Prequel films, especially within well established franchises, can be very hit or miss. Prequels like The Godfather Part II or Prey are definite hits, but The Hobbit trilogy and Final Destination 5 are examples of more underwhelming prequels to otherwise well-renowned franchises.

However, the 2010s were fortunate to have a prequel trilogy that blew viewers away, with both a sense of nostalgia and originality; a balance that is extremely difficult to pull off. The films in question come from the Planet of the Apes franchise, and this prequel trilogy starts with Rise of the Planet of the Apes.

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The film was released in 2011, and stars Andy Serkis and James Franco. Rise of the Planet of the Apes serves as the first film in the prequel trilogy, with a fourth one set to release in 2024. The Planet of the Apes franchise is a dense one, with five released within the original timeline, a remake in 2001, and a prequel trilogy in the 2010s. With all the lore the series has to offer, how does the first prequel film end?

What Happens in Rise of the Planet of the Apes?

Rise of the Planet of the Apes begins in 2008 in San Francisco. Will Rodman, a scientist for the biotech company Gen-Sys, is developing an experimental drug called ALZ-112, which has the ability to repair brain cells through neurogenesis. The drug is being tested on chimpanzees, and the chimp showing the most progress is a female named Bright Eyes. However, as Rodman is presenting his drug to the board, Bright Eyes has a breakdown, and begins running rampant around the facility before being shot and killed by security. Rodman discovers she was so frantic because she had given birth to a baby chimp, unbeknownst to the Gen-Sys staff. Rodman decides to take the chimp home and raise him himself, naming him Caesar.

Three years later, Caesar is an adolescent. Due to the ALZ-112 in his mother's blood, he has developed superb intelligence. Rodman raises Caesar more as a son than a pet, communicating with him via sign language, and allowing him to freely roam around the house. Meanwhile, since the ALZ-112 experiments were shut down after the Bright Eyes incident, Rodman decides to experiment with the drug on his father, Charles, who is suffering from dementia. Immediately, Charles shows signs of not only healing from his illness, but extreme improvement. Meanwhile, Caesar grows eager to leave the house, so Will takes him to the Redwood Forest at the Muir Woods National Monument. This becomes a regular occurrence for Will and Caesar, as Will sees he needs a space to climb and be outdoors like a normal chimpanzee.

Fast-forward five years, and Caesar is an adult chimp, more stern than before. At one point, he sees a dog on a leash, like him, and he asks Will about where he came from. Will shows him the Gen-Sys lab where he was born, and tells him about what happened to his mother. Around the same time, Charles' dementia slowly returns as his body fights off the virus within the ALZ-112 serum. In a confused episode, Charles gets in an altercation with a neighbor. In trying to protect him, Caesar severely harms the neighbor, forcing Will to put him in a primate shelter.

The caretakers at the shelter are less than kind, especially a kid named Dodge. Caesar quickly learns he is far from being the alpha of the other apes being held there (although he makes friends with an orangutan named Maurice). One night, Caesar breaks out of his cage and releases the caged gorilla, named Buck, earning both his and the rest of the apes' respect as the new alpha.

Meanwhile, Will proposes a new serum to Gen-Sys head Steven Jacobs, ALZ-113, which is a more powerful and gaseous version of ALZ-112. However, Will's father refuses to take it and passes away.

Gen-Sys goes ahead to try and use ALZ-113 on a new set of apes, particularly one named Koba, but the ape handler, Franklin, is exposed to the gas and becomes intensely sick. Trying to confront Will at his home, he encounters his neighbor and sneezes blood onto him, before returning home and eventually dying because of the ALZ-113 exposure.

At the ape shelter, Caesar plots an escape, sneaking out to Will's home and stealing the ALZ-113 from his refrigerator. He releases the gas into the cages, making all the apes intelligent like him. In the final step of the escape, Caesar speaks for the first time while fighting dodge in the play pen. When Dodge goes to attack him, Caesar grabs his wrist and Dodge tells him, "Get your stinking paw off me, you damn dirty ape!" Caesar screams back:

Caesar proceeds to free all the apes, and they escape the shelter and head for the Redwood Forest.

How Does Rise of the Planet of the Apes End?

As Caesar and the apes rampage across San Francisco, they break all the captive test apes out of the Gen-Sys lab, as well as the apes being held at the San Francisco Zoo. They head for the Golden Gate Bridge, where they are met by law enforcement who have barricaded the bridge in an attempt to prevent their escape. However, the apes outsmart them, climbing above and below the bridge. They successfully flank the police, defeating them without killing them, per Caesar's demand. Buck sacrifices himself to bring down a helicopter with a turret gun, which is also holding Gen-Sys' head, Steven Jacobs, who is killed after Koba pushes the helicopter from the bridge and into the water below.

Will manages to pass by the police and crosses the bridge, arriving in the Redwood Forest as Caesar and the apes are escaping. He tells Caesar that the humans will hunt them down, and he begs for him to return home. Caesar brings him in close and tells him:

Astonished that he can speak, Will understands that Caesar must be with his own kind, and he says goodbye.

In a mid-credit scene, Will's neighbor, dressed as a pilot, takes a cab to the airport to go to work. However, once he arrives, he gets a nosebleed, similar to how Franklin's illness began. Then, a map is shown of the ALZ-113 sickness spreading across the globe, signifying the beginning of a deadly pandemic that eventually wipes out millions of people worldwide. That virus that is eventually named the Simian Flu.

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