Lenin, Trotsky and Stalin Redux: `Rise of the Planet of the Apes' Set Up as Allegory of Russian Revolution

The revolutionary leader at the center of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" is named Caesar. That name is just one of many tips of the hat that the film provides in homage to the franchise that started it all. "Escape from the Planet of the Apes" ends with the birth of a baby ape who provides the film with its final word. That talking chimp grows up to become Caesar in "Conquest of the Planet of the Apes" and leads a revolution. Anyone watching the 21^st century Caesar lead his revolution can immediately sense that his name should actually be Vladimir.

The sequel to "Rise of the Planet of the Apes" if it were to adhere to the allegorical schematic on display in the initial installment is one that would see the death of Caesar. Only the death of Caesar by at least the midway point of the sequel has the potential to set up the logical evolution. If you have seen the first movie you are already aware of two important figures who stand alongside Caesar as he moves to bring the downtrodden apes up from their position as inmates of exploitation by The Man. That fog of genetic development from which the newly socially conscious apes rise to the next level of intellectual evolution is equitable to the awakening from false consciousness that so many radical revolutionaries on the Left have undergone. You must be conscious of historical movements in the arena of revolution to get the metaphor or allegory, but explaining it only takes a sentence.

The orangutan is Trotsky and that ugly and rather homicidal ape Koba is, of course, Stalin.

Therefore, the logical progression that should take place in the story arc that is to become the sequels to "Rise of the Planet of Apes" is one that should ideally reflect the history of the Bolshevik revolution in Russia and the subsequent dark turn taken following the events that occurred in the vacuum left behind in the wake of the death of the revolution's leader, Lenin. Just in case you still haven't caught on: Caesar is Lenin.

"Rise of the Planet Apes" ends with a sequence that takes place shortly after the credits begin, so keep in your seat for a minute or two. Without giving too much away, suffice to say that the method in which Earth does go on to become a place where men are ruled by apes is going to be helped along quite a bit by non-simian means. But enough humans will be left over to present quite a problem to the apes in their ongoing awareness of the ideological failure inherent in remaining the kings of the Redwoods. Something has to give and neither Caesar nor his Trotsky of an orangutan appears to be prepared to make that thing a reality.

Therefore, in order for the inhabitants of Earth to evolve and devolve to the point where an astronaut from the past can discover that they have traveled to a future where the apes are in charge, Caesar must die and set up a struggle for power between the orangutan and Koba. History provides the answer as to which of those apes will prevail and make it to the second sequel.