Characters / Planet Of The Apes - Reboot Series: Apes

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The Ape Colony

Caesar's Family

Caesar

Caesar

"War has already begun."

Portrayed by: Andy Serkis

Dubbed by: Benoît Allemane (European French, Rise), Jérémie Covillault (European French, Dawn and War)

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

"If we go to war, we could lose all we've built. Home. Family. Future."

Biological son of the late Alpha and the late Bright Eyes, wild chimpanzees from the jungles of the Congo. Bright Eyes became a test subject for the drug ALZ-112, which greatly stimulated Caesar's mental development in utero. After the death of his mother, Caesar became an adoptive son to Will Rodman and Caroline Aranha. Later in life, Caesar leads the captive apes to rebellion, and rules as the chief of their newly formed colony. He becomes the husband of fellow San Bruno Primate Shelter inmate Cornelia and the father of two sons, Blue Eyes and Cornelius.

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• Accidental Murder:
  • How Caesar kills Dodge; he clearly intended to just blast Dodge back with the hose, but when Dodge suddenly wields his electric prod, he gets electrocuted to death. Caesar is very affected by his actions.
  • He unintentionally chokes Winter to death, trying to prevent Winter from calling out to his human allies for help. It disturbed him so much that he began to hallucinate Koba taunting him with Ape Shall Not Kill Ape.
• Action Dad: He becomes a father of two in the sequel, and is even more badass.
• Actor Allusion:
  • This isn't the first time Andy Serkis bit someone's finger off.
  • This also isn't the first time Serkis played an ape.
• And Starring: In Rise he is credited last as "And Andy Serkis", despite being the true protagonist. This is amended in Dawn and War, where he receives top billing.
• Anti-Hero: In War, Caesar becomes this as he struggles with his darker instincts.
• Arc Symbol: The window design of his room in the Rodmans' house becomes a symbol associated with him in the sequel.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Koba finds it out the hard way in the sequel.
• Baritone of Strength: When he proves able to speak, his voice is very deep and gruff, and he grows more used to it as he becomes the benevolent leader of the apes.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He starts off very cheerful — if protective of his human family. He becomes very embittered as Rise progresses, but he still disapproves of killing humans.
• Big Good: For the apes over the course of the entire trilogy.
• Big "NO!": This is his first spoken word. The first is against Dodge after he has enough of his abuse and decides to start the ape uprising. A second occurs in Dawn when Koba begins to rile up the apes to attack the human settlement as he doesn't want to needlessly sacrifice his people if diplomacy is possible. In short, whenever Caesar bellows one of these, people listen.
• Break the Cutie: Dodge's abuse and Will's inability to protect him destroy his innocence. The events of Dawn also did a number on him, and War threatens to push him over the edge.
• The Chains of Commanding: Starts to feel this in Dawn when he needs to try to keep a tense peace between apes and humans. When war does break out, he puts the blame on himself for trusting the wrong people.
• Character Development:
  • In Rise, he grows independent from his human upbringing, becoming the leader of the apes.
  • In Dawn, Caesar learns (in a harsh way) that humans and apes aren't as different as he thought.
  • In War, he gains an enemy whom he truly hates and is constantly tested as to what will prove more important to him: vengeance or the well-being of the other apes. In the end, it's the latter, and he dies as a legendary, messianic figure.
• Clothing Damage: Caesar wears clothes for much of the first film, but after being placed in the primate shelter, they mark him out as different. Rocket tears his shirt off to show his superiority. Later, Caesar takes his pants off himself when he decides to stay and free the other apes.
• Combat Pragmatist: In his second fight with Koba, he's not at full strength due to previous injuries. He makes up for this by using Koba's anger against him, letting Koba wear himself out with repeated attacks then retaliating when Koba's too tired to defend himself properly.
• Coming of Age Story: Rise serves as a coming of age story for him, detailing how he came to lead the uprising of the apes.
• Dark Messiah: After Koba's betrayal, he was forced into this role, rejecting Malcolm's offer of safety/escape and resigning himself to fight in the coming Human-Ape war that Koba started. Though he remains adamant about fighting for peace, and in the end, he doesn't care about fighting at all and transitions back into his positive messianic role in leading his people to a Promised Land.
• Death Glare: Quite a few in the animal sanctuary once Caesar starts getting pissed off.
• Doesn't Like Guns: Dawn shows that he'd rather not use firearms, though he definitely knows how to fire them.
• The Dog Bites Back: Aside from literally biting off Hunsiker's finger, he accidentally kills Dodge with the very weapons used to torment him.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: Destroys an enemy fortress, then leads his followers to a new home before succumbing to his wounds.
• Expy: He's basically a modern Moses, considering he's a leader for a persecuted people, and passes on after leading his people to their Promised Land.
• The Good King: Although not officially referred to as a king, Caesar checks all the boxes. He's revered by the apes as an understanding, fair, and strong leader who earns their loyalty through respect, generosity, mercy, and wisdom. Likewise, he regards his apes, especially his closest followers, as family and is willing to risk his life for them, and ultimately pays that price to ensure they reach their new home at the end of War.
• Guile Hero: He is very intelligent and frees the other apes at the shelter through sheer cunning.
• Happily Married: What we see of him and Cornelia is a loving and happy marriage.
• Heartbroken Badass: Doesn't take the deaths of Cornelia and Blue Eyes well at all.
• The Hero: Turns out the franchise is centered around Caesar and his journey as the leader of the apes.
• The Hero Dies: He dies at the end of the third film, succumbing to the wounds he sustained throughout it.
• He Who Fights Monsters: He was once one of the apes that advocated peace with the humans, and fought against one of his own kind in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes in order to preserve peace. Unfortunately, the war against the apes going badly for the humans is taking its toll on him. War describes him as in danger of becoming this, as he struggles with his darker impulses. He eventually chooses to spare Colonel McCullough in their final confrontation upon seeing the latter succumbed to the mutated virus that he's been desperately trying to stave off.
• I Choose to Stay: Chooses to remain in confinement in order to free the other apes rather than go back home with Will. His "Caesar is home" line by the end also counts.
• Ideal Hero: In contrast to the bleak setting, Caesar is compassionate, highly opposed to killing, revenge, and war, and extremely forgiving, always attempting to find the most peaceful solution possible to a problem. While he wavers in War following the murder of his wife and son, he ultimately chooses not to give in to his darker instincts and spares the Colonel (who instead shoots himself in the head).
• If You Kill Him, You Will Be Just Like Him!: A strange example, in that he kills Koba by the end of Dawn. In War, the deaths of his eldest son and wife after two years of war with humanity push him over the edge, and he pursues a one man (ape?) war on the Colonel's forces. It gets narrowly averted, after he prioritizes the escape and survival of his fellow apes, and doesn't follow through with killing the Colonel, even letting go of his hate for him.
• Interspecies Adoption: Caesar was adopted and loved by human Will for most of his life. Deconstructed later on when Caesar finds that Will won't always understand him. Doesn't mean they stopped loving each other, though.
• It Can Think: More like "it can speak" from the workers of the sanctuary.
• Kick Them While They Are Down: Defied. He confronts a Simian Flu-infected Colonel and prepares to gun him down, but ultimately relents, deeming him too pitiful to kill in his current state, so the Colonel instead guns himself down.
• The Leader: He becomes the leader of the apes in the animal shelter.
• Magnetic Hero: He wins the allegiance of all the apes... with cookies. In addition, rather than lord over the apes with his enhanced intelligence, he uses the ALZ-113 to elevate their intelligence as well, and this secures many of their Undying Loyalty to him.
• Martial Pacifist: He avoids violence as much as possible despite being a very competent ass-kicker.
• Meaningful Name: He's names after Julius Caesar, who conquered Rome to overthrow the corrupt government.
• Messianic Archetype: In spades. He is the "saviour" of the Apes, conceived from a miraculous birth (the only ape made intelligent in the womb through his pregnant mother's brain modification, rather than directly or conceived from first-generation evolved apes) gives all Apekind the gift of Intelligence (ALZ-113) and leads them to an exodus away from the Human oppressors to the "Promised Land" of the forests where they can live in peace. Everyone, even Koba, looked up to him as a sort of God-Emperor but despite all this he retained an overwhelming sense of compassion, understanding, and tolerance to all sapient life — human and ape alike. He follows a strict self-imposed morality of Ape Shall Not Kill Ape, seeking to avoid war whenever is possible, though if you cause him trouble, he definitely knows how to kick your ass. Of course, no Ape version of Christ can be complete without a catastrophic betrayal caused by his most trusted "brother": Koba, who "killed" him, dismantled all of Caesar's work and led the Apes to immoral brutality and persecution of both humans and Caesar's remaining apostles. Caesar even metaphorically "rose from the dead" when Malcolm found him, brought him back to Heaven (Will Rodman's house), and returned to Apekind injured but stronger, ending in the apes "repenting" and Koba's damnation into Hell. His personal symbol, the sequin-like window of Rodman's house even became the universal symbol of Ape liberation ala the Chi-Rho of early Christians. Finally, in War, he leads the Apes to a new Promised Land, where the few remaining humans cannot follow, and dies just after making it there from a wound in his side, leaving his fellow Apes bereft of his guidance but knowing they are safe and free for his efforts.
• Moses Archetype: Caesar in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and its sequels. Raised by a human scientist and being exposed to the ALZ-113, he frees the newly intelligent apes from their prisons in zoos and laboratories, and leads them to form their own society, first in a redwood forest near San Francisco, then later leading them far south to another land, far away from the humans, and dies shortly after reaching it.
• My Greatest Failure: Koba. In Dawn, Caesar's bias and belief that apes are better than humans, that apes could never stoop to the atrocious nature of humans, blinds him to Koba's hatred and the lengths he'll go to get rid of the humans. Even when Koba wears his intentions on his sleeve, Caesar still trusts him completely on the basis that he is ape. The look on his face as he sees Koba about to shoot him says it all.
• Naïve Newcomer: When he first arrives at the primate "sanctuary".
• Never Trust a Trailer: Most of them will make you think that Caesar is the film's villain. He is the hero.
• Nice Guy: Caesar is a really sweet guy, just don't piss him off.
• No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Gives an outright brutal one to Koba in Dawn after his insults push him too far, but stops short of killing him. A mistake he corrects later.
• Not So Similar: There are hints throughout War that he is becoming as vindictive as Koba, with Caesar himself agreeing with Maurice's suspicions of similarity just before he goes to confront Colonel McCullough for the last time. However, Caesar's actions after seeing how pathetic McCullough has become in his final moments show that when push comes to shove, he still only hates a specific human, rather than blaming the entire species for the actions of the few, even being furious at said human for killing his own infected men. And even then, Caesar can't go through with killing McCullough because Caesar pities him too much.
• Odd Name Out: Among his family whose name starts with the letter C, his name is the only one who sounds different. His wife is named Cornelia while their youngest son is named Cornelius.
• Outliving One's Offspring: His eldest son, Blue Eyes, was killed along with his wife.
• Papa Wolf:
  • A little inverted since he was their child and grandson respectively, but Caesar's main berserk button was anyone attacking Will or his grandfather. He mangled their neighbor's finger when he got aggressive with Charles.
  • In the sequel, it would be very wise that you don't harm a hair on his kids' heads. The death of his elder son and the safety of his younger son are primarily what motivate Caesar to seek vengeance against the Colonel in the third film.
• Pay Evil unto Evil: A deleted scene in Rise has him be the one to send Jacobs' helicopter plummeting off the Golden Gate bridge down into the water below. Averted in the final film, where he just refuses to help him up and walks away, leaving him to Koba's (non-existent) mercy.
• Rage Breaking Point: After Koba accuses him of loving humans more than apes and his own sons, he loses his shit and brutally pummels Koba until he relents.
• Raised by Humans: Will adopted him after Jacobs gave the order for the test-facility apes to be terminated. This trait continues to pop up throughout the series, especially since Caesar never stopped loving his adoptive parents and grandfather, and actually understands what it's like to live in both worlds — ape and human.
• Reasonable Authority Figure: In Dawn, Malcolm goes against Caesar's warning to not set foot into ape territory. When he explains the power situation in humanity's territory, Caesar allows Malcolm's group time to work on the generator on the condition that they turn in their firearms.
• Revenge: Goes after the Colonel to get back at him for the deaths of Cornelia and Blue Eyes.
• Revenge Before Reason: Despite Maurice's concerns that Caesar is not that different from Koba in that Caesar is out to get revenge against the Colonel for killing Cornelia and Blue Eyes, Caesar doesn't relent and goes on to confront the Colonel by his lonesome.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: The death of his eldest son and wife courtesy of the Colonel's men kickstarts this.
• Secretly Dying: He sustains a near lethal wound from a crossbow bolt during the final battle in War. It's only after the Apes find their new home that he reveals the wound to Maurice, but by that point, there's nothing the Apes can do about it.
• Serkis Folk: Played by Andy Serkis himself, no less.
• Shipper on Deck: When Will and Caroline first met early in the film, he was the first to suggest they go out together.
• Smart People Play Chess: He has intelligence on par with — perhaps exceeding — a human, and beats Will in chess.
• The Stoic: Starting with Dawn, he rarely displays most emotions, which makes him more serious.
• The Strategist: He is very cunning and uses his brain to solve problems such as escaping the animal shelter and bypassing the police barricade.
• These Hands Have Killed: Koba's death weighs heavily on him, to the point he hallucinates his former nemesis and brother beckoning Caesar to join him in death. He is likewise shocked at himself after killing Winter, semi-accidentally.
• Thou Shalt Not Kill: Caesar holds to this in Rise, only killing Dodge accidentally and going out of his way to prevent other apes from killing humans. He is finally pushed to a lethal extreme in Dawn when he lets the treacherous Koba fall to his death. And in War, he ultimately doesn't give in to his darker instincts and spares an infected Colonel, who instead takes his own life.
• Took a Level in Cynic: His time in the ape penitentiary made him lose all of his innocence.
• Trash Talk: Hits Koba with this coupled with You Monster!, calling him weak for relying on guns, and telling him he belongs in a cage.
• True Companions: Prove your loyalty and the good in your heart to him, and you are his family. Koba, Maurice, Rocket, Buck, Stoned, Ash, and Malcolm's family learn this over course of the series.
• Unstoppable Rage: Except if it means killing... Initially.
• Vocal Evolution: Invoked. While his voice was a guttural, primal thing at first, it slowly evened out as he began to use it more, and he was always the one to speak on behalf of the apes in any dealings or confrontations with the humans. By the time of War, it sounds indistinguishable from a man's, and he's the only ape capable of speaking in full sentences, even seeming to prefer that over the sign language used by most apes. Even Invoked behind-the-scenes, Andy Serkis wore large fake "chimp fangs" in Rise, so his few lines come out very mangled. He wore a smaller set in Dawn, and none at all for War.
• War Is Hell: He knows fully well how terrible war would be. And War for the Planet of the Apes shows that two years of fighting has really pushed him.
• Weak, but Skilled: He tends to win fights against stronger opponents by keeping his composure and fighting defensively until an opening presents itself or help arrives. However compared to humans as he is much stronger than them by a large margin. By Dawn he has grown into a comparatively powerful Lightning Bruiser, but still avoids going on the offensive without a strategy in mind, in contrast to more Hot-Blooded apes like Buck, Rocket, and Koba.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: Caeser believed that all apes have a better morality than humans. Koba proves this wrong.
• You Are Too Late: After he is informed that the Ape Colony is under attack by Alpha Omega, he hurries to Cornelia and Blue Eyes, only to discover that they're dead, courtesy of the Colonel.
• You Can Talk?: He asks it to Maurice when the orangutan uses sign language to communicate with him. Caesar himself learns to talk later, prompting this reaction from humans (although they do not ask the question).

