Proximus Caesar

Proximus Caesar is the main antagonist of the 2024 20th Century Studios film Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes. He is an evolved bonobo and the fanatical leader of a vast coastal colony of evolved apes. After humanity has been globally reduced for 300 years to a primitive state by a retro-virus, Proximus covets their ancient technology and knowledge from the time when humans had not yet declined, in order to make the apes evolve even further but above all so that he can establish his reign on Earth.
== Background ==
At some point, Proximus heard of the legend of the first evolved ape, Caesar. However, Proximus ended up distorting Caesar's teachings to use them for his own purposes. With the ambition to acquire the technology and knowledge left by humans in order to become as powerful as them in their time, he became interested in an old bunker located in a coastal region where what is contained is he covets. Helped by his followers as fanatical as himself, Proximus kidnapped numerous clans of apes and formed a large colony around the bunker, thus forming a kingdom of apes of which he is the sole master, now taking the name Caesar for himself.
During months of trying to open the bunker's vault, Proximus discovered the existence of a human colony still in possession of the ability to speak, which his close guard unfortunately massacred without knowing their value, although a young girl, Mae, escaped. Meanwhile, a human historian named Trevathan entered Proximus' service and instructed him as much human history as the ape king demanded. Subsequently convinced that Mae could be the key to entering the bunker, Proximus began to relentlessly hunt her down in the outer territories.
===Personality===
Ambitious, arrogant, determined, cunning and deceitful, Proximus seeks to expand his power and knowledge by human technology alone, the potential of which he clearly grasps in his hands. He will stop at nothing to achieve his goals, even if it means voluntarily sacrificing all his followers or the ape he has enslaved. Manipulation is also a strong point of Proximus, as he has in turn indoctrinated other clans of apes with his charisma and deceit while daring to use the original Caesar image as a doctrine, distorting the mantra of ape unity "ape together strong" into a mantra of servitude to his will.
He considers current humans to be inferior to the apes, but he is nevertheless fascinated by the exploits of humanity when the world did not yet belong to the apes. Beneath his praise of human technology, Proximus proves himself an opportunist willing to take anything that will help his rise to power. Likewise, he actually despises humans, seeing them mostly as untrustworthy and deceitful beings, especially those capable of speaking and whom he considers a threat to his reign and the supremacy of the apes. The mere idea of an ape siding with a human disgusts him, seeing no use for Noa after he helped Mae into the bunker and was going to have Soona mercilessly executed to force Noa to reveal Mae's plans.
Proximus possesses a short temper that easily causes him to have outbursts of rage when something comes between him and his plans. Once his breaking point is passed, Proximus becomes a savage and brutal ape although still guided by his devouring ambition which ultimately was his undoing when he did not bother to kill Noa until he had not submit to him, then the Eagle Clan stands up to him and that he was finally defeated by the onslaught of the eagles.
===Physical appearance===
Proximus is a large and muscular bonobo, making him also have fur and dark skin, sharp fangs in his teeth and a big simian nose. He mainly wears metal and brown fabric attire like a monarch, including a crown. He sports a scar on his left eyebrow. As a evolved ape, his eyes are greenish.
===Skills and abilites===
*Genius-Level Intellect: Due to being born with a genetically enhanced brain from his evolved ape ancestors, Proximus has great intelligence and cognitive faculties initially superior to those of humans.
*Leadership: Proximus is a ruthless but capable leader, having gained many followers and soldiers with unwavering loyalty.
*Expert Combatant: Although not really showing the extent of his talents in combat, Proximus proved capable of overpowering Noa without much effort.
*Animal Strength: Proximus is much stronger than a human and is easily as strong or possibly stronger than a chimpanzee. He could throw Noa, a chimpanzee about his size, with ease and shove a towering gorilla like Sylva.
*Animal Agility: Being a bonobo, Proximus can easily swing flexibly.
==Appearances==
===Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes===
Proximus appears in person towards the middle of the film, watching from the wreck of the ocean liner serving as his palace as his loyal lieutenant, Sylva, returns, bringing him a captive Mae as well as Noa, an ape and surviving member of the Eagle Clan, the last clan enslaved by Proximus to expand his kingdom. Later, Proximus holds a gathering of all the apes where he begins by praising the original Caesar according to his distorted version, notably that today he is Caesar. He continues with the importance of the treasures contained in a vault embedded under the cliffs, a vault sealed by armored doors that Proximus is nevertheless sure that they will eventually open since the apes are strong together. Proximus' minions pile up gunpowder and attach chains which they pull at the same time as they set the gunpowder on fire. Despite their efforts, the vault does not give way. Furious, Proximus proclaims that they will try again tomorrow with more tenacity.
