Earlier today,
io9.com attended 20th Century Fox's CinemaCon presentation. There, first clip and a new trailer for Matt Reeves'
The Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were screened. Reactions to that footage has been incredibly positive. Below, you'll find descriptions of that footage. First up, was the clip. It featured a scar-faced face ape approaching two humans and giving them a false sense of safety. Based on descriptions that ape is most likely Koba. He was the ape with a disfigured face from Rupert Wyatt's
Rise of the Planet of the Apes. In that film it is presumed that Koba has grown to hate man based on the countless number of experiments that he has undergone. Now it sequel he is taking in glee in dishing out some sweet revenge on those damn dirty humans.
Two humans sit in what looks like a checkpoint on the outskirts of the human village. They're laying on a couple sandbags and drinking. In the not-so-far distance a singular ape approaches. The two men get tense. The ape lumbers over, the men freak out, pull their guns and scream "HEY, STOP! HEY!" The ape stretches out long raises his arms, hands-in-the-air style. He keeps coming closer. The men are scared, the giant ape somersaults and lands on the sand bags and stretches out next to the men. He smiles, they nervously smile back. The ape is aping the humans. They start to relax, the ape gestures to the bottle of booze. "You want a drink?" The ape is smiling and laughing and gesturing to the bottle. They hand him the drink, he takes a BIG swig, and spits it everywhere. The men wince, ready for ape rage, but the ape just laughs and smiles at him. They laugh and laugh. And suddenly the ape is on his feet, he has one of the guns. Still laughing, he's holding the gun as oddly as one would expect an ape to hold an automatic weapon. The men yell "whoa" — and the ape shoots one man down. The ape is smiling. He points the automatic weapon at the surviving man, and shoots. He's still smiling. It's absolutely horrifying, and wonderful.
TRAILER DESCRIPTION
First up, we get a look into the Apes new habitat. Which we've seen glimpses of before. The Apes appear to live alone, surrounded by a massive barricade of sharpened logs. And yes, they have horses, lots of them. One of the first shots focuses on an army of horse-riding apes. They look fantastic. Inside their home, you can see the beginning of ape society. A lot of familiar faces appear, Maurice the Orangutan from the previous film is there, and you see flashes of him from time to time throughout the trailer. Maurice looks sad, or concerned, he's seen counseling Caesar. Which gives credence to the rumor that all the Apes can talk now, although the only ape we hear talk is Caesar (and he says "Apes, Family, Future." We see a family of apes gathering, playing with their babies. A lady ape and constructed some sort of bonnet made out of flowers. Life is good in the forrest for apes.
But then one day, a man walks into town. Clearly these two societies have not interacted in sometime. The response is immediately negative. It's actor Toby Kebbel, he puts up his hands, he's there to make a deal. What deal, we don't know.
Cut to the humans. They are not doing so well. Gary Oldman is talking to a very small group of humans over a loud speaker he bellows, "It took us four years fighting in the gutters but we are survivors." Kerri Russell counters, "It was a virus created in the labs, you can't blame the apes." Kirk Acevedo spits back "Who else am I going to blame?"
Lots of flashes between actors Jason Clarke and Oldman, they are clearly fighting with each other on how they should be handling the Apes. Jason is seen in a poncho trying to make contact with the Apes, clearly they need something. Oldman wants them all dead, calls the apes animals, and is seen clutching and crying a picture of two little girls (presumably his dead family). We can assume that they were either victims of the this Simian Flu (that is a major part of this movie) or they died in the many skirmishes between humans versus apes, or humans versus humans. Clarke insists they don't want a war, and is heard screaming, "Don't shoot" (but of course you hear a shot).
Clarke and Caesar must strike some sort of deal, because they're seen talking, something happens and Clark tells Caesar he has to flee. It's all leading up to a massive load of apes, wearing war paint standing in the forest. The beginning of a war. Caesar yells, "Together Strong!"
A growing nation of genetically evolved apes led by Caesar is threatened by a band of human survivors of the devastating virus unleashed a decade earlier. They reach a fragile peace, but it proves short-lived, as both sides are brought to the brink of a war that will determine who will emerge as Earth’s dominant species.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes is being directed by Matt Reeves (Cloverfield, Let Me In), from a screenplay written by Mark Bomback, Scott Z. Burns, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. The cast includes: Andy Serkis (The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey), Jason Clarke (Zero Dark Thirty, Public Enemies, The Great Gatsby), Gary Oldman (The Dark Knight Rises, The Harry Potter film series), Keri Russell (The Americans, Mission Impossible III), Toby Kebbell (The Prince of Persia, Wrath of the Titans, Rock N Rolla), Kodi Smit-McPhee (Let Me In, ParaNorman), Enrique Murciano (Traffic, Black Hawk Down), Kirk Acevedo (The Thin Red Line) and Judy Greer (The Descendants, Three Kings, 13 Going on 30). The film climbs into theaters July 11, 2014
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