They may not lay eggs, but their films are littered with them! Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re counting down our picks for the top 20 Planet of the Apes easter eggs.
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00:00So we first noticed it in Chimp 9, hence her nickname, Bright Eyes.
00:04Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the top 20 Planet of the Apes easter eggs.
00:10For this list, we're looking at subtle and not-so-subtle references in the rebooted series to the original franchise.
00:17And be warned, you're about to enter the forbidden zone of spoiler territory.
00:22Take your stinking paw off me, you damn dirty ape!
00:26Number 20. Fort Wayne, Indiana. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
00:32Through Kingdom, the human May was after a mysterious technology,
00:35revealed in the denouement to be a key that will allow the human survivors to access a satellite network.
00:41Hello? Is anyone there?
00:45Able to communicate with the wider world, transmissions begin to come in with other far-flung human settlements,
00:51just as the ape Noah looks to the stars through a telescope.
00:54In fact, both events harken back to the stellar beginnings of the 1968 film.
00:59You who are reading me now are a different breed. I hope a better one.
01:05The main character of that film, astronaut George Taylor,
01:08was revealed to be originally from the city of Fort Wayne, Indiana.
01:12When the first transmission is received, it's from, where else, Fort Wayne.
01:16Fort Wayne, Indiana, we read you!
01:19It's good to hear another voice out there.
01:21Number 19. Stephen Jacobs, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
01:26Not every easter egg is a reference to something on screen,
01:28as a few were call-outs to the people behind the scenes that made those classics possible.
01:33There's a lot of money riding on this, Will. You only get one shot.
01:37One of the most key people for those classics was producer Arthur P. Jacobs,
01:41who produced all five films in the original series.
01:44Known as the father of the Planet of the Apes,
01:47Jacobs would tragically pass away suddenly of a heart attack
01:50just two weeks after the release of the final film.
01:52However, his legacy would live on in Rise as the antagonist Stephen Jacobs
01:57in a callback to the producer.
01:59I swear you know everything about the human brain except the way it works.
02:05Number 18. The Forbidden Valley, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
02:09A pretty good rule of thumb in any movie is that if someone says
02:13that a particular area is forbidden,
02:15the characters will find their way there, and it has something interesting in it.
02:19He does come from somewhere in the Forbidden Zone.
02:22He's described the region to us and described it accurately, for I have been there.
02:26You visited the Forbidden Zone?
02:29Yes, sir.
02:30Such was the case in the Forbidden Zone in 1968's Planet of the Apes,
02:34which hid the secret that humans had once been the dominant species on the planet.
02:38So when in Kingdom, a valley where none of the eagle tribe are allowed to visit
02:42is brought up and explicitly referred to as forbidden, we know what we're in store for.
02:47You did not go to the valley beyond.
02:50That is forbidden.
02:54When our hero Noah ventures into the Forbidden Valley,
02:57he too finds humanity's ruins crumbling by the sea.
03:01Number 17. The Fire Hose, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
03:06During his stay at the San Bruno primate shelter,
03:09Caesar suffers a number of indignities,
03:12both from the other apes but primarily from his caretaker, Dodge.
03:18One of the first and most brutal involves Caesar being sprayed with a fire hose while in his cage.
03:23This is one of a number of ways where Caesar suffers a similar fate
03:27to the original film's protagonist, George Taylor.
03:29The scene where Taylor is sprayed down itself references real-life events.
03:34Coming out towards the end of the 60s, many of the brutalities shown towards Taylor
03:38are reminiscent of those endured by civil rights protesters.
03:43Number 16. The Apes' Scarecrows, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
03:48About halfway through Kingdom, the trio of Noah, May, and Raqqa
03:51come to a bridge across a raging river in their quest to find Noah's clan.
03:56Just as they're about to cross the dangerous waterway,
03:59Raqqa looks back and notices a number of foreboding large X's,
04:03seemingly serving as a warning to any who would cross.
04:06Those giant X's constructed of wood and straw recall similar ones
04:10that the trio of astronauts stumbled across in the initial Apes films,
04:13which they dub Scarecrows.
04:16Number 15. Cornelia, Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
04:21Being raised by humans, Caesar doesn't meet others of his kind
04:24until he's placed into the Apes' sanctuary in the second act of the film.
04:28His plan is to get to Cornelia and take her home.
04:31However, his plan has failed because he's been rejected by Cornelia.
04:35Cornelia's plan is to do the same to Caesar.
04:38By the end of the film, the two are still children of Cornelia.