Cornelia

Cornelia

"You worry about the humans."

Portrayed by: Devyn Dalton (Rise) and Judy Greer (Dawn and War)

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

An altered chimpanzee, the wife of Caesar and queen of the apes. She was a fellow inmate of Rocket, Maurice and Buck at the San Bruno Primate Shelter. She meets Caesar during his stay at the shelter and forms a romantic bond with him. After Caesar's rise of power, she becomes his wife and bears him two sons, an heir, Blue Eyes and an infant son.

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• Ascended Extra: Has more importance in Dawn than in the first film.
• Expy: Of Lisa from Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
• Flat Character: She never interacted with the other apes. She does in Dawn, and gets a decent amount of screen time after giving birth. However, she disappears completely after Koba shoots Caesar and seizes control, not appearing until the final few shots of the film when Caesar reclaims his throne and prepares to wage war with the humans.
• Good Parents: Her kind and loving personality makes her the ideal mother to her two young sons, Blue Eyes and Cornelius.
• Happily Married: She and Caesar are a loving, happy couple. When he's shot by Koba, she visibly panics and has to be restrained from leaping after him.
• The Heart: Offers a lot of warmth and encouragement for Caesar.
• The High Queen: To the Ape kingdom. She even has a crown!
• Living Emotional Crutch: To Caesar. Seeing what her husband must endure on a daily basis as the leader of the ape colony, Cornelia serves as a calming presence to keep him grounded.
• Mama Bear: According to War Novelization, the reason why she was killed is that she jumped in front of Blue Eyes when she saw the Colonel pointing gun at him.
• Meaningful Name: Named from Julius Caesar's first wife, Cornelia Cinna Minor. Cornelia is also the feminine form of Cornelius, the name of original series Caesar's father.
• Nice Girl: She is kind and is willing to help those who need it, whether it be ape or human.
• Satellite Character: She never had a scene alone.
• The Smurfette Principle: The only named female ape in the shelter.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Dies within the first twenty minutes of War along with Blue Eyes.
• Together in Death: She was killed along with her eldest child. And her husband dies at the end of the film, reuniting them in death.

Blue Eyes

Blue Eyes

"Father. Let...me...help you."

Portrayed by: Nick Thurston and Max Lloyd-Jones

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

A teenage chimp and the eldest son of Caesar and Cornelia.

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• Big Brother Instinct: Immediately attacks Carver for being aggressive to his baby brother.
• Boom, Headshot!: Implied to be the cause of his death.
• A Day in the Limelight: The prequel novel, Revelations, mostly focuses on him rather than his father.
• Decomposite Character: Of Cornelius in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. He is the son of Caesar, but the aspect of Cornelius' murder, done at the hands of a treacherous fellow ape, is transferred over to Ash.
• Emo Teen: His screen-time in Dawn usually involves him angry or sulking. He grows past this in War and seems to have learned some of his father's leadership skills.
• Expy: Of Cornelius in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.
• Family Theme Naming: His name seems to be patterned over his late grandmother, Bright Eyes.
• Foil: To Alexander. Both are the Emo Teen sons of the two factions' main characters. But while Alex has always been close to Malcolm, Blue Eyes is initially distant to Caesar.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: He earns a nasty, but pretty cool looking triple scar from a bear attack. His arc in Dawn is basically deciding if the scars will be Good or Evil.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Ash — Having grown up together, the two young apes love each other and are often known to tease each other; and it was Ash's murder at the hands of Koba that caused Blue Eyes to turn against the savage ape.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: To showcase his naiveté throughout the entire conflict between humans and chimps in Dawn.
• Like Father, Like Son: In War he shows some of Caesar's leader-like qualities. Like calming Winter down with empathy and reason while advocating careful planning of their next move. If he had survived the Colonel's attack he might have become as great a leader to the apes as his old man.
• Meaningful Name: Guess what color eyes Blue Eyes has?
• My God, What Have I Done?: His reaction after learning that it was Koba and not a human that shot Caesar.
• Odd Name Out: Zig-Zagged. Both his parents and younger brother have names that start with the letter C, but his name is clearly patterned over his late paternal grandmother who is long dead by the time he was born.
• Spanner in the Works: Played tragically in the third film. Colonel mistakes Blue Eyes for Caesar during his raid of the Apes Camp and his killing him is what sets off the chain of events of the film.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: Dies within the first twenty minutes of War along with Cornelia.
• Together in Death: He was killed along with his mother, and by the end of the movie, his father.
• War Is Hell: Finally realized this near the end of the Dawn. Seeing his idol Koba's true colors helped.
• Warrior Prince: His father is practically the Ape King, so yeah.
• "Well Done, Son" Guy: His relationship with Caesar is more than a little complicated.
• Would Hit a Girl: Just before he's killed by the Colonel, Blue Eyes beats a female Alpha Omega soldier to death. Justified, since said-soldier was a danger to his mother and younger brother.

Cornelius

Cornelius

"Come meet your new brother."

Portrayed by: Devyn Dalton

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

The youngest son of Caesar and Cornelia.

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• The Baby of the Bunch: The youngest of his family.
• Cheerful Child: Wastes no time playing around in his first outing.
• Children Are Innocent: He's blissfully unaware of what's happening around him.
• Sole Survivor: His entire family is dead by the end of the third movie.
• Tagalong Kid: Justified, being recently born and all.

Bright Eyes

Bright Eyes

Portrayed by: Terry Notary

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

An altered female chimpanzee and mother of Caesar.

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• Death by Origin Story: She was killed while trying to protect the child she's carrying, which was Caesar.
• Mama Bear: Her rampage turns out to be a reaction to what she presumed to be threats to her newborn son.
• Meaningful Name: She has bright eyes.
• Mythology Gag: "Bright Eyes" is the same name Zira gives to Taylor in Planet of the Apes (1968).
• Plot-Triggering Death: In fact, the franchise wouldn't have likely begun without her death.
• The Reveal: Bright Eyes had been pregnant all along and had just delivered Caesar at the start of the film. Leading to her death protecting him.
• Small Role, Big Impact: Only appeared once in the first film, but she was the one who gave birth to the franchise's protagonist.

Alpha

Alpha

Portrayed by: Jay Caputo

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

A male chimpanzee and father of Caesar.

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• All There in the Manual: The fact that he has a name and is Caesar’s father is information that is only revealed in behind the scenes content.
• Minor Major Character: He is Caesar’s biological father, which automatically makes him an important character in the world of the Planet of the Apes reboot. However, he is also a very minor character who is only briefly seen in the beginning of Rise and never shows up again after his wife is taken away from him. He also never gets to meet his son.

Gen-Sys Laboratories Apes

Koba

Koba

"Caesar loves humans more than apes!"

Portrayed by: Christopher Gordon (Rise), Toby Kebbell (Dawn and War)

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes ^note in Caesar's hallucinations

"For years I was a prisoner in their lab. They cut me... tortured me. You freed me, I would do anything you ask. But we must show strength!"

An altered bonobo with a strong hatred for humans, stemming from years of neglect, abuse and torture. He has many scars, most notably one over his blind left eye, and looks more feral than any of the other apes. He was initially a staunch ally of Caesar, but later became disillusioned with him after seeing his sympathy and compassion towards humans.Eventually, Koba's vendetta against humanity and his disillusionment with Caesar drives him to betray Caesar, take over leadership of the apes and lead them to war against the humans.

