Headscratchers / War for the Planet of the Apes

Caesar's death

• If Caesar was mortally wounded, and said wound was from Preacher's arrow (which had been inflicted much earlier) then how come Caesar managed to survive long enough to reach the new haven and only died once they got there? Earlier he seemed a lot healthier during the ape exodus, and right after receiving his wound was still able to outrun the explosion and the avalanche.
• Sheer force of will mixed with dramatic license.

Sign Language

• Is sign language a necessary part of the apes' communication? There are many scenes where an ape is not looking at the signer, can't even see them peripherally, but answers anyway, implying that they're following the 'ooks' rather than the signs. Bad Ape doesn't seem to understand either, though, and Nova learns sign while she's with them.
  • It seems as though the Apes are developing a verbal language out of their natural sounds, used in conjunction with or in place of sign. Notice how, when Lake is hoisting a boulder over her head and incapable of signing, she's subtitled as saying "Everyone! Back to work!", though she is vocalizing in chimp sounds at that point. The ALZ-113 may not have given all Apes the ability to speak human sounds, but between the increased intelligence, their time spent together as a colony, and the fact that apes are very social animals anyway, they've begun to develop their own verbal language.
• And why can't all the apes speak anyway?
  • Apes lack the necessary organs to speak. Its possible that only Caesar and his kin, being apes that have been exposed to the original virus that gave them super intelligence at birth, mutated them to be more humanlike.
  • The director says in the commentary that, for the Apes, speech must come from a place of strong emotion (how this overcomes the fact that Apes don't have human-like vocal chords is anyone's guess). Koba only starts speaking in Dawn when his hatred for humans resurfaces with a vengeance. Maurice, on the other hand, only speaks when he's trying to protect or comfort the people close to him, telling Malcolm and company to "Run" in Dawn, and naming Nova and comforting Caesar in his last moments in War. Most of the Apes just don't have the impetus to actually speak in human language at this point, though it's likely the ALZ-113 will accelerate the process of them being physically able to speak.
  • Technically you can speak without vocal chords, it's call esophageal phonation, obviously sounds different and is generally regarded as very monotone, not realistically depicted in the movie, but let's say that's how sounds for the audience' sake but not how it sounds in-universe.

Nova

• Why doesn't Nova react emotionally to her father's death? Some have theorized that the man wasn't really her father, but a mere caretaker. However the movie doesn't explain this. What makes it truly bizarre is that Nova weeps over Luca's death, an ape she barely knew.
  • In one of the Blu-Ray bonus features, the actress herself refers to the man as "her father-figure," not her father. This strays into Wild Mass Guess territory, but maybe she didn't really understand what was happening, why she had to run away and hide out with this guy, either because of the mutated virus or just because she's only 11 years old. Related to the below, maybe she never really got emotionally attached to the man because he stayed away from her as much as he could to avoid getting sick himself. On the other hand, she spends lots of time in very close proximity to the Apes, and they show her lots of affection, so it's logical she'd bond with them very quickly.
  • Fridge Horror: The Colonel was right, and the virus isn't simply robbing her of speech, but started to impair other functions of her brain, leaving her emotionally inconsistent.

Nova's Caretaker

• If Nova was infected with the ALZ-113 drug created by Rodman which made her mute, then how come her caretaker or father isn't infected? He spoke perfectly well and didn't show any signs of illness despite having to live in close proximity to Nova.
  • Related to the above, maybe he was staying away from her as much as possible to avoid getting sick, and so Nova never really formed an emotional attachment to him.

Ape Genocide

• The Colonel thinks the extermination of the apes will somehow save humanity, and that they would replace humans as the dominant species and enslave them otherwise. With the exception of Koba, I haven't seen any apes (in Caesar's colony) with those kinds of ambitions, and it seems like they just want to be left alone and carry on with their new way of life. The only real threat to humanity is the new virus strain, which the apes are not responsible for transmitting. Based on these facts, how does one rationalize the Colonel's genocidal campaign? Is there something else I missed, or does it really boil down to ignorance and bigotry in the end?
  • Colonel doesn't want the earth in the future to get ruled by apes instead of humans. If you watch the first Planet of the Apes movie from 1968, it helps you understand why Colonel fears the apes so much. Colonel fears that as humans regress into wild animals because of the Simian Flu, the intelligent apes will see humans as barbaric nuisances and do away with them altogether like lock them up in cages, dissect them for science or hunt them for sport.
  • I'm sure the Colonel did rationalize (albeit poorly) his genocidal campaign on the apes. While Caesar did point out that he showed mercy to Colonel's soldiers including Preacher to prove that apes don't intend any malice to humans, Colonel responds, "Mercy. Do you have any idea what your mercy would do to us? You're much stronger than we are, you're smart as hell, no matter what you say you'll eventually replace us. That's the law of nature."
  • Basically in the eyes of the Colonel, it doesn't matter how nice or merciful Caesar or the other apes are. Eventually, somewhere down the line, even if it takes a century or more, apes will inevitably Take Over the World and dominate the human race, especially since the Simian Flu is impairing our cognitive abilities, because the apes are a Superior Species while humanity has been utterly decimated. The mere existence of apes like Koba and his followers doesn't help Caesar either, since that shows there might always be more aggressive apes, even if in a minority, that are happy to enslave or exterminate the humans and Caesar might not be able to stop them. Bare in mind that, assuming this was all leading into a situation similar to the original film, the Colonel was not exactly wrong to worry about this.

