Andy Serkis plays the main Ape character Caesar in the recent Planet of the Apes movies, although he doesn’t appear on screen but performs Caesar’s movements and provides his voice while highly advanced computer animation is used to create the realistic ape character.
Andy Serkis is very good at Motion-capture type of acting. His body movements are tracked by a special suit covered with sensors. Later on, those movements are used to animate the creature or character in the digital form.
Serkis has played many famous motion-capture roles such as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and King Kong in the 2005 remake. He was chosen to deliver Caesar purely because of his amazing ability to embody these characters using motion capture technology physically.
Although Caesar is a fully CGI character, Andy Serkis’s realistic performance is the foundation that makes the ape leader so compelling. Audiences feel they are watching a truly alive creature, thanks to Serkis for making motion-capture characters seem so believable.
Who is Caesar?
Caesar is the main ape character and the central figure in the recent Planet of the Apes film series.
He is a chimpanzee that was not indigenous and he became intelligent as a result of using the drug which was meant to cure human Alzheimer’s disease.
Infant chimp Caesar was brought up by a kind scientist Will Rodman. He brought him up as a son. Caesar’s intelligence rapidly developed far beyond that of a regular ape due to the drug. However, he ended up in an ape sanctuary after defending Will and witnessed the cruel mistreatment of the other apes by their human handlers.
This experience awakened Caesar’s sense of leadership and desire for freedom. He rallied the other apes by having them exposed to the intelligence-enhancing drug as well. With his newfound community of intelligent apes, Caesar led a revolution against their human oppressors, allowing the apes to escape into the redwood forests.
In the sequels Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes, Caesar establishes and leads an advanced ape colony near San Francisco. He is portrayed as a wise, compassionate, and fair leader to the apes. At the same time, he deeply distrusts the small band of surviving humans.
Is Caesar dead in Planet of the Apes?
In the first two Planet of the Apes movies – Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011) and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) – the intelligent chimpanzee Caesar was alive as the courageous leader of the advanced ape community. He guides the apes to freedom from human captivity and helps establish their own thriving civilization in the Muir Woods outside San Francisco.
Caesar dies in the third sequel (2017) of War for the Planet of the Apes. In a final epic battle involving a human Colonel villain who plans to kill all apes, the ape leader is gunned down thus getting seriously injured. Despite beating the Colonel, Caesar ended up dying..