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• Adaptational Heroism: "Heroism" probably isn't the best word, but in the novelization, Koba's villainy is toned down somewhat, most notably in his final moments, where his act of mindlessly gunning down apes is changed to him only attacking Caesar with a makeshift spear. Also, he is shown to feel guilty about betraying Caesar.
• Adaptational Sympathy: Downplayed, but still present. The books portray Koba in a more sympathetic light, further exploring his backstory and motives, and mental issues. Also, even after his betrayal and death, some of his fellow apes still sympathize with him to an extent.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Downplayed at the end. While Koba definitely deserved to die for the lines he crossed, Caesar clearly isn't happy to execute his old friend. Even in War, his fall from grace leans heavily on the surviving apes, and both Caesar and Maurice sadly lament that Koba let his hatred and paranoia consume him.
  • While he isn't a villain at the time and it's technically his own fault it happened to him, Koba's brutal beating at the hands of Caesar in front of the apes and Malcom's group is portrayed as sympathetic because of how traumatizing and humiliating it is for Koba. According to Matt Reeves and Maurice, it's what finally pushes him over the edge.
• Aliens of London: Much like Dr. Zaius speaking with Received Pronunciation in the original films, some of the words he says in English are pronounced British.
• Ambiguous Situation: An In-Universe example: In Caesar's Story, Maurice admits to being unsure as to why Koba chose to imprison Caesar's other loyalists rather just kill them on the spot like he did with Ash. Maurice speculates that it was either because Koba wanted to find a convince them to switch their allegiance to him, or just because he wanted them imprisoned to remind him of his victory over the humans and Caesar.
• Anger Is Not Enough: In his final battle with Caesar, Koba is clearly fuelled by his anger and hate for his former friend... but in the end it's not enough to defeat him. In fact, it leads to Koba's undoing.
• Angrish: During his final battle against Caesar and as he is dropped to his death after being rejected as an ape, Koba is reduced to screaming in frustrated fury as he is consumed by his fear, anger and hate, and unable to defeat and kill his former best friend.
• Anti-Hero: In Rise and first half of Dawn. He's on the side of the apes, and he's experienced the same injustices they've endured, if not worse considering how horribly scarred he is. He's notably more angry, aggressive and even sadistic. Subverted in the second half of Dawn, where he betrays the apes and becomes a full-blown villain.
• Anti-Villain: Initially this, being a ruthless and aggressive, but troubled and noble individual who genuinely cares about his fellow apes and hates humanity over legitimate grievances. However, this is Subverted by the end Dawn where he becomes far too bloodthirsty, ruthless, selfish, cruel, and hypocritical by the end to qualify.
• Arch-Enemy: In Firestorm, it is revealed that Koba perceived Steven Jacobs as this due to the latter's cruel taunts, supervision of the experiments performed on Koba, and the pleasure he took in it, traits which, combined with his status as the CEO of the global Gen-Sys labs, made him a symbol of humanity's arrogance, greed, and cruelty. When Caesar gives Koba permission to kill Jacobs in Rise, Koba does so with obvious satisfaction and without any hesitance. While completely justified, this action of personal revenge is one of the most significant factors of Koba eventually becoming a villain, as it gave him a taste of revenge, and it wasn't enough for him, since Jacobs was just one of countless humans who hurt him.
• Ascended Extra: In Rise, he's overshadowed by the other named apes and his only effect on the plot is causing the release of the virus and later killing Jacobs. In Dawn, he is the main antagonist who instigates most of the conflicts in the film.
• Asskicking Leads to Leadership: Is a firm believer of this principle in Dawn. He successfully usurps Caesar and becomes a very violent leader.
• Attack! Attack! Attack!: Koba goes for this during his final battle with Caesar, constantly going on the offensive with big, flashy, furious attacks. Unfortunately for Koba, this only ends up getting him injured in the abdomen and tired out, allowing Caesar to defeat him.
• Ax-Crazy: He is the most bloodthirsty of the apes, showing an enjoyment for violence, which is ironic considering he's a bonobo. In the assault on San Francisco, he goes absolutely mental, shrieking and shooting like the wild animal he is at heart.
• Bad Boss: When he becomes a traitor to Caesar and briefly becomes the apes' leader, he kills or imprisons anyone who questions/defies his authority.
• Bait the Dog: When Ash refuses to kill two unarmed humans in Caesar's name, Koba initially looks like he's going over to help him (or at least kill the humans himself), but instead Koba grabs Ash, drags him up a flight of stairs, and then throws him to his death.
• Because You Were Nice to Me: Koba's love, respect and loyalty to Caesar stems from the fact that Caesar saved him from his abusive life as a test subject and gave him a home and a place to belong. However, this gets subverted HARD in the latter half of Dawn, as Koba's fear and hatred of humans and disillusionment with Caesar for working with them drives him to betray and usurp Caesar.
• Being Tortured Makes You Evil: A major theme of Koba's character. It's mentioned that he has a history of being horribly abused by humans, especially as a laboratory test subject, and the scars show. In Dawn, when Caesar decides to let Malcolm do his "human work", Koba gets one of the most poignant moments in the film.
  Caesar: Let them do their human work. Then they'll go.
  Koba (almost chuckles): Human work?
  (points to the scar on his neck)
  Koba (more aggressively): Human work.
  (points to the scar on his arm)
  Koba: Human work!
  (points to the scar on his blind eye)
  Koba: HUMAN WORK!
• Believing Their Own Lies: Koba espouses that he fights for apes, and the conviction in his voice indicates he may very well believe that, but his final actions in trying to gun down Caesar, callously killing any ape caught in the crossfire, reveals the real Koba: a scared, desperate, angry, and selfish individual who acted out of sheer prejudice against humans than for the well-being of his people.
• The Berserker: Despite being a bonobo (a naturally peaceful and gentle type of ape) Koba is exceptionally violent and aggressive due to the horrific abuse and torture he received from humans since childhood. However, this side to him really shows up during the battle of San Francisco, where he unleashes all his fury against the humans through a savage shooting frenzy, and during his final battle with Caesar, where he uses heavy attacks and relies on his anger to keep him going even after he is wounded and exhausted in the fight.
• Betrayal by Inaction: It's implied in the film and even more heavily in the novelization that Koba feels this way about his fellow apes not saying a word or lifting a finger to help him when he is on the verge of being beaten/strangled to death by Caesar, judging by the hurt expression on Koba's face when the other apes avoid his gaze when he looks to them for support. It's possible that this is the moment where Koba, even though he never consciously realizes it or admits it, decides to fight for himself instead of his fellow apes.
• Beyond Redemption: Played with. While Koba is never really given a chance by anyone to be forgiven for his crimes, it's pretty clear by the end of Dawn that he is utterly beyond saving, both because of how many lines he's crossed and how utterly consumed he's been by his fear, Fantastic Racism, and Unstoppable Rage.
• Big Bad: Of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. Although he doesn't start out that way, the return of the humans reawakens Koba's fear and hatred of them and this eventually drives him to betray Caesar and take over the ape colony.
• Big Bad Slippage: At the start of Dawn, he is a trustworthy ally of Caesar and Honorary Uncle towards his son, Blue Eyes. However, when the humans show up, Koba's deep-seated hatred of humans drives him to turn on Caesar and wage war on the human community.
• Big "NO!": As he is dropped to his death by Caesar.
• Birds of a Feather: A non-romantic example: In Caesar's Story, Maurice speculates that one of the reasons Koba chose to make the unfinished skyscraper his stronghold was because it was, like him, "unfinished"; the skyscraper because the humans stopped building it, and Koba because he had not grown right.
• Blood Knight: Koba loves hunting, fighting, and killing. He is visibly enjoying himself when the apes defeat the humans in a climatic battle in Rise and when they hunt a herd of elk in Dawn. Also, during the invasion of the human city, Koba laughs manically while firing in the air with two machine guns.
• Breakout Villain: Downplayed, but still present, as Koba is easily the most popular villain in the reboot trilogy, and one of the most well-known characters in the series overall.
• Break the Cutie: Koba used to be a sweet, cute, friendly little ape, but the loss of his beloved mother and years of abuse and torture at the hands of humans destroyed his innocence.
• Broken Pedestal: Caesar's eldest son Blue Eyes looks up to him... until the young ape sees him for what he really is. Koba also demonstrates loyalty and friendship to Caesar, considering him a brother. The extended interaction with humans and Caesar's care for them, however, breaks Koba's loyalty.
• Bullying a Dragon: When he finds out that the humans are still at the ape village, Koba wastes no time screaming at Caesar how he loves humans more than apes- even Caesar's own sons. The result is a violent beating with a wrathful Caesar barely restraining himself from throttling Koba to death.
• The Caligula: After taking over the apes, he proves to be an Ax-Crazy tyrant.
• The Chessmaster: When he's got his hate-on going, but before dipping truly into Unstoppable Rage, Koba's quite adept at coming up with pretty elaborate plans to further his own ends.
• Combat Pragmatist: To make up for his comparative lack of physical strength next to other apes, Koba fights smart, quick, and dirty.
• Composite Character: In Dawn, he's got traits of Dr. Zaius (intense hatred for humans and being an Evil Brit), Aldo (believes/knows that guns will give him and the apes the ultimate advantage and gets very trigger happy), and Thade (the first two, plus is a Manipulative Bastard who isn't above turning on his own kind to stay in power) from previous films.
• Consummate Liar: Spouts nothing but lies in the latter half of Dawn. Very convincing ones.
• Control Freak: Not just over the ape community, but himself as well. After spending much of his life under the needle of humans, Koba is finally given control over his life by Caesar and will not stand for that control being compromised or taken away by anyone, human or ape. This definitely shines brightest when he murders Ash for refusing to kill humans, citing Caesar's teachings, and locking up any other apes still loyal to him.
• Cool Uncle: To Blue Eyes at first. Blue Eyes looks up to him and Koba genuinely has a close bond with the the younger ape, comforting him after he was injured by a bear. He stops being this after he betrays Caesar, manipulating Blue Eyes like the rest of the apes and murdering Ash, who's Blue Eyes' best friend and surrogate brother, in front of him which causes Blue Eyes to turn on him.
• The Cynic: Koba is the most bitter and cynical of all the apes, and doesn't believe there is anything good about humans.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Koba's past is the darkest and most troubled in the series. When he was only a little ape, his beloved mother was killed while defending him from an abusive drunkard, and Koba was then sold to Tommy, a Jerkass TV producer who forced Koba and his new chimp friend Milo to do silly tricks for his show. When the poor bonobo finally tried to defend himself, Tommy punished him by scarring and blinding his left eye. After Tommy committed suicide due to his show being cancelled, it looked as if Koba and Milo would finally be able to escape together, but instead they were captured and separated by the animal control. Koba then spent many years as a lab ape, being cruelly and painfully experimented on and otherwise kept in complete isolation. He tried to sign to the humans around him to stop, but they ignored him. Gradually, despair and anger consumed Koba, turning him into the vicious, aggressive, and dangerously vengeful misanthrope we see in the movies.
• Dark Messiah: Furthering his role as Foil to Caesar, whilst Koba is a monster, his actions were also integral to the rise of the Ape Civilization. In Rise, it was his actions in the lab that resulted in Robert Franklin being infected with AZ-113, which led to the infection of Douglas Hunsiker, who caused the world-wide outbreak of the Simian Flu that paved the way for apedom's rise. Then, in Dawn, he instigated the great Ape/Human War that would ultimately lead to humanity's infection with a second strain of the Simian Flu and the development of Ape Civilization into a direction of conquest and anti-human sentiments.
• Death by Irony: He dies a Disney Villain Death in the sequel, similar to Jacobs' in the first film and Ash as caused by him in the sequel.
• Death Glare: Jacobs should have known that Koba had it out for him just from the look he gave him.
• Despair Event Horizon: He has had two:
  • 1: His torturous time as a lab ape, which made him fall so deep into despair that he (figuratively) became his cage and his pain.
  • 2: Being so badly beaten and humiliated by Caesar in front of the ape colony and Malcom's group, which completely shatters Koba's fragile soul and breaks his loyalty to Caesar.
  Maurice: After Caesar dominated and shamed him at the dam, something broke in Koba. It had been damaged for a long time, this thing. It would never have fully healed, but if the humans hadn't returned-if Caesar hadn't worked with them-it might have stayed merely injured. Koba might have lived out his life with us as his family and died of old age surrounded by those who loved him. But instead, this thing in him shattered, and he decided to kill Caesar.
• Deuteragonist: Koba is the second most important character of Dawn behind protagonist Caesar, as the film is about their clashing perspectives on humans and how they should deal with them.
• Devil in Plain Sight: He is covered in scars and frequently sports a Slasher Smile.
• Dirty Coward: Downplayed. On several occasions, Koba is shown to be more than willing to charge into battle against enemies that are much more powerful than him, such as a grizzly bear, an APC, and even the humans’ fortress. However, when up against other apes, Koba uses far more underhanded tactics. He frames the humans for attacking Caesar by shooting him with a stolen gun in the middle of the night, and after his victory over the humans, he kills Ash, a smaller and weaker ape, to make an example of him. Koba also isn’t above using a lull in the fight with Caesar to retrieve his assault rifle once he realizes he’s losing, and he even has the audacity to tell Caesar “Ape not kill ape,” mere moments after killing an unnamed ape and shooting Maurice.
  • Downplayed even more so in the novelization, where Koba's final words are described as a taunt rather than a plea.
• Disproportionate Retribution: Koba has been on both ends of this:
  • As a child, he got beaten by his handler, Roger, and half-blinded by his trainer, Tommy, for innocent disobedience.
  • As an adult, Koba kills Ash just for disobeying an order to kill an unarmed man.
• Dual Wielding: Koba briefly wields a pair of machine guns during the attack on the human settlements. He fires both of them at the same time at a wall of humans. However, he soon throws one of the guns to an unarmed ape, and never wields to gun at the same time again.
• Ear Notch: While not shown very often, looking carefully at his right ear shows that a considerable portion of the upper and lower parts of it are missing.
• Establishing Character Moment: Koba's introduction has him repeatedly holding out his hand to get more food, implying he has already learned Greed and foreshadowing his dark nature in Dawn.
• Electric Torture: Koba was subjected to this during his time with the abusive Tommy, being electrocuted with a cattle prod whenever he did even the slightest thing wrong.
• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: Koba wasn't always evil, but as a child he genuinely loved his mother and later his friend Milo, as he missed both of them after losing them. As an adult, for all his bitterness and viciousness, he cares for his fellow apes, as he risks his life to save Caesar several times and Rocket at least once. However, this is tragically subverted in the latter half of Dawn, where Caesar's beating of Koba and the latter's hatred of humans overrides his love of his fellow apes.
• Evil Brit: His voice sounds animalistic, but some of the words he says in English are pronounced British, likely a Mythology Gag nod to Dr. Zaius speaking with a Received Pronunciation in the original movies and the fact Koba's actor is British.
• Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: A key factor to Koba's downfall in Dawn is that he literally cannot understand or accept Caesar's sympathy and compassion for humans, or his decision to work with them if it means peace between humans and apes. While this is understandable considering Koba's own traumatic experiences with humans, he unfortunately goes too far.
• Evil Counterpart: To Caesar. Unlike him, he's more violent and loves killing humans and eventually his fellow apes alike. Even his use of the maxim, "apes together strong" highlight their opposing views; Caesar uses it to illustrate the strength of unity and cooperation (apes together strong), whereas Koba seems to emphasize the effectiveness of overwhelming force in service to his ends (apes together strong).
• Evil Is Petty: Downplayed: Koba's reasons for being the way he is are certainly not petty at all: years of neglect, abuse and torture at the hands of countless humans give him very justified reasons to hate and distrust the species. However, murdering poor, young and innocent Ash just for disobeying an order to kill an old and unarmed man? That's rather petty.
• Evil Makes You Ugly: In his youth, Koba was very cute; after years of abuse, isolation, and torturous experimentation, he is now the most ugliest and most demonic-looking of all the apes.
• Evil Mentor: He is a very bad influence on Caesar's son Blue Eyes in Dawn.
• Evil Old Folks: Koba is sixteen years old in Rise and twenty-six in Dawn (which takes place ten years later). This makes him the oldest ape in the reboot trilogy at the time of his death.
• Evil Sounds Raspy: He proves to be the villain of Dawn and has a harsh, guttural voice when he speaks.
• The Extremist Was Right:
  • Caesar begins to wonder if Koba's beliefs were actually correct in War for the Planet of the Apes.
  • This is more elaborated on in Revelations, where Caesar realizes that, for all his unjustifiable cruelty and treachery, Koba was ultimately correct in his belief that war between humans and apes was inevitable, because there would always be humans who would never tolerate the existence of a civilization of sapient apes.
• Eye Color Change: As a result of being exposed to the ALZ-113 drug, Koba's one good eye turns green.
• Eye Scream: Koba's most noticeable (and horrible) scar is undoubtedly the long, jagged gash on his blind left eye. The prequel novel, Firestorm, reveals how he got it; his abusive owner, Tommy, slashed his face with a knife, giving him the scar, but this failed to blind Koba's eye, so Tommy burned it out with a lit cigarette.
• Face–Heel Turn: He goes from Caesar's ally in Rise to the Big Bad of Dawn.
• Fallen Hero: For all his violent tendencies and sheer hatred towards humans, Koba is, until the latter half of Dawn, a genuinely loyal friend of Caesar who has risked his life for his fellow apes several times. Tragically, Koba's hatred of humans, his inability let go of his past and his fear of reliving it, and his growing disillusionment with Caesar, drives him into full-blown villainy.
• Fangs Are Evil: While all the apes have fangs, he shows his off the most.
• Fatal Flaw: Wrath and Fear. Koba cannot forgive or forget the pain humans have caused him, nor he is willing to risk any possibility of returning to his old life. In the end, Koba's sheer hatred of humans is what drives him to eventually betray Caesar and wage war against the human settlement, but his rage often clouds his judgement. He doesn't care how many apes die in his war, so long as he gets to kill humans and satisfy his unquenchable lust for revenge. Additionally, his violent tendencies are what turns the rest of the ape community against him during his climactic battle with Caesar, as he becomes so unhinged that he shoots any ape between him and Caesar.
• Faux Affably Evil: In Dawn, he pretends to be a fun playful ape in front of two gunmen, before revealing his true nature to them later in the film.
• Foil: To Caesar — Caesar was lovingly raised by humans before being forced to see how some humans are monstrous, but there are good ones and he verges on being an All-Loving Hero, tries not to kill when he can, and cares for his kind; Koba was abusively raised by humans before being cruelly experimented on by them causing him to view all of them as scum and is He Who Fights Monsters, has a desire to kill anything and despite his claims, the only being he cares about is himself.
• Frame-Up: In Dawn, he frames the humans for shooting and supposedly killing Caesar, which was actually done by him.
• Freudian Excuse: Koba has suffered terribly at the hands of humans; his beloved mother was killed by one (Roger), he was electrocuted, beaten, and half-blinded by another (Tommy), and countless others performed all kinds of horrific and painful experiments on him for years. It is any wonder he hates humans so much?
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: However, by the end of Dawn, Koba has become no better than the worst of the humans he hates, using human tactics and weapons to achieve his goals, and even treating his fellow apes much like his abusers. In the novelization of War, Caesar has concluded that while Koba had every right and reason to hate humans for what was done to him, it was no excuse for betraying his fellow apes.
• From Nobody to Nightmare: Koba was once a normal, innocent ape, but grew up to become the most monstrous and frightening character in the entire series.
• Fury-Fueled Foolishness: As much of a skilled fighter, tactician and manipulator he can be, when his anger against someone is too strong, Koba begins acting rather reckless and impatient, which is frequently the case when it comes to Caesar.
• General Failure: Admittedly, he doesn't have any military training, but even then, he couldn't think of much strategy for attacking the humans' compound besides throwing more and more apes at the humans' automatic weapons.
• Glass Cannon: Koba mainly prioritizes offense. This came to bite him in the ass several times in Dawn.
• Good Scars, Evil Scars: Very evil. Just look at that picture!
• Go Mad from the Isolation: One of the reasons Koba's time as a lab ape affected him so badly was that he was kept locked in an otherwise empty cage when he wasn't being experimented on.
• Greater-Scope Villain: In his two film appearances, he causes the conflict of the next. He causes the Simian Flu Pandemic by breaking a valve and knocking off Robert’s mask, though this was unintentional. What was intentional was him shooting Caesar and burning down his own colony to manipulate the apes into attacking San Francisco, which leads directly to the war.
• Guns Akimbo: Wielded two assault rifles in the sequel.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: By the latter half of Dawn, Koba is a boiling fountain of fury and anything can make him snap if you're not careful.
• He Who Fights Monsters: By the end of Dawn, he has become much more human than ape, down to using guns and rounding up enemies in cages. He probably doesn't even consider that a bad thing, since he seems to think that if humans are evil, then the best way to beat them is to be even more evil than they are. After gaining power, he even primarily walks in a bipedal position moreso than the other apes, ala Napoleon from Animal Farm. He eventually dies in almost the same way as Jacobs, as a final point on how human he has become.
• His Own Worst Enemy: Played with. Koba has been through a lot of crap and faced many enemies and hardships that have left him understandably screwed up, but at the end of the day, the one who really brings about Koba's downfall and death is... well... Koba, with his fear, Unstoppable Rage, Fantastic Racism, selfishness and hypocrisy.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: After Dreyfus tries to kill the apes by blowing the tower up, Koba surviving the explosion prompts him to wildly fire a gun off at Caesar and the other surviving apes who Caesar is trying to free from the wreckage. Seeing his true colors, the rest of the apes turn on him and let Caesar kill him.
• Honorary Uncle: By the start of Dawn, Koba acts as a cool uncle to Blue Eyes.
• Hot-Blooded: Slightly downplayed, but only slightly: Koba can be cold, patient, and calculating if he really needs to be, but overall he is this. Due to the exceptionally horrible abuse he received from humans, he has anger, hatred and aggression that no ape can match. Eventually, these traits cause him to descend into madness and villainy, to the point where he becomes psychotically overemotional and acting erratically in lashing out at everyone; humans and apes alike.
• Humiliation Conga: Throughout Dawn Koba gets his ego and butt kicked several times:
  • First, when he tries to convince Caesar to attack the humans first by angrily pointing out the scars he received from his lifetime of abuse at their hands, Caesar just cows him by standing tall and Koba is forced to give a supplicating palm. It's quite embarrassing for Koba, as it happens in front of many other apes.
  • Later, when Koba accuses Caesar of loving humans more than apes and even his own sons, Caesar responds by beating and very nearly strangling him to death right in front of the ape colony and Malcom's group. Although Caesar spares him, Koba is clearly and utterly humiliated by the public beating, which serves as the breaking point in their friendship, and leads to Koba's decision to overthrow Caesar.
  • During their final confrontation, Koba tries to humiliate Caesar by calling him "weak", only for Caesar to retort that Koba is "weaker" for relying on guns. Koba goes absolutely berserk and tries to kill Caesar with big, flashy attacks that only end up exhausting and wounding him, allowing Caesar to seize the upper hand through more precise and cunning strikes while also calling out Koba's selfishness in front of the other apes.
• Hypocrite: Becomes a pretty big one in the last half of the sequel:
  • He has a good point about "human work"...but has no problems about using "human work" like guns and tanks to achieve his own ends, and relishing in doing so.
  • One of the reasons Koba is so bitter and hateful towards humans is because they kept him locked up in a cage, but, that doesn't stop him from caging other apes for refusing to swear loyalty to him.
  • Attempts to assassinate Caesar, murders Ash to prove a point, and guns down Furaha and nearly Maurice too in his last attempt to kill Caesar... and yet Koba has the audacity to utter the words "Ape not kill ape" in an attempt to save his own skin.
• I Did What I Had to Do: Koba feels this way about betraying and trying to kill Caesar, as he genuinely believed that he was a "weak" leader who would've led the apes to ruin because of his sympathy and compassion for the humans.
• If I Can't Have You…: A non-romantic variation: In Revelations, Caesar reflects that Koba believed that since he couldn't coexist with humans, no ape could.
• Informed Species: Aside from a very dark face, Koba looks little like a real bonobo: he is bigger than most of the chimps in Caesar's colony, whereas real bonobos are noticeably smaller than chimpanzees, and he also lacks the leaner physique and proportionally longer arms that real bonobos have.
• Insane Equals Violent: He only reaches to the point of being violent towards his fellow apes after Caesar beats and humiliates him in front of both apes and humans, which breaks Koba's sanity and loyalty.
• Insult Backfire: Calls Caesar weak while preparing to shoot; Caesar replies "Koba weaker" since he's relying on a gun, prompting him to drop it and fight with his hands.
• It's All About Me: He claims to be fighting for all apes and genuinely believes it, but even though it was true at one point, by the final act of the movie, his one and only concern is personal revenge and taking out his Unstoppable Rage on humans and any ape who doesn't side with him; by the climax, even they aren't safe from this Ax-Crazy homicidal maniac. Caesar even calls him out on it.
  Koba: Caesar brother to humans! Koba fight for ape! Free ape!
  Caesar: Kill ape. Koba fight for Koba. Koba belong in cage.
• Jerkass Has a Point: Before his undying hatred for humans completely takes over later in Dawn, Koba points out to Caesar that the apes should not appear weak to humanity. Caesar immediately agrees and organizes his envoy to the human colony out of what appears to be every fighting ape in his colony. His general behavior in the early portions of the film is also generally reasonable considering his and Caesar's awful experiences in human hands; it's when his unwavering hatred and desire for revenge overcomes all thought for his fellow apes that he goes off the deep end.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In Rise and the first half of Dawn. Koba was vicious, and occasionally buttheads with Caesar, but he still cared for him and respected his authority. He was also an Honorary Uncle to Blue Eyes, comforting him after he was scarred by a bear. This heart of gold tragically blackens as the movie goes on.
• Jerk with a Heart of Jerk: Becomes this as his heart blackens over the course of Dawn. He has a few moments of possibly showing kindness and understanding towards his fellow apes whenever they question his growing brutality, but he ultimately uses it as an excuse to get them within arms reach so he can punish them.
• Jumping Off the Slippery Slope: After being beaten and humiliated by Caesar, something is unleashed in Koba, and he gleefully murders two humans, attempts to assassinate Caesar, tries to destroy all humans, and resorts to murdering and imprisoning apes who he feels are insufficiently loyal.
• Kick the Dog: Ash refuses to kill a defenseless human; Koba responds by grabbing him and throwing him to his death. A lesser example occurs later during his fight with Caesar, after the tower partly collapses. Koba moves a piece of debris trapping another ape, only to simply retrieve the gun the ape was carrying and drop the debris back on him.
• Kill All Humans: Koba's main goal in life.
• Laughing Mad: When he charges the human barricade on his horse, his constant roaring sounds more than a little bit like deranged laughter.
• Make an Example of Them: Downplayed: He does this to Ash by killing him for disobeying an order, and makes it clear that any ape who defies him will face a similar fate.
• Maniac Monkeys: He's a bonobo, which are usually peaceful in comparison to chimpanzees. However, he's the most violent and bloodthirsty of all the apes.
• Manipulative Bastard: Demonstrates aptitude with this skill, as shown not only when he tricks a couple of humans into underestimating him, but also when he seizes control of ape society through lies and xenophobia. Blue Eyes is one of the main targets of his manipulations.
• Manly Man: He may count as a Deconstruction of this concept, as he is a fighter who thinks that War Is Glorious, but only does it to sooth his Unstoppable Rage.
• Meaningful Name: "Koba" was the nickname used by Joseph Stalin before the Russian Revolution.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: A downplayed, but still tragic and rather twisted example: Koba's decision to betray and usurp Caesar only comes about after the latter beats and humiliates him in front of the ape colony and Malcom's group for accusing him of loving humans more than apes.
• Mood-Swinger: "Unstable" is a rather charitable way to describe Koba, as he seems to sink into depression and fly into rages very easily.
• Moral Event Horizon: In-Universe: Koba's savage shooting at Caesar while being completely unconcerned about the other apes around him, killing Furaha and injuring Maurice in the process, is the final tipping point for Caesar's decision to kill him and thus break his own rule of Ape Shall Not Kill Ape.
• Motive Decay: He originally believed the humans had to be defeated to protect the apes. After being beaten and humiliated by Caesar in front of the apes and Malcom's group, and after seizing power, Koba becomes more concerned with his own power and imposing his hateful view of the world on the other apes rather than giving a damn about protecting them.
• Murder Is the Best Solution: Koba firmly believes this when it comes to humans.
• My God, What Have I Done?: A downplayed example. In the novelization, Koba genuinely, though very briefly, hesitates before shooting Caesar, and the text outright states that he feels sad about it, but he refuses to admit that it was wrong.
• Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Claims to fight for apes, yet he won't hesitate to kill any of his fellow apes to further his own goals. Whether he admits it or not, his motives are entirely selfish.
• Number Two: He, Maurice, and Rocket are Caesar's right-hand apes by Dawn, though he clearly asserts his authority more than the other two.
• Obfuscating Stupidity: While he absolutely despises that humans think he's just a dumb monkey, he also recognizes how to use this to his advantage. He uses Black Comedy and Slapstick in Dawn to disarm a pair of human guards as a ploy to get his hands on a rifle, before abruptly killing them both.
• Obviously Evil: The deep scars on his face and his default Death Glare expression should clue you in to what type of ape he is.
• Oh, Crap!: He has this reaction when Caesar declares he is not an ape, seconds before dropping him to his death.
• The Paranoiac: He is bitter and vengeful for all of the abuse and experiments done to him by humans and is utterly convinced that the humans mean to do apes harm. He's perfectly willing and even eager to strike them first, tries to assassinate Caesar and actually kills Ash for being "weak"- ie. not being murderous bastards like himself-, and he devolves into a psycho Control Freak who puts humans and rival apes alike in cages just like he had been. Like many paranoiacs, he is ultimately far more concerned with the suffering he has gone through than with the troubles of anybody else, and if other apes aren't, he'll just have to convince them different.
