Story
War for the Planet of the Apes is the third movie in the Planet of the Apes saga. The apes have evolved into an intelligent society under the leadership of Caesar (Andy Serkis), who desires only to live peacefully in the woods. Human soldiers have arrived, however, and plan to wipe out the apes, of whom they’re afraid. Caesar is on lookout one night when Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson) finds Caesar’s home and, intending to kill Caesar, accidentally kills his wife and son. Caesar is wracked with grief and sets out for revenge, although he knows that this means giving in to his lower instincts.
Caesar’s loyal friends, Maurice the orangutan (Karin Konoval), Rocket (Terry Notary) and Luca (Michael Adamthwaite) insist on joining him. Along the way they encounter a man who is about to shoot at them, but the apes fire first and kill him. They search his house and find a young girl who can’t speak hiding under a bed. Maurice pleads for her life and Nova (Amiah Miller) joins the group. It seems that the virus known as simian flu, which increased the intelligence of the apes, is robbing humans of speech. When the apes and Nova reach an encampment of soldiers, they’re dismayed to find many apes and their young caged in dreadful conditions. The adults are kept in chains and made to work without food or water. Caesar is captured and treated particularly badly. The other apes must devise a way to free their leader and save the rest of the apes from total destruction.
Themes
War; slavery; torture; tribalism
Violence
There is frequent violence in War for the Planet of the Apes. For example:
Sexual references
Nothing of concern
Alcohol, drugs and other substances
War for the Planet of the Apes shows characters drinking alcohol, including a scene in which the Colonel is drunk on his bed after finishing a whole bottle of alcohol. He then apparently shoots himself.
Nudity and sexual activity
Nothing of concern
Product placement
The following products are displayed or used in War for the Planet of the Apes: Coca-Cola.
Coarse language
War for the Planet of the Apes has infrequent coarse language.
Ideas to discuss with your children
War for The Planet of the Apes, the third in this series, is a science fiction action movie. The movie is a prolonged battle between humans and apes with many distressing scenes. This makes it unsuitable for younger viewers.
War for The Planet of the Apes presents a world in which apes have managed to surpass humans in intelligence and thinking. The parallel between apes and mistreated humans in our own world is clear, and this raises some interesting philosophical questions. For example: what makes us human? Why do we think of ourselves as superior to other animals and, in some cases, people?
The main messages from this movie are that the results of war are mainly death and mass destruction, and that we can overcome our basic instincts with reason and rational thinking.
Values in this movie that you could reinforce with your children include loyalty, care and compassion.
You could also talk with your children about:
- why people fear those who are different
- whether it’s this fear that leads to the urge to dominate, enslave and torture
- how far you should be prepared to go for ‘the greater good’.