Planet of the Apes Reboot Series

Rise of the Planet of the Apes

In San Francisco, pharmaceutical chemist Will Rodman tests the viral-based drug ALZ-112 on chimpanzees at the biotechnology company Gen-Sys to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. ALZ-112 is given to a chimpanzee named Bright Eyes, greatly increasing her intelligence. However, during Will's presentation for the drug, Bright Eyes is forced from her cage, goes on a rampage, and is shot to death. Will's superior Steven Jacobs terminates the project and has the chimpanzees euthanized. However, Will's assistant Robert Franklin reveals that the reason for Bright Eyes' rampage was that she had recently given birth. Will reluctantly takes in the infant chimpanzee, eventually naming him Caesar. Discovering that Caesar has inherited his mother's intelligence through being exposed to ALZ-112, Will decides to raise him. Three years pass, Caesar becomes highly intelligent; he can communicate through sign language. Will begins a romantic relationship with primatologist Caroline Aranha. Will and Caroline introduce Caesar to the redwood forest at Muir Woods National Monument so he can roam. Meanwhile, Will treats his father, Charles, with ALZ-112, which seems to restore his cognitive ability.
Five years later, Caesar, now entering adulthood, questions his origins and place in the world. Charles's condition returns as his immune system becomes resistant to ALZ-112. Caesar injures an aggressive neighbor, Douglas Hunsiker, while defending a confused Charles. The local animal control subsequently takes him to an ape shelter. Caesar is tormented by the alpha chimpanzee, Rocket, and the chief guard, Dodge Landon. However, Caesar befriends Maurice, a former circus orangutan who also knows sign language. Caesar learns to unlock his cage, gaining free access to the common area. With the assistance of Buck, a gorilla, Caesar claims the position of alpha. Meanwhile, Jacobs clears the development of a more powerful gaseous version of the drug, the ALZ-113, when Will tells him it can improve intelligence. Will takes the drug home for his father, but Charles declines further treatment and dies overnight. After attempting to test the drug on a bonobo named Koba, Franklin accidentally becomes exposed to ALZ-113 and becomes ill. Despite the risks, Jacobs orders continued trials and Will consequently quits his position.
Attempting to warn Will at his home, Franklin sneezes blood onto Hunsiker and is later discovered dead. Will attempts to reclaim Caesar, but Caesar decides to stay. He escapes and steals the ALZ-113 canisters from Will's house and enhances the intelligence of the other apes in the shelter. When Dodge attempts to get him back into his cage, Caesar reveals he can talk; while freeing the apes, he fights with Dodge, whose cattle prod electrocutes him. The apes flee, releasing Koba and the remaining apes from Gen-Sys, and freeing additional apes from the San Francisco Zoo. A battle ensues as the apes fight their way past a police blockade on the Golden Gate Bridge in an attempt to escape into the redwood forest. To save Caesar, Buck sacrifices himself to down a helicopter. Koba pushes the helicopter, with Jacobs still inside, into the sea.
As the apes find their way into the forest, Will finds and warns Caesar that the humans will hunt them, begging him to return home. Caesar hugs him and says he is home. Will accepts Caesar's wishes and the apes embrace their new lifestyle in the forest. Meanwhile, Hunsiker, now infected with ALZ-113, arrives at San Francisco International Airport for his flight. He eventually spreads the virus around the planet, leading to a deadly pandemic.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Ten years after a "Simian Flu" pandemic, humans are nearly extinct, with only about 1 in 500 (0.2%) genetically immune. Human civilization was destroyed after societal collapse. The apes, all bestowed with genetically enhanced intelligence by the virus, establish a colony in the Muir Woods National Monument, led by Caesar, along with his lieutenants Maurice, Rocket and Koba.
A group of humans, led by Malcolm, unknowingly enters the apes' territory while searching for a hydroelectric dam to restore power to their community in San Francisco's ruins. Carver, a member of Malcolm's group, injures Ash, Rocket's son, in fear. Malcolm manages to prevent further escalation, and Caesar orders the humans to leave. Prompted by Koba, Caesar brings his army to the human community to show strength. Caesar announces that, while the apes do not want war, they will fight to defend themselves; he demands the humans stay in their territory. Malcolm convinces Dreyfus, the community's leader, to let him take a small team into the forest to negotiate with the apes and access the dam. Eventually, Caesar lets them work on the generator, on the condition that they surrender their guns. As they work together, Malcolm, his nurse wife, Ellie, and his son, Alexander, bond with the apes. The truce briefly falls apart when Carver is discovered to have kept a hidden shotgun and is thus forcibly sent away, but trust is restored when Ellie saves Cornelia, Caesar's ill wife.
Presuming that the apes may attack, Dreyfus arms the community with the munitions at the Fort Point armory. Koba, who has a vendetta on humans for torturing him in laboratories, discovers the armory and confronts Caesar, accusing him of caring more about humans than apes. Caesar beats Koba in response but refrains from killing him. Koba kills two guards in the armory to steal a rifle and returns home. He secretly kills Carver after the humans repair the generator. Koba uses their celebration to covertly set fire and shoot Caesar, who falls into the underbrush. Koba frames the humans for Caesar's apparent death and the fire to justify war. Taking command, he leads the ape army to San Francisco, where they plunder the armory and mount a full-scale assault on the humans. Despite taking heavy casualties, the apes breach the building and imprison the humans as Dreyfus flees. Koba kills Ash for refusing to kill humans and imprisons all other apes loyal to Caesar, including Rocket, Maurice, and Luca.
Malcolm's family finds a severely wounded Caesar and transports him to his former home in San Francisco. After sneaking back into the settlement for medical supplies, Malcolm encounters Blue Eyes, Caesar's young son, who accompanies him to Caesar after learning his father is alive. After learning that Koba shot Caesar, Blue Eyes reconciles with his father, who admits Koba's actions showed him how apes can be as violent as humans. The trio returns to the community and frees the imprisoned humans and apes. After escorting the apes into the tower, Malcolm finds Dreyfus, who has rigged the tower base with explosives, and reveals that his men contacted a military base. Malcolm holds Dreyfus at gunpoint to give Caesar enough time to retake command by confronting Koba at the top of the tower. In an attempt to kill the apes, Dreyfus detonates explosives to destabilize the building, dying in the process. Caesar defeats Koba and lets him fall to his death, declaring him no longer an ape for his sins.
Malcolm warns Caesar that the human military is coming. Believing that the humans will never forgive the apes for their attack, Caesar tells Malcolm to leave with his family for safety before the fighting begins. He then addresses the apes as they prepare for the war to come.

War for the Planet of the Apes

Two years after the Battle of San Francisco, an U.S. Army battalion known as "Alpha-Omega" aided by apes derogatorily called "donkeys", searches for Caesar's ape colony. A platoon assaults an ape outpost, but the apes repel the attack and kill all but four humans and a donkey gorilla named Red. Caesar releases the human captives as a gesture of peace, but Red escapes after attacking Winter, an albino gorilla in Caesar's tribe. Caesar's young son Blue Eyes and Rocket return from a scouting expedition and report that they found an oasis that could serve as a safer home. That night, the Colonel of Alpha-Omega leads a team to raid the colony, killing Cornelia and Blue Eyes and mistaking the latter for Caesar. Cornelius, Caesar's younger son, survives the attack by hiding while the Colonel escapes.
Caesar, followed by Rocket, Maurice, and Luca, decide to serve as decoys while the tribe journeys to the oasis. In an abandoned village, Caesar kills a human in self-defense and finds his mute daughter, whom Maurice - with Caesar's consent - takes guardianship of, giving her a rag doll. They encounter Winter, now working for Alpha-Omega after giving away their hideout, faking the attack by Red, and letting him escape, and confront him. He reveals that the Colonel is heading north to meet up with the rest of the military forces. Caesar prevents him from alerting the soldiers, but accidentally kills Winter in retribution for his wife and son. As they follow the Colonel, Caesar's group discovers several dead soldiers executed by their own troops; a fatally wounded survivor is revealed to be mute, just like the girl.
Caesar's group chases someone who has stolen one of their horses and discovers the thief is another intelligent ape, Bad Ape, who grew up in isolation. He leads them to a former weapons depot-turned-quarantine facility in the mountains that serves as the militia's base. Soldiers kill Luca, and an enraged Caesar tells Maurice, Rocket, Bad Ape, and the mute girl to turn back. Caesar tries to infiltrate the base alone, but he finds his tribe captured and forced into labor there before Red catches him. Caesar deduces that the Colonel and militia are using the apes to barricade the facility to fend off the incoming military forces, which intend to attack rather than reinforce the militia.
The Colonel reveals that the Simian Flu virus has mutated, causing infected humans to devolve into primitive animals and lose their intelligence and ability to speak. After killing his infected son, he ordered his own troops to kill any carriers before they could infect others. This led to a conflict with his superiors, who believed the disease could still be cured, and were coming to forcibly relieve the Colonel of his command. The Colonel has Caesar tortured, starved, and leaves him exposed to the cold. The mute girl, whom Maurice names Nova, sneaks into the facility to feed Caesar. Rocket lets himself be captured to keep Nova from being seen, so he and Caesar can plan an escape. The Colonel later confiscates the doll Nova left for Caesar, but the other apes escape via an underground tunnel.
The military arrives and attacks the facility, and the apes are caught in the crossfire. During the chaos, Caesar sneaks into the Colonel's quarters to kill him, only to find that the virus has infected him after handling Nova's doll. Caesar refuses to kill the Colonel, instead allowing him to kill himself. Caesar then attempts to destroy a fuel tank but is wounded by Preacher, a sergeant he released earlier, with a crossbow. At the sight of the apes being killed, Red redeems himself by killing Preacher with a grenade launcher before being executed. Caesar blows the fuel tank, causing an avalanche that buries both armies as he flees up the trees with the rest of the apes and Nova.
The apes and Nova resume their journey to the oasis. As they arrive, Maurice discovers Caesar's wound and promises that Cornelius will know who his father was and what he did for the apes. With his colony safe in their new home, Caesar passes away peacefully.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes

Generations after Caesar's death, apes have become the dominant species on Earth, while surviving humans have become feral.
Noa, a young chimpanzee from a falconry-practicing clan, prepares for a coming-of-age ceremony by collecting eagle eggs with his friends, Anaya and Soona. A human scavenger follows Noa home and inadvertently cracks his egg during a scuffle, before fleeing. While searching for a replacement egg, Noa encounters ape raiders with electric staffs. While Noa hides from them, the apes follow his horse back to his clan. Noa hurries home to find his village burning; the gorilla general Sylva kills Noa's father, Koro, before dropping Noa from a high platform.
Noa awakens to find that his clan has been abducted. He buries Koro and sets out to rescue his clan. Noa is joined by Raka, an orangutan, who tells Noa about Caesar. The apes notice the human scavenger is following them and Raka offers her food and a blanket, naming her Nova. When the trio encounters feral humans with zebras, Sylva's raiders attack them. Noa and Raka rescue Nova, who to their surprise, is intelligent and can speak. She reveals that her name is Mae and that the raiders took Noa's clan to a beachfront settlement outside an old human vault. As they cross a bridge, they are ambushed by Sylva. In the ensuing fight, Raka saves Mae from drowning, but is swept away by the rapids. Noa and Mae are captured and taken to the apes' settlement.
Noa reunites with his clan and is introduced to the apes' king, Proximus Caesar. Proximus has enslaved other clans, forcing them to work on opening the vault so that he can access the human technology locked inside. Proximus invites Noa to dinner with Mae and Trevathan, another speaking human, who teaches Proximus about human history. Proximus believes that Noa's intuitiveness could help open the vault and warns him that Mae only has her own agenda. Noa confronts Mae, demanding the truth in exchange for help. Mae discloses knowledge of a hidden entrance to the vault and seeks a book capable of restoring speech to humans. Noa agrees to help her enter and destroy the vault. Noa, Mae, Soona and Anaya secretly plant explosives around the sea walls that protect the settlement. Trevathan catches them and intends to warn Proximus, but Mae strangles him to death.
The group enters the vault, finding weapons and Mae's "book", which is actually a satellite decryption key. The apes discover picture books depicting humans as the once-dominant species and apes in cages at a zoo. As the group makes their way out of the bunker, they are confronted by Proximus and his followers. Lightning, one of Proximus's lieutenants, threatens to kill Soona, but Mae kills him with a handgun and triggers the explosives; flooding the bunker with the apes inside. Mae flees the settlement while the apes climb to higher ground through the bunker. Noa is pursued by Sylva, whom he traps and leaves to drown. Noa then escapes the bunker but is attacked by Proximus. Noa leads his clan in summoning their eagles to attack Proximus and send him falling from a cliff into the sea.
As Noa's clan returns to rebuild their home, Mae arrives to bid farewell to Noa, secretly holding a handgun behind her back. She explains that she destroyed the bunker to prevent the apes from obtaining its weapons. Given their disparities, Noa and Mae question whether apes and humans can co-exist peacefully. As Noa takes Soona to look through a telescope that he had found, Mae travels to an intelligent human settlement at a satellite base. She delivers the decryption key which allows them to reactivate the satellites and make contact with another human settlement.