Planet of the Apes was the first successful modern science fiction franchise. Starting in 1968 with the classic original film, starring Charlton Heston as an astronaut who finds himself back on Earth in a distant, post-apocalyptic future where apes have become the dominant species, 20th Century Fox produced a total of five Apes films, creating an extraordinary saga that used time travel to loop back on itself and become a self-perpetuating, dystopian future history.
