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Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: What to Expect

Barely a few hours since the first official poster was revealed; and I couldn’t wait to get this up! Growing up, the Planet of the Apes movies were a big hit –  with Charlton Heston and Linda Harrison, mostly Linda in her skimpy bikini in the role of the very mute ‘Nova’; the whole series really, gave us an alternative reality that was rather, no pun intended, bananas! Still loved all the parts, irrespective of what reviews said et al. I even loved the Tim Burton Planet of the Apes which was released way back in 2001; was very very dissapointed that there was no sequel to it, but after waiting for a decade; in 2011, I was most impressed with ‘The Rise of the Planet of the Apes‘. I think that gave us a true origin story unlike anything else. The post credits teaser at the end of the movie was brilliant; and indication of the future that awaits us.

After looking at the new teaser poster, and slicing and dicing it 100 different ways here is our take on what to expect when the trailer hits next week.

#1. Flasbacks and Fast-forwards

Visit the official site and you will notice the new posters there, don’t worry we have that covered as well. Having said that, there’s also a bunch of images from the previous movie, and they’re captioned ‘Before the Dawn’. While it may be too early to say anything, there’s a strong chance that time-lines could be intertwined in the movie and they could be oscillating before the two eras – “Pre-Dawn” and “Post-Dawn”. Especially look for something that’s completely out of this timeline and more in line with the future.

#2. War & Factions

It’s almost a no brainier; you can see the warpaint on the apes faces ready to go into battle. Take a look away from the synopsis and as ask the question ‘whom’ ? Are they fighting the humans?  – sure the synopsis says so, but are they also fighting amongst themselves? Is this the point where humans are already the endangered and sub-servant species? or just the survivors, now rebels trying to reverse the process? or maybe it’s just time for the apes to establish some sort of hierarchical governance amongst themselves? Hard to say – but very interesting to see how they position this.

Now, I may be way off here – but if the monkeys are fighting for hierarchical governance; then expect several factions of apes – chimps, orangutans, gorillas etc. to be fighting each other. Some what like ‘paradise lost’ for Caesar. If you see Caesar’s war-paint, and symbol on his forehead and compare amongst other apes there; you’ll notice that they vary… although not much, it’s a strong indication that there are groups within their uprising community. This could make for an interesting plot story as ALL Planet of the apes movies have pitted humans against apes. Don’t get me wrong, I still would like see that – but I’d really like to see them establish some sort of connect between Caesars rise to fame, and his intelligence n managing more than just people.

The official synopsis notwithstanding, we believe there’s just more to it then the two sides fighting, but the real question is WHAT causes that fragile peace to break?

A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier.  They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.

#3. Human Presence & No Ruins

While we know they’re at war or will get into war, we also do know that based on the previous movie ending, the humans were slowly dying (or mostly dead) due to the virus that was spreading world wide – but like all ‘good’ movies, there will be people that are immune; and then it’s up to them what they try to do with that – rebels? find a cure? reverse the process? become stronger than the apes? who knows! Watch for electro-shock therapy being administered to a few captured humans – probably something the apes observed from the previous movie, but it could be more directly a nod to “Conquest of the Planet of the Apes,” where apes are trained to be slaves in a dystopian future, and are conditioned with electroshock therapy to fear and hate when a human says the words ‘no’. Which is actually was what Caesar says as his first word.

Like previous movies, the infrastructure created by human civilization, like streets, subways, buildings, vehicles, Statue of Liberty etc. were always found destroyed, you know, because the apes never did get so advanced to learn how to do a handyman’s job. However, here we may see human technology and civilization actually preserved. I’m not saying you’ll see apes driving cars and mending streetlights or washing windows, but it won’t be the ‘I am Legend’ feel to it. There will be some order and some code by which the apes will certainly preserve the progress human civilization has made thus far. Although, this may not be widespread globally, but just in a few pockets. For me, the ending of Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes was the best so far, the very fact that apes, had completely  replaced human civilization, and there was a human that fell from the skies, at just that point, was a thrilling alternative reality notion.

#4. ‘The Forbidden Zone’

Expect some sort of nod to the ‘Forbidden Zone’ – but it could be more than just an area that is ‘forbidden’, there’s a strong possibility that Caesar may have something to do with this – that would certainly make for some story line. Also expect a nod to the Statue of Liberty scene from the original – but only this time, it’s Caesar who’s regretting something that is ilk did. Maybe that is the basis of the war. Also look for the word ‘Icarus’ thrown around – Icarus was the name (fan-given) of the ship in which they first arrived on the planet of the apes. In the previous movie, there’s a brief news clip about Icarus entering the Martian atmosphere. While the apes won’t know this, we certainly know that it’s named after the Greek hero..err..tragic Greek hero.

#5. A Little Less Conversation

Don’t expect the apes to be spewing out fully functional sentences in English (or any other language) and chatting about the weather and the trees – but watch their linguistics evolve through the movie, especially Caesars. There’s a strong possibility that not everyone was equally blessed with the intellect to speak, but just enough to understand and do menial jobs – which is pretty much a given across all Planet of the Apes movies – but how this works in establishing that hierarchical governance we spoke of earlier will need to be seen

BONUS POINT!
The Mars Mission

Don’t you just love getting extra points to read? LOL!

As mentioned earlier, the Mars Mission will play a central role in this movie – how? we don’t know yet, but it could have something to do with the return of man and his rise to power – or this may be what causes that ‘fragile peace’ to break?  or may set the base for future movies. So watch closely for this. There’s a chance that we could see something about ‘The Oberon’ which is a nod to Tim Burton’s movie as well. I also suspect there will be a ‘revelation’ of sorts midway in the movie – something the Apes and humans will fight to leverage.

Well, that’s just a WHOLE lot of speculation we just did – and we’ll revisit this very post again after the trailer is out. Dawn of the Planet of the Apes will be released July 2014, while the film’s teaser trailer is set to hit next Wednesday (December 18).

 

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