Noa

Noa climbs a tower with his friends Anaya and Soona to take eagle eggs for the bonding ceremony. On the way back, a human who has been lurking near the village runs into him and the egg breaks. Noa heads out alone at night to find another.

On the way, he crosses paths with apes carrying electric prods. When he gets back, the village is on fire. The gorilla Sylva, serving a king called Proximus Caesar, kills Koro and throws Noa off a high platform.

Noa wakes up alone: his whole clan has been taken. He goes after them and meets Raka, an orangutan who studies the teachings of Caesar, the ape many now treat as legend. Raka tells him about Caesar's laws and the phrase apes together strong.

The human from the egg incident follows them again. Raka takes her in and calls her Nova. Later she reveals she can speak and that her name is Mae. In a fight by a river, Raka saves Mae from drowning and is swept away by the rapids. Noa keeps going with her.

On the coast, Noa finds a camp where Proximus Caesar enslaves whole clans to break into an old human vault. Proximus uses Caesar's name to justify himself and keeps at his side Trevathan, a talking human who teaches him human history.

Noa finds his clan held there, his mother among them. Trevathan warns him that Mae is hiding something. She tells Noa she needs to get into the vