Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: A Planet of the Apes Franchise Guide

Starring:
Owen Teague, Freya Allan, Kevin Durand, Peter Macon, William H. Macy

Directed By:
Wes Ball

Release Date:
May 8th, 2024

• Takes place almost 300 years after War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
• Humans have become primitive and mute while apes continue to evolve.
• The new Ape King is twisting Caesar's teachings to gain power over humans and apes until a young chimpanzee defies his king's tyranny and embarks on an epic journey that will determine the fate of apes and humans.
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes could catch up to the 1968 film’s timeline and end with an astronaut discovering the current state of Earth, especially since this is hinted at throughout Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011).

It's been some time since the reboot of 20th Century's Planet of the Apes began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes. That film introduced many moviegoers to one of the longest-running franchises in cinema history. Starting in 1968, Planet of the Apes has become a cultural phenomenon that spawned four sequels, two T.V. shows, a remake, and a beloved reboot film series. This Hollywood science fiction series is monumental, and we thought there'd be no better way to prepare fans for the latest installment than by taking a much-needed look back on the history of Planet of the Apes.

Until now, the reboot films have been vastly different from the original series, which ran from 1968 to 1973, as well as the 2001 Tim Burton/Mark Wahlberg remake. Those six films rely heavily on time travel as a narrative device, while the rebooted films explore the same events but in chronological order. Although the original movies and remake aren’t canon in the rebooted universe, the newer films have directly referenced and, in some cases, significantly improved major plot points from the older films.

We expect this latest movie won't be any different, so we put together a comprehensive guide to the entire Planet of the Apes franchise to give you a full breakdown before the highly anticipated Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes hits theatres!

20th Century Studios

THE ORIGINAL SERIES

• Planet of the Apes (1968)
• Beneath the Planet of the Apes (1970)
• Escape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
• Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972)
• Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973)

Even though many view the original Planet of the Apes films as somewhat outdated, they were responsible for popularizing several familiar sci-fi story tropes and filmmaking techniques still used in Hollywood. The original series comprises five films that follow two timelines. The first begins in Planet of the Apes and continues in the sequel Beneath the Planet of the Apes before the timeline is reset for the following three films.

For those who don’t know, Planet of the Apes is a loose adaptation of a 1963 French novel by Pierre Boulle, La Planète des singes. The book sets up the franchise outline, which takes form in the first film starring Charlton Heston as Captain Taylor, an astronaut who crash lands on a seemingly ordinary Earth-like planet. He quickly learns that it’s anything but ordinary as it’s ruled by hyper-intelligent apes with the power of speech that have enslaved primitive humans. The original Planet of the Apes introduced audiences to franchise-favourite characters, Dr. Cornelius (Roddy McDowall) and Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter), two married chimpanzee scientists who advocate for Taylor's survival after learning of his intelligence.

Eventually, Taylor leaves Ape City and finds the Statue of Liberty buried in sand, revealing he is on Earth thousands of years into the future. This first film was groundbreaking for numerous reasons, including the amount of prosthetics used to realize the humanoid apes. It also introduced many moviegoers to the apocalypse genre with its jaw-dropping twist ending. Taylor’s story and this timeline technically conclude in Beneath the Planet of the Apes when a nuclear warhead from thousands of years earlier is detonated, destroying the planet.

With Beneath's definitive ending, many wondered how the franchise could continue. Audiences were pleasantly surprised, however, when Escape From the Planet of the Apes gave new life to the franchise, figuratively and literally. Reversing the plot of Planet of the Apes, the movie begins with Dr. Cornelius and a pregnant Dr. Zira travelling back in time to Washington, D.C., in 1973. The pair had rebuilt Taylor’s spaceship to escape their timeline’s destruction and hopefully save Earth’s future. Before the government kills them for fear their arrival marks the downfall of humanity, Zira gives birth to their son, Caesar, speeding up the timeline of events. After planting every seed, the final two films, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), finally showed moviegoers how Earth became a planet ruled by apes. In this version, humans take advantage of apes through menial labour after a virus remarkably increases their intelligence. To free the apes, Caesar organizes a rebellion which escalates into war, culminating in a nuclear attack that wipes out most of the human population. This event eventually allowed the advanced apes to rise and become Earth’s dominant species.

20th Century Studios

THE TIM BURTON REMAKE

• Planet of the Apes (2001)

Even though Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes remake starring Mark Wahlberg came out in 2001, 20th Century had been actively developing the project since 1988. Many actors and directors passed on it, like Arnold Schwarzenegger, Peter Jackson, and James Cameron, but the studio finally landed on Burton and Wahlberg to bring this reimagining to life. Despite an overall mixed reaction from fans and critics, they unanimously praised its impressive prosthetic work, creative visual style, and detailed costume design.

Burton's remake is set in 2029 and begins inside a U.S. space station named Oberon. Wahlberg plays Leo Davidson, an astronaut training a chimpanzee, Pericles, to survive a space mission. When Pericles disappears on said mission, Leo chases after him only to crash 3000 years into the future on a planet ruled by an advanced ape civilization.  While this version has different characters than the original, it follows that story closely until it reveals that Leo is on an alien planet named Ashlar. Not wanting to copy the original movie’s ending completely, Burton gave his version a different twist ending.

