The story culminates in a three-way conflict between the invading ape army, the psychic mutants, and the astronauts.
: 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 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.
: 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
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:
: A second spacecraft crash-lands on Earth in the year 3955. The sole survivor, Brent (James Franciscus), was sent on a rescue mission to find Taylor. He encounters Nova, who is wearing Taylor's dog tags, and they travel to Ape City together. Key Plot Developments