Caesar (Planet of the Apes)

"If we go to war, we could lose everything we've built. Home, family, future. I will decide by morning."

- Caesar

Caesar is the main protagonist of both Rise of the Planet of the Apes and ''Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. ''He is an anthropomorphic chimpanzee that was born into the care of GenSys scientists after his mother was killed trying to protect him from their experiments. Caesar eventually goes on to lead an ape revolution against their human captors eventually leading many of them to freedom in the forests of California. Caesar is played by English actor Andy Serkis, through full motion capture performance, Serkis also played the villain Gollum of the Lord of the Rings series and the anti-hero King Kong in the 2005 remake both through motion capture.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
After being caught in the African Jungles, Caesar's mother Bright Eyes is brought to the GenSys Labs in San Diego to be a test Chimp. While at GenSys Bright Eyes is given an expieremental drug known as ALZ-112 by kindhearted scientist Will Rodman, who seeks to use this drug to possibly cure Alzheimer's disease once and for all, a disease Rodman's own father is suffering from. During the ALZ-112 test trials, Bright Eyes shows great promise, as her intelligence grows far beyond that of a normal Chimp, her improvement is so much so that Will's boss, and GenSys CEO, Steven Jacobs decides to bring the drug, and Bright Eyes, before a group of possible investors in order to put this cure on the market. However unknown to the scientists and chimp handler Robert Franklin, Bright Eyes had given birth to a son while in her cell. When Franklin opened the door to coax her out she reacted in defense of her newborn. and went on a rampage through the facility before being gunned down by GenSys security in front of a shocked Rodman and all the potential investors, effectively ruining their chances of putting ALZ-112 on the market. The greedy and cruel Jacobs orders all test apes to be put down, forcing the reluctant Franklin to carry out the act, in order to scrap the program and begin anew. Franklin unwilling to put down Bright Eyes' infant son, takes the young chimp and hands him off to Will to look after, who takes him home to care for him behind Jacob's back. Rodman introduces the infant to his sick father, Charles, who immediately takes a liking to the chimp and even gives him a name, dubbing him "Caesar".

As he begins to grow over the years Caesar, like his mother, shows extreme signs of intelligence showing that the ALZ-112 had passed on genetically from Bright Eyes to her son. Will, impressed by these results, begins secretly testing the drug on his father and seemingly begins to cure him of his Alzheimer's. Eventually Caesar escapes the house while Will is giving Charles a dose of the 112. Caesar not knowing any better tries to play with the neighbor's child, however he scares the child and is chased by the girls father, Douglas Hunisker, with a baseball bat. The young Caesar is rescued by his adoptive father but not before injuring his leg during the ordeal. Will takes Caesar to the local veterinarian where he meets, Caroline Aranha, who is impressed by Caesar, she also takes a liking to Will and the two begin a relationship. Five years later, After taking Caesar to the Muir woods, along with Caroline, for one of their regular trips Will decides to take Caesar to GenSys and tell him the truth about his mother after Caesar questions his upbringing.Not long after, Charles's Alzheimer's begins to return and he wanders out of the house and into Hunsiker's unattended car, which was left running. In his confusion Charles accidentally hits the gas and runs the car into the rear of another. Hunsiker enraged confronts Charles and angrily shoves him. Caesar, witnessing this, escapes the house and defends Charles by attacking Hunsiker and biting his finger nearly off. Caesar stops the attack and returns to Charles scared and unsure of what is to come next.

Under a court order Caesar is placed in the San Bruno primate shelter, as a result of his attack on Hunsiker. Will leaves Caesar behind at the shelter after an emotional goodbye, leaving Caesar in the care of Shelter owner John Landon and his cruel son Dodge. Caesar soon learns that the apes are kept in very poor conditions in dirty cages in the back of the facility. During this time Will's father Charles passes away from his disease, and a new cure known as the ALZ-113 is created by Will and tested in the labs on lifetime lab ape Koba. One of these tests results in chimp handler Franklin being exposed to the ALZ-113. in the mean time Caesar is being bullied by a fellow chimp named Rocket who establishes himself as the alpha male of the shelter, while at the same time making friends with circus orangutang Maurice, who can also communicate using sign language. Caesar is also suffering from extreme mistreatment from Dodge who in order to teach Caesar a lesson sprays the unfortunate chimp point blank in the chest with a fire hose sending him violently flying up against the wall of his cell. after constant mistreatment and the realization that his adopted father Will would not be coming to rescue him from the shelter, Caesar begins to take action to improve his situation and that of the other caged apes.

