'War For The Planet Of The Apes' Clips: Meet Bad Ape & See Woody Harrelson's Last Stand
The war between the apes and the humans can't get here fast enough. If you're also eagerly awaiting Matt Reeves' War for the Planet of the Apes, there are free early screenings next week (and there may even be tickets available still!). Most of us won't see the movie until exactly one month from today, but the marketing ramp-up has revealed more footage – including a three-minute clip introducing Bad Ape (Steve Zahn).
Below, watch the War for the Planet of the Apes clip.
Bad Ape escaped from the Portland zoo. Based on the clip, he's not looking to fight, but knows a place Caesar (Andy Serkis) is seeking, so he may get pulled into the apes' fight for survival against the Colonel (Woody Harrelson).
The trailers for War for the Planet of the Apes haven't had much levity. Reeves has previously said there are some laughs in the film, but the Bad Ape clip feels like the first time we've seen jokes from this movie.
When we spoke to Zahn last year, he told us a bit about the journey Bad Ape goes on:
He becomes a valuable asset in that he knows the lay of the land, so he's kind of a scout. And just because he's so thrilled to be a part of a group again, everything that they do is just something new and great to him. Or he's very scared of something they've been through many a times and they're not. He just has a different perspective, you know. A new perspective on everything.
He'll be following Caesar's lead, who "fights only to survive" in this TV spot.
The "Last Stand" TV spot shows the Colonel's perspective, which is less humane than Caesar's. He's okay with abandoning his humanity and turning into a savage, unlike Caesar.
Even in the TV spots, the emphasis is more on character than the set pieces. That's been the case with the last two Apes films (and the series as a whole, except Battle). The more we get to know Caesar, the more intimate these movies seem to get. War for the Planet of the Apes may be the biggest movie of three, but it looks like it might be the most dramatic and personal.
In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, 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.
War for the Planet of the Apes opens in theaters July 14.