Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011)

Thought we were done exploring the consequences of technology? Of course not! There's still more to talk about here. 

Rise of the Planet of the Apes is the start of a cinematic revival, of one of the earliest cinematic franchises, based around the original "Planet of the Apes" movies from 1968. The story in "Rise" is the origin story (since no cinematic universe is complete without one these days). It runs alongside the animal testing of a regenerative drug for brain tissue, which scientists believe will be a cure for Alzheimer's disease. Once tested on chimpanzees, however, a strange side effect is observed: the chimpanzee being subjected to the gas develops an incredible intelligence.

The caretakers struggle with raising the chimpanzee, not because of the difficulty it causes (in many ways Caesar is more well behaved than a human child) but because the chimp's own intelligence is encouraging him to ask hard questions. Caesar knows that he is not human, and wonders if he's nothing more than a pet. He's driven to love and care for his adoptive parents, but they soon have to take him to an ape refuge, where he can live among his own kind.

Caesar leads a revolt against the abusive refuge workers, and exposes all of the apes within to the same drug that he was, creating an army of super-intelligent apes. The apes rise up against their oppressors, proving to be formidable fighters. The end of the film reveals that a plague is spreading among the human population, causing them to die out--soon the apes shall rule, and we'll be set up for a remake of the original Charlton Heston film after another four films confusingly named for the order of the story. (Side note: why did the first two films in this new series have to be named "Rise" and "Dawn"? I can never remember which is supposed to come first. The Dawn comes before the Rise if we're talking about the Sun, right? The third movie, coming out soon, is called War for the Planet of the Apes, so at least it stands separate enough...rant over). 

Once again, we're faced with the unpredictable consequences of our own technological progress. A miracle drug thought to be extremely beneficial to humans, causes a moral crisis when it grants apes superhuman intelligence. Are these apes to be treated as more than animals now, or will we lead ourselves to all out war? Based on the title of the upcoming movie, it seems that the latter is the case, but I can tell you that I'm pretty excited to find out!