War for the Planet of the Apes Plot Details, First Footage Revealed At NYCC

Capping off a hot opening day to New York Comic Con was an explosive panel for 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes.

The trailer opened with the previously released teaser trailer, featuring Caesar getting snowed on and warning of an impending war. Director Matt Reeves, producer Dylan Clark, and Caesar himself Andy Serkis took center stage to reveal the first details of the upcoming film and introduce the first full clip of the movie.

War, unlike the two previous installments of the rebooted Apes franchises, will be told exlusively from Caesar’s point of view. However, a very different version of Caesar will be present for the third film. This is one angry ape, avidly seeking revenge against Woody Harrelson’s Colonel character, being drawn to the “mystery of Colonel’s brutality” as Reeves puts it.

The apes have taken “massive and brutal” losses which prompts Caesar to drop his morals and accept the war ahead. He feels what Koba felt. He is bent on killing the Colonel.

The film will amount to an “epic struggle,” encompassing the the second and third acts of the film with what is teased as a gigantic war for the franchise’s “biggest movie.”

Prior to revealing the first full clip from the film, the panel introduced a featurette which combined behind-the-scenes footage from Rise of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. The video emphasized Serkis’ ability to transform into Caesar, compelling everyone on set around him to go even deeper with their roles. After the clip concluded, the producer and director went into further detail about how impressive Serkis is while working, with Reeves going on to claim he deserves and Academy Award for his work.

The first footage shown from the film, a full seven minutes, was a very incomplete version of a scene from early in the film. Reeves was quick to emphasize the fact that the movie will look very different by the time it is completed and released. In fact, some of shots included in the clip would show the actors in motion capture suits, some showed early rendering of their adapting into animals, and others would show fully rendered takes on their computerized transformation lacking only a finalized lighting effect.

Here’s a description of the footage…

Caesar and three other armed apes ride on horses into a village by the ocean. Caesar checks out a shed on his ow nas the others look around. They come across a man carrying a bundle of sticks who freezes at the sight of them. The man slowly puts down the sticks as not to startle the clearly angered apes but whips out a gun from his hip.

Caesar blasts the man with a shotgun. He shows little remorse.

The apes bust into a house and search it. In a back room, they find a child. Caesar doesn’t care about the kid but the orangutan stays behind to comfort her as the others continue their search of the house. She tries to speak but can’t which concerns the orangutan.

As the apes leave, the child walks outside to see the dead man. The orangutan points out the the girl struggles to speak but Caesar is quick to dismiss the thought of bringing her along. However, if they leave the little girl behind, the orangutan stays with her.

Caesar agrees to bring the girl, as seen in the next shots which show the apes riding their horses across a beach as the sun sets.

Following the clip, a bit more banter between the director, producer, and Serkis followed. They went on to promise more action and more humor than the previus installments.

To conclude the panel, the director introduced the very first teaser trailer for the film which featured a load of new footage. The Colonel’s army was seen assembled, apes marched on them in the snow, one was taken with a gun to his head in front of the humans, and what appeared to be a mercenary hit squad raided Caesar’s waterfall cave. Of course, it backfired, and Caesar used their earpieace to hear the Colonel asking if he was dead yet before he found him nd watched him leap into the waterfall.

War for the Planet of the Apes hits theaters July 14, 2017.