Caesar first lifts the pocket knife off of a friend of Dodge's who got too close to the chimp's cage. he then secretly uses this knife to pick the lock on his cage and make his way to the cage of a large and intimidating silverback gorilla named Buck. Caesar frees and befriends the gorilla and then uses him to establish dominance over Rocket effectively using his intelligence to become the leader of the apes trapped in the shelter. After this Caesar quietly escapes the shelter and makes his way to his old house. While Will and Caroline sleep, Caesar steals the the ALZ-113 from Will's fridge and takes it back to the shelter where he unleashes the cure into all of the ape cages. The next morning it is shown that all the apes are now affected by the ALZ-113 and now all have heightened intelligence. That night Caesar is once again out of his cage this time Dodge spots him and confronts him with a cattle prod. Eventually Caesar grabs Dodge's arm when he is going to strike him with the prod, this prompts Dodge to yell a command at Caesar to release him, Caesar then responds with his first spoken word: NO!. This surprises everyone present including the other ape, Caesar then knock Dodge unconscious and drags him to the cages. He then sees the other apes attacking Rodney, Dodge's kindhearted brother and another caretaker at the shelter, Caesar stops there attack forbidding the apes from killing. During this Dodge wakes up and once again goes to attack Caesar with the cattle prod, however just as Dodge goes to strike Caesar, the chimp acts in self defense and sprays dodge with a nearby fire hose, the water hits the prod and electrifies it which kills Dodge instantly by electrocution. All of the apes, now led by Caesar, escape the shelter through the roof of the facility.

The apes then make their way to GenSys labs where they free all of the test apes, including Koba, who has already been exposed to the ALZ-113 and as such already has higher intelligence. Caesar and his ape army then begin to make their way through San Diego dodging and incapacitating several Law Enforcement patrol vehicles in their attempt to make it to the golden gate bridge so they can cross it to the Muir Woods to freedom. Once at the bridge Caesar and the apes are confronted by a large police force on the other side. Caesar then uses strategy to take the police off-guard by having his ape go over the top side of the bridge and the other half going under, flanking the officers. after a while the apes overpower and defeat the police, with Caesar making sure that none are killed by his ape brothers. Eventually GenSys CEO Jacobs arrives in a tactical police chopper which begins firing on the apes killing several, until Jacobs spots and recognizes Caesar ordering the chopper gunner to kill him. However Caesar's friend Buck gets in the away, taking several bullets before leaping onto the chopper and causing it to crash land on the edge of the bridge. Caesar runs to Buck and shares a final moment with his friend before the silverback succumbs to his grievous wounds. As Buck dies Caesar hears a wounded Jacobs trying to climb out of the wreckage, being the only survivor, however the wrecked chopper is hanging precariously over the edge. Caesar approaches Jacobs who begs for his help, but due to the horrible mistreatment of all the lab apes by Jacobs and Buck;s death, Caesar simply turns his back and gives an approving nod to the recently released Koba to take out his revenge on Jacobs. Caesar then coldly walks away as Koba executes Jacobs.

Soon after this all the apes follow Caesar into the Muir Woods, but they are followed by Will who witnessed Caesar's rebellion on the bridge. Caesar notices Will and rescues him from an attack by Koba, sending the angry ape off into the forest. Caesar and Will share a final moment with Caesar assuring Will that he has now found his true home and showing a surprised Will that he is fully capable of speech now. The adopted father and son say their goodbyes before Caesar departs into the trees with the other apes he has freed and looks out over the city looking toward an uncertain future.

Unknown to Caesar and the apes, the ALZ-113 is deadly to humans and starting with Chimp handler Franklin begins to spread a virus across the globe when killing a majority of the human race. This disease effectively leaves the apes to live out their life in peace from any retaliation by the police, however it also is responsible for the deaths of Will and Caroline, two of the people Caesar cared for the most.