Forewarning: I am about to sum up three movies in shitty little paragraphs and leave a lot of details out, but they do contain spoilers (!!). So just in case anyone was wondering, this franchise is 46 years in the making. Starting in 1968 when director Franklin J. Schaffner brought this magnificent story to life, we are introduced to the species that is smarter than the average man. After Charlton Heston's spacecraft crash landed on what is 3879 New York City: a world where humans scavenge like animals and apes study how these beasts work.
So all of these new Planet of the Apes movies that are being released are considered prequels to this classic. The 2011 film Rise of the Planet of the Apes (WOW SO MANY PREPOSITIONS) introduced us to the character of Caesar. A genetically mutated chimp who contained genes that were affected by practice drug that was supposed to cure Alzheimer's disease, Caesar is far more than your average primate. He learns sign language easily and finds it easy to communicate and empathize (never understood the science behind the empathy) with the humans around him. The drug increased his brain power, as it would do to an Alzheimer patient, and because there was no brain damage to repair, it only made him stronger. He grew up with a loving family and was sent away for simply trying to protect his loved ones. While with animal services he is treated like a lesser being, instead of the loving family member he was at his home. This makes him hate humans, and teach the other apes to rebel and break out, and then roam free. Thus the rising.
In the third and newest installment of this franchise, the apes that broke out of the animal shelter and everywhere else they were being held captive live a happy and carefree life, where everyone bows down to Casesar because he was smart enough to teach them that they were their own person and not just some pet for a human. A little self-respect never hurt anyone, honestly. Meanwhile in the human world a virus accidentally created by the "father" of Caesar has spread and killed almost every single human being on the planet (THIS WAS NOT THE APES' FAULT, remember that. "Ape good"). The apes have created a colony in a deserted town/forrest. The few remaining humans in San Francisco are running out of power FAST and they need to use the dam within the ape colony to generate power for their itty bitty city. Caesar, who is basically king of this colony tentatively allows the humans to use the dam under constant supervision, and on the condition that they hand over their guns. One ape, Koba, rebels against his leader Caesar because he was a lab ape, and only knows humans have the power to hurt apes. Koba ends up betraying Caesar by using a gun to try to assassinate him, and then blaming it on the humans. The apes then have reason to believe that they should attack all of the humans and follow only Koba's orders. They attack the city of San Francisco with stolen guns and tanks and whatever else an ape might find "cool."Unfortunately for Koba, Caesar lived through the attack, knew he was betrayed, and rose back to power, setting free all of the humans that Koba thought were evil, and taking care of Koba (hopefully) once and for all. (Wow, what a weird saying. )
YAY LET'S ANALYZE NOW
So there are a lot of really obvious juxtapositions in Planet of The Apes, and Rise of the Planet of the Apes. The humans are kept in cages and medically tested instead of medically testing the apes. The apes think that humans are the lesser species, where we think that apes are less intelligent. The ape that did really well in her testing was nicknamed Bright Eyes, just as the blonde hair, blue eyed, intelligent human was called in the original. At one point there is a newspaper shown with the headline being something along the lines of losing track of a spaceship, around the same time that the original spaceship in The Planet of the Apes would have gone missing, which just reiterates that although these two worlds look completely different they are the same storyline.
Loyalty was a big theme in the third movie. Chimps have to ask their leaders for permission or forgiveness whenever want/say something that the leader might disagree with. Caesar has a large following of apes that all agree that he knows best. He taught them sign language, and how to treat themselves. He also tried to teach them that apes do not kill apes, and that apes are good. The idea that apes do not kill apes stems from the idea that no matter what apes had to stick together. They were brothers, and they always stood as one against everyone else. However Casesar realized that loyalty does not depend on species (or race?? hmmm think about that), but on those who treat you with the respect that you deserve. At the end of this movie Caesar pushes Koba off of a ledge to his death. A scene almost IDENTICAL of Koba's last appearance in the Rise of the Planet of the Apes. (These images aren't exact, but you get the gist.)
The second one image shows that their law "apes don't kill apes," can be changed based on the way someone treats someone. The first image shows Koba throwing the human who was in charge of him off of the Golden Gate Bridge. The second image shows Caesar, the leader of Koba, throwing Koba off of the edge of a tower. "My my how the turn tables" -Michael Scott. Loyalty to fellow apes only works when apes respect each other.
The movie ended with the theme of forgiveness. Every ape bowed down to Caesar and held out their hand for him to forgive them. Kind of an odd theme to end with when you are making sequels? Because forgiveness normally indicates closure, but, whatever; I'm not complaining.
Caesar does say at the end of the movie that the war has already started. Ape will forget, but human will not. (So true.) Also interesting was the fact that this took place in America, specifically San Francisco. I know it makes sense geographically because of the last movie, but if the virus originated in that city and potentially wiped out almost the entire human race, how did a colony survive in the place it first started? That made me think that a lot of the underlying themes were about how Americans treated outsiders, and is a country that doesn't take the blame for their mistakes. We teach other people that they should be dependent on us, as Americans: that they aren't as smart or capable as we are. It was only a matter of time before they revolted.
All in all, they are a great movie series. I would recommend them to anyone who wants to watch seven hours of apes destroying humans. I will leave you with this image of an ape on a horse with two machine guns. AMERICA.
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