04:41Therefore, they're not to be taken into the same prison.
04:44Ape Sanctuary in the second act of Rise. He immediately meets plenty of apes, including
04:49a fellow chimp Cornelia.
05:00Fans of the franchise's ears perked up at that name as it bore a striking resemblance
05:04to Cornelius, an important ape in the original films, who was elevated to main character
05:09in his third appearance, Escape from the Planet of the Apes. This was a clear indication that
05:19Cornelia would play an important role, and indeed she did, serving as Caesar's love interest
05:24and eventual mother to his children, including, of course, one named Cornelius.
05:3014. Maurice – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
05:34First appearing in Rise as an early ally for Caesar, the orangutan Maurice was a constant
05:39fixture of the films, staying by his side until Caesar's eventual death at the conclusion
05:43of War for the Planet of the Apes. In that time, he became a fan favorite, due in large
05:59part to his kind nature and his tendency to bond with and protect young humans.
06:04There is, of course, another orangutan from the original franchise that isn't quite
06:08as benevolent. Dr. Zaius was, in large part, so memorable because of the performance of
06:13Maurice Evans. As a tribute to Evans, his name was lent to the ape in the newer films.
06:2413. Apes Shall Not Kill Ape – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
06:29Those who have not watched the Apes films from the 1970s in some time could be forgiven
06:34if they missed this one. The refrain, Apes shall not kill ape, is one that is central
06:44to the conflict of Dawn, in which Caesar's follower-turned-usurper Coba uses the law
06:48created by Caesar against him. However, the saying traces all the way back to beneath
06:54the Planet of the Apes, but became a major plot point in battle for the Planet of the
06:58Apes when the evil Aldo breaks the taboo. That film ends with the question of whether
07:02one murder justifies another. Similarly, the conclusion of Dawn sees Caesar break his own
07:07law, dropping Coba to his death.
07:1712. Charlton Heston – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
07:24Just prior to a pivotal scene in Rise, the good-natured but skittish Rodney is seen watching
07:28an old movie on TV in the ape sanctuary. The film on screen is only shown for a few seconds,
07:36but the actor and his booming iconic voice are unmistakable. The very same Charlton Heston
07:42who played Taylor in the very first Apes films and helped launch the franchise gets a sneaky
07:46cameo via an old film. While he was well-known for his sci-fi flicks, Heston was equally
07:52iconic for appearing in historical epics, in this case as the sculptor Michelangelo
07:56in The Agony and the Ecstasy.
08:0111. The Human Hunt – Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
08:07One of the most memorable scenes in Planet of the Apes is when a group of silent humans
08:11are hunted down by a group of militaristic apes on horseback. While not being a direct
08:21recreation of that scene, Kingdom has a very similar one after Noah and company encounter
08:26a group of feral humans near a zebra herd. Apes on horseback attempt to capture the humans
08:31with nets, but this time around, there's a twist. While the original saw George Taylor
08:36captured and temporarily losing his voice, Kingdom has May revealing her ability to speak
08:41in order to call for help and escape.
08:4810. The Statue of Liberty – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
08:55Even those who've never seen a Planet of the Apes film are aware of its iconic ending
08:59featuring a distraught Charlton Heston crumpling in the sand next to a ruined Statue of Liberty.
09:06For the rebooted series, the iconography of the famous lady in New York was worked
09:22into the film in a rather clever way. Those expecting to see the actual statue might be
09:27surprised however.
09:34Throughout the film, we see Caesar grow in intellect, solving puzzles and constructing
09:39complex items, one of which is, of course, a model of Lady Liberty herself.
09:459. Alpha Omega – War for the Planet of the Apes
09:51There is no shortage of fringe cults of human survivors seeking the destruction of the apes
09:55in the post-apocalyptic setting of the original and rebooted Apes series. In Beneath the Planet
10:16of the Apes, a group of mutated humans worship an old nuclear bomb that has the Greek letters
10:21Alpha and Omega emblazoned on it. In War for the Planet of the Apes, a paramilitary
10:25group led by Woody Harrelson's The Colonel carries the name Alpha Omega, which calls
10:30back to the nuclear device, which incidentally does go off, destroying Earth at the conclusion
10:35of Beneath.
