Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011] (2 discs)

Random Trivia For This Title:

• When the primates climb the tree to escape the dome they form a double helix, the shape of DNA.
• This is the first [Planet of the Apes] film in which neither Charlton Heston nor Roddy McDowall, the stars of the original Planet of the Apes, are involved in the actual film making. Heston died on April 5, 2008 at the age of 84 whereas McDowall died on October 3, 1998 at the age of 70. It is, however, Charlton Heston's 5th 'appearence' in the [Planet of the Apes] franchise. 1) He starred in the original; 2) co-starred in Beneath the Planet of the Apes; 3) was seen in archive footage (kissing Zira in a sepia yellow flashback) in Escape from the Planet of the Apes; 4) had a cameo as Zaius in Tim Burton's Planet of the Apes remake; and 5) can be seen on the TV set in the Ape bunkhouse in the role of Michelangelo from The Agony and the Ecstasy in this movie.
• ^[?] Kathryn Bigelow, Robert Rodriguez, ^[?] Tomas Alfredson, ^[?] Allen Hughes and ^[?] Albert Hughes, Pierre Morel, ^[?] James McTeigue, ^[?] Dennis Iliadis and ^[?] Scott Charles Stewart all were considered by the studio, or passed on the project before director Rupert Wyatt signed on.
• This movie is the first installment to feature another ape species besides chimpanzees, gorillas, and orangutans; Koba, the scarred lab ape, is a bonobo.
• This is the second film in which Andy Serkis plays an ape, having previously portrayed 2005's version of King Kong. He was also the motion capture actor for Gollum in Lord of the Rings, where he bites off Frodo's finger. His ape character Caesar bites the neighbor's finger in this role, too.
• Caesar uses a bundle of sticks to explain to Maurice how an ape alone is weak but apes together are strong. The bundle of sticks, or fasces, was a symbol of authority in ancient Rome, the origin of Caesar's name. Caesar's charisma is also reminiscent of ^[?] Benito Mussolini, who adopted the fasces as the symbol of his Italian Fascist party. The fasces or bundle of sticks concept is also used in several symbols in the architecture of the American White House and Captiol and is the subject of the Aesop fable "The Bundle of Sticks" about a father demonstrating to his sons how they should work together.
• In the original ending (which was actually filmed), Will (James Franco) dies. One month before the movie was slated to be released, however, minds were changed, so Franco and Andy Serkis flew in over the 4th of July weekend to shoot the ending that stayed in the film.
• The surname of Freida Pinto's character "Aranha" is the Portuguese word for spider.
• Tobey Maguire was considered for the role of Will.
• References to the original Planet of the Apes abound.
  * The name of Tom Felton's character Dodge Landon is a reference to the characters Dodge (Jeff Burton) and Landon (Robert Gunner), Colonel Taylor's (Charlton Heston) fellow astronauts.
  * The orangutan character befriended by Caeser in prison is named Maurice after actor ~1814~, who played the orangutan Doctor Zaius.
  * The name given to Caesar's mother is "Bright Eyes" due to the coloration in her eyes caused by the ALZ-112 virus. "Bright Eyes" is the name given to Taylor (Charlton Heston) by Dr. Zira (Kim Hunter).
  * A news headline reports that the "Icarus" is the first craft headed to Mars. This is one of the fan-proposed names of Taylor's (Charlton Heston) craft, and refers to the Greek myth which cautions against overreaching ambition.
  * Dodge Landon speaks two of Charlton Heston's most famous lines from the original: "It's a madhouse! A madhouse!" and "Take your stinking paws off me you damn dirty ape!"
  * Clips from Charlton Heston in The Agony and the Ecstasy and The Ten Commandments are shown.
  * In one scene, Caesar is shown handling a 3D puzzle of the Statue of Liberty, in reference to the the original ending.
  * The gorilla Buck is named after Buck Kartalian who played Julius the gorilla.
  * One of the female apes is "Cornelia", named for Dr. Cornelius of the original.
  * The lab worker who cares for the chimps is named Franklin, a nod to director Franklin J. Schaffner.
  * Jamie Harris plays Rodney, the sympathetic keeper in the ape sanctuary, named for original ape actor Roddy McDowall.
  * Late in the film we are told that the spacecraft and astronauts have disappeared. We can assume that they gone into a time warp and will end up on the future Planet of the Apes.
• The first word spoken by an ape is "no". This was a pivotal line in Escape from the Planet of the Apes, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes.