The film ends with a stark narration stating that the planet Earth is now dead.
: Deep underground, they find a society of telepathic human mutants who survived the nuclear holocaust generations earlier. These mutants are horribly scarred and hide their disfigured faces under lifelike masks. They worship a massive, cobalt-cased nuclear weapon they call the "Divine Bomb". The Climax subtitle Beneath the Planet of the Apes
: Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) and his mute companion Nova are traveling through the Forbidden Zone when Taylor mysteriously vanishes into a solid rock wall after witnessing bizarre illusions. The film ends with a stark narration stating
: In Ape City, the gorilla General Ursus calls for a holy war to invade the Forbidden Zone and seize it as a food source, despite the warnings of the orangutan Dr. Zaius. They worship a massive, cobalt-cased nuclear weapon they
In the 1970 sequel , the story picks up immediately after the original film's shocking discovery that the "alien" world is actually a post-apocalyptic Earth. The narrative follows two converging paths: