Beneath the Planet of the Apes opens where the first film left off, with Cornelius' voice-over reminding everyone of man's blight upon the world. After a repeat of the last few minutes of the first film, the sequel kicks in with Taylor and Nova wandering through the Forbidden Zone. In the meantime, two astronauts have been sent on a mission from Earth to rescue Taylor's missing astronaut crew from the first film, and as bad luck would have it, crash-land on the planet of the apes. The year, according to the ship log, is 3955. One of the astronauts, known only as the skipper, dies, leaving John Brent (James Franciscus) to survive alone.