Douglas Hunsiker

**Douglas Hunsiker** was a pilot for Global Airlines and an ill-tempered neighbor of Charles Rodman and Will Rodman.

## Biography

### Clashing with the Rodmans

He worked as a pilot and despised the Rodmans for no apparent reason, first clashing with them when an all too curious three-year-old Caesar (who was at the age of a human toddler) escaped and frightened his children when the curious chimpanzee wanted to ride a bicycle found in Hunsiker's garage, propelling Hunsiker to run at Caesar with a baseball bat. Hunsiker chased Caesar around his garden, causing the frightened chimp to fall off the fence and slash his thigh on gardening tools, and almost struck him before Will and Charles arrived to save him from any beatings. Even though Charles insisted that Caesar was simply being playful, Hunsiker warned the Rodmans to not let Caesar near his house or his children again.

Five years later, Hunsiker accosted Charles - who began to suffering from Alzheimer's disease once more after eight years of his ALZ-112 treatment - over damage to his car. He refused to listen to Charles, who tried to prevent him from calling the police. When Hunsiker started threatening and poking Charles, an angry Caesar retaliated and bit Hunsiker's right index finger. Witnesses called the police, and Animal Control deported Caesar to the San Bruno Primate Shelter.

### Fatal Move

Days after this incident, Hunsiker, still recuperating from his finger surgery, confronted Robert Franklin at the Rodmans' home, who was trying to warn Will about the danger of their new ALZ-113 drug to humans. As a result, he was infected by Franklin with the 113 after Franklin accidentally sneezed on him. Shocked and irritated, Hunker forcibly sent Franklin off. A few days later, Hunsiker continued with his job and headed to the airport, while listening to reports about a mass escape of apes from Gen-Sys and the zoos escaping across the Golden Gate Bridge. After arriving at the airport, Hunker noticed he had a nosebleed, but thought nothing of it before heading to the terminal.

### Spreading the Virus

In Hunsiker's cockpit, he infected passengers with his sneezing while flying his plane to France, which led to the virus spreading across the globe via international flight routes. Through his actions in provoking Caesar, confronting Franklin, and spreading the virus through air transport, Hunsiker played a central role in the deadly pandemic that would become known as the Simian Flu and lead to the near extinction of mankind. However, Hunsiker died before the pandemic began.

## Personality

Douglas Hunsiker was a crass and bad tempered man who seemed to be almost paranoid concerning the well-being and security of his property and his children, which manifested itself in acting in a hostile fashion towards the Rodmans, including their associates such as Caesar and Robert Franklin.

However, this behavior backfired on him several times as his unjustified attempt on the harmless Caesar's life resulted in the ape gaining a grudge, and Hunsiker's injuries resulted from this when he abused Charles. Hunsiker's tendency to meddle in neighborly affairs also exposed him to the ALZ-113 virus carried by Franklin, which Hunsiker spread through air travel and caused a global pandemic that destroyed human civilization and nearly wiped out humanity.

## Notes

* An earlier version of the script gave Hunsiker's first name as Douglas. In the same script, Steven Jacobs was infected with the virus at the Gen-Sys Laboratories before taking a taxi home. Hunsiker then used the same taxi to take him to the airport, thereby infecting him also.

 File:Finger.jpg
* In the scene where Hunsiker shows up at the airport while infected with the virus, he has a bandage and metal splint around the finger that Caesar had injured. This is also visible when Hunsiker confronts Franklin.
* He is the only ape-hating character who didn't die on-screen, unlike Steven Jacobs and Dodge Landon.
* Hunsiker must have left his keys in his car, the doors unlocked and the engine of the car turned on for Charles to have been able to try to drive it.
* Hunsiker was played by British-born Canadian actor David Hewlett who is best known to fans for his role as Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay in the Canadian-American sci-fi show *Stargate Atlantis* and its parent series, *Stargate SG-1*.
* Madison Bell, who plays his daughter Alice, was also in *Stargate Atlantis* with actor David Hewlett, portraying the role of his character's niece.