Matt Reeves closes the arc he inherited. War for the Planet of the Apes, released by 20th Century Fox on July 14, 2017, is the third film in the reboot series and the ninth Planet of the Apes picture overall. It runs 140 minutes. It is a war film that spends most of its time on grief.
Andy Serkis returns as Caesar, the ape leader who has carried this trilogy since 2011. Woody Harrelson plays the Colonel, the human commander hunting him. Steve Zahn joins as Bad Ape, an intelligent ape raised in isolation. The tagline promises “For freedom. For family. For the planet.”
This is the strongest of the three reboot films, and the reason is simple: it stops pretending the war is winnable.
Trailer, via Planet of the Apes.
Caesar Loses Cornelia and Blue Eyes
The story is set in 2028, two years after the Battle of San Francisco. An American battalion called Alpha-Omega hunts Caesar’s colony, aided by apes the soldiers call “donkeys.” A platoon hits an ape outpost. The apes repel it and kill all but four humans and a gorilla named Red.
Caesar releases the human captives as a peacekeeping gesture. Red escapes after attacking Winter, an albino gorilla in the tribe. That mercy costs him everything.
Caesar’s son Blue Eyes and Rocket return from scouting to report an oasis that could serve as a safer home. That night, the Colonel leads a raid on the colony. He kills Cornelia and Blue Eyes, mistaking the son for the father. Cornelius, Caesar’s younger son, survives by hiding. The Colonel escapes.
Reeves, who co-wrote the script with Mark Bomback, stages the raid as the film’s turning point. It sets its terms: this is not a battle for territory, it is a man and an ape each carrying a dead child.
The Colonel Builds a Wall and a Doctrine
Harrelson’s Colonel is the franchise’s most interesting human villain because he is not a scientist or a general. He is a true believer. He is heading north to meet the rest of the military forces, and he executes his own soldiers who have gone mute — the same condition that afflicts the girl Caesar’s group finds.
That detail matters. The virus that made the apes smart is now taking human speech, and the Colonel would rather kill his own troops than accept it. Harrelson plays him quiet and certain. He gets a wall, a doctrine, and a slow collapse.
Maurice Takes Guardianship of a Mute Girl
Caesar, Rocket, Maurice, and Luca split off as decoys while the tribe travels to the oasis. In an abandoned village, Caesar kills a human in self-defense and finds the man’s mute daughter. Maurice takes guardianship of her with Caesar’s consent and gives her a rag doll. Amiah Miller plays the girl, Nova.
Karin Konoval’s Maurice has been the trilogy’s conscience since Dawn, and this is the role’s fullest use. He does not argue with Caesar about revenge. He simply adopts the child the war produced and waits.
Bad Ape Steals the Show
Caesar’s group chases a horse thief and finds Bad Ape, another intelligent ape who grew up alone. Steve Zahn plays him as a nervous talker, a creature who learned language without ever learning company.
The film needs him. War for the Planet of the Apes is grim for long stretches, and Bad Ape is the only thing in it that is allowed to be funny. Zahn keeps the performance small enough that it never breaks the film’s tone.
Winter Betrays the Colony
The group encounters Winter, now working for Alpha-Omega after giving away their hideout. He faked the attack by Red and let him escape. Confronted, Winter reveals the Colonel is heading north to meet the rest of the military forces. Caesar stops him from alerting the soldiers and accidentally kills him in retribution for his wife and son.
That killing is the film’s hinge. Caesar spends the rest of the runtime becoming the thing he is fighting, and the film knows it. Toby Kebbell returns as Koba.
What the Trilogy Built
| Film | Year | Director | Caesar’s arc |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rise of the Planet of the Apes | 2011 | Rupert Wyatt | Caesar learns language and loses his home |
| Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | 2014 | Matt Reeves | Caesar builds a tribe and fights Koba |
| War for the Planet of the Apes | 2017 | Matt Reeves | Caesar avenges his family and ends the war |
The table shows what the reboot series did across three pictures: it kept one character at the center and let him age. Serkis’s Caesar in War moves like a leader who has been carrying weight for years. The performance is motion capture, and it is still the most complete acting in the film.
Reeves took over the series with Dawn and finishes it here. Development on War began in January 2014, after Fox saw Reeves’s cut of Dawn. A conditional 2016 release was announced in May 2015, which pushed writer and director into a faster pre-production relationship. Casting ran from August to October 2015. Principal photography started soon after and wrapped in March 2016, with locations including the Lower Mainland and the Kananaskis Range.
The film bears similarities to Battle for the Planet of the Apes (1973), with an emphasis on how apes and humans develop and interact. That influence shows in the final act, where the two species are pitted against each other in a battle that will determine the fate of both and the future of the planet.
War for the Planet of the Apes Grosses $490 Million
War for the Planet of the Apes grossed over $490 million and received nominations for Best Visual Effects and Best Special Visual Effects. It premiered July 10, 2017, at the SVA Theatre in New York City. Those numbers and honors are accurate and beside the point.
What matters is that this is a blockbuster that spends its budget on quiet. The Colonel’s compound, the desert crossing, the mute girl with the rag doll — none of it is spectacle for its own sake. Its strongest stretch is everything with Harrelson, who makes a fanatic feel like a person rather than a symbol.
The reboot series ends here with Caesar’s story closed. That is the right call. Three films is enough to make an arc, and War for the Planet of the Apes finishes it. 8.2 of 10.
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