Subtitle Beneath The Planet Of The Apes -

The story culminates in a three-way conflict between the invading ape army, the psychic mutants, and the astronauts.

: Deep underground, they find a society of telepathic human mutants who survived the nuclear holocaust generations earlier. These mutants are horribly scarred and hide their disfigured faces under lifelike masks. They worship a massive, cobalt-cased nuclear weapon they call the "Divine Bomb". The Climax subtitle Beneath the Planet of the Apes

: As he dies, a despairing Taylor curses humanity and the apes for their mutual destructiveness. With his final strength, he reaches out and detonates the "Alpha-Omega" doomsday bomb. The story culminates in a three-way conflict between

In the 1970 sequel , the story picks up immediately after the original film's shocking discovery that the "alien" world is actually a post-apocalyptic Earth. The narrative follows two converging paths: They worship a massive, cobalt-cased nuclear weapon they

: The mutants use their mind control to force Brent and Taylor—who they have imprisoned—to fight to the death. The duel is only broken when Nova screams "Taylor!", her first-ever spoken word, which distracts the mutants long enough for the men to kill their captor.

The film ends with a stark narration stating that the planet Earth is now dead.