In 1963, a French author named Pierre Boulle made a little novel called “La Planète des singes” which Translates to “Planet Of The Apes.” Now 60 years later, we have the new film “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” coming out which is already connected to a pre established Trilogy of Planet of the apes films and even before this trilogy there were many more planet of the apes films.
Suffice to say the Franchise that came from that little novel has grown into a worldwide phenomenon. And to prepare you for the new “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” film I’m going to catch you up on the story before this movie, since this film is actually connected to the Trilogy that started in 2011 and ended in 2017.
The Trilogy follows a chimpanzee named Caesar as he is born in a chimpanzee testing chamber. In the first film, 2011’s “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” Humans are testing these chimpanzees to see how their brains react to medicine given to them that should hopefully Help people with Mental diseases Like Alzheimer’s. But after an unfortunate accident that had to do with his mother, little newborn Caesar is taken in by a scientist named William Rodman, played by James Franco, who treats Caesar as a son but is also studying him, as Caesar genetically got the medicine that was given to his mother before his birth.
The Beginning of the movie is mostly focused on James Franco’s character William as we see him deal with the struggles of owning a smart ape and living with his father who has Alzheimer’s. But once Caesar attacks an aggressive neighbor in defense of the grandfather which leads to Caesar being put in an Ape facility, our view of the story shifts from William’s perspective to Caesar’s perspective.
Throughout the rest of the film we see how Chimpanzee testing in the labs is still going on, but unfortunately an accident occurs with a worker not having his mask on and inhaling the toxic fumes of the medicine being used on the chimpanzees.
Back at the ape facility where Caesar is being held we meet other apes who will eventually follow Caesars Lead and become his friends. Their names are Rocket (another chimpanzee) and Maurice (an orangutan)
Later, near the end of the film all the apes in the facility are given the medicine which makes all the apes in the facility very intelligent. Then they escape and gather more apes in the san Francisco area. After they terrorize the city, they head to the woods and decide to live there. Caesar says goodbye to William and he decides he needs to keep his fellow apes safe.
In a post credits scene, we learn that the virus given to the scientist in the accident involving the medicine has killed him but also has now spread to an airplane pilot who lived next door, which leads to the virus going all over the world, making it a global pandemic called the Simian Flu.
The following film released in 2014 called “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” follows Caesar and his followers 10 years after the last movie. Caesar is essentially the king and now lives in the woods with all the other apes. And they create such rules like: apes together strong and ape must not kill ape. The human population on earth is very, very small due to the Simian Flu wiping out most humans on Earth.
Caesar has a family now and is respected by all apes. But eventually a group of humans go into the forest and meet Caesar which leads to a conflict between the humans and the apes. However Caesar doesn’t want war while a Bonobo ape named Koba does, since he was mistreated by humans in labs.
This leads to Koba’s View of Caesar slowly being deconstructed. And so Koba incites conflict between the humans and the apes by framing the humans for the supposed death of Caesar, though he turns out to be ok. This war Koba starts kills many apes. Apes that didn’t have to die, did. At the end of the movie, Caesar kills off Koba. Even Though the apes rule is “Ape must not kill Ape” this choice was made for the good of all apekind.
The next and final film in the trilogy is called “War For The Planet Of The Apes”, released in 2017. This follows the apes 2 years later. The war between the humans and the apes is still going and is getting more ruthless as it goes on. There can be only one winner to this war and whoever doesn’t win risks mass extinction of their species. Some apes have joined the humans side. But once the Leader of the human army kills Caesar’s family, Caesar goes on a quest to hunt him down and put an end to this war.
Maurice and Rocket join the journey, and on the way they find a small human girl named “Nova” and another ape named “Bad Ape”.
Eventually Caesar Finds the humans and meets the leader named “the Colonel”, Played By Woody Harelson. Through much trial and error (and many lives lost) Caesar frees the captured apes at the human’s camp and causes an avalanche that wipes out the human’s camp.
The apes then make a trek to a peaceful valley but Caesar (who has many bullet wounds) dies peacefully as soon as they get there.
So that’s how the trilogy ended, and the movie “Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes” is going to pick up 300 years after the last film. It comes out May 12th 2024 and By the looks of it, humans have become sort of like cows, nonverbal, unintelligent and hunted by the apes. I’m super excited to see the film!
