Somewhere in the Universe, there must be something better than man!
Taylor and two other astronauts come out of deep hibernation to find that their ship has crashed. Escaping with little more than clothes they find that they have landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized while apes have learned speech and technology. Taylor is captured and taken to the city of the apes after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes.
Following the events of ''Planet of the Apes '', The sole survivor of an interplanetary rescue mission searches for the only survivor of the previous expedition. He discovers a planet ruled by apes and an underground city run by telepathic humans.
The world is shocked by the appearance of three talking chimpanzees, who arrived mysteriously in a U.S. spacecraft. They become the toast of society, but one man believes them to be a threat to the human race.
In a futuristic world that has embraced ape slavery, Caesar, the son of the late simians Cornelius and Zira, surfaces after almost twenty years of hiding out from the authorities, and prepares for a slave revolt against humanity.
Told as a flashback (continuity) to the early 21st century, with a wraparound sequence narrated by the orangutan The Lawgiver (Planet of the Apes) in "North America - 2670 A.D.," this sequel follows the ape leader Caesar (Planet of the Apes) years after a global nuclear war has destroyed civilization. Living with his wife Lisa (Planet of the Apes) and their son Cornelius, Caesar creates a new society while trying to cultivate peace between the apes and remaining humans. Caesar is opposed by a gorilla named Aldo (Planet of the Apes), who wants to imprison the humans who freely roam Ape City while doing menial labor.
Astronauts Alan Virdon and Pete Burke are thrown 1100 years forward in time to 3085 AD to find evolved apes have become the dominant species and humans their apathetic slaves. Feared by the ape authorities, their plight turns the head of a promising young chimpanzee named Galen, who adopts the heretical idea that maybe humans aren't a lower species and can co-exist with apes as equals. As the three struggle to survive life on the run, a bond of friendship grows between them like an intricate tapestry woven right before our eyes, a multi-threaded miracle born of compassion, respect, and the desire to replace fear with understanding. The series is loosely tied to the original movie series, reusing some footage and the ape makeup (albeit on a lower budget).