| “ | Feeling better? Good. Then we can talk about...Escape. Apes together strong! | „ |
| ~ Rocket to Caesar when he gets captured |
Rocket is a supporting antagonist turned protagonist in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, a major character in its 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes, and the tritagonist of its 2017 sequel War for the Planet of the Apes.
Rocket is a evolved chimpanzee who was originally the alpha of the San Bruno Primate Shelter till eventually he was freed and granted heightened intelligence by his former rival turned best friend, the Ape King Caesar. Rocket serves as Caesar's second closest friend and one of his top lieutenants. He serves as the Ape Colony's second-in-command and a prominent figure among his fellow apes.
He was played by Terry Notary who also played King Kong in Kong: Skull Island and Buck and Ghost Wolf in The Call of the Wild.
Biography[]
Rise of the Planet of the Apes[]
Rocket used to be the Alpha male at the San Bruno Primate Shelter and he bullied and physically pummeled Caesar for being a newcomer. Dodge ended the fight between Rocket and Caesar by tranquilizing both apes.
Caesar then unleashed the gorilla Buck and having earned the mighty gorilla's respect, Caesar used Buck to intimidate Rocket into ending his bullying ways. Later on, Caesar spread the ALZ-113 drug to all the apes at the San Bruno Primate Shelter so that each of them can be smart enough to coordinate an escape strategy plan and overthrow Dodge. Rocket, having earned the ALZ-113 treatment, also became more intelligent.
After inadvertently killing Dodge, Caesar goes to free the apes before pausing at Rocket's cage. Rocket doubted that Caesar would let him out for his behavior, but Caesar freed him which made Rocket take an even greater admiration into his liberator and newfound friend.
While the apes escaped from the primate shelter to storm Gen-Sys and the San Francisco Zoo to free the other apes being held captive there, Rocket then freed an ape who was netted by an Animal Control officer, who the apes scare away by throwing gate spears at his truck, scaring the officer into driving away for dear life.
The apes ultimately run into a CHP blockade at the Golden Gate Bridge, which Caesar successfully overcomes by conducting a strategy that involves all apes tackling the human police without a single ape getting shot. Rocket tackles a SWAT officer against a police car and renders him unconscious.
Rocket is then seen standing before Caesar along with all the other apes (with the exception of Koba) and watches Caesar climb up a tree.
Dawn of the Planet of Apes[]
Time of Peace[]
After ten years of living in peace in the Muir Woods, Rocket has helped his people build a thriving village where he has become a prominent figure among his fellow apes. His friendships with Caesar and Maurice have grown to the point that the three apes view each other as honorary brothers and best friends, with Caesar and Maurice serving as honorary uncles to Rocket's son, Ash. Rocket also appears to have become close friends with both Koba and Luca, his fellow ape council members, where Koba serves a mentor to his son, Ash. Rocket is also idolized by Blue Eyes, Caesar's eldest son for his great strength and skills.
After most of humanity was decimated by the Simian Flu created by Will Rodman, the apes including Rocket lived peacefully in the Muir Woods and Rocket even started his own family with his wife and son (Ash). One day, Ash gets shot by human scout Carver and Rocket is devastated screaming his son is bleeding.
Koba, a vengeful bonobo who despises humans for conducting various experiments on him, tried to convince Rocket that the humans must pay. Rocket claims that because he listens to Caesar, he refuses to incite any aggressive action upon the humans since Caesar advised against it. This makes Koba even angrier since the apes refuse to declare immediate war on the human colony in San Francisco that survived the Simian Flu.
After attacking the human colony, Koba ordered his supporters to imprison any apes who refused to follow him because of their loyalty to Caesar, including Rocket, Luca, Maurice, and other apes. Koba also killed Ash for refusing to kill unarmed humans. However, Rocket was later freed by Blue Eyes and Caesar avenged Ash by killing Koba in the climatic battle.
War for the Planet of the Apes[]
Two years into the war started by Koba, the human race is still being crippled by the Simian Flu as Alpha-Omega, a paramilitary faction that broke off from the United States Army, is at war with the Army after their colonel went rogue and killed his superiors after they attempted to convince him they could find a medical solution and have since executed humans who were infected with an evolved strain of the flu, while targeting apes to preserve human dominance. Rocket survived the Alpha-Omega pre-emptive military strike on the ape colony by having been outside of the colony at the time hunting for fish in the rivers.
Rocket accompanied Caesar, Maurice, and Luca to find Alpha-Omega and punish them for killing off multiple apes and infiltrating their colony. They approached a human man carrying tree branches but before the man could fire at Rocket and Maurice with his gun, Caesar shoots him dead. The apes hear a crash come from the man's house and investigate, before finding a human girl hiding in bed with Rocket pointing a gun at her. Maurice orders that they stand down because the girl poses no threat. The apes prepare to leave but find the girl sadly looking down on the dead man's body, proving that she was relying on the man that Caesar shot as a caretaker. Maurice convinces the apes to take Nova with them since she can't survive on her own.
