Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Ending Explained

Ahead of the release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, director Wes Ball made it clear that there are plans for even more movies in the franchise. Though a lot of the movies in the franchise felt either a conclusion to the story or a giant question mark about how you could yet again make another one, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes pretty deliberately knows that it wants to keep going. This is very clear by the end of the movie, which not only has a unique conclusion but paints a picture about what the next chapter will no doubt hold for fans. So how does it end? And where will the apes go next? Let’s dive in. Spoilers follow for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes!

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes: What’s in the Vault?

The central plot of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is about Noa searching for his family and friends of The Eagle Clan after they’ve been taken by a rogue group of violent insurgent apes that have twisted the words of Caesar to serve their own interests. Along the way he meets Mae/Nova, a human woman that unlike every other human is able to speak. They work together and are eventually captured by the army of Proximus Caesar, where they’re taken to his stronghold in an old cruise ship. Once there Noa and Mae realize that Proximus Caesar is gathering clans and troops of apes for one reason, he’s desperately trying to open the door to an underground vault.

What becomes clear for us the audience, and Mae, is that this vault is a bunker that the US military and government went inside of as The Simian Flu began to spread around the globe after Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Mae and Noa hatch a plan together to not only get inside, but to open the door and then ruin the contents with the tide of the ocean. As they enter the bunker, Mae’s intentions for entering are revealed as she walks away from Noa and his friends and retrieves a SatCom Key from a server/mainframe/computer setup.

After opening the door, Noa and Mae are greeted by Proximus Caesar and his goons. Satisfied that the door is open, Proximus Caesar is eager to check out the arsenal of old world weapons now at his finger tips. After Mae pulls a gun on him and kills one of his lieutenants with one bullet, she makes a run for the bombs they set up and blows up the dam blocking the tide. As a result, the water rushes in and not only does everything inside become unusable, but most of Proximus Caesar’s little goons end up not making it. Noa and The Eagle Clan are climbers though, and they make it to the top of the bunker and to safety, only for Proximus Caesar to also make it out alive.

Noa literally sings the song of his people though, summoning the Eagles that have bonded with the various members of The Eagle Clan who then attack Proximus Caesar. They rip him apart and send him over the cliff to the rocky waters below, killing him and ending his rein. 

How Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes Sets Up a Sequel 

As Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes concludes, three major things are revealed that set up the next movie in the series. First, Noa has become the leader of The Eagle Clan but his journey throughout the film has inspired him to realize that the world is much bigger than he originally thought. Not only does this illuminate his ideas about fellow apes that live around the world, but also quite literally puts his eyes skyward and towards the stars (maybe aligning him to collide with a space ship and some missing astronauts like in the original Planet of the Apes?).

But that’s not all, the second major reveal that sets up the next movie in the series is what’s going on with Mae/Nova. After securing the SatCom Key from the vault she rides across the countryside and arrives at….a different bunker. After a woman in a hazmat suit takes the SatCom Key from her, she returns to the underground where an array of health humans (who all appear to be fully capable of still talking) are hard at work trying to re-establish man’s world and make contact with other settlements. With the SatCom Key they’re able to decrypt the satellites outside the bunker and use it to get in touch with other humans.

Finally, the third element of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes‘ ending that sets up a sequel is how these two previous points collide. Both Noa and Mae end their final scene together with tension, neither sure if Caesar’s wish that man and ape could live alongside each other would be achievable. Noa outright says this, but Mae is shown holding a pistol behind her back should their conversation turn confrontational. It doesn’t, but what’s clear is that in the not-too-distant-future…war may be brewing once again.

Does Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes have a post-credit scene?

Previously only Rise of the Planet of the Apes had a mid-credits scene, with Dawn of the Planet of the Apes only playing an audio cue as a tease for fans (at the time seemingly hinting at Koba surviving his fall, but we know that ended up not going anywhere). War for the Planet of the Apes had nothing as the credits rolled, the journey for Caesar having ended. Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes does not have a post-credit or even mid-credit sequence for audiences; however, like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes before it, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes has a minor audio cue at the very, very end of the credits. A brief ape call can be heard, seemingly the same made by Raca in the movie. Like Dawn of the Planet of the Apes this could be the movie hinting that Raca has survived the events of the film, or it could just be a clever little sign off to audiences about the end of the feature. 

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes is now playing in theaters.