Koba's supporters

• The Donkeys, and Red in particular, are stated to be former supporters of Koba, who joined the Colonel afterwards. Koba hated humans and wanted to either enslave or destroy them, so why did his former followers do a 180° turn, and work for a human who wants to exterminate apes? I understand that they were afraid of retaliation from Caesar (although Caesar has been shown to be merciful and would probably have forgave them), but why join the Colonel?
  • Caesar himself suspects Red and the Donkeys do it just to survive.
    Caesar: [addressing Preacher's squad] I know these apes. They follow Koba. They tried to kill me. They fear what I will do to them, so now they serve you. Just to survive.
  • Red admits to Caesar that he's only doing so to save himself because by submitting to the humans he doesn't have to get mistreated/executed by Alpha-Omega like the other apes.
    • The prequel novel Revelations details that after Caesar regained leadership of the apes from Koba at the end of Dawn, Red and other Koba supporters started running away from Caesar but they got ambushed by Colonel McCullough, who then forced Red at gunpoint to admit where Caesar is.
  • Koba's supporters would see being "Donkeys" at least slightly better than joining the rest of the apes (who in contrast support Caesar) as slave labor for the wall. A "Donkey" is tasked with carrying equipment on their backs as pack mules and providing strategic aid to soldiers in military operations since they can climb trees while humans can't. To them, this seems less excruciating and tiring than carrying rocks to build the wall. In addition, Donkeys such as Red are exempt from being disciplined by Alpha-Omega through bull whips, and instead the Donkeys get to use the bull whip themselves.
  • Koba's supporters may have joined the Colonel as an opportunity to get sweet revenge on Caesar and the apes loyal to him since Koba was killed by Caesar, not humans. The "Donkey" soldiers are shown doing petty things to Caesar and his supporters such as hitting them with a bullwhip, making them carry heavy rocks and Red angrily poured a bucket of freezing water on Caesar to perhaps avenge Koba.
  • Also, Koba made his loyal apes back in Dawn target different humans, none of which were affiliated with Alpha-Omega. Koba didn't frame Alpha-Omega for burning their home trees down in an attempt to incinerate them to death like he did with the San Francisco colony humans.

Wall reliability

• Why was the Colonel emphasizing so much importance on a wall made of rocks and wood? The Northern Army have helicopters, tanks and rocket launchers mounted on vehicles. A wall made of concrete or steel would be useless against that. Assumption that a wall can keep out an army with that kind of technology is Donald Trump logic.
  • Some defense is better than none. It'll keep the vehicles and infantry physically out of the compound as long as it stands, provides a mounting point for anti-air missiles and anti-infantry machine guns, and every rocket, missile, and grenade used on the wall is one that can't be used on Alpha-Omega troops.

Red's anger at Caesar

• Just why is Red so angry with Caesar? Caesar did nothing wrong to him, and even let him go unharmed after the war in the forest at the beginning of the film. Red displays stronger feelings of anger towards Caesar than even the Colonel himself and the Alpha-Omega officers, especially when he dumped the bucket of freezing water on Caesar.
  • People (and presumably apes) aren't always rational about whom they assign blame to when living with the consequences of their own poor decisions. Red finds himself in a terrible situation and almost certainly feels more guilt than he lets on for betraying his fellow apes. It's ultimately all a result of his decision to side with Koba. It's natural that he would project his anger and guilt onto Caesar, the embodiment of what he chose to reject.
  • Perhaps because Caesar was the one who killed Koba and Red witnessed this himself or was informed of this by Koba's supporters who survived Dawn and he wanted Koba to win.
  • Or he's blaming Caesar for the fact that he's been forced to serve Alpha-Omega and is humiliated by this. Koba promised that apes shall have all humans dead or put into cages under his command, but Caesar prevented all that by killing off Koba and letting the humans live.

Where did the Donkey's come from?

• The Donkeys are stated to be former supporters of Koba who tried to kill Caesar. In Dawn, only two apes (Grey and Stone) were involved in Koba's coup, and all the other apes were then manipulated into following Koba after Caesar's supposed death. How and when were these specific apes deemed traitors?
  • The Donkeys weren’t deemed traitors, they were just afraid of what Caesar would do to them for helping Koba. What I assume happened is that when Caesar killed Koba, the Donkeys fled without knowing Caesar would forgive the apes that were manipulated into supporting Koba. Even if they later found out Caesar allowed those apes to rejoin him, they still wouldn’t go back out of fear of the humans, fear of what would be done to them for helping the humans, or both.

Mutated Simian Flu

• The Colonel believes that if he doesn't do anything about it, the mutated Simian Flu strain will spread throughout the world and permanently wipe out mankind as we know it. However, I find that hard to believe. It's not like before when airplanes were spreading it everywhere; the Simian Flu is highly contagious but there's barely any humans left to spread it. The humans that are still alive seem to mostly be living in isolated and/or fortified areas, and the only living human who we know has the mutated strain is living with the apes, far away from any humans. I just don't see how the mutated strain could even escape the Pacific Northwest, let alone North America.

Why follow anyone?

Where are the human settlements - as in wives and children? Why are these hundreds of soldiers on both sides still playing war? What's in it for them? They're not being paid, there's few women... And why are all the seen human survivors military?

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