A lot less poky than the original, and generally more entertaining.Taylor (Charlton Heston) and Nova (Linda Harrison) ride across the Forbidden Zone. Taylor stumbles into the hide-out of some radiation-scarred mutants who presumably survived the nuclear holocaust. They worship a big atomic bomb. The lonely Nova meets another astronaut, Brent (James Franciscus), who's less condescending towards her than Taylor was, though he does try to kill her a couple of times under the telepathic influence of the mutants.
Meanwhile, a cadre of gorillas led by Dr. Zaius (Maurice Evans) and the warmonger General Ursus (James Gregory) delve into the Forbidden Zone looking for Brent and Nova. There's some funny, dated social commentary (the pacifist chimpanzees hold a sit-in peace protest against the gorillas) and a typical 1970 ending in which the bomb is detonated and a narrator intones, "An insignificant green planet is dead."Big Chuck was finished with the 'Apes' saga but returned the next year in another post-apocalypse cult favorite, 'The Omega Man.'
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