Leo eventually finds Pericles, but the two are attacked by General Thade (Tim Roth), a highly-ranked chimpanzee military officer convinced humans are the enemy. Leo locks Thade in Oberon’s wreckage before returning to his planet and timeline in Pericles’s space pod. When Leo lands in Washington, D.C., he discovers the Lincoln Memorial is now a memorial dedicated to General Thade. Leo then finds himself surrounded by police, soldiers, and news reporters, all revealed to be apes, confirming that General Thade fixed Oberon and travelled back in time to Earth centuries before Leo returned home, altering the planet’s history.

 
20th Century Studios

THE MODERN REBOOT/PREQUEL SERIES

• Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)
• Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
• War for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
• Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes (2024)

The beloved Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy started in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes and continued in 2014 with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes before it concluded (sort of) in 2017 with War for the Planet of the Apes. Fans may view the trilogy as a prequel to the original movies even though, canonically, they aren’t. Rise of the Planet of the Apes introduced a new version of Caesar, played brilliantly by Andy Serkis, and audiences fell in love with the character. Besides avoiding time travel, Rise also introduced another notable change for the popular sci-fi franchise- transitioning from practical ape costumes to fully rendered, CGI-animated apes. 

If you’ve seen Rise through War for the Planet of the Apes and read this far, you might have noticed plot points throughout the original movies that reappear in the reboot. A significant similarity is the virus explained in Escape from the Planet of the Apes and shown in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. The reboot evolves this idea into The Simian Flu, first introduced in Rise of the Planet of the Apes when a pharmaceutical chemist living in San Fransisco, Will Rodman (James Franco), develops a drug, ALZ-112, in hopes that it will cure Alzheimer’s which his father (John Lithgow) suffers from. The drug is tested on a chimpanzee, Bright Eyes, significantly increasing her intelligence. Unfortunately, she’s put down during an altercation trying to protect the baby chimp she’d given birth to after receiving the drug.

When the program is cancelled, Will takes the baby chimp home to protect him, naming him Caesar. Five years later, Will has been secretly and successfully treating his father with ALZ-112. At the same time, he’s also studying Caesar’s development since he inherited the effects of the drug from his mother and is extremely intelligent. Will begins to notice his father’s Alzheimers resisting ALZ-112 and starts developing a new version. Before he can test it, Will’s father has an altercation with their next-door neighbour. Things quickly turn violent when Caesar steps in, and he’s sent to a primate holding facility under court order. At first, Caesar struggles to bond with the other apes, having never been around his kind before, until he enlists the help of an intimidating gorilla and asserts his dominance. 

Meanwhile, Will continues testing the latest version of the drug, ALZ-113. During the experiment, Will's lab assistant is exposed and, over a few days, becomes severely ill. He then visits Will's house to tell him about the health risk the drug poses but runs into his neighbour and accidentally sneezes blood all over him. Will’s assistant is later found in his apartment, deceased. After seeing other apes abused by the facility employees and experiencing it himself, Caesar makes a quiet escape to Will’s house to steal vials of ALZ-113. Back at the facility, he administers the drug to every ape in captivity with him, and they all band together to break out. Oh, and Caesar speaks for the first time!

A battle on the Golden Gate Bridge ensues as the apes flee to the redwood forest where they can be free. The apes come out on top and make their way to safety. No Planet of the Apes movie would be complete without a surprise, and Rise delivers one in a mid-credit scene: Will’s neighbour, who is now infected, is revealed to be a pilot, beginning the global spread of the ALZ-113 virus.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes takes place ten years after the events of Rise. The ALZ-113 virus, now officially dubbed The Simian Flu, has taken out most of the population with a one in 500 survival rate. The remaining humans are scattered around the world, and the leftover population in San Francisco is gathered in the city centre. At the same time, the apes continue to live in the woods. When humans discover them, their decade of peace ends as members on both sides resist peace.

Two years later, in War for the Planet of the Apes, a U.S. militia group called Alpha-Omega (a reference to the bomb that destroys Earth in Beneath the Planet of the Apes) is determined to exterminate all apes, forcing them to move from their colony to an oasis discovered by Caesar’s eldest son, Blue Eyes. However, Caesar stays behind to get revenge on the militia’s leader, a man known as The Colonel (Woody Harrelson), after he infiltrates their home and murders Blue Eyes and Caesar’s wife.

During their confrontation, the Colonel reveals to Caesar that The Simian Flu has mutated into a virus that can cause human intelligence to regress until primitive. They eventually lose most functionality, including the ability to speak. This development sets the stage for how humans become enslaved by apes in the upcoming sequel, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, just as humans are depicted in the original movie.

During the film’s finale, Caesar allows the Colonel, who is infected with the mutated disease, to take his own life. At the same time, the U.S. army invades the Alpha-Omega base, setting off an avalanche that buries both military forces. After escaping the avalanche, Caesar arrives at his son's discovered haven- now, a new home for all apes. In a devastating turn, Maurice notices a gunshot wound Caesar sustained during battle. Caesar sadly dies from his injuries, leaving the rest of the apes to rebuild their new sanctuary in his honour.