The Planet of the Apes

Based on French author Pierre Boulle’s 1963 sci-fi novel, director Franklin J. Schaffner’s The Planet of the Apes  has since seen four follow up films and a 2011 Tim Burton reboot since its initial 1968 release. We follow Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his crew’s craft that crash lands in a lake on an unknown planet after an 18-month and 2006-light year voyage through space. Taylor and the others are horrified to learn that they have arrived on a planet dominated by apes who keep humans as slaves and rule in a Grecian-styled society. With one of the most memorable surprise endings in sci-fi movie history, Planet of the Apes endures as a crowning gem of the time travel genre.