Conflicting Identities

As Caesar Reaches the top of the Redwood five years have gone by in the montage. Caesar looks out towards the city and sees the view of San Francisco and the golden gate bridge covered in a blanket of fog. He then looks down and sees Will and Caroline cuddling on a blanket below. He jumps down and interrupts them, moving them to leave the park. The scene transitions into them leaving with, a clothed Caesar clipped onto a leash behind Will and Caroline. On the way out right before they get to the car they pass a small family with a dog, also on a leash. Immediately the woman says in a surprised and shocked way “Is that a chimpanzee!?” The dog starts barking at Caesar while pulling on its leash. In that moment Caesar recognizes the resemblance between his leash and the dog’s leash. Caesar turns around and it seems like he has moved on from the dog and is leaving like Will is trying to make him. Then all of a sudden he turns around lets out a bestial roar towards the dog. The dog owners, scared, walk away in a hurry and Will takes Caesar back to the car. When they get to the car, instead of going into the trunk Caesar chooses to sit in back seat like a human child. He then starts questioning Will, asking: “Am I a pet?” “Who is my father?”, and “What is Caesar?”. Will tells Caesar that he is not a pet, that Will is Caesars father. In response to “what is Caesar” will takes Caesar to Gen-Sys, and explains where Caesar came from. This scene is a transition in Caesar’s personality and awareness. Beforehand Caesar was happy living with Will like a human. Afterwards his eyes were open to the idea that he wasn’t fully in control of his life like a real human is allowed. This “eye” opening experience is the catalyst of the rest of the events in the film that lead up to the ape revolution. Throughout the first 20 minutes of the movie Caesar is raised and treated like a human, something he very clearly is not. There are so many conflicting aspects of Caesars life, that Caesar doesn’t even realize he is a chimp until this scene. We see him in clothes, he communicates with Will, Eats at the