Planet of The Apes - 01 Escape From Tomorrow

Planet of The Apes - 01 Escape From Tomorrow



In the forest, an old man is forced into a tree by a dog belonging to . . . a humanoid man-sized chimpanzee. They are both astonished when a spacecraft crashes nearby. The ape, Arno, and the dog leave while the old man, Farrow, approaches. The ship opens and Farrow enters, where he finds three men ΓÇô two are unconscious and the third is dead. The ape boy, son of the Prefect, goes to the local town and reports the landing ΓÇô his father goes out with a patrol. Farrow gets the two unconscious men out of the ship and away just as the patrol arrives and realizes two men are missing and begin a search.



The two men, Pete Burke and Alan Virdon, wake up in a storage bunker. They reveal they were approaching Alpha Centauri and ran into radioactive turbulence, and that their other crewmate, Jonesy, activated the homing device to return to Earth. Farrow comes in and reveals they're in his secret cave (actually a bomb shelter), that Jonesy is dead, and that he has no idea what planet they're on. Farrow explains that humans live in restricted areas and that they're in danger from . . . apes. Pete soon grows bored and, skeptical of the story of apes, he goes out with Alan. They're soon set upon by a gorilla patrol but manage to escape.



In Central City, Dr. Zaius takes on a new assistant, Galen, the son of a fellow councilman. They are interrupted by news of the arrival of the astronauts at the village 30 miles away. Zaius calls in General Urko, who wants to kill them, but Zaius wants them alive for questioning and relates how humans arrived 10 years ago and the High Council had them killed. Zaius sends Galen (who is intrigued by the idea of intelligent humans) with Urko to make sure he brings back the prisoners alive



The astronauts get back to the cave and Farrow brings them up to date on how the apes control everything. He shows them a book that reveals on Earth, and at least 500 years in their future. The astronauts have to get to the ship, now under guard, to get an exact time coordinate. Farrow leads the guard off and they get in, only to find the ship gutted. They do get a time reading, however ΓÇô 3-21-3085. Farrow is shot returning and the guys are captured by Urko. Galen stays behind long enough to find the future-human-history book and is intrigued by both the advanced technology and the pictures of apes in zoos.



The guys are about ready to make their escape when Galen approaches them but is skeptical of their stories of advanced human technology, shattering his beliefs in ape superiority. Angered, he has the guard resecure them, foiling their escape. Urko coerces Zaius' human servant into giving him a grenade, then brings the guys before the High Council. They are unable to defend themselves and Urko uses the grenade, a product of human technology, to demonstrate their potential destructiveness. The other Councilman back Zaius' desire to keep them alive for interrogation, and Urko reluctantly concedes, only to plan for their execution when they are caught "trying to escape."



Galen questions Zaius, considering their sentiments on all intelligent beings being worthy of equal treatment. He meets with the astronauts and reluctantly accepts their story. They want to know about the grenade ΓÇô Alan wants the magnetic disk of their flight path, run it through a computer, and reverse their course, and hopes the humans who made the grenade have sufficient knowledge to do so. They offer Galen the chance to go back with them in return for his help but he refuses to turn traitor. Later a guard brings them food and "accidentally" leaves the cell door unlocked, then goes outside to prepare an ambush ΓÇô Galen spots him and intervenes when the guys make a break for it. As they escape, Galen struggles with the guard and accidentally shoots and kills him, and is taken prisoner.



Galen accuses Urko of plotting to kill the humans, and Urko reveals the human book that Galen had. Zaius leaves Galen to his fate while the guys track down Zaius' home and threaten him with one of the remaining grenades. Zaius, uncowed, reveals that the humans destroyed themselves and he'd do anything to prevent it, including having Galen killed. The guys take Zaius with them to gain entrance and rescue Galen using the grenade when they can't find the key to his cell. After a week in hiding, they go to the ship to get the flight record over Galen's misgivings, and Alan manages to get the disk out and they escape as Urko and Zaius arrive and blow up the ship.