All 10 “Planet of the Apes” movies, ranked from worst to best

A movie built on one of the great twists in movie history doesn’t seem like an obvious candidate to inspire a decades-long franchise spanning 10 movies and counting. After all, it’s not as if The Sixth Sense was followed by senses 7 through 15, or The Usual Suspects kept getting rounded up over and over.

Yet Planet of the Apes, the landmark 1968 sci-fi movie based on Pierre Boulle’s 1963 novel, somehow eclipsed its trademark twist and distinctive Charlton Heston performance to become one of Hollywood’s longest-running sci-fi franchises, predating the likes of Star Wars and Alien by years. (There are technically more Star Wars movies, but Apes has a nine-year head start in terms of pure time.)

It’s gotten there by largely avoiding the trap of remaking the original story, in which an astronaut (Heston) crash-lands on a mysterious world in which apes are the dominant species and humans are subjugated, nonverbal creatures. Though the movie was straight-up remade in 2001, even that version changes plenty of details (not least, the ending). In general, the Apes series has been about building on that original concept, expanding, revising, and reimagining it as needed through an initial five-movie series, a one-off remake, and a reboot series launched in 2011.

The original film’s combination of Hollywood-crafted adventure, mystery, and social commentary turned out to be a surprisingly flexible formula. It built something with ingredients that could be regularly adjusted, from fluctuating budgets to the echoes of our own sociopolitical reality.

Of course, just as in the perpetually strife-ridden societies depicted in the films, true equality can be difficult to achieve. Some installments have aged better than others — though all remain at least entertaining enough for a single watch. Here’s a rundown of which Planet of the Apes films stand the tallest.