Beneath the Planet of the Apes
Pierre Boulle, author of the original novel, wrote a screenplay entitled "Planet of the Men" in his native French. It featured a messianic Taylor fourteen years after the events of Planet of the Apes (1968) and involved a human uprising against the apes, following which they revert back to their primal state. The studio obviously chose to ignore his concept and used a new script for the film instead (which did feature an uprising - the chimpanzees against the other apes, but was changed prior to filming, possibly due to the reduced budget).,(at around 22 mins) In the "steam room" scene, Zaius and Ursus are wearing only towels, yet they seem to have twice as much body mass naked than when they are wearing their costumes.,[last lines]
Ending Voiceover: In one of the countless billions of galaxies in the universe, lies a medium-sized star, and one of its satellites, a green and insignificant planet, is now dead.,The 20th Century Fox logo does not appear on this film.,When originally released in the UK, the film was heavily cut to receive a lower certificate from the BBFC. This version excised most of the violent and horrific scenes, most notably from the last third of the film, including both scenes where Brent is forced to attack Nova, the revelation of the underground humans' true appearance, the fight Brent and Taylor are forced to have in the prison cell, the killing of the mutant guard on a spiked door, and much of the shoot-out at the film's climax. This cut version was later shown on British TV, c.1991, even though all UK video and DVD releases have been fully uncut and rated '15' since 1987.,Featured in Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971),All Things Bright and Beautiful
(uncredited)
Music by Leonard Rosenman
Lyrics by Paul Dehn
sung by choir of mutants,"Beneath" is a film that epitomizes the best and worst that a sequel to a masterpiece, as "Planet Of The Apes" was, could be. For me, it is the most watchable of the sequels only because it's the only one that stays in the familiar territory established by the first film. But oh that ending....

I really can not understand why the heck Richard Zanuck allowed Charlton Heston to talk him into going with that downer ending that has already been referred to by others. The only reason why Heston pushed it wasn't because it made for good cinema but because he wanted to singlehandedly see to it that he never have to do another Apes sequel again. It's a pity that Heston never realized that the best sequel story one could have explored was what happened to Taylor and Nova afterwards, and could have made for some equally compelling drama as the first film did. To me, the main appeal of the first film wasn't the Ape society, it was the character of Taylor and his fascinating odyssey from misanthrope to defender of the species, only to see his earlier feelings borne out in the shock ending. The question that should have been addressed next in a sequel was, what would Taylor do now that he realized he was on Earth? What other things were there to discover on the planet? (Heck, you could have easily made a sequel movie without the apes returning, as far as I'm concerned!) Alas, because of the plot device imposed by this film (and Heston's inability to realize what a good thing he might have had going for himself), the rest of the series had to veer off into what was for me, a more uninteresting story line focusing on the Apes and their inevitable rise to power.

Plot holes and depressing ending notwithstanding, "Beneath" is still worth watching to see the traces of what could have been a great film that are there. The mutant storyline and their dwellings underneath the remains of New York still has an irresistible viewing quality to it. I do not recommend watching it in tandem with its magnificent predecessor though, because that's only going to make you more angry about the ending of this film.,