Planet of the Apes

Astronaut George Taylor (Charlton Heston) crash-lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use humans as experimentation and sport subjects. After being captured and befriended by two chimpanzee scientists, Dr. Zira and Galen, Taylor observes an advanced ape society with a strict caste system. The apes consider humans as vermin to be hunted or enslaved, but Taylor convinces one of the apes, Cornelius (Roddy McDowall), that he is intelligent like them. As Taylor tries to prove his origins, he discovers evidence of a technologically advanced human civilization that predates ape history, leading him to believe that this planet is actually Earth, long after a nuclear war.