Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)

 Seemingly writing themselves into an unescapable corner by blowing up the Earth at the end of 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes', writer Paul Dehan managed an 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes' by sending simian leads Roddy McDowall and Kim Hunter back to the 1970's and reinventing the franchise. 

This was a ridiculous, even shoe horned development, but in effect was necessary. Another ape character that had been neither previously seen or referenced, managed to dredge up and fix Heston's spacecraft from the first film, and he (Dr. Milo played by Sal Mino) and Dr.'s Cornelius and Zira managed to escape on it just before the destruction of the Earth. Now I'm really not clear what the three's escape plan was, but the ship conveniently fell through the same time portal encountered by James Franciscus in the last film. This took them back to 1973, two years in the future from when this movie came out and year after Heston's character is said to have left on his expedition in the first movie. 

Upon arriving back on Earth the apes are taken in by the government, Dr. Milo is accidently killed early on (this may or may not have been solely related to actor Mino's hating being in the ape makeup) and the film becomes an inversed parallel of the first movie. The surviving apes befriend a par of sympathetic scientists (Bradford Dillman and Natalie Trundy) and in this case become beloved by the public when it is realized they can talk, however the presidents chief science advisor Dr. Otto Hasslein (Eric Braden playing a character referenced but not seen in the first movie) is suspicious and wants to sterilize or even kill the apes upon learning that Zira is pregnant.

This film begins a time paradox that either starts, or at least re reroutes and accelerates events that will lead the human dominated Earth to become a planet of the apes. While the films later half is at least semi heavy, the first half has much fun fish out of water stuff, with the Apes adjusting to a commenting on the contemporary  world. I had seen probably 85% of this movie before, all but the beginning, and this probably the best of the sequels, it has a real charm to it. ***