, feeling that the first film ended perfectly, but the studio demanded his presence to boost the box office, so a compromise was reached where Heston appears briefly at the start, then vanishes until a memorable cameo at the climax. Heston donated his reduced salary for the film to charity, but he insisted that his character Taylor be killed off spectacularly, so he couldn't be brought back again. Thus the ending where Taylor detonates the doomsday bomb, taking the whole planet with him.

3:27 It's an explosive way to go, but quite the downbeat conclusion. The absence of Taylor for most of the run time is definitely felt. James Franciscus tries his best, but can't match Heston's magnetic presence. In dry Wit, the astronaut protagonist just isn't as compelling this time around. A TV version of the film added footage of Heston and the other original astronauts exploring the Forbidden Zone shot during the making of the first movie to pad out his role. Another controversy involves the treatment of actress Linda Harrison. While her character Nova was given some agency in the original film, here she's reduced to a completely passive object fought over by the male characters. Harrison herself was going through a contentious divorce with studio head Richard Zanik, which some speculate led to her diminished role. It's an unfortunate step backwards for the series gender politics. The film's violence and gore also sparked some outcry, especially the graphic scene of an eight being shot through the head. A few seconds had to be trimmed to avoid an X rating.

4:27 Between this and the downbeat ending, It's a much harsher and more cynical film than its predecessor, fitting for the era of Vietnam and political unrest. Behind the scenes, the makeup process was streamlined a bit, but still grueling for the actors. James Gregory's general's uniform was so tight he had trouble breathing and nearly passed out several times. Linda Harrison twisted her knee during one action scene and had to perform the rest of the film in pain. The desert heat also took its toll on cast and crew. Despite the rushed production, Beneath the Planet of the Apes still earned an Oscar nomination for Best Original Score. The music by Leonard Rosenman is appropriately dissonant and apocalyptic, complimenting the harsher tone. The film also did well at the box office, proving that the Apes brand had legs, even hairy ones. It wasn't as big a hit as the first movie, but sold enough tickets to guarantee further sequels. So is Beneath the Planet of the Apes a worthy successor to the classic original.

5:30 Well, it depends on what you're looking for. As pure sci fi spectacle, it delivers plenty of action, suspense, and weird visuals. The Ape society is even more fleshed out, The Mutants ad a creepy new wrinkle, and it all builds to an explosive, literally finale, But the story lacks the clean narrative drive and powerful twist ending of the first film. The social commentary is a bit muddled, and the nihilistic conclusion denies the audience any feeling of catharsis or hope. As a nine year old watching this for the first time, that ending bummed me out so much I didn't watch another Apes movie for years. Still Beneath the Planet of the Apes is an ambitious attempt to expand the series universe and mythology. It introduces lots of elements that would be explored in later sequels and adaptations, like Ape religion, and politics, and it wasn't afraid to get dark and challenge the audience. That's admirable, even if the execution is a bit sloppy. Fortunately, the series would rebound with nineteen seventy one's escape from the Planet of the Apes finding a clever way to continue the story and lighten the mood a bit, But we'll save that discussion for another episode. In the end, Beneath the Planet of the Apes is a flawed but fascinating entry in the franchise that's worth watching for Apes completists and fans of apocalyptic sci fi. It may not live up to the original, but it still offers plenty of food for thought and some pretty wild images of machine gun toting gorillas on horseback. So what's your take on Beneath the Planet of the Apes. Does the darker tone work for you? Or is it

7:03 too much of a downer? Would you have liked to see more Charlton Heston? Should the mutants have been dealt with in a less silly way? If you'd like to receive episodes of this podcast commercial free, as well as the other programs from Calaroga Shark Media, including a show I Think You'd love called Monster Sharks and Dinosaurs, alongside daily comedy news, five good news stories, five daily trivia questions, and a whole lot more, open up the Apple Podcasts app and find this show and hit subscribe. It's just four to ninety nine a month. And you can test drive it for thirty days for free. Next time, we'll be going ape again with Escape from the Planet of the Apes, as the adventures in this universe continue. Until then, keep watching the skies and the screens.