Roddy McDowall takes you, film by film, from production meetings to make-up sessions, then right onto the movie set to see the actual filming of the science fiction masterpiece. The most comprehensive history of Planet of the Apes ever created, this fascinating 127-minute documentary explores one of the most imaginative and influential series in movie history.

James Parker and Harry Holt are on an expedition in Africa in search of the elephant burial grounds that will provide enough ivory to make them rich. Parker's beautiful daughter Jane arrives unexpectedly to join them. Jane is terrified when Tarzan and his ape friends abduct her, but when she returns to her father's expedition she has second thoughts about leaving Tarzan.

Harry Holt returns to Africa with his friend Martin Arlington to head up a large ivory expedition.

In the prehistoric world, a Cro-Magnon tribe depends on an ever-burning source of fire, which eventually extinguishes. Lacking the knowledge to start a new fire, the tribe sends three warriors on a quest for more. With the tribe's future at stake, the warriors make their way across a treacherous landscape full of hostile tribes and monstrous beasts. On their journey, they encounter Ika, a woman who has the knowledge they seek.

The first film adaptation of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle's classic novel about a land where prehistoric creatures still roam.

A group of student researchers go camping deep in the Florida Everglades. While entering forbidden Native American territory after being advised not to, the group encounters the infamous Swamp Ape.

When fugitive human astronaut Virdon is shot, his chimp companion Galen must charm an old flame into accepting that a book on human surgery is no hoax. Meanwhile, their friend Burke is captured by the ape authorities and is to be brainwashed by a brilliant ape scientist named Wanda. [The fourth of five telefilms edited from episodes of the 1974 TV series; this film combines the episodes "The Surgeon" and "The Interrogation"]

The fugitives Burke, Virdon and Galen try to save the life of a human blacksmith and his son, whom gorilla leader Urko has threatened with death should his horse lose another race. The trio also attempt to expose a crooked gorilla by framing him in a plot to kill Urko. [The third of five telefilms edited from episodes of the 1974 TV series; this film combines the episodes "The Horse Race" and "The Tyrant"]

When the astronauts Burke and Virdon, with their chimp companion Galen, are captured in a fishing village that employs human slave labor, they must prove their worth as fishermen or be sacrificed to the 'gods of the sea,' or what the men call sharks. Escaping from the forced labor camp, the trio become involved in a plot to develop a glider to drop a fragmentation bomb on the gorilla council. [The fifth of five telefilms edited from episodes of the 1974 TV series; this film combines the episodes "Tomorrow's Tide" and "Up Above the World So High"]

When an escaped circus gorilla appears to have gone on a murderous rampage, a threatened attorney calls on the detective trio of Garrity, Harrigan and Mullivan to act as bodyguards. In short order, we discover that there is more to the attorney than meets the eye, and the ape may be innocent after all. When a pretty young heiress faces peril, it's up to our heroic trio to save the day.

In the 1930s a trio of unlikely adventurers set off to find a heretofore uncharted land. It has existed in stories and myths for centuries and is believed to be somewhere around the North Pole. Hounded by an overambitious agent of the USSR, the explorers end up finding much more than they ever expected.

The power goes out on the SOL, to which Servo and Crow take full advantage of by looting the satellite. Pearl unveils her plan to take over the world one person at a time and spontaneously starts off with Servo. While dealing with bad cases of Hockey Hair (to which Mike is conveniently immune), Servo defends Canada's honor with a song of tribute, which eventually turns violent when Mike and Crow join in. Mike's immunity to Hockey Hair leads to a case of Grizzled Old Prospector Syndrome and the bots form a muffin-based sewing circle cult while still remembering the need for human sacrifices. Meanwhile, Pearl almost takes over her first follower before he's suddenly taken over by the Traveler's Group.

What if you woke up one morning and your neighbourhood had been overrun by baboons? Would you go Bananas?