• Pet the Dog:
  • Koba's first order when he takes over as leader is to keep the women and children safe, but he may have just been savvy enough to know he shouldn't risk them.
  • At the start of the film, he received some genuine moments, showing how much of a friend he is to Caesar by rushing in to save Caesar and Blue Eyes from a bear. He also comforts Blue Eyes afterwards, affectionately telling him that the scars the bear gave him make him strong. A mark of how insane and hate-filled he's become is when he first tries to assassinate Caesar, then later even tries to gun down Blue Eyes at the climax of the film.
• Pitiful Worms: In the novelization of Dawn, he at one point refers to the humans as "rats" for scavenging the ruins of their once thriving cities.
• Posthumous Character: During War, Koba weighs heavily on Caesar's mind. It gets to the point where Caesar starts hallucinating Koba as his desire for revenge consumes him.
• Psychotic Smirk: Gets one when he gets the chance to kill Jacobs. He does it far more often in Dawn.
• Psychopathic Manchild: In addition to wanting every human exterminated, he will kill any ape in a fit of rage who refuses to share his hostile view towards humans. While fighting Caesar, Koba explodes when Caesar rebukes that he only fights for himself, not other apes.
• Pyrrhic Victory: Koba did get what he wanted; a war against humanity. Posthumously.
• Revenge Before Reason: Koba's desire for vengeance against humanity ultimately outweighs any semblance of rationality in him.
• Roaring Rampage of Revenge: Koba's reign of terror in the latter half of Dawn is basically this; bloody and fiery revenge against humanity for his tragic past... and it is implied, what he believes to be revenge against Caesar (and everything he stands for) for working with humans.
• Sadist: Koba smiles a chilling Slasher Smile when he shoots down the two guards he played silly with. In the final act, he is gunning down humans with hateful glee left, right and center; he also has them- and his ape enemies- rounded up and caged just as he was, seeing it as poetic revenge. He revels in the power guns and violence give him and tries to force young ape Ash to murder a human so he can turn him into a killer like Koba himself- when Ash refuses, Koba kills him.
• Sanity Slippage: As hatred and rage take their toll, Koba slowly slips further into madness to the point that he will kill apes who defy him in killing humans and refuse to submit to his authority. By the time he fights Caesar, Koba resorts to grabbing a gun and firing indiscriminately at all the apes, screaming furiously. It's this that makes Caesar realize how Koba is utterly beyond saving.
• Satanic Archetype: Koba has a very Luciferian element to his character. He starts off as a loyal ape who is almost family to Caesar, but soon becomes corrupted and rebels against Caesar, leading the apes down a dark path. His legacy of terror persists even after his death with many apes using his name in a very "speak of the Devil" manner, and Caesar hallucinates him saying "Join me." when he is tied to a post at Alpha Omega's camp, evoking the imagery of Jesus on the cross being tempted by Satan. In addition, a number of scenes involving Koba have fire in them, and fire is a significant element of Hell. And just like Satan, Koba's story is one of revenge, and his death is reminiscent of Lucifer being cast out of Heaven as he plummets to his doom. He then goes down in ape history as the absolute worst of apekind.
• Scars Are Forever: Koba still has the nightmarish scars he received from humans even after ten years of freedom, which tragically further fuels his fear, hate, and desire for vengeance when they return.
• Screaming Warrior: While the apes scream from time-to-time, Buck and Koba are the ones constantly seen roaring.
• Serkis Folk: Like the other apes.
• Self-Harm: During his time as a lab ape, the trauma of the experiments performed on him, coupled with being kept all by himself in a cage with nothing to do, drove Koba to this, doing things like pulling out his fur and signing his fingers against with the floor of his cage until they bled.
• Shadow Archetype: To make a long story short, Caesar's quest for revenge in War has drawn comparisons to Koba (with even Caesar himself agreeing eventually). Luckily, Caesar doesn't fully commit to becoming like Koba.
• Shell-Shocked Veteran: A non-military example: It's explicitly stated that much of Koba's madness stems from the horrific abuse and torture he received from humans as a lab ape, which gave him a deep hatred of humans and still haunt him to this day. As one of the oldest apes in the colony, Koba has endured more mistreatment than most of them.
• Sixth Ranger: He swings in as a last-minute addition to Caesar's primate shelter team. He and Caesar are the only named apes that 'belong' to Gen-Sys. Becomes a Sixth Ranger Traitor in the sequel.
• Slasher Smile: Koba's scars and fangs make him support an utterly terrifying grin, and he flashes it often as he grows more and more unhinged.
• The Social Darwinist: Reveals himself as one when he imprisons Maurice, Rocket and several other apes who refuse to kill humans, because they are "weak". He clearly wants to create a situation where the powerful (bloodthirsty) rule and the weak (empathetic) are wiped out.
• The Sociopath: Koba gradually becomes this over the course of Dawn. He coldly betrays and attempts to kill Caesar for power despite knowing him for a decade, shows an increasing lack of regard to the lives of his own kind, grows to only care about himself, and he cites "Ape does not kill ape" yet mercilessly kills Ash to set an example.
• Sour Outside, Sad Inside: Koba's Fantastic Racism and Unstoppable Rage comes from the pain, misery and heartbreak inflicted upon him by humans.
• Sudden Sequel Heel Syndrome: Despite his hatred of humans making him much more aggressive and bloodthirsty, he's an otherwise loyal ally of Caesar's in Rise and the main villain who tries to kill him in Dawn.
• Sympathetic Murderer: Sort of at first. Played fairly straight in Rise when he sadistically kills Steven Jacobs in very justified revenge for the latter's cruelty towards him and his fellow apes. Played with at first in Dawn, where he cruelly toys with and murders Terry and McVeigh for mocking him and considering killing him (and to be fair they would have killed him if he hadn't played dumb with them). It's averted later in Dawn when Koba starts ruthlessly killing innocent humans and fellow apes for the sake of his own selfish, vengeful, power-hungry goals.
• Token Evil Teammate: Of the apes that break away from society. Turns into a full-blown villain in Dawn, which in turn also removes this status as being unique to him as many apes willingly follow his lead and turn against their own kind.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: Over the course of Dawn, Koba lets his hatred of humans overwhelm him, and goes from Caesar and Blue Eye’ Brother in Arms and Honorary Uncle respectively, to shooting the former and then manipulating and murdering the friend of the latter.
• Tragic Villain: Koba was once an innocent, friendly, compassionate ape who would have never harmed anyone, but the tragic loss of his beloved mother and years of neglect, abuse and torture at the hands of humans left him forever scarred, inside and out. Despite his troubled past, Koba was genuinely grateful to Caesar when the latter freed him. Because of that gratitude, in the 10 years between Rise and Dawn, Koba was one of Caesar's most trusted lieutenants, and he genuinely cared for his leader and his fellow apes. Unfortunately, when he discovered human survivors living in San Francisco, Koba's fear and hatred of humans was reawakened, and when Caesar decided to work with them for the sake of peace, Koba could not understand or accept that, because unlike Caesar he had no reason to believe that any human could be good. As a result, Koba's fear and anger began to outweigh his love for apes. By the end of the movie, Koba is willing to kill and imprison apes that get in his way, as he feels they've betrayed their own kind by having sympathy for the humans. In the end, Caesar realizes Koba is to far gone to be saved and with a heavy heart drops him to a Cruel and Unusual Death - a painful end to a life filled with pain.
• Trauma Button: Humans. Notably, in Firestorm, Koba has a flashback of his mother's death when Caesar closes the eyes of a dead ape the same way Mary closed the still-open eyes of Koba's mother after she was killed by Roger. Also, Maurice states in Caesar's Story that being in any sort of enclosed space reminded Koba of his time in cages.
• Trauma Conga Line: The flashbacks in Firestorm show that life with humans was beyond cruel to Koba. First, his beloved and loving mum was killed defending him from an abusive alcoholic, then he was sold to a Jerkass TV producer who abusively trained him to do silly tricks. Said producer slashed and then burned out Koba's left eye when he finally tried to defend himself. Finally, Koba became a lab ape, being kept locked in a cage with no enrichment which he never left except when his scientific captors performed their torturous experiments on him. It's no wonder Koba is so twisted up inside.
• Tyrant Takes the Helm: After injuring Caesar and leaving him to die, he proves himself to be a tyrannical leader, imprisoning all those who defy him and executing Ash, to serve as an example.
• Uncertain Doom: A subverted example. At the end of Dawn, Koba disappears after he's dropped into a shaft hundreds of feet deep by Caesar, and in the credits the sound of rubble moving and Koba's heavy breathing can be heard. In War, which is set two years later, Caesar confirms Koba is dead. Word of God also confirms that Koba is no more.^note Matt Reeves purposefully left Koba's fate ambiguous in Dawn just in case he and the filmmakers ever decided to bring him back, but they ultimately decided not to because they believed it would be unrealistic for him to survive the fall and they couldn't think of anything more to do with his character. Though Koba was back in Caesar's hallucinations.
• Undignified Death: Downplayed: Koba's death, while deserved, is pretty horrific. But for an ape like him, being dropped into a hundreds-foot deep shaft after being rejected by Caesar after the latter found a hole in Koba's Ape not kill ape logic is pretty karmic, especially considering Koba sent Jacobs and Ash falling to their deaths in a similar manner.
• Undying Loyalty: Subverted: Koba claims he would do anything for Caesar, but while his loyalty is genuine for ten years, Koba's hatred of humans ultimately proves to be stronger and he betrays Caesar.
• The Unfettered: He wants to kill humans, and he doesn't care how many apes die while he's at it.
• Ungrateful Bastard: After Caesar rescues him, and later spares his life after a brutal fight between them, he becomes a traitor and tries to assassinate Caesar.
• Unstoppable Rage: His driving motivation is revenge on humans — all humans — for the cruel treatment he received in the labs.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: Struggling during the testing of ALZ-113 resulted in Franklin being exposed to it and becoming patient zero of the Simian Flu that would kill off most of humanity. Given his actions in the sequel, he'd most certainly be ecstatic to learn that.
• Used to Be a Sweet Child: The prequel novel, Firestorm, really empathizes this, showing that Koba was originally a friendly, playful, innocent, naïve and curious ape who loved his mum, toys and playing and signing.
• Victorious Loser: He's defeated and killed by Caesar at the end of Dawn but though he doesn't live to see it, he gets what he wants in the form of an all-out war between apes and humans.
• Villain Has a Point: Koba believes that all humans are evil and apes can never coexist peacefully with them. He's not entirely wrong about this, because humans can be incredibly cruel to apes (and animals in general) for extremely petty reasons, and considering how the Colonel and his allies rejected all of Caesar's peace offers, it seems war between humans and apes was probably inevitable.
• Villainous Breakdown: Koba has a major one during his and Caesar's climatic duel. As his attempts to overpower and kill Caesar repeatedly fail, Koba gets increasingly desperate and frustrated to the point that he starts wildly throwing anything he can at Caesar while his furious roars get louder and louder. When Caesar calls him out for his selfishness and tells Koba he belongs in a cage, the already deranged bonobo loses it completely. Even after an explosion halts the duel and Caesar starts helping the other apes, the remark appears to have destroyed what little was left of Koba's sanity, as he doesn't even try to help any of his fellow apes. Instead, Koba grabs a machine gun and with it wildly shoots at Caesar and any ape in his way, all the while screaming in psychotic fury. When Koba is subdued, he still has the gall to bring up the law "Ape not kill Ape."
• Villainous Legacy: He's dead as of War, but he casts a dark shadow over the film's events — even to the point where Caesar's descent into ruthlessness draws comparisons to him.
• Villainous Valor: As deplorably cruel and hateful as he is, Koba displays pretty impressive examples of bravery; during the attack on San Francisco, he fearlessly charges a wall of gun-wielding humans and later a massive tank while unarmored and on horseback and wins. Had he retreated or given up, that might have been the end of the ape civilization.
• Villains Want Mercy: After all he did in Dawn, he seems to do this by saying that Caesar won't kill him or let him die, invoking Ape Shall Never Kill Ape. He is no longer considered an ape by Caesar, so he doesn't grant him mercy.
• War Hawk: The most notable example in the series. Out of all the apes, Koba is the most highly vocal advocate for war with the humans, as he understandably despises them for his mistreatment as a lab ape during the time human civilization was still strong. He contrasts with his leader, Caesar, who was raised by a loving human "father" and wants peace. When the group of humans led by Malcom arrive a nearby dam in operation to restore power, Caesar agrees to let them do it, reasoning that if they don't, the humans will attack; Koba is furious at this, arguing that if they allow the humans to regain their strength, they will be slaughtered, and the apes should crush the humans while they are weak. After being denied his war too many times, Koba near-fatally shoots Caesar, burns the ape village to ashes, and pins it on the humans, rallying the apes to war.
• War Is Glorious: Repeatedly urges Caesar to go to war against the humans because he both hates them and loves violence. When Caesar calls him out for starting a war, Koba readily brags about winning it and doesn't think about all the apes he saw die.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: Koba starts out as this, genuinely desiring to protect his fellow apes from humanity. The fact that he chose to save Rocket over an opportunity to kill a human in Firestorm reinforces this. However, in Dawn, Koba devolves from this to a Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist as he becomes increasingly obsessed with revenge, power and control, and his implied feelings of betrayal against his fellow apes for not supporting him against Caesar, who wishes to make peace with humanity. Even after Jumping Off the Slippery Slope, Koba still believes himself to be this, claiming he betrayed Caesar to "free apes", but Caesar rightfully points out that, since he has killed apes himself, "Koba fight for Koba."
• We Used to Be Friends:
  • At the beginning of Dawn, Koba has a pretty strong friendship with Caesar, and they get along well. Caesar even says he trusted Koba like a brother. When humans arrive, their differences become very apparent, and they wind up bitter enemies.
  • Also extends to Rocket, Maurice, and Blue Eyes. Koba acted like an Honorary Uncle to Blue Eyes and appeals to Rocket to attack the humans since they harmed Rocket's son, Ash. Later on, Koba imprisons Rocket and Maurice for being loyal to Caesar, tries to kill Blue Eyes, and murders Ash himself for showing mercy to humans.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Downplayed. Koba's past does not justify his actions, which toward the end of Dawn, are unambiguously cruel and selfish, and cause his fellow apes to repudiate any affection for him. However, it's hard not to feel even a little sympathy for Koba, especially when he points out the scars he got from the horrific abuse he received from humans and when we read the prequel novel, Firestorm and see the innocent, naïve ape he was once was, longing for his dead mother. Even Maurice, whom Koba imprisoned and nearly killed, still pities the bonobo because he had suffered more than most apes, and if things had gone different; if the humans hadn't returned, Koba wouldn't have gone down the dark path he took.
• Would Hurt a Child: He plans to wipe out mankind and children are no exception. He also kills a young ape named Ash when he refuses to kill a human.
• You Are What You Hate: He hates humans because he considers them all evil. He later betrays Caesar and becomes exactly evil like the humans he hates, flat out using human weapons and techniques to further his own agenda without a hint of self-awareness.

