Caesar

Caesar is a title generally adopted by those who are placed in charge of the Roman Empire during the first century AD. It is derived from Gaius Julius Caesar, who was the emperor of Rome from 49 to 44 BC. It may also refer to Gaius Octavius, or Augustus Caesar, who was the great nephew of Julius Caesar.

Caesar is also the name of a character featured in the Planet of the Apes film series. The character was first seen as an infant played by an actual baby chimpanzee in the 1971 film Escape from the Planet of the Apes. He first appeared as an adult character in the 1972 sequel Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, where he was played by actor Roddy McDowall. McDowall reprised the role of Caesar for the fifth and final film in the original series, Battle for the Planet of the Apes in 1973. The character was re-imagined in the reboot series beginning with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011. Caesar was played by actor Andy Serkis who was filmed wearing a motion capture suit. The remaining visuals of the character were rendered using computer graphic imaging.

Planet of the Apes
Caesar was a chimpanzee originally born with the name Milo and was the son of two evolved apes from the far future named Cornelius and Zira. After his parents were brutally gunned down by a highly paranoid government stooge, the baby was taken in by a circus animal named Armando. Armando loved all animals, even more than humans, and raised Milo as if he were his own son. It was he who renamed the baby Caesar. By the time of Caesar's emergence as a young man, apes had evolved to the point of higher intelligence and had only just begun to learn to articulate. Having been born the son of two evolved apes from the future, he was already highly intelligent and could speak as well as any human.

Armando brought Caesar to a large city center to promote the traveling circus. There, the chimpanzee saw first hand how the human elite would mistreat ape servants as if they were little more than slaves. Armando and Caesar found out soon enough how bad things could be when they witnessed an ape being violently persecuted for disobedience, prompting Caesar to shout the words, "Lousy human bastard!". Armando voluntarily took the blame for this crime, citing that it was he who had shouted out as a measure of civil disobedience and that he had actually said "Lousy inhuman bastard". When it became clear to the authorities under Governor Breck that he was not going to be set free, Armando tried to escape. While fighting with a guard, he was pushed out a window and fell to his death.

Soon after, Governor Breck purchased Milo, not realizing that this was Armando's talking ape. Breck had the ape pick out a name for himself from a book and he chose his own name, Caesar. Breck was impressed that he would pick the name of a leader. Caesar played the role of a dutiful servant, while secretly inspiring other servant apes to foment the seeds of revolution. Caesar ran off, but was captured and brought to Ape Management for conditioning. While undergoing severe electric shock treatment, Caesar broke his silence and spoke aloud, begging for mercy. Everyone now knew that Caesar was a talking ape. Breck's second-in-command, Kulp, ordered Caesar's termination, but a sympathetic human named MacDonald helped Caesar to escape.

Caesar led an ape revolt against Governor Breck's regime, eventually overthrowing his human oppressors. However, rather than executing his human captives, Caesar demonstrated mercy and let many of them live.

Some two decades later, Caesar was very much like his namesake, and became the ruler of his own dynasty, in which apes ruled over man. Caesar was a benevolent leader and advocated the policy of apes and humans coexisting together, but despite this paradigm, humans were still regarded as second class citizens.

Caesar had a chimpanzee wife named Lisa, who gave him a son, Cornelius, who was named after his father. When Cornelius was an adolescent, he overheard a gorilla general named Aldo conspiring with other soldiers to overtake Caesar's control by raiding the armory. Aldo found Cornelius eavesdropping him on him, and murdered him. This was a violation of their most sacred law which was, "Ape shall never kill ape". Caesar and Aldo confronted on another in a fight within a tree; a fight that Caesar ultimately won when Aldo lost his footing and fell to his death.

Caesar continued to govern apes and humans in Ape City and became a legendary figure in ape history. Years after his passing, a statue commemorating Caesar still existed and could be found near an ape/human learning center.

Notes & Trivia



 * Caesar is a character who is unique to the continuity of the Planet of the Apes film series and does not have a counterpart in the original Pierre Boulle novel La Planète des singes.


 * Robert Prohaska was the stunt double who stood in for Roddy McDowall for Caesar's tree-top battle with Aldo at the end of Battle for the Planet of the Apes.


 * Richard Darwin played Baby Caesar in the early scenes from Rise of the Planet of the Apes.


 * In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Caesar is the son of Bright Eyes and Alpha. "Bright Eyes" is also the nickname that Zira gave to Taylor in the original Planet of the Apes in 1968.


 * A parody pastiche of Caesar appeared in the 2013 comedy spoof film Scary Movie 5 where he was played by actor Christopher "Critter" Antonucci.


 * The original version of Caesar appeared in issues of the Planet of the Apes magazine published by Marvel Comics in the 1970s. The contained serialized adaptations of Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes.


 * The original version of Caesar appeared in the Revolution on the Planet of the Apes comic book series published by Mr. Comics in 2006.
 * Caesar appeared in the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes comic book adapation published by Boom! Studios in 2014.