The deadly virus in Planet of the Apes is a fictional flu inspired by real-world pandemics
Spoilers ahead for War for the Planet of the Apes.
By the third film in the blockbuster Planet of the Apes series, it seems like the franchise should have wrung every last narrative drop from the virus that drove humans to near extinction and boosted apes’ brainpower. But in War of the Planet of the Apes, the simian flu flares up again, mutating to quietly spread through the last surviving people. Immunity against the original plague is no protection against the latest form of the virus, which causes a degenerative disease that leaves humans mute and animalistic.
That’s meant to bring this series in line with the original 1968 Planet of the Apes, where humans...