Badass Digest Episode 35: ESCAPE FROM THE PLANET OF THE APES

Oh hey, it's more Planet of the Apes! One of the perks of having your own YouTube show is that you get to talk about whatever the hell you want to talk about, and it turns out I want to talk about the Planet of the Apes movies all the time. This is our third 'Deep Dive' episode about the series, this time focusing on Escape From The Planet of the Apes. There are spoilers within, but it's important to note that this movie is like 42 years old, so if you haven't seen it yet that's on you.

When I was younger I disliked this movie because it's so different from the others; as an old man I like that aspect of it. I like that it's small, that it's about a relationship and that it tackles thorny ethical issues directly, without much scifi parable stuff. I mean, they're still thorny ethical issues about talking apes, but they're much more straightforward this time.

What really appeals to me today about Escape is the way its tone changes drastically. That's a hard thing to pull off in cinema, and I think Escape does it perfectly. What begins as a breezy fish out of water comedy ends up being almost unbearably grim at the end, but the tone shifts so well you never get whiplash from it. 

Expect more Planet of the Apes episodes in the coming months. I don't know the exact future of this show past the fall, so I want to make sure we get to Rise of the Planet of the Apes before then, maybe with a stop along the way for all the weird, abandoned Apes movies that never happened. 

Are you an Escape fan? What's your favorite film in the series? What are your thoughts on the ending of this movie? Let me know in the comments. And please, as always, share this wide and far.