Caesar (Planet of the Apes)

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Caesar
Planet of the Apes character
Andy Serkis as Caesar in
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014)
First appearanceEscape from the Planet of the Apes (1971)
Last appearanceWar for the Planet of the Apes (2017)
Created byPaul Dehn
Portrayed by
Voiced by
Motion captureAndy Serkis
In-universe information
AliasMilo (original series)
SpeciesEvolved Chimpanzee
Occupation
  • Revolutionary leader
  • Ruler
  • Original series:
  • Circus performer
  • Slave
  • Messenger
  • Scholar
  • Reboot series:
  • Tribal chief
Family
  • Original series:
  • Zira (mother; deceased)
  • Cornelius (father; deceased)
  • Armando (foster father; deceased)
  • Comic series:
  • Tarzan (adoptive brother)
  • Reboot series:
  • Bright Eyes (mother; deceased)
  • Alpha (father; deceased)
  • Will Rodman (adoptive father; deceased)
  • Caroline Aranha (adoptive mother; deceased)
  • Charles Rodman (adoptive grandfather; deceased)
Spouses
  • Original series:
  • Lisa (wife)
  • Reboot series:
  • Cornelia (wife; deceased)
Children
  • Original series:
  • Cornelius II (son; deceased)
  • Reboot series:
  • Blue Eyes (son; deceased)
  • Cornelius (son)
RelativesReboot series:
Lake (daughter-in-law)
Proximus Caesar (claimant descendant)
Origin
  • Original series:
  • San Francisco, California
    ; United States
  • Comic series:
  • Mangani Kingdom; Africa
  • Reboot series:
  • San Francisco, California, United States (West African descent)

Caesar is a fictional character in the Planet of the Apes franchise. He is the leader of the apes in both the original and reboot series. Caesar is portrayed by Roddy McDowall in Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (1972) and Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973); his likeness is reprised in the comic series Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes (2016). Andy Serkis portrayed the character in the reboot series, consisting of Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014), and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).

Caesar is an evolved chimpanzee who is the leader of the ape army, the king of the ape colony, and the patriarch of the royal ape family. In the original series, Caesar is the biological son of Cornelius and Zira, the foster son of Armando, the husband of Lisa, and the father of Cornelius II. In the comic series, Caesar was raised by Cornelius and Zira, along with a human adoptive brother, Tarzan. In the rebooted series, he is the son of Alpha and Bright Eyes, the adoptive son of Will Rodman and Caroline Aranha, and the father of Blue Eyes and Cornelius. Caesar is raised by Will and Caroline after the death of his mother, but is forced to live in captivity at the San Bruno Primate Shelter, after he attacks a neighbor.

Caesar later leads his fellow apes in a rebellion against abusive handlers and the police by unleashing the deadly ALZ-113 virus, which is dangerous to the human population but not the apes. Caesar maintains dominance over his community of intelligent apes while also having to deal with the threat of war against human survivors, who had been pushed to near-extinction due to a pandemic known as the Simian Flu, originating from the ALZ-113 virus.[1]

Background

Original series

Born as "Milo", named after his parents' friend Dr. Milo, Caesar first appeared in

Dr. Otto Hasslein
. As Hasslein killed the infant with Zira deposing of the body, Milo was assumed dead and was raised by Armando as a mute acrobat who was renamed "Caesar".

In Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, two decades after the events in Escape, a now-adult Caesar and Armando maintain a charade by having Armando keep him on a chain as a pet, while Armando secretly educates Caesar on the events that led to the apes' state of slavery. Caesar is taken to a city for the first time and sees groups of apes being dispersed, chimps and orangutans being scolded or punished for honest mistakes or for exhibiting apelike behavior. Upon seeing the barbaric treatments of his fellow apes, he impulsively cries out, "Lousy human bastards!" Armando attempts to convince the police that he was the one who spoke, but Caesar panics and runs away in the commotion with Armando deciding to have him join an arrival shipment of apes while he attempts to bluff his way out of trouble.[2]

Passing his conditioning with flying colors, Caesar is held at an auction and is sold to

Lisa at that time. When Caesar learns that Armando died while in custody, he plots an ape revolt and convinces the other apes to join him. But Caesar is belatedly traced, where he soon gets captured and then gets interrogated and tortured by Breck, who forces him to expose his identity as the offspring of Cornelius and Zira. When Breck is about to execute Caesar, MacDonald excuses himself from the scene and turns off the breaker settings for the electroshock table, where Caesar pretends to be dead before he kills the handler and begins the revolt. Within hours, the city is in flames, the police and military have been beaten down, and the apes are now in control. Caesar predicts that word will spread of his revolution and the same thing will soon happen around the world. Despite MacDonald's pleas to prevent further violence, Caesar declares that humanity will destroy itself and the apes will become the masters of the world, only to cease when Lisa musters the ability to speak, convincing Caesar not to condemn all of humanity.[3]

In

Governor Kolp
who have survived and are living in the city. Meanwhile, Aldo plots to overthrow Caesar and have the gorillas take control of the ape-human village, where Caesar's son Cornelius eavesdrops on Aldo, who kills the young ape in the process. Taking advantage of Caesar's grief and absence, Aldo has all the humans in the village imprisoned and raids the armory to prepare for battle against the mutated humans and to overthrow Caesar.

When Kolp and the mutated humans launch an attack on the village, Caesar and the apes manage to defeat and capture most of them, where Kolp and his remaining forces try to escape but they get killed by Aldo and his troops. Caesar tries to defend the imprisoned humans when Aldo tries to kill the rest of the humans and threatens Caesar. When Virgil reveals that Aldo has killed Cornelius, Caesar becomes furious and chases him up a tree, which results in Aldo falling to his death. Realizing that apes are no different from humans, Caesar agrees with MacDonald that humans are to be treated as equals in order to coexist.

The movie is told as a flashback, where the beginning and ending scene takes place 600 years after Caesar's death and it shows the Lawgiver telling a story to a group of both ape and human children. He tells them the story about how Caesar fought a battle that solidified his position as ape leader and convinced him to give a joint ape-human society a chance, instead of one species dominating the other. Screenwriter Paul Dehn said the tear on Caesar's statue at the end of the film was to tell the audience that Caesar's efforts ultimately failed.[4]

Comic series

In Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes, following an alternate take on Escape from the Planet of the Apes, where Cornelius, Zira and Dr. Milo traveled to late-1800s Africa instead of the 1970s, the apes become the leaders of the Mangani, and Caesar and the human Tarzan are raised as brothers. However, as Tarzan grows up and humans arrive in the jungle, the brothers are separated by slave traders, reuniting only when the war between man and ape takes them from the jungles of Africa to the inner earth realm of Pellucidar.[5]

Reboot series

Caesar is the main protagonist of the reboot series, sharing the previous version's compassionate nature while forbidding his followers from killing innocent humans and those who don't seek to harm them. However unlike his original carnation, he doesn't seek for global conquest and to enslave humanity for he sees both man and apes as unlikely equals, indicating that his bloodline will watch over the humans that survived the Simian Flu, who are now devolved of intelligence and reverted to animal instincts.

First appearing in

Will Rodman, ALZ-112 genetically increases Bright Eyes' intelligence that gets passed onto Caesar as he was still in his mother's womb. When born, Caesar ends up orphaned after his mother is killed trying to protect him, an action mistaken by lab security after she runs amok, which labels the experiment a failure. Caesar is saved by sympathetic ape handler Franklin, after which Will smuggles the little ape out of the lab and takes him back home. Will’s father Charles, who suffers from dementia, names him after Julius Caesar. Discovering that Caesar has inherited his mother's intelligence through being exposed to ALZ-112, Will decides to raise him. Following an incident where he attacks their aggressive neighbor who threatens Charles, Caesar is forced to stay at the San Bruno Primate Shelter, an ape sanctuary where he is tormented by one of the caretakers while gradually taking command of the apes, while also developing a close friendship with a Bornean orangutan
named Maurice. Caesar eventually proves smart enough when he breaks free from his cage, steals the ALZ-113, a stronger version of the intelligence-enhancing formula and releases it among the other captive apes. After saying his first word "No!" in a confrontation with one of the caretakers, Caesar leads the apes out of the sanctuary as they recruit other captive apes from the zoo and from Gen-Sys, rallying them to escape San Francisco and make their way to the Muir Woods while clashing with the police. Once in the Muir Woods, Caesar shares an emotional farewell with Rodman as he decides to live free among his own kind.

In Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, set ten years after the ALZ-113 virus decimated most of the human population, Caesar is now middle-aged, married to Cornelia and has two sons; Blue Eyes and the newborn Cornelius. While assuming the humans to have died out, Caesar discovers that humans are still alive when he sees a group from the remnants of San Francisco entering their territory and personally warns them to stay out. When the group's leader Malcolm explains they are trying to repair a dam to return power to the city, Caesar allows them to do their work. Despite the successful repairing of the dam and the growing friendship between apes and humans, Koba, a bonobo, becomes disillusioned with Caesar after seeing his leader's compassion and respect for the humans. He shoots Caesar, framing the humans, and leads the apes into attacking the humans and their colony. Caesar survives the gunshot and is nursed back to health by Malcolm's wife, Ellie. Blue Eyes helps Caesar free his loyal allies before Caesar confronts Koba and ultimately kills him. As the military arrives, having been called during Koba's takeover, Caesar realizes that the damage has already been done. He convinces Malcolm to flee with his family as he and his clan prepare to fight the military.[7]

In

Nova and an ape hermit named Bad Ape. When Caesar reaches Alpha-Omega's base, a former weapons depot that was turned into a relocation facility when the virus began to spread, he discovers that his clan has been captured by McCullough and he gets captured as well. Witnessing his fellow apes being forced to build a wall, Caesar learns that McCullough is fending off rival military forces who seek to destroy him for killing humans, including his own men, who are infected with a mutated strain of ALZ-113 that is making them devolve into mute primitives. While Caesar is tortured with hypothermia and starvation, Nova sneaks into the facility to give him food and water. Caesar, together with Rocket, Bad Ape and Maurice, free the apes from their cages and help them escape via an underground tunnel that leads out of the facility. Caesar sends his followers away while he confronts McCullough, but the facility is attacked by the military forces. Caesar reaches McCullough, but he spares his life upon realizing that he has succumbed to the infection. He watches McCullough, who would rather die than become a primitive, take his own life. In a battle among Caesar's apes, Alpha-Omega and the military forces, Caesar detonates the facility's fuel supply before joining the others in taking refuge when an oncoming avalanche wipes out the remaining soldiers. Departing the facility, the remaining apes cross the desert and settle in an oasis. With Caesar dying from a wound that Preacher inflicted on him, he accepts his end with grace and dies peacefully while Maurice promises Caesar that Cornelius will know who his father was, what he stood for and what he did to protect the apes.[8]

Reception

Andy Serkis's performance as Caesar in the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy garnered massive critical acclaim.

Academy Award nominations Serkis received for his performance. In particular, fans were upset that Serkis was not nominated for Best Actor for his performance in War For the Planet of the Apes.[14]

Accolades

Serkis's performance as Caesar gained many nominations for several awards. Serkis won the

Best Supporting Actor in a Motion Picture.[18]

For his performance in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, Serkis was nominated for the AACTA International Award for Best Supporting Actor,[19] won the Empire Award for Best Actor,[20] as well as being nominated again for the Saturn Award for Best Supporting Actor.[21]

For his performance in War For the Planet of the Apes, Serkis was nominated for the Saturn Award for