10:388. Dodge Landon – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
10:47The very hateable character Dodge Landon, played by Tom Felton in Rise, is a reference
10:52to not one, but two characters in the original film. When George Taylor crash-landed onto
11:01the planet he would eventually discover to be his own, he wasn't alone. Surviving the
11:05crash were two other astronauts who made their way across the bizarre landscape through the
11:09first act of the movie. Their names, predictably, are Dodge and Landon. Of course, the pair
11:14of them are not long for this world, as Landon is lobotomized and Dodge is killed before
11:19ultimately being stuffed and made into a museum piece. Of course, Felton's character does
11:30not fare much better.
11:327. Nova – War for the Planet of the Apes and Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes
11:38The young girl Nova's name in War is both an easter egg and a hint at humanity's future.
11:54When Caesar, Maurice, and their party encounter the young girl, they discover that she suffers
11:58from a loss of speech caused by a mutation from the simian flu. This of course harkens
12:03back to the fate that had afflicted most of the human population in the classic Apes films,
12:08including the woman George Taylor dubs Nova. In War, Nova would go on to live with the
12:12apes, and by the time of Kingdom, all human females are called Nova by the apes, although
12:17the meaning has long since been lost.
12:266. Bright Eyes – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
12:37The newer Apes films differentiated themselves from their predecessors by having a human-made
12:41virus as the cause of the rise of apes and the downfall of humans. The first recipient
12:46of the virus that would go on to change the world was Caesar's mother. A curious side
12:55effect was that her eyes became a bright shade of green, earning her the name Bright Eyes.
13:01Humans giving the chimp that name is actually a sly inversion of the original film, where
13:05Apes would give a human the moniker. Dr. Zero would give George Taylor the name Bright Eyes
13:09for his bright blue eyes.
13:185. Michael Giacchino's Score – Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet
13:23of the Apes
13:25When taking over directing duties for the second and third Apes films, director Matt
13:29Reeves brought accomplished composer Michael Giacchino on board to score the film. Giacchino
13:40brought his distinct style to the project. At the same time, however, he married his
13:44new themes with elements famous from Jerry Goldsmith's Academy Award-winning score from
13:49the original Planet of the Apes. Impressively, none of this feels out of place, and Giacchino's
14:01score marries the old and new with two scores that have gone down as new classics.
14:064. Take Your Stinking Paws Off Me, You Damn Dirty Ape – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
14:11Charlton Heston had a number of lines in the original film that have been seared into film
14:16history, and a few of them found their way into Rise. Heston's declaration of, it's
14:24a madhouse, is repurposed in a scene where Dodge Landon shouts it among a chorus of howling
14:29apes. Even more famous, however, is Heston's line while captured in a net by apes. Landon
14:39also echoes that line when Caesar rises up, defying him in a pivotal moment for the film.
14:453. The Doll – War for the Planet of the Apes A key moment in Planet of the Apes comes
14:51when George Taylor discovers a talking human baby doll, leading him to surmise that humans
14:55once talked and were the dominant species on the planet. A similar moment takes place
15:11in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes when Noah, Suna, and Ania come across a similar
15:15doll, even repurposing the same audio from the original film for it. War also uses a
15:21doll easter egg. However, this one has no voice, as it doesn't tell humanity's past
15:26but foreshadows its future. Belonging to a girl who cannot speak, the doll carries the
15:30mutated virus to the colonel, who becomes infected the moment he touches it.
15:452. Lost in Space – Rise of the Planet of the Apes The first few Apes films prominently
15:55featured space travel, with the ship Liberty I, nicknamed the Icarus, and its sister ship
15:59Liberty II being important plot points in the first three films. With the reboot set
16:11in the present rather than the distant future, the need for the ships as a narrative device
16:15disappeared. However, those with a keen eye noticed that the Icarus was still there in
16:20the background. While no character directly comments on it, the Icarus is shown taking
16:28off in the film on TV, but is later confirmed by a newspaper to be lost in space, just as
16:34Taylor's ship was. Only time will tell if that ship one day will return to the franchise.
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16:531. Caesar – Rise of the Planet of the Apes
16:59One of the most iconic characters of the 2010s, Caesar has become so prolific it can be easy to
17:05forget that his name is a reference to a different character in the original films.
17:14Also a revolutionary that led his intelligent apes, the Caesar that appeared in the fourth
17:19and fifth Apes films was played by the same actor who played his father Cornelius,
17:23Roddy McDowell. The link in name and function of the characters helped link the old and the new.
17:29However, their differences also established that this series would stand on its own,
17:33with Andy Serkis making the new Caesar a unique and memorable addition to the modern film canon.
17:38What are your favorite Planet of the Apes easter eggs? Let us know in the comments.
18:08you