San Bruno Primate Shelter

Maurice

Maurice

"Careful. Human no like smart ape."

Portrayed by: Karin Konoval

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

An altered orangutan and a former circus ape who resided at the San Bruno Primate Shelter with Cornelia, Rocket and Buck. Maurice watched over Caesar and discovered his intelligence, hence learning about his ability to communicate with Sign Language. Seeing Caesar's potential, Maurice became Caesar's best and most trusted friend. During the Ape Rebellion, Maurice served as the second of Caesar's lieutenants, the first being Rocket. Over the next ten years, he remains loyal to Caesar and serves as the colony's seer and as a teacher to new generations of apes.

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• Amplified Animal Aptitude: Even before his exposure to the 113 virus, Maurice was remarkably intelligent compared to the other sanctuary apes. Maurice was able to hold complete conversations with Caesar through sign language, and he understood the symbolism behind Caesar's fasces.
• Badass Adorable: His kindly demeanor and fierce loyalty make for an absolutely adorable combination.
• Badass Bookworm: Is the second-smartest of the apes after Caesar, understanding the parable of broken sticks Caesar shows him in Rise and appears to have become a teacher in Dawn, instructing some of the new apes in sign language. He also appears interested in a comic book that Alexander's reading.
• Beware the Nice Ones: Throughout Dawn, he is one of the kindest apes in the film, but when Koba attacked Alexander, he promptly put his foot down and drove him off. In War, when he needs Bad Ape to do something and Bad Ape is very hesitant, Maurice swiftly reminds Bad Ape that you do not want to be on an orangutan's bad side.
• Big Damn Heroes: In Dawn, steps in to protect Alexander from Koba, and when doing so stands upright showing off how big he is. Koba backs away.
• Breaking the Bonds: Tears metal chains apart like they're paper and then punches through a window (one that had bars on it, mind you) in Dawn.
• Cool Old Guy: He is seen teaching to new generations of apes in Dawn, and he is the one who prompts Caesar's party to adopt Nova in War. Beside Caesar, Maurice is the friendliest ape towards humans who deserve their trust.
• Cross-Cast Role: He is portrayed by actress Karin Konoval.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Maurice was once a circus animal, being forced to entertain humans through pain and intimidation and occasionally subjected to the humiliation of wearing silly human clothes. Once his owners no longer needed him, they gave him to the animal shelter, where he was treated just as badly.
• Deadpan Snarker: Without actually speaking.
• Death Glare: Gives a terrifying one to Koba when protecting Alexander.
• Demoted to Extra: He's less important in Dawn, though he didn't get it as bad as Rocket. Both regain more focus in War.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: He was the one with Caesar during his final moments.
• Erudite Orangutan: Maurice is highly intelligent and wise even before he was mutated, which is why he is Caesar's voice of reason.
• Expy: Of Virgil from Battle for the Planet of the Apes, an orangutan confidant to Caesar. Possibly also Mandemus, an older orangutan who's also a friend of Caesar, from the same film.
• Genius Bruiser: Aside from Caesar, he's the most intelligent of the apes. And aside from Buck and Luca, he's the biggest, and the strongest.
• Gentle Giant: One of the largest apes, as well as one of the kindest. Maurice is so gentle, passive, and soft-spoken (usually only speaking in sign, he actually talks only three times in all the movies so far) that you forget he's huge, strong, and can be pants-wettingly terrifying when he wants to. As Bad Ape finds out in War. Not even Koba is willing to take Maurice on in a straight fight.
• The Heart: Maurice is the kindest and gentlest of the apes, who holds no ill-will towards humans and serves as Caesar's moral conscience.
• Hulk Speak: Initially, in Rise, both he and Caesar use sign language like this. After 10 years of practice and presumably exposure to the 113, they are more eloquent. When speaking English, though this remains in effect.
• Intergenerational Friendship: Crossed with Interspecies Friendship with Nova in War.
• The Lancer: To Caesar in War, playing up compassion and empathy to counterpoint Caesar's growing ruthlessness and Revenge Before Reason.
• Let's Get Dangerous!: When Maurice is pissed off and his friends are in dangerous, he has Luca and Rocket help him flip a bus.
• Mighty Glacier: He can hold his own with Buck and the other gorillas regarding strength. Speed, not so much. This extends to his everyday body language, which is slow and deliberate - the actor researched orangutan body language, which is like this in real life (though as with Maurice, their slow reaction time doesn't directly correlate with low intelligence).
• Named After Somebody Famous: He is a wise orangutan, the species that formed the intellectual elite in ape society in the original films, and is named after actor Maurice Evans, who played Dr. Zaius.
• Nice Guy: Out of all the apes, he is the gentlest.
• Not So Stoic: When he sees an ape shot off the Golden Gate bridge, he gets very angry.
• Number Two: He, Rocket and Koba are Caesar's right-hand apes by Dawn.
• The Stoic: Maurice mostly lounges around with a droopy expression.
• Serkis Folk: Like the other apes.
• The Smart Guy: Of Caeser's group. He serves as a trusted adviser to Caeser.
• Suddenly Speaking: In War, after spending most of the film using sign language, he speaks to give Nova her name and later forces himself to speak aloud so a dying Caesar can hear him. Before this, he had only spoken to tell Malcolm to run in Dawn.
• Sympathy for the Devil: Maurice feels sorry for Koba and Winter.
• Undying Loyalty: One of Caesar's most loyal followers and trusted friends/advisors.
• The Voiceless: He uses sign language as a use of communication in the first two films, but only utters a single word ("Run.") until War, where he starts speaking English.

Rocket

Rocket

"I follow Caesar."

Portrayed by: Terry Notary

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes | Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

An altered chimpanzee who was the Alpha at the San Bruno Primate Shelter before and during Caesar's time at the shelter. He was a typical bully until Caesar outsmarted him and took his place as Alpha. Settling their differences aside, the two became the most unlikeliest of allies. During the Ape Rebellion, Caesar tasks Rocket as one of his lead lieutenants. After ten years, the two are still best friends and Rocket is still one of Caesar's closest companions.

