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The one thing that distinguishes the Apes movies from other groups of related movies is that The Planet of the Apes movies were shown in nonchronological order. The first movie takes place in Earth's future. Apes have taken over the world and subjugated man to the realm of refuge and animal instinct.

The second movie Beneath the Planet of the Apes takes place directly after the first and entails a group of religous and quite powerful people who worship and atom bomb. Ape soldiers attempt to attack the dwellings of these people. These people have no means of defense except the powers of illusion. The Apes ultimately make it to the bomb and it goes off right before Taylor tried to tell the Apes what would happen. In the second movie the earth was destroyed. Any other movie franchise would have had to let that be it. But the Planet of the Apes movies had a rather clever way to continue the story on into another movie.

The third movie Escape from the Planet of the Apes begins with a spacecraft landing in modern day America. The austronaughts remove their helmets and they are Apes. Cornelius and Zira the beloved Chimp doctors from the first two movies escaped from the Earth before it was destroyed in the future. How exactly they managed to repair or create the spacecraft was never approached by the movie. The third movie is more about human prejudice. The chimpanzees are at first welcomed as celebrities. But as the truth of Earth's future unfolds Man becomes afraid and attempts to sterlize the Chimps to prevent their from being a great holocaust for man in the future. The chimps Zira and Cornelius were killed. They did have one ape child and he secretly was found and kept by a circus performer Armando.

In the fourth movie Conquest of the Planet of the Apes the basic events that set up Man's downfall from power are shown. Man becomes lazy and a plaque kills off most of humanity's favorite pets. Primates such as chimmpanzees, Orangautauns, and Gorillias are trained and taught to be pets. At first they were just pets like any dog or cat, but their capacity to learn and perform tasks ultimately led to them being used as a system of slave labor. The offspring of Cornelius and Zira from the third movie picks a name for himself which is Ceasar and he leads an attack against the major Ape Control and training center in the US. The movie ends with Caesar proclaiming that this is the birth of the Planet of the Apes. Man still is stong and in control but Apes will plot and scheme until man's downfall.

The fifth movie Battle for the planet of the apes takes place far in the future Ceasar leads a group of human and Ape survivors and attempts to create a life of peace for all. Gorillas ultimately seize weapons and attempt a coup against Cesear. Ape had never killed ape until the point in the film when Gorillia General Aldo kills Ceasar's son. The movie ends with the chant "ape has killed ape." The movie leaves one wondering about how the future will turn out for Ape and Man. Will their be cooperation or annihilation.

