The incredible story of Caesar, a chimpanzee who assembles a simian army and fights for justice after an experimental drug gives him human-like intelligence.
Ten years after the pandemic of the deadly Rise of the Planet of the Apes, later called the Simian Flu, the worldwide human population was drastically reduced, with only about one in 500 genetically immune to the virus. Meanwhile, the apes, under the Common chimpanzee List of Planet of the Apes characters#Caesar, all bestowed with Genetic engineering Intelligence amplification by the virus, have long established a colony in the Muir Woods National Monument near San Francisco.
After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind.
Several generations in the future following Caesar's reign, apes are now the dominant species and live harmoniously while humans have been reduced to living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question all that he has known about the past and to make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.