Apes together strong! Since its debut on the silver screen back in 1968, the “Planet of the Apes” film franchise has become a cinematic milestone so popular that it’s renowned and referenced to this day. Though it may feel campy to some, the original five films of the series, which spanned from 1968 to 1973, have seen a few television sequels and even remakes, none of which were really successful because of how beloved the move franchise was.
However, in 2011, the franchise received a fresh reboot, introducing itself to the current generation of film lovers. And with the much-awaited “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” just around the corner, if you missed your chance to watch it in theatres but are still looking for a way to catch up, then here’s all you need to know to get ready for the latest instalment.
Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
“Rise of the Planet of the Apes” is easily one of the most iconic entries in the entire reboot franchise that you must watch. The film has an incredible story between a father and a son and the world that they have changed together, for better and worse. Pair this up with groundbreaking motion capture technology at the time, and you easily have a memorable, must-watch film.
The film primarily focuses on two characters: a pharmaceutical scientist named Will (played by James Franco) and his adopted chimpanzee son Caesar (played by Andy Serkis). Will has been pouring years of his time into creating a cure for Alzheimer’s, something he has a personal stake in as he slowly watches his father become a former shell of himself due to the crippling illness. However, Will hits a major breakthrough with a new experimental drug that they have been testing on lab apes that give them a dramatic boost in cognitive functions.
During Will’s meeting, a female ape goes on a rampage in the lab and is shot down before she can escape. He later finds out that she did it to protect her new-born child, Caesar. Seeing signs that Caesar has inherited his mother’s intelligence and is desperate to beat the clock, Will steals some samples of the drug and injects them into his father, resulting in his father showing signs of unprecedented recovery overnight.
Following a series of events, Caesar is placed in a shelter, where other primates bully him and his caretaker tortures him. On the other end, his human family is struggling as the drug’s effects slowly wane, prompting Will to create a far stronger and more experimental gaseous variation of the drug for his father, who dies before it can be administered. After a while, Caesar breaks out of captivity and steals the new drug, which he then distributes to the rest of the primates in the shelter and proceeds to rescue those in the lab, which includes Koba, a veteran test ape who received the latest iteration of the drug. It’s revealed that this drug is fine for apes, but lethal and infectious for humans, setting the stage for the rise of a new dominant species.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” takes place 10 years after the events of the first film and the outbreak of what is now dubbed the Simian Flu. This results in a drastic decline of the human population; however, some still manage to survive, as 1 in 500 people are genetically immune. Apes, particularly Caesar’s clan, are trying to live a peaceful life in the nearby forest and avoid human interaction, but there is some friction when humans triy to trespass into ape territory in hopes of repairing a hydroelectric dam.
Despite previous tensions, Caesar allows the humans to do their work, especially after they help cure his wife, who suffers a postpartum fever after giving birth to Caesar’s second son, Cornelius. Koba, who hates humans for torturing him when he was a laboratory test subject, accuses Caesar of caring more about humans than apes, which results in him receiving a swift beating from the ape alpha. This conflict causes a rift between the two apes that is felt by their entire clan.
As the humans celebrate the repair of the dam, Koba sets fire to his home, shoots and seemingly kills Caesar, then proceeds to blame it all on the humans to justify a war. After a while, Caesar’s family and the remaining human protagonist discovers that Caesar is alive and that Koba orchestrated the attack. Caesar proceeds to kill Koba before any further damage can be done, but it’s too late, as the humans have called in military reinforcements, prompting him to prepare for war.
“War for the Planet of the Apes” (2017)
Set two years after the previous instalment, “War for the Planet of the Apes” follows Caesar as he prepares to face the consequences of Koba’s actions. After Koba’s attack, a human militia hellbent on eradicating apes has been raiding ape colonies for revenge and to help curb the spread of the Simian Flu.
Caesar’s elder son, Blue Eyes, returns from an expedition to report that he and his companions have found an oasis, a safe haven to establish a new colony. But before they can move out, the militia finds them first, and their leader, known throughout the film as Colonel, kills Blue Eyes and Cornelia, mistaking the former for Caesar. Cornilius, Caesar’s younger son, survives the attack.
As the remnant of their colony journeys to the oasis, Caesar and his lieutenants (Rocket, Maurice, and Luca) serve as a decoy and exacts revenge on the Colonel. Along the way, they kill a militiaman in self-defence, but in doing so, they orphan his mute daughter. One of the lieutenants takes the girl under his wing and even gives her a rag doll to calm her down. Further down the road, the party stumbles upon a group of dead soldiers, and one wounded soldier reveals he’s mute like the girl, too.
As they approach the Colonel’s outpost, a patrol ambushes Caesar and Luca, capturing the former and killing the latter. There he meets the Colonel head-on, expressing remorse for killing his family as he was after him. But he also explains that the Simian Flu had mutated, causing the infected humans to become feral. Those who exhibit symptoms, even his own men and son, are to be killed, something that his superiors and the military disagree with.
In captivity, Caesar is tortured and left to starve. The mute girl sneaks into the facility to feed Caesar and leaves her doll behind, something the Colonel later confiscates. Later on, the military arrives and attacks the militia, and in the confusion, Caesar escapes to finally kill the Colonel, only to find him infected with the virus after handling the doll. Caesar refuses to finish the job as that is something the Colonel would want, so instead, allows the Colonel to do the deed himself.
As he escapes, Caesar blows up the militia outpost by setting off a fuel tanker, but he is heavily injured in the process. Despite this, he is still able to journey to the oasis with the newly-liberated apes, and, as they arrive, Maurice discovers Caesar’s injuries and makes a promise to his leader that his remaining son would know who he is and what he has done for his kind before peacefully succumbing to his wounds.
What We Know About The “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” (2024)
Set 300 years after the events of the “War for the Planet of the Apes,” ape civilisation is thriving on the oasis, while humans have reverted to a more primitive state. The story is said to focus on a civil war among the apes as the tyrannical Proximus Caesar (“proximus” means “next” in Greek) expands his borders.
In the midst of it all, the chimpanzee hunter Noa goes on a journey alongside a human woman named Mae, who is capable of speaking despite the presence of the virus.
Directed by Wes Ball, “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” stars Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon and William H. Macy.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes opens nationwide on 9th May 2024
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