UNESCO

In Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, the latest movie of the long-standing Planet of the Apes series, the future is battled out with strong references to the past. Whereas Noa and his gang fight for survival of their clan and the true inheritance of Caesar of the previous trilogy, symbolised by a portable amulet (shown in the poster below), the opponent is an evil tyrannt named Proximus who is extensively using the past to forge a future.

Proximus is drawing on preserved books of the 20th century containing knowledge about Roman history and culture. He is actively seeking to build his rule on the heritage of human (i.e. pre-ape) cultural and technical evolution. Just like the Roman Empire ultimately fell, Proximate and his future fall too, or so it seems at the end of the film (evidently to be continued…).

Both intangible and tangible cultural heritage are used extensively in this film. Whereas the living (or indeed forgotten) heritage of the chimpanzees’ clan matches current interest in indigenous cultures, the mobilization of Classical Roman culture by the tyrannt Proximus is more surprising. Does it represent the transformation in the US in recent years of the ancient Romans and Greeks from the originators of European civilisation to the first racists and colonisers putting Europe and the West on the wrong path from the start?

No doubt, we will learn more about this question — and about the signicificance of the distant past for future-making — in the next episode(s) of the Planet of the Apes series. A key role will doubtless also be played by the remaining humans and by the Orang-utan scholar Raka who makes an appearence as the last member of the Order of Caesar carrying on with the task of preserving a library of the 20th century past…