In little more than a week, one of the summer’s most anticipated blockbusters arrives: “Dawn of the Planet of the Apes,” directed by Matt Reeves and starring Andy Serkis as Caesar, the super-smart ape who leads a community of his peers in a mostly human-free world.
“Dawn” takes place ten years after “Rise of the Planet of the Apes,” which ended with a massive viral outbreak that rendered humanity all but extinct. But what exactly happened between “Rise” and “Dawn”?
Three new short films released by Fox and Vice answer that question. The series is called “Before the Dawn,” and it chronicles the ten years between the end of “Rise” and the beginning of the new “Planet of the Apes” film, focusing on the intimate side of global devastation.
The first film, called “Spread of Simian Flu,” takes place during the first year of the viral outbreak. It centers on a father and daughter who do their best to survive the beginning of a post-human world, and to survive the impending loss of their wife/mother.
In “Struggling to Survive,” a teenage orphan scrapes on by in year five of the apocalypse, trading items she’s stolen from dead people’s abandoned houses in order to survive.
The final film takes place ten years after the plague. It’s called “Story of the Gun,” and it’s easily the most action-packed and the longest of the three shorts, clocking in at nearly 15 minutes.
If you weren’t already amped up about “Apes,” these “Before the Dawn” videos should absolutely do the trick.
“Dawn of the Planet of the Apes” lands in theaters on July 11.
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