The latest film in one of Hollywood’s longest-running franchises is now in theatres, and with it comes many questions. Find out what exactly happened in that absolute tease of an ending in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
This article contains spoilers for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
The Story So Far
The first film in the franchise in approximately seven years, Kingdom follows a new set of characters following the monumental effects of the Rupert Wyatt – Matt Reeves trilogy, which began with Rise of the Planet of the Apes in 2011 and ended with War for the Planet of the Apes in 2017.
The new film is set “many generations” after those films and is led by Noa (Owen Teague), an ape who’s a clan member living a day to day life with their own customs and traditions. Following a tragedy caused by the vicious Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand), Noa sets out to get revenge and free his people making friends with Mae (Freya Allen), an intelligent human with speech capabilities.
Throughout the movie, Noa and Mae face obstacles and challenges and eventually end up in an ex-US military vault which is now under the ownership of Proximus. Mae causes an explosion that floods the kingdom of which King Proximus rules, Noa defeats the mad ape and subsequently returns to rebuild his clan’s residence, a collection of radio towers.
Mae’s Mission
Over the course of the third act when Mae and Noa infiltrate the vault, Mae splits off from the apes and finds an inventory room that also houses a maintenance panel. This panel is home to a drive for communication. And due to the fact that Mae is planning to flood the kingdom and kill Proximus, as well as the fact that they weren’t using it in the first place, she snatches it as well as a gun from a gun cabinet.
In one of her final scenes, she meets with Noa, who is leading his clan as a result of saving the tribe. She betrayed him in a pivotal scene before blowing the retaining wall in the kingdom and nearly killing him. While giving her farewell as he saved and helped her many times during the course of the film, she secretly holds her gun behind her back, scared that Noa may kill her as an act of revenge. Instead, he grants her a necklace as a show of respect and acceptance.
In the final scenes of the film, she approaches a collection of satellites and gives the inhabitants, who are also intelligent humans, the communication drive which allows widespread communication amongst the remaining humans on planet Earth.
Future Of The Franchise
This is the first step in the reconstruction of human society as this is one huge thing that the apes do not have. Humans can now coordinate across North America and presumably the world and this could possibly mean that the franchise is heading towards a true war between man and ape.
In the past, the Planet of the Apes franchise has not had an actual war except for one film, which was Tim Burton’s 2001 reboot film. In that film Mark Wahlberg’s Leo Davidson crashlands on the planet and joins a group of rebels who fight against the tyrannical leader of their society. This culminates in a war that is mostly ape on ape, so these potential upcoming films could truly break newground and produce an epic on the scale of Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers.
Post Credit Scene
Over the years, post credit scenes have been gaining immense popularity allowing audiences to engage in a level of intrigue. Which begs the question… is there any post credit scene in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes? No, but there is something. There is no post credit scene in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, however there is a slight audio cue with an echo of an ape in the background.
The Apes franchise is not new to the concept of post-film content, with Rise of the Planet of the Apes having a scene showcasing the spread of the simian film, setting up its sequel. Not only does this set a precedent but we have actually heard an audio cue in the past.
In the end credits of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, we hear debris being moved and the familiar noise of chimpanzees. Although this was likely just a reference to the film itself having not been paid off in that film’s sequel, the cue in this film could very well set something up.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes stars Owen Teague as Noa, Freya Allen as Mae, Kevin Durand as Proximus Caesar, Peter Macon as Raka and William H. Macy as Trevathan. The film was directed by Wes Ball (The Maze Runner) and is the fourth film in the latest modern era of the Planet of the Apes franchise.
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