Noa (Owen Teague) in "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes."
Kingdom of The Planet of The Apes is the fourth in a series of reboot movies inspired by the original Planet of the Apes movies. But is there an end credits scene to indicate that there are more Apes adventures to come?
Generally in franchises as storied as the Planet of the Apes saga, there’s never a definitive end to the tale. One way for franchises to signal there are more adventures on the way is the inclusion of one or more end credits scenes.
The Planet of the Apes reboot series, of course, kicked off with 2011’s Rise of the Planet of the Apes and was followed by the 2014 sequel Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and the 2017 sequel War for the Planet of the Apes.
In the trilogy, Andy Serkis did the motion-capture acting for lead role of the chimpanzee Caesar, who rapidly evolved after he was accidentally exposed to an experimental drug via his mother.
Sadly, however, Caesar’s reign came to an end at the conclusion of War and mysteriously the franchise laid dormant for seven years. Luckily for Apes fans, director Wes Ball was working on the fourth installment of the reboot series in the interim with Kingdom, which opens in theaters Friday.
While Caesar’s funeral is depicted at the beginning of the new film, generations pass and the memories of his leadership fade after the opening scene. When the story of Kingdom begins in earnest, we meet a peaceful village where a chimp named Noa (Owen Teague) lives. Noa and his family’s lives are torn apart, though, when a violent clan of chimps and gorillas invades their village and takes its residents hostage.
Noa, however, escapes the wrath of the clan and teams with a wise orangutan named Raka (Peter Macon) and a human, Mae (Freya Allan), to devise a plan to free his captured clan from the grips of Proximus Caesar (Kevin Durand). Proximus is a vicious bonobo who is forcing his captives to breach a vault that he believes to contain advanced human weaponry, which will in effect make any revolts against him impossible.
Surprisingly, there is no end credits scene in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, although a guttural noise that appears to come from Raka is heard at the tail end of the credits.
That’s not to say, however, that there aren’t more Apes adventures in the making. The final scene leaves the door wide open for the story to continue should 20th Century Films—now a subsidiary of Disney—be given the go-ahead.
Note: Spoilers from the film are discussed in the next section.
How Does The Final Scene In ‘Kingdom’ Suggest More ‘Apes’ Movies?
Anyone familiar with the original Planet of the Apes movie saga knows that the new series has taken a prequel story route to reboot the franchise.
In 1968’s Planet of the Apes Charlton Heston stars as George Taylor, an astronaut who is aboard a spaceship that crash lands in a lake on an unknown planet where apes are evolved and humans have devolved and are held captive.
Eventually, Taylor discovers that since he and his fellow astronauts were in a deep hibernation while in orbit and their bodies barely aged because of time dilation, the planet they crashed on was Earth. What Taylor didn’t comprehend was that he came back to Earth more than 2,000 years after the astronauts embarked on their mission.
In Rise of the Planet of the Apes, there’s a passing reference in the film that a spaceship—named the Icarus—was lost in orbit. Since that point, there have been plenty of Easter eggs showing homages to the original Apes series, but no clear indication of the series returning to the original storyline of the 1968 film—until now.
In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes there are a pair of scenes set in a dilapidated space observatory where both human and ape characters peer into a large telescope and appear startled at what they see in the stars.
Could it be the Icarus? There’s no solid evidence of that but what is true is that both advanced apes—and humans—exist in Kingdom and the humans want to return to their way of life before the events at the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. At the end of Rise, of course, a virus begins to spread that not only gives apes the means to rapidly evolve, but it also wipes out most of humanity in the process.
Like the demands of any big-budget film franchise, Kingdom will need to have healthy box office returns both stateside and international theaters to justify another film.
Noa (Owen Teague) in "Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes."
How Big Of An Opening Is Projected For ‘Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes’?
If projections by Deadline for the worldwide box office hold up, things are looking good for a lucrative opening for Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.
As of Tuesday, the industry trade publication projected Kingdom to earn $50 million at the domestic box office this weekend and $80 million in international ticket sales for a worldwide tally of $130 million.
Kingdom’s predecessor, 2017’s War for the Planet of the Apes, certainly made enough money to justify a sequel. According to Box Office Mojo, War made $146.8 million in its domestic run and $343.8 million internationally for a worldwide box office total of $490.7 million against a $150 million production budget.
According to Deadline, Kingdom has a $165 million budget and is opening in more than 3,700 theaters this weekend. Of course, once prints and advertising costs are added to the production number, Kingdom will have a large cost to tackle to become profitable.
Critic-wise, Kingdom enters the weekend with an 83 percent “fresh” rating among Rotten Tomatoes critics based on 139 reviews.
Ultimately, though, Kingdom’s success depends solely on its audience and if projections hold up, the film will be in much better shape than last weekend’s big release The Fall Guy.
While The Fall Guy opened at No. 1 in its opening weekend, the film fell flat with a mere $27.7 million domestic opening and $36.7 million in ticket sales overseas for a worldwide tally of $64.4 million.