San Francisco Film Critics Circle, Utah Film Critics Association, Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society, and the Houston Film Critics Society award for Best Actor.[22][23][24][25][26][27][28][29][30][31][32]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b Howley, Andrew (2017-07-23). "What 'Planet of the Apes' & Caesar Show Us About Our Own Evolution". National Geographic. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  2. ^ Heritage, Stuart (2014-07-15). "Hail Caesar! But who's the screen king of the Planet of the Apes?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  3. ^ Britt, Ryan (2011-07-27). "Who's Your Caesar? Rewatching Conquest of the Planet of the Apes". TOR. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  4. ^ Russo, Joe. Planet of the Apes Revisited p. 211.
  5. ^ "Tarzan on the Planet of the Apes #1 Review Roundup :: Blog :: Dark Horse Comics". Retrieved 26 January 2017.
  6. ^ "パンケーキのお店に食べに行った". www.apescomics.com. Archived from the original on 27 July 2012. Retrieved 14 December 2017.
  7. ^ Jahme, Carole (2014-07-18). "Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: how scientifically plausible is it?". The Guardian. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  8. ^ Goldberg, Matt (2017-07-14). "'War for the Planet of the Apes': Where Does the Series Go from Here?". Collider. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  9. ^ Alexander, Bryan (2017-07-12). "The unlikely evolution of Andy Serkis' Caesar in 'Planet of the Apes'". USA Today. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  10. ^ Couch, Aaron (2017-07-14). "Why 'Planet of the Apes' Writers Put Christmas Presents from Caesar Under Their Tree". The Hollywood Reporter. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  11. ^ Blair, Elizabeth (2017-07-14). "In 'Planet Of The Apes,' Caesar Embodies A Flawed But Fearless Leader". NPR.org. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  12. ^ Bishop, Bryan (2017-07-18). "How War for the Planet of the Apes turned a visual effect into a reluctant hero". The Verge. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  13. ^ Carlson, Marten (2017-07-13). "Apes Wizard Andy Serkis Explains How He Evolved Caesar". Consequence of Sound. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  14. ^ Desowitz, Bill (2017-07-12). "'War for the Planet of the Apes': Give Andy Serkis an Oscar for Caesar". IndieWire. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  15. ^ "RISE OF THE PLANET OF THE APES and SUPER 8 lead Saturn Awards with 3 awards each". saturnawards.org. July 26, 2012. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  16. ^ "Empire Awards Nominees".
  17. Broadcast Film Critics Association. Archived from the original
    on 2013-01-08. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  18. Satellite Award
    . Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  19. ^ "IF Magazine". Archived from the original on 2015-05-17.
  20. ^ Barraclough, Leo (2015-03-30). "'Interstellar' wins Film, Director at Empire Awards". Variety. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  21. ^ "2015 Saturn Awards". Saturnawards.org. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  22. ^ "2017 WAFCA Award Winners - The Washington DC Area Film Critics Association (WAFCA)". www.wafca.com. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  23. ^ "2017 San Francisco Film Critics Nominate Andy Serkis for Best Actor, go deep in for Shape of Water". December 8, 2017. Archived from the original on February 22, 2018. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  24. ^ "The San Francisco Film Critics Announce Nominations - Awards Daily". December 8, 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  25. ^ "2017 San Diego Film Critics Society Award Winners". December 11, 2017. Archived from the original on December 12, 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  26. ^ "Surreal 'A Ghost Story' is best movie of 2017, says Utah Film Critics Association".
  27. ^ "Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Film Nominations – LA Online Film Critics Society". laofcs.org. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  28. ^ "2017 Los Angeles Online Film Critics Society Nominations". December 4, 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  29. ^ Hipes, Patrick (December 19, 2017). "Los Angeles Online Film Critics Name 'The Shape Of Water' Best Picture". Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  30. ^ "'The Shape of Water' inundates Houston critics' film awards nominations". 12 December 2017. Retrieved 2020-01-11.
  31. ^ "And the HFCS winner is: Lady Bird". www.movingpictureblog.com.
  32. ^ McNary, Dave (March 15, 2018). "'Black Panther,' 'Walking Dead' Rule Saturn Awards Nominations". Variety. Archived from the original on March 16, 2018. Retrieved January 11, 2020.
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