Why did the humans go mute Planet of the Apes?

The Simian Flu Pandemic was a catastrophic flu outbreak that resulted in the near extinction of humanity and the evolution of all apes on Earth. The pandemic resulted from drug testing done at Gen-Sys Laboratories, a biotech company that sought to create a cure for Alzheimer's Disease.

History

Background

At Gen-Sys Laboratories, scientist Will Rodman created a supposed cure for Alzheimer's Disease, the ALZ-112. He tested it on a female chimpanzee nicknamed Bright Eyes. Bright Eyes gained heightened intelligence in the process, but went on a rampage, believing her newborn child would be threatened by her captives. Bright Eyes, unfortunately, was executed shortly after her attack. Will, feeling sorry for her abandoned newborn son, adopted the baby chimp and named him Caesar, after his father (who had Alzheimer's) quoted Julius Caesar. Caesar was shown to have inherited heightened intelligence from his mother, and proved to be smarter than his human counterparts.

When Will tested the ALZ-112 on his father, his father seemed to have improved, but his dementia returned after his immune system fought off the ALZ-112. Meanwhile, Will managed to produce an entirely new potential cure called ALZ-113. This cure gave apes an even greater sense of intelligence, and due to this fact, Will attempted to test the 113 on his father, but Charles refused and died soon after. Will discovered that the 113 had been recklessly being tested on the other chimps, ordered by his boss, Steven Jacobs ignoring Will's warnings about the risks he is taking. Robert Franklin had his mask on when the scientists were testing the 113 on Koba, but Koba knocked it off, thus infecting him with the 113. Franklin's next mistake was trying to warn Will, who wasn't home. Instead, an ill-tempered neighbor named Douglas Hunsiker came and Franklin sneezed on him. Agitated, Hunsiker told Franklin to leave. Later, Dottie, who was looking for Franklin saw him dead on his bed. Franklin was externally bleeding, even after he died.[1]

Spread

After Caesar and the apes escaped into the Muir Woods, Hunsiker, who had his finger bandaged, arrived to work at the airport. It was shown that Hunsiker was dripping blood from his nose, a symptom of the ALZ-113 virus. Refusing to forgo getting paid, Hunsiker proceeded to work and spread the virus to people on the airplane he piloted, bound for France before traveling to Chad and then spreading it across Asia. Hunsiker eventually died, but not before unknowingly bringing the virus to Europe, which spread across the globe via international flight routes.[1] The Ape Rebellion in San Francisco and its connections to Gen-Sys became well known as "Monkeygate" by the media.

A day after Monkeygate, the confirmed deaths of eight people from the virus in San Francisco prompted the CDC and the WHO to declare a medical emergency and implement quarantine procedures. Less than a week later, the nationwide death toll reached over 250,000. The U.S. Secretary of Health gave a public speech that those with a fever or sore throat should stay home. Hospitals and emergency rooms were soon flooded with patients who were all showing signs of the 113, which would be dubbed the "Simian Flu".

The breakdown of law and order resulted in the intervention of the National Guard and FEMA, and the appearance of domestic terrorist groups such as Alpha-Omega and separatists in southern California. Once the connection between the virus and the escaped evolved apes became public knowledge, rioting mobs broke into zoos and began killing apes, monkeys, and other superficially simian-like mammals such as tarsiers and sloths.[2]

The Old World faired no better than the New. Apart from San Francisco, major cities across the globe saw widespread rioting and looting. Containment of the virus was futile and former U.S. President Barack Obama organized evacuation routes. In Belarus, an understaffed nuclear power plant went into meltdown while ethnic conflicts broke out around Africa, the Levant, and former Yugoslavia. The Chinese government went on a brutal crackdown of rebelling ethnic minorities in eastern China while fighting broke out between North and South Kivu in the Democratic Republic of Congo, dividing the region on ethnic and tribal grounds. In Egypt, Muslims began burning Christians alive while in India, a chemical spill in the Ganges resulted in some people seeing the burning river as a religious sign, and so began immolating themselves in its waters.[2] However, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and Brunei saw fewer cases of infection and closed their borders.

Five years into the pandemic, three billion people have died. Speculations reported that Australia lasted the longest due to less infections. By now, NATO and other organizations attempted to quell the anarchy. Spain collapsed recently, most likely overwhelmed from anarchy. Meanwhile, the CDC used apes for experiments in an attempt to make antibodies. However, the CDC and U.S. Army handling the apes had a rift and progress ended as a result.

Martial law was declared in 28 nations, including the United States and Canada, followed by severe power outage. Later, all regular government functions were suspended indefinitely. Human civilization ultimately collapsed as civil unrest, anarchy, and economic collapse destroyed every country in the world.

Aftermath

By the time the events of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes occur; approximately 10 years after the pandemic began, human civilization has long since collapsed. The human species as a whole survived, but a large percentage of the global population is dead from either the Simian Flu or the resulting collapse of society. However, small pockets of humans gathered in isolated survivor groups scattered across the globe, as they were genetically immune and formed small isolated colonies in the ruins of cities or elsewhere. One such colony in San Francisco had a confrontation with a neighboring colony of genetically evolved apes.

Later, the Simian Flu evolved. Instead of killing humans, it makes them mute. This new mutation was so infectious that the doll of Nova, a young girl who carried the virus, infected Colonel McCullough just from handling it. McCullough may have suspected this as he told Caesar that he had the belongings of those infected burned to prevent the strain from spreading. The new strain may also make apes progressively more intelligent. At this point, the Simian Flu created a second civil war for the United States. Surviving humans became so desperate to contain the virus because they were outnumbered by infected humans that they created a paramilitary faction to kill any infected humans who carried the virus. However, other humans opposed this with their own counteractive military, believing a medical solution could be found. In the aftermath of the Battle of the Border, both factions were likely wiped out while the ape colony escaped to an oasis.

Speculation

Statistics taken from the promotional video ("1/10 survives"), suggest that 90% of the human population is dead. This would equate to approximately a little over 700 million survivors and over 6.3 billion casualties. However, the numbers given in the opening scene ("1/500") imply a little over 14 million survivors and over 6.5 billion casualties.

In War of the Planet of the Apes, the Colonel states the mutated virus would make humanity more animalistic, implying that it decreases intelligence. However, this is contradicted by Nova, who was infected with the virus but was still able to quickly learn sign language by observing other Apes and displayed a variety of emotions. Though it's probably the Colonel's own misguided speculation to justify his actions.

Plague Inc: Evolved

In the video game Plague Inc: Evolved, you are able to take control of a Simian Flu Virus (or game you can optionally rename it yourself). The 2 outcomes that can happen are: 1: The Virus can be eradicated but cause minor/major changes into human civilization. 2: You can take control of the earth with the Genetically enhanced apes.

References

1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Rise of the Planet of the Apes
2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm - The Official Movie Prequel

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