The four apes and Nova then see a militarized human force of Humvees, military trucks, and horses passing by which they follow up to a snowy mountain. At the snowy mountain, Rocket points to Caesar at three soldiers buried in snow with bleeding wounds. Caesar then learns that they are mute just like Nova.
While at the snowy mountain, an unseen stranger steals one of the apes' horses forcing the apes to chase after him. Once they reach the secret hideout that the stranger retreated to, Caesar, Luca and Rocket preparing their guns out at the stranger, the stranger then reveals himself to be an intelligent chimpanzee and announces that he's Bad Ape. Bad Ape offers to befriend the apes as he's delighted now he has new friends and tells the four apes and Nova to stay at his shelter and avoid going to the Alpha-Omega military post. Rocket then advises Caesar that they go to the Alpha-Omega post where the Colonel is stationed. Bad Ape then orders they not do so, making Rocket and Luca jump and refrain Bad Ape from forcing them to avoid going there. Although he begs Caesar not to go there because it's too dangerous, Bad Ape leads them to the Alpha-Omega post anyways. In the process, Luca gets shot by a guarding soldier and Red abducts Caesar, forcing Maurice, Rocket, Nova and Bad Ape to figure out how to liberate Caesar and the hundreds of apes that turn out to have been rounded up and enslaved by the Colonel. The four mostly watch through binoculars unable to do much but then at night Nova walks in to the camp to give a dying Caesar food and water. After being alerted by Maurice that Nova would get killed by Alpha-Omega for being infected, Rocket sacrifices himself to save Nova from execution by running into the Alpha-Omega watchtower lights so that they become aware of his presence and to make him think that he was one of the enslaved apes trying to escape.
Nova, Maurice and Bad Ape then dig a tunnel to lead the apes to freedom and escape the cages. Rocket starts a prison fight by throwing poop twice at the AO soldier Boyle (once on the back of the his neck and second right onto his face). Boyle ran into the ape cage unaware he just fell into a trap, as Maurice grabs him and drags him down underground where Maurice proceeds to beat him to death and Bad Ape throws the keys to the locks holding down the apes to Rocket.
During the climax, Rocket is seen shooting his M4A1 at the Alpha-Omega officer who was gunning down escaping enslaved apes with an FN GAU-21 Aircraft Machine Gun. Rocket landed some hits on the machine gun but he failed to get any hits on the officer who proceeded to counter-fire, forcing Rocket to retreat behind a rock along with Bad Ape. Caesar, with unexpected assistance from Red, managed to blow up the Alpha-Omega military post by detonating their gas tanks with grenades. The Northern Army rushed to the decimated military post and celebrated their victory while also spotting Caesar. Before one of them could shoot Caesar, an avalanche came rushing in at that moment, forcing the apes to climb up trees while the Northern Army attempted to flee but were killed by avalanche. As Bad Ape saw the avalanche coming, he simply kept pointing at it commenting "Oh, no!" instead of using common sense and running away just like all the other apes until Rocket makes Bad Ape run as well.
After avoiding the avalanche, the surviving apes led journeyed to their new home in an oasis next to a lake where Rocket and the others can live happily and freely without the need for conflict with humans. When Maurice called the troop, Rocket turned around and when he saw that Caesar was dead, he walked immediately to him.
Gallery[]
.jpg "Rocket (Planet of the Apes).jpg (137 KB)")
Trivia[]
- Rocket was originally written as the main antagonist for Rise, but that role has then been given to Steven Jacobs and Koba.
- Rocket can't talk but communicates through sign language.
- In his first concept of War, Rocket would have developed white hairs and have some marks on the skull.
- Rocket was ten years old in Rise, which would later make him twenty in Dawn and twenty-two in War.
- Rocket is one of Caesar's best friends and closest friends, as well as serving as honorary brother to him, alongside Maurice.
- Rocket is the second-in-command of the Ape Army and a member of the Ape Council.
- It's unknown if Rocket and his wife Tinker will have a another or even if Ash was their only child in general.
- Rocket is Blue Eyes and Cornelius's honorary uncle, due to his close bond with their father, Caesar.
[]
 Heroes
| ||
|
Planet of the Apes (1968) Beneath the Planet of the Apes Escape from the Planet of the Apes Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Battle for the Planet of the Apes Planet of the Apes (2001) Rise of the Planet of the Apes Dawn of the Planet of the Apes War for the Planet of the Apes | ||