A Timeline and Exploration of the Original ‘Planet of the Apes’ Franchise

February 3955

Brent stumbles upon a group of telepathic mutant humans living in what was once New York’s subway system where they are housing a nuclear bomb.

February 3955

Brent finds Taylor imprisoned by the mutant humans and as they try to escape the apes are attacking the underground compound.

February 3955

As the battle wages on, Brent and Nova are killed and Taylor is the last to be shot, but before he dies he triggers the nuclear bomb, destroying Earth and all its inhabitants. Boom, done, everyone’s dead.

April 1973

While battle waged in the underground mutant compound at the end of Beneath the Planet of the Apes, in the opening moments of Escape from the Planet of the Apes we learn Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Milo (Sal Mineo) were able to find Taylor’s original crashed ship, restore it and conduct a test flight. As a result, when Taylor triggered the bomb the three apes were sent back in time to 1973, one year after Taylor’s original mission, creating an alternate timeline.

May 1973

Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Milo are originally held captive in a zoo on arrival, but after Dr. Milo is killed by a gorilla, Zira reveals she can speak. Cornelius and Zira become a media sensation for a short time until it is learned Zira is pregnant and in a drunken mistake she reveals what the future holds for apes and humans. As a result, in an attempt to preserve the human race, it is declared Zira’s baby must never be born.

Before the baby can be aborted, Cornelius and Zira escape, Zira gives birth to a baby chimp they name Milo and give to Armando (Ricardo Montalban), a traveling circus owner. Shortly thereafter Cornelius and Zira are found and shot along with what is believed to be Zira’s baby.

May 1973

It is then revealed that the baby Zira was carrying was actually not her child and Milo is still alive with Armando. At the end of Escape from the Planet of the Apes the film fades to black with Milo saying, “Mamma.”

Movie News

Marvel and DC

X