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• Action Dad: He is a father by the time of Dawn.
• A Day in the Limelight: The prequel novel, Revelations, mostly focuses on him and Blue Eyes.
• Badass in Distress: In Dawn, when newly-ascended Koba has all of Caesar's loyalists rounded up.
• Bald of Evil: Not evil, but moreso territorial as when he runs the tribe, having them all intimidate Caesar.
• The Bully: How he became the leader of the shelter apes through bullying tactics and aggression how a normal chimpanzee would do in their natural habitat.
• Character Development: Once an aggressive yet normal chimpanzee only concerned with just living in the primate shelter, Rocket becomes Caesar's loyal right-hand ape, who is fiercely devoted to him, his race and shows quite the ability to plan ahead.
• Defeat Means Friendship: After being severely intimidating and then spared by Caesar, Rocket comes to respect him as the new leader as well as becoming a great friend.
• Demoted to Extra: Despite being The Lancer in Rise, he has less screentime in Dawn and Koba becomes the more assertive Number Two. He regains more focus in War however.
• Fire-Forged Friends: Despite starting as brutish toward Caeser, but definitely after all they go through together Rocket ends up not just a loyal friend to Caesar, and loves him like a brother.
• Heel–Face Turn: He starts out as the fierce alpha who leads the shelter apes through his intimidation like any other chimpanzee. When Caesar uses Buck as an intimidation figure to scare him, he quickly submits and after gaining intelligence via exposure to ALZ-113, Rocket becomes one of Caesar's closest friends and trusted second-in-command.
• Hot-Blooded: He chases Caesar around the shelter and beats him up to assert his dominance in the first film. This attitude seems to have been mellowed out through Dawn and War being more humble, he does however retains his boisterous and passionate nature as well as taking on the more risky missions. Such as when he's one of the only apes to physically fight Red in the concentration camp and go against the guards.
• Know When to Fold 'Em: When at the primate shelter, he wisely decides not to pursue a fight with Caesar when he sees Caesar has brought the huge gorilla Buck as an ally, offering a submissive gesture to Caesar as a result.
• Jack of All Stats: He seems to have a decent combat performance in what most have seen him fight.
• The Lancer: After being beaten by Caesar, he becomes his second-in-command.
• The Leader: He is first introduced as the leader of the shelter apes until being overthrown by Caesar in Rise. In Dawn and War, he holds a high-ranking leadership position among the ape colony as Caesar's loyal second-in-command and is seen acting as their temporary leader in Caesar's absence. He presumably becomes the new permanent leader of the colony upon Caesar's death at the end of War since Caesar's only surviving heir is Cornelius, who is still far too young to take over as leader at that point.
• Lightning Bruiser: Rocket has shown to be a physically strong and fast ape that can blitz his opponents while hitting them hard.
• Made of Iron: In War, he's able to withstand a brutal beating from a much larger gorilla like Red and is still able to stand afterwards with seemingly no serious crippling injuries.
• Muscles Are Meaningful: Rocket has shown to be very muscular in his own right since he's the one who has the least amount of fur on his body, yet he's a strong fighter.
• Named After Somebody Famous: He was named after Norman Rockett, a set designer for the Planet of the Apes (1968) film.
• Not Evil, Just Misunderstood: A multitude of others considered Rocket to be a bully towards Caeser, but what most don't know is that he was mainly acting on instinct to what a normal chimpanzee would do when approached by a newcomer whom they do not trust yet. Most clans of chimps are ruled by strength such as what he portrays in Rise. However he was also not lucky enough to have the 112 nor the 113 in the first half and was a normal chimp for the most part.
• Number Two: He, Koba, and Maurice are Caesar's right-hand apes by Dawn.
• Outliving One's Offspring: Koba's murder of Ash weighs heavily on him, and he later tells Caesar he knows exactly what losing a son is like.
• Papa Wolf: Wanted to hurt the human who shot his son in the arm.
• Reformed Bully: Initially the aggressor towards to Caesar for the first part, he becomes a genuine friend and ally to him afterwards in a classic example of Defeat Means Friendship.
• The Smart Guy: Becomes this in War, in a Guile Hero/Indy Ploy kind of way.
• Took a Level in Kindness: Being humbled by Caesar and Buck, then given compassion turns Rocket into a much nicer ape who's fully devoted to Caesar and their society.
• Undying Loyalty: Following his defeat at the hands of Caesar, Rocket became one of Caesar's most trusted friends.

Buck

Buck

Portrayed by: Richard Ridings

Appears in: Rise of the Planet of the Apes

An extremely powerful gorilla housed in a specially-built cage at the San Bruno Primate Shelter. He was the only ape never harassed by Dodge Landon. He was bad tempered, strong and brave, and is introduced banging his cage, trying to get out.

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• Because You Were Nice to Me: How Caesar gains Buck's loyalty. All he had to do was let him out of his cage so he could run and play.
• The Big Guy: He is the largest of the apes Caesar recruits.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: He sacrifices himself to take down the police helicopter gunning down the apes. Caesar takes it hard.
• Boisterous Bruiser: Granted that the apes are loud, but he's the one who always screams.
• Died in Your Arms Tonight: Close to the end of the first film, Buck dies in Caesar's arms after taking on a helicopter.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: He tackles a helicopter filled with armed men out of the sky, then survives long enough to have a Died in Your Arms Tonight moment with Caesar.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: Dies near the end of the movie. After this, he is never brought up again after the apes make it to Muir Woods in the first film, nor the rest of the series.
• Heroic Sacrifice: He takes several bullets for Caesar and destroys the helicopter, which was both the biggest physical threat to the apes and carried their mortal enemy Jacobs.
• Hidden Depths: When Caesar first arrives in the sanctuary, Buck seems to be a stereotypical Killer Gorilla that tries to hurt anything that comes near his cage. It turns out he is always angry because he is in a cage, a small one where he can barely move and whose ground is entirely of concrete. He is overjoyed when he can finally touch the grass outside.
• I Owe You My Life: He becomes a trusted underling of Caesar after he freeds him from his small cage.
• Killer Gorilla: When first introduced he was roaring at every chimp who came too close to his cage. He's also the most formidable fighter in Caesar's group, being strong enough to take out a helicopter all by himself.
• Lightning Bruiser: Just like real gorillas, he's not only incredibly strong but moves at surprising speed.
• Manchild: Watch the scene when he first touches un-cemented ground in a very long time. He's bursting in joy!
• Manly Man: Big, badass Screaming Warrior who goes out in a Dying Moment of Awesome.
• Named After Somebody Famous: He was named after Buck Kartalian, who played gorilla characters in Planet of the Apes (1968) and Conquest of the Planet of the Apes.
• Primal Chest-Pound: He sometimes thumps his chest in the fit of battle, such as after successfully taking out a car with a manhole cover, or throwing a man off the bridge.
• Screaming Warrior: While the apes scream from time-to-time, Buck and Koba are the ones constantly seen roaring.
• Taking the Bullet: He saves Caesar from being gunned by the helicopter's co-pilot.
• Undying Loyalty: To Caesar after he frees him from his cage.

Other Ape Colony Chimpanzees

Ash

Ash

"Caesar wouldn't want this."

Portrayed by: Doc Shaw

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

Another teen chimp, best friend of Blue Eyes, and son of Rocket.

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• Butt-Monkey: Nothing good happens to him in all his screen-time. This is not played for laughs though.
• Decomposite Character: Of Cornelius in Battle for the Planet of the Apes. Though he is not the son of Caesar, the aspect of Cornelius' murder at the hands of a treacherous fellow ape is transferred over to him. Also, much like Cornelius, Ash is supportive of Caesar's efforts to keep the peace between humans and apes.
• Foil: He and Blue Eyes have been friends presumably since birth, in stark contrast to their fathers who have an initially rocky relationship.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners: With Blue Eyes — Having grown up together, the two young apes love each other and are often known to tease each other; and it was Ash's murder at the hands of Koba that caused Blue Eyes to turn against the savage ape.
• The Lancer: To Blue Eyes, among the second generation of intelligent apes, just as his father is to Caesar among the adult apes.
• Meaningful Name: Ash has white pigments on the skin of his mouth and left shoulder, which resemble ashes.
• No Good Deed Goes Unpunished: Ash is the first ape to realize what they're becoming in the attack on San Francisco and refuses Koba's urging to beat an unarmed man to death because it's not what Caesar would want. Koba furiously murders him to prove a point after this.
• The Pollyanna: He seems to deal with being the Butt Ape of the film just fine in contrast to Blue Eyes, who goes Emo Teen.
• Undying Loyalty: To Caesar. It gets him killed.

Lake

Lake

Portrayed by: Sara Canning

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

The Love Interest of Blue Eyes.

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• Cool Big Sis: To Cornelius. Had she married Blue Eyes, she would have been his sister-in-law.
• Headbutt of Love: Gives one to Blue Eyes when he returns to the colony.
• Nice Girl: One of the kindest, gentlest apes we meet.
• Promotion to Parent: Caesar asks her to look after Cornelius while he goes after McCullough for killing Cornelia and Blue Eyes.

Grey

Grey

Portrayed by: Lee Ross

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

"You didn't tell Caesar about the guns we found?"

A chimpanzee loyal to Koba.

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• Co-Dragons: He and Stone serve as Koba's most prominent and loyal followers.
• Heel–Face Door-Slam: Right after he refuses to kill Cornelia, Red murders him.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: He starts out as one of Koba's flunkies, then defects back to Caesar's side after seeing what a monster he is, then he betrays Caesar with Red, and finally goes back to Caesar's side right before he dies.
• Meaningful Name: He has grey fur.
• Mistreatment-Induced Betrayal: He implicitly turns on Koba after he callously leaves him trapped under a piece of rebar just to steal his gun.
• Sudden Sequel Death Syndrome: He's executed by Red in one of the tie-in novels.

Stone

Stone

Portrayed by: Richard King

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

A chimpanzee loyal to Koba.

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• Co-Dragons: He and Grey serve as Koba's most prominent and loyal followers.
• Heel–Face Turn: By War, he's become totally loyal to Caesar.
• Unexplained Recovery: He seemingly dies in Dawn when he is caught in an explosion during the scene where Koba leads the apes on an assault to the human city. He suddenly shows up again in War among the imprisoned apes.

Spear

Spear

Portrayed by: Alessandro Juliani

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

A chimpanzee in Caesar's tribe.

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• Cruel and Unusual Death: He's beaten and crucified by Colonel McCullough's men and left to slowly die in the cold.
• Meaningful Name: He is first introduced to the audience carrying a long spear.
• Spear Carrier: While he is present in the beginning of the movie, he does not bring too much attention to himself. He is later seen again crucified and barely alive to tell Caesar how Colonel McCullough found the colony of apes and imprisoned them before immediately dying.

Other Ape Colony Gorillas

Luca

"At least this time I was able to protect you."

Portrayed by: Scott Lang & Michael Adamthwaite

Appears in: Dawn of the Planet of the Apes | War for the Planet of the Apes

A huge, imposing gorilla loyal to Caesar. Leader of the Gorilla Guardians who guard the gates of the ape's home.

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• Ascended Extra: Becomes a part of the main ape cast of War after being a minor character in Dawn.
• Beware the Nice Ones: He's a very kind ape and utterly loyal to his comrades, but he's also an immensely strong gorilla.
• The Big Guy: He's huge, strong, and tough, and also carries equipment on his back for any apes going hunting.
• Big Guy Fatality Syndrome: Unfortunately dies during the third film.
• Forgotten Fallen Friend: By the end of the film, his death is never brought up again by Caesar or anyone else.
• Genius Bruiser: Not only is he powerful, but he's also fairly intelligent, having earned a seat at the ape council.
• Gentle Giant: He's huge and can be quite intimidating, but he loves his fellow apes and immediately throws himself out there to help save them, whether it's during Koba's assault on the humans or when Koba fires wildly on Caesar. In War, he sweetly puts a flower in Nova's hair and smiles.
• Killer Gorilla: Averted; while he is seen fighting in the battle at Dreyfus' gate, he focuses more on getting fellow wounded apes out of the line of fire and later is seen doing the same when Koba fights Caesar.
• Kneel Before Zod: In this case, he's the one forcing Malcolm to kneel before Caesar (who is not a villain).
• Made of Iron: He gets shot trying to drag apes out of harm's way in the human-ape battle. How does he follow up on this? By throwing a barrel of gasoline as big as he is at the humans and blowing shit up good.
• Mauve Shirt: In Dawn, the novelization names him, and while he's often in the backgrounds of scenes, he only has one minor scene of note when he confronts Malcolm at the gates of the colony, but is otherwise an extra. In War he becomes an Ascended Extra.
• My Greatest Failure: He views his inability to protect Caesar from Koba as his failure. When dying, he expresses only happiness that he could save Caesar this time.
• No Man Left Behind: He's seen helping apes out of harm's way during the battles in the latter part of the film.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: To Buck. Both were gorillas loyal to Caesar, who ultimately die while protecting him from humans.
• The Quiet One: Played with. He's still rather loud at times, but he rarely signs or speaks actual words, more shown by his grunts and roars.
• Undying Loyalty: To Caesar, which gets him locked up by Koba when he takes power.