Later, Proximus brings Noa to his table for dinner, with Mae and Trevathan also present. The bonobo king is first amused by the fact that Noa and Mae are traveling together before discussing his interest in the concept of evolution, of which he suspects that Mae has mastered the essentials. Aware that he may not live long enough to achieve his goal, he needs the secrets hidden behind the vault, such as the incredible technological progress that made humans great a long time ago. Barely does Proximus express that he and the apes will learn many secrets, Mae affirms that they will never enter the vault but the bonobo does not agree, aware of the young girl's hidden intentions to enter the vault. vault since his close guard had killed Mae's companions. The human claims that the vault is not Proximus's, only affirms that it is his from now on and that he will stop at nothing to enter it, no matter how many apes he has to lose. Hoping to count on Noa's malignity which he deems useful, Proximus loses more and more patience when Noa reveals that Mae told him nothing about the vault. As a last attempt to rally Noa to his side, Proximus shows him the kingdom he built for their fellow man and which he claims to want to protect from the deceitfulness of humans by seizing the secrets of the vault first and then destroying them with and thus preserve the dominance of apes on the planet, but above all so that apes do not end up living in cages again.
The next morning, the vault doors are opened by Noa, Mae, Soona and Anaya infiltrated inside, but Proximus was already waiting for them on the other side. The Bonobo King then enters the location of his desire which turns out to be a bunker housing mass military equipment, much to his delight. While he congratulates Noa for being useful, he reprimands him for allying himself with Mae when he had warned him not to trust a human. With the Eagle Clan brought into the bunker, Proximus has his henchman Lightning threaten Soona's life to force Noa to reveal Mae's intentions against him until Mae kills Lightning with a gun she took from the bunker. Impressed by the human weapon, Proximus offers to let Mae go if she confirms that there are other guns in the bunker. Horribly terrified that Proximus is about to win, Mae activates the detonation of the dam in front of the bunker that she and the three apes had sabotaged earlier. Successively, the sea rushes into the bunker, trapping the Eagle Clan as well as Proximus and his minions.
The Eagle Clan escapes drowning by reaching the platform giving access to the bunker from the top of the cliff, as does Proximus. When Noa rejoins his clan after triumphing over Sylva, the fallen king mercilessly attacks the young chimpanzee, blaming him for ruining his plans. As he continues to brutalize Noa, the other apes try to intervene but they are so afraid of the now enraged Proximus that they step back. Throwing Noa to the edge of the cliff, Proximus orders him to rise and bow before his king, whereupon he will kill him. Not yet admitting defeat, Noa begins the eagle's song, to which Proximus is unsuspecting until the song becomes louder and the Eagle Clan takes part against the cruel bonobo. Losing patience, Proximus decides to put an end to it but is scratched on the cheek by Sun, Noa's eagle. A flock of eagles then attack Proximus, slashing him all over and pushing him back to the edge of the cliff. Sun's final attack pushes Proximus into the void and the tyrant crashes into the sea.
Despite Proximus' apparent death, Noa ended up recognized that the bonobo was not completely wrong about humans, following Mae's actions, and leaving him uncertain that apes and humans would be able to live together one day.
==Gallery==
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes - 4DX poster.jpg
==Trivia==
*Proximus is especially fond of the history of ancient Rome.
*In Latin, Proximus means "next/nearest", making Proximus granted name literally mean "the next Caesar".
*In real life, bonobos are peaceful creatures and smaller than chimpanzees, unlike Proximus. Ironically, Proximus is even further removed from a true bonobo than Koba, the previous simian antagonist also a bonobo but whose morphology was closer to real life than Proximus, although both are equally cruel and opportunistic. The drastic difference between the two is that Koba hated humans due to the many years of abuse and torture they put him through long before he became evolved, while Proximus has a certain admiration for them in due to their technological advancement.
*Proximus seems to despise orangutans.
*The apparent death of Proximus recalls the death of Steven Jacobs, the antagonist of the first film in the Rebootverse, who died falling from the Golden Gate Bridge into the sea stuck in a helicopter
*Despite being a bonobo, Proximus looks more like a chimpanzee.
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