Rise of the Planet of the Apes, 2011
November 14, 2022 | HANNAH VITALE
Rise of the Planet of the Apes is a 2011 science fiction film that tells the story of a well-meaning scientist whose work results in disaster. William Rodman is a pharmaceutical chemist working on the treatment of brain disorders, specifically Alzheimer’s disease. Will tests this drug, ALZ-112, he’s been developing on chimpanzees. One of the chimps in particular named Bright Eyes, has an outburst and goes on a rampage during a presentation of the drug, despite showing an increase in intelligence due to ALZ-112. Because of this she is shot to death, but Will later learns her outburst was due to the recent birth of her infant chimpanzee.
After discovering that the chimp inherited his mother’s intelligence due to the drug, Will decides to take him home to raise. He names the chimp Caesar. Over time, Caesar learns to play games, draw pictures, and communicate through sign language. The audience then learns Will’s true intentions behind the drug. His father, Charles, struggles with Alzheimer’s disease, and after seeing Caesar’s success on ALZ-112 Will decides to give the drug to his father. This seems to improve his father’s cognitive ability, although with time it deteriorates again as his immune system fights off the drug.
As the years pass, Caesar grows smarter and more confident in himself. When a neighbor mistreats Charles, Caesar runs to his defense and injures the neighbor leading to animal control placing him in an ape shelter. But because of Caesar’s lack of socialization with other chimpanzees, he doesn’t fit in at the shelter. While at the facility, Caesar eventually befriends a few other chimpanzees such as Maurice, a former circus ape who also knows sign language. These other apes help him incite a rebellion of sorts.
Since being at the facility, a stronger gas version of the drug has been developed and named ALZ-113. Will takes the drug and tries to give it to his father to improve his condition, but his father declines and dies later that night. After this, Will tries to reclaim Caesar and take him away from the facility. Caesar declines this and instead steals ALZ-113 from Will to use on the other apes at the facility. Later, Caesar escapes his cage and uses this drug to heighten the intelligence of the other apes. The apes flee the facility and go rescue other apes at Gen-Sys, the laboratory Will worked in, and the San Francisco Zoo. It leads to a battle with a police brigade on the Golden Gate Bridge as the apes try and flee into the Redwood Forest. Will tries to catch up and take Caesar back home to protect him from the police, but fails. He and Caesar say their goodbyes as each goes back to their homes. The film ends with the neighbor Charles fought with previously going to the airport and boarding his flight while unknowingly being infected with ALZ-113, thus spreading the virus and causing a pandemic.
Consequentialism is the idea that the morality of an action is judged by its consequences. A form of this theory is utilitarianism which is the idea that actions are right if they are beneficial to the majority, or result in happiness. In both of these theories, the question “Do the ends justify the means?” is debated. In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Will uses his father’s diagnosis of Alzheimer’s as his interest in research for treatment. Ultimately everything he does is to try and find treatment for his father, or a cure for his disease. It is a cause and effect. Will’s father has Alzheimer’s disease and Will wants to help him and the millions of others who suffer from this disease, and the effect of this is Will using questionable methods to try and garner the results he wants. Testing on the chimpanzees can already be seen as inhumane as they are intelligent animals being treated like lab rats for someone’s cause. Then, Caesar begins to feel resentment and anger as he is treated like a pet while being raised by Will. And when he defends Will’s father, Charles, he is sent away and locked in a cage. It was a domino effect that led to Caesar deciding to lead the apes against the humans, so they can live on their own with their freedom. One may say this is a positive ending. The research led to improvements and advancements in the treatment of Alzheimer’s and the apes escaped to freedom in the forest. However, the flip side of this positivity is the amount of lives lost during the battle between the apes and the police, as well as the lives affected by the pandemic started at the end of the film.
While the actions of the film started with good intentions, they led to many negative events. Following consequentialism and utilitarianism, Will’s actions would still be considered good because he was happy when the drug worked on Caesar, and when the drug improved his father’s condition. In that case, the end did justify the means. Yet at the end of the movie, his father passes from the disease and Caesar leaves to go to the forest with the rest of the apes, so Will’s happiness wasn’t sustained. Through this lens, his actions are less good, despite his intentions being good, because of the consequences obtained and the lack of happiness he has at the end of the film. Consequentialism and specifically utilitarianism are portrayed throughout this film and open a debate about ends justifying the means. The argument begs the question can one’s actions be solely based on happiness produced or beneficial qualities, without also looking at the wider consequences generated?
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‘Rise of the Planet of the Apes’ and the Dangers of Consequentialism