Ten years have passed after the ape revolution and a brutal nuclear war among humans. Caesar is the leader of the apes and they have taken in humans who have survived the war. They live with each other in peace. Although the gorillas do not like the idea of humans living with apes, especially General Aldo. Caesar travels to the underground ruins of New York, now known as the Forbidden City after a radioactive bomb hit it. Caesar’s friends, Mr. MacDonald and Virgil, accompany him on his journey. They find old footage of Caesar’s parents, Cornelius and Zira, when they were being interviewed about the fate of humanity in the future. They mention that the gorillas were at war, they activated this bomb built by man and it had destroyed the entire planet. Caesar fears what the future holds in stock. Caesar is already concerned that Aldo wants the humans wiped out. Caesar wants to try and make peace. Caesar, MacDonald and Virgil are discovered by the mutants living in the Forbidden City.
The mutants follow them and discover the apes are living in a village. Caesar’s son, Cornelius, overhears Aldo's plan to kill Caesar in order to take over the village. Cornelius gets caught by Aldo. Aldo cuts the branch Cornelius is standing on and lets him fall. Cornelius is later found by his mother, Lisa. Cornelius uses his last breath to warn his father that someone is trying to kill him. Aldo has the humans locked away. The mutants attack the village, but the apes defend themselves and become victory. Caesar wants the humans to be released from their prison, but Aldo won’t allow it. He threatens to kill Caesar if he gets in the way. Virgil informs Caesar that MacDonald told him that he saw cut marks on that branch. Caesar puts it all together and discovers that Aldo killed Cornelius. Aldo is exposed in front of the whole ape tribe for being a murderer. He has broken their most sacred law, “ape shall not kill ape”. Caesar chases Aldo up to a tree, pushes him off and lets him fall to his death. After the apes set the humans free, MacDonald tells Caesar that they have to make a fresh new start and live as equals and Caesar agrees.
Blaine: FOX and the producers felt they had gone too far with “Conquest for the Planet of the Apes” by making it dark. FOX wanted to bring back the family audience with a sequel that was suitable for kids again. Screenwriter Paul Dehn was once again asked to write a script for another sequel. Paul wrote a script called “Rise of the Planet of the Apes” which was about two human armies in a nuclear war and they come across an ape village ruled by Caesar. Caesar is now the lawgiver. In the first two “Planet of the Apes” movies there was a statue of an orangutan and he is known as the lawgiver. But Cornelius and Zira went back in time, Zira gave birth to Caesar in the past, he helped the apes rise up when they were treated like slaves and led them to battle against the humans. So history has changed. In “Rise”, Caesar is this dark leader who hates humans. FOX thought that “Rise” was as cruel as “Conquest” and they didn’t accept it. They told Paul Dehn to think of something lighter, so he wrote a new script called “Battle of the Planet of the Apes”. While developing the script, Paul became ill and couldn’t continue writing the script. Two new writers, Joyce and William Corrington, were hired to work on the script for the fifth “Planet of the Apes” movie. Joyce and William were brought into a screening room to watch the first four “Planet of the Apes” films in order to catch up. Joyce had an idea for how the fifth movie should go and FOX loved it.
Joyce and William also talked to fans to find out what they wanted to see and what they loved most about the franchise and they all had the same answer which was apes having heart. Fans like the apes when they are more peaceful. Joyce and William thought about apes conquering the Earth first, but then calming down and having a Garden of Eden. They would live in treehouses. Joyce thought of the fraise “Ape shall never kill ape”. They also thought about apes finding humans and having them live with each other peacefully. They apes also needed an enemy, so they had the mutants from "Beneath the Planet of the Apes” be in the fifth film. They also added in the atomic bomb as an Easter Egg towards the end of the movie. FOX wanted to keep the title Paul came up with “Battle for the Planet of the Apes”.
The budget for these “Planet of the Apes” sequels would go down for every film they made. FOX was worried they wouldn’t make enough money at the box office even though they grossed more than what it cost to make them. J. Lee Thompson returned to direct the final “Planet of the Apes” film after doing “Conquest”. J. Lee didn’t use storyboards for the battle sequences for some reason, but he was able to explain how a scene should go in full detail. J. Lee had never done a movie with a big action scene, stunts and explosions before. They shot one of the treehouses at a different angle to make it look like more than one treehouse was being destroyed in order to save some money.
Roddy McDowell returned as Caesar. Roddy loved playing Caesar more than Cornelius. Caesar had a lot of hate for the humans in “Conquest”, but he has calm down now that he has a wife and son. He is also the leader of the apes and does everything to bring peace between the apes and the humans. The character, Bruce MacDonald, from “Conquest” was brought back for “Battle”, only this time he was played by a different actor, Austin Stoker. MacDonald is now like Caesar’s right hand man. A new ape, Virgil, was introduced and he was played by musician Paul Williams. Virgil is like Caesar’s advisor and is wise. At the beginning of “Battle” it shows a wise orangoutang giving Caesar’s backstory. This wise orangoutang is supposed to be the Lawgiver from the first two movies, but things are different now that time has been altered. At the end it shows human and ape children together as they listen to what the Lawgiver is saying. He sees them living as one. John Huston, a legendary filmmaker and actor played the Lawgiver. The first four “Planet of the Apes” movies had endings that were shocking, tragic, sad, evil, but the last movie of the franchise showed a peaceful and happy ending. It shows the apes and the humans making a new start for themselves by treating each other equally. Instead of there being a statue of the lawgiver, there’s a statue of Caesar instead. A tear goes down the eye of the statue, a tear of joy. The ending to “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” was a great way to end the “Planet of the Apes” trilogy.
My rating on “Battle for the Planet of the Apes” is five out of five stars.
