10 More Important Movie Characters Who Were Killed Off Screen

There have been three different human leads in the three most recent Planet of the Apes films, a trend that will continue with the 2024 release of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. Simply put, this is because the humans have a habit of dying.

The respective fates of both James Franco's Will from Rise of the Planet of the Apes and Jason Clarke's Malcolm from Dawn of the Planet of the Apes were only alluded to in their respective sequels, but even though Woody Harrelson's Colonel McCullough was killed off-screen in War for the Planet of the Apes, there was no ambiguity in the scene.

The Colonel was the most ruthless character in the entire franchise, and not only killed Caesar's (Andy Serkis) wife and child, but killed his own son when he had been infected with the Simian Flu that was taking over the world. When he contracted that same disease himself, he wanted his own life to end.

The Colonel handed his gun to Ceasar, who had every reason to want his adversary dead, but he would not put him out of his misery. Instead, he walked away, leaving the gun within the vicious army leader's reach. The camera changed to follow Caesar outside the room just as the trigger was pulled, saving audiences from actually seeing him take his own life.