Winter

Winter

Portrayed by: Aleks Paunovic

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

An albino gorilla in Caesar's tribe.

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• Ain't Too Proud to Beg: He pathetically pleads for mercy when Caesar comes across him.
• Dirty Coward: Despite his massive size, he's utterly terrified of the humans, and when Blue Eyes says he found a new home for them away from the soldiers, Winter tries to get everyone to head there immediately. His fear for his own life leads to him betraying his people and sacrificing his dignity by working for the humans. When confronted by Caesar, he betrays the humans too.
• Expy: His appearance is based on Snowflake, the only known albino gorilla ever.
• Foil:
  • To Red. Winter is a white, openly timid gorilla while Red is a red, openly aggressive gorilla. Both are Dirty Cowards who betray Caesar to the humans to ensure their own safety, except Red was a well-known traitor before hand while Winter's betrayal came as a saddened surprise. Their deaths also have some foil to it — Winter is accidentally killed by Caesar who was trying to keep him quiet so the nearby humans wouldn't hear; Red sacrifices his life to save Caesar from being killed.
  • He is also one to Bad Ape. Physically, Winter is a large white gorilla, while Bad Ape is a much smaller black-haired chimpanzee. Both characters are defined by their cowardice, but how they face their own fears differs greatly. Winter, in spite of being a powerful gorilla, ultimately allows his fears to take over to where he betrays Caesar and the colony, eventually paying with his life. Bad Ape, despite being smaller and weaker than most of the apes, chooses to confront his own fears, never once even considers abandoning Caesar and the other apes, and becomes a better character for it in the end, ultimately surviving the events of War and joining the other apes in finding a new home.
• Freudian Excuse: Has a somewhat weak excuse for being a cowardly traitor but an excuse nonetheless. In the prequel novel Revelations, it's revealed that he grew up very self-conscious and insecure over his own albino coloring and felt useless because his white fur made him easy to spot in hunts. The weak part of his Freudian Excuse comes in when it's revealed that despite his own insecurity, apes like Luca still treated him decently and tried to reassure Winter that he was just as valuable as any other ape.
  • Said excuse is somewhat more justified when other novelizations reveal how much he was abused and used when Red was secretly leading an insurrection against Caesar, subjecting Winter to misinformation and causing his loyalties to waver because of his beliefs being shaken.
• Les Collaborateurs: Red tells him that if he gives up Caesar's location to the Colonel, his life will be spared. Winter takes him up on the offer, allows Red to escape, and sells out his home, resulting in the deaths of Blue Eyes and Cornelia.
• Meaningful Name: Being an albino gorilla, Winter has fur that is as white as snow.
• The Quisling: Becomes a "Donkey" for the human soldiers, a glorified pack mule with a modicum of power over other apes in exchange for betraying them.
• Saying Too Much: Reveals the whereabouts of the Ape Colony to the Colonel to save his own skin, not knowing it'd also cost the lives of Cornelia and Blue Eyes at the Colonel's hands.
• Screw This, I'm Outta Here: Seconds before his death, he was planning to abandon the humans upon realizing he made the wrong choice.
• Small Role, Big Impact: His betrayal kicks off the rest of the movie; he gives the Colonel the location of the Ape Colony.
• The Stool Pigeon: The Betrayer Barry kind when he rats out the apes' hideout in order to save his own skin.
• Walking Spoiler: Many of his tropes are marked as spoilers.

Other Ape Colony Orangutans

Percy

Percy

Portrayed by: Timothy Webber

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

An orangutan who is an elder in Caesar's tribe.

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• All There in the Manual: He is named "Ape Elder" in the credits, but his real name Percy is revealed in the novel.
• A Taste of the Lash: He is whipped by Red as punishment for dropping a branch due to his ailing strength.
• Boom, Headshot!: How the Colonel executes him.
• Erudite Orangutan: He is just as smart as the other apes in the colony.
• Sacrificial Lamb: He gets executed by the Colonel when Caesar defiantly asks him to give the apes food and water, to show how ruthless and merciless the Colonel is.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Doesn't get much screen time until his death.

Other Apes

Bad Ape

Bad Ape

Portrayed by: Steve Zahn

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

"Human get sick. Ape get smart. Then human kill ape. BUT NOT ME! I run!"

A common chimpanzee who lived in a zoo prior to the Simian Flu outbreak. When the human backlash against apes began, he fled to the mountains to hide.

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• Appropriated Appellation: Was called "Bad Ape" in captivity enough times that he believed it was his actual name.
• Character Catchphrase: "Oh no," in response to danger, usually repeated. He says it when asked to lead Caesar's group back to the prison camp, when having to enter the tunnels and climb on Maurice's back, when Nova wanders into the camp by herself, and when he sees the avalanche coming.
• Cloud Cuckoolander: Years of solitude have made him... a little off.
• Cowardly Lion: He's not too thrilled about the idea of going back to the army base, but he does so anyway and never once even considers abandoning his new friends, though Maurice does have to scare him into helping. There's even a moment that almost counts as a Shout-Out to the Trope Namer.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: An unusual example that almost counts as an inversion. When he is first seen, he hijacks one of their horses and evades them in hot pursuit while firing a shotgun back at them one-handed - it's only when they catch up to him inside the abandoned ski resort that he's shown to be a goofy hermit.
• Dark and Troubled Past: His backstory was explored in the prequel comic book mini-series, where it was revealed that Bad Ape and a few other chimpanzees lived alongside a former zookeeper and other humans, one of which, a girl named Josey, was very abusive towards Bad Ape. When the zookeeper and the other humans died, Bad Ape and the other chimps were attacked by soldiers planning to take over the undefended zoo. Bad Ape managed to escape, but his fellow apes were all killed, including a young chimp that he was trying to escape with.
• Expy: His physical appearance seems to be inspired by Oliver, a bald chimpanzee.
• Foil: Can be considered this to Winter to some degree. Winter is a large white gorilla while Bad Ape is a much smaller black-haired chimpanzee. Both characters are defined by their cowardice but how they face their own fears differs greatly. Winter, in spite of being a powerful gorilla, ultimately allows his fears to take over to where he betrays Caesar and the colony, eventually paying with his life. Bad Ape, although smaller and weaker than most of the apes, chooses to confront his own fears and becomes a better character for it in the end, ultimately surviving the events of War and joining the other apes in finding a new home.
• The Hermit: Isolated himself after running away from the human backlash against the apes.
• Ironic Name: Bad Ape is very good-natured. The only bad thing about him is his luck.
• Manchild: Despite his obvious old age, he is very childish in his demeanor. At the end of the movie, he's even playing with Cornelius and Nova, who are actual children.
• Motor Mouth: Being one of the only few apes that can speak English, he tends to ramble occasionally for no discernable reason.
• Nice Guy: Is very friendly and good-natured. When introduced, he gives Nova (whom he had only just met) his parka, seeing that she was cold.
• Outliving One's Offspring: He tells Caesar that he had a child once but doesn't go into detail. The memory of his loss is enough to convince him to risk his life in helping Caesar avenge his own son.
• Plucky Comic Relief: Provides almost all of the comedic moments in War, although he's something of a Sad Clown given his backstory.
• The Sixth Ranger: Joins Caesar and his group halfway through their mission to find the Colonel.
• Talkative Loon: The most out there by far of any of the apes in the series, and the only one that communicates entirely through spoken English, mostly because he didn't have anyone to teach him sign language which is what the rest of the apes mainly communicate with.

Red

Red

Portrayed by: Ty Olsson

Appears in: War for the Planet of the Apes

A gorilla who supported Koba's mutiny against Caesar. After Koba's defeat, he joins the human forces fighting Caesar's apes.

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• Armor-Piercing Question: During a talk with Caesar about the incoming danger, Red says he'll find a way to save himself. Caesar responds by asking if there's anything in him worth saving. Red doesn't have an answer, until the end of the movie where he gives his life to save Caesar and his people.
• Big Bad: Of the prequel novel, Revelations.
• Big Damn Heroes: Stops Preacher from finishing off Caesar by blowing up the former. Seconds later, he pays for it with a gunshot to the head by his human compatriot.
• Boom, Headshot!: After saving Caesar's life, Red's human compatriot immediately shoots him in the head.
• The Brute: Physically speaking, he's one of the strongest soldiers on the Colonel's side as the average ape is stronger than a human. The humans also rely on his strength to keep the enslaved apes in line.
• Category Traitor: He's essentially a pack mule for the humans. But the trailers show him overseeing enslaved apes, implying that he has made some compromises in exchange for a higher level of comfort.
  Caesar: What has the Colonel promised you?
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: Has betrayed Caesar twice. First by supporting Koba, and again by joining the humans. Then he betrays the humans.
• Dirty Coward: Joins the human forces to save his own skin.
  Caesar: His wall is madness. It won't save him any more than it will save you.
  Red: I save myself.
  Caesar: Is there anything left of you to save?
• Face Death with Dignity: Remembering he is, in fact, an ape after all, Red saves Caesar and stoically watches him with calm acceptance before the humans execute him, his death giving Caesar time to save the apes.
• The Heavy: The bargain he strikes with Winter causes the death of Cornelia and Blue Eyes. This starts Caesar's Roaring Rampage of Revenge, and kicks off the main conflict of the film. From there, he's one of the biggest direct threats to Caesar and the apes.
• Heel–Face Turn: As he watches the humans shoot down his fellow apes, he has an epiphany and takes the opportunity to save Caesar's life.
• Heel Realization: Comes to one when he sees the humans aim to gun down the surviving apes.
• Heroic Sacrifice: While Red is a villain for much of the film, nobody can ever attack the manner of his death: saving Caesar's life, saving his species, reclaiming his pride and accepting his death without flinching. Ape after all.
• Hypocrite: Red was a follower of Koba, who hated humans, but he ends up joining humans.
• Les Collaborateurs: He's working with the humans to enslave his own species.
• Mark of Shame: Like other apes who joined the humans, Red has "DONKEY" tattooed into his back, as well as the Alpha-Omega insignia on the side of his forehead.
• Meaningful Name: Is named "Red" and has a fur coat that has a much noticeably reddish-tone to it, in contrast to the other gorillas seen in the film.
• My God, What Have I Done?: Ceasar's Armor-Piercing Question clearly shook his resolve but his expression as he witnesses Alpha-Omega gun down the fleeing apes shows him truly realizing just what allying with the Colonel has cost him.
• The Quisling: Betrays his own kind to serve the humans to save his own hide.
• Redemption Equals Death: Saves Caesar by blowing Preacher to smithereens just in time before getting himself executed for it just a few seconds later.
• Remember the New Guy?: He's introduced as a formerly part of Koba's mutiny, yet he wasn't seen in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

The Donkeys

The Donkeys

Appear in: War for the Planet of the Apes

Apes who were once followers of Koba during the events of Dawn, who end up siding with the Colonel during the events of War.

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• Category Traitor: Betray the apes by supporting the Colonel's efforts to kill them off.
• Chronic Backstabbing Disorder: They've betrayed Caesar twice: first by joining Koba's coup against him and again by assisting the Colonel in his plans to eradicate the apes into extinction.
• Dirty Coward: Have joined forces with the humans to ensure their own survival.
• Dropped a Bridge on Him: If the Northern Army's attack on the Alpha-Omega base didn't kill them, then the avalanche that wiped out the Northern Army and the remains of the Alpha-Omega soldiers did.
• Enemy Mine: According to Caesar, their motive for teaming up with the Colonel is to avoid retribution from him after supporting Koba in Dawn.
• Les Collaborateurs: Are working with the humans to enslave other apes.
• Mark of Shame: Have the word "DONKEY" tattooed to their backs, as well as the Alpha-Omega symbol to their faces.
• Meaningful Name: Or in this case nickname. They're called "donkeys" by the soldiers as a reference to acting as their own personal "pack mules."
• The Quisling: Assist the Colonel in his attempts to conquer Caesar and his ape colony.

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