The first teaser for War for the Planet of the Apes doesn’t reveal any footage from the actual movie, but does offer an evocative visual that hints at a dangerous new future for Caesar’s nascent ape society.
The so-called New York Comic Con “digital billboard” released by Fox combines audio from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes about the inevitable war to come with Caesar’s visage, formed out of falling snow. The plot possibilities are obvious. The snow could be your run-of-the-mill crystalline ice, indicating the survival challenges Caesar and his band of apes will face, or something more sinister: the irradiated winter following a nuclear war.
The War for the Planet of the Apes plot description certainly points to the more dire of those two plot possibilities:
“Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.”
Consider also the Planet of the Apes’ series repeated grappling with the topic of nuclear war. In both Beneath the Planet of the Apes and Battle for the Planet of the Apes irradiated mutant humans worship the atomic bomb. So it seems likely that the snow forming Caesar’s image in this first War for the Planet of the Apes teaser is more than just ice: it’s irradiated ash as well.
War for the Planet of the Apes finally arrives, after a long delay, on July 14, 2017.
