Dawn Of The Planet Of The Apes Review: 10 Awesome Moments

3. James Franco "Cameo"

A brief but tremendously affecting moment late in the movie comes when a wounded Caesar is taken to the home he formerly shared with Will Rodman (James Franco) from the previous movie, a character who has presumably been wiped out by the Simian Flu. While Caesar is recuperating from Koba's assassination attempt, he looks around in the attic and finds an old video camera (which somehow still works and has battery power), which contains a video of Rodman teaching a young Caesar to sign. This clearly cuts deep with Caesar, who begins to tear up, and when Malcolm comes upstairs, he learns of Caesar's past, asking who was on the video, to which Caesar replies, "A good man...like you." It's a great, understated way to remind us of Caesar's origins and of how much of humanity has been lost in the decade since the first film. After all, a great sequel doesn't negate what happened in the first movie: it builds on it, and that's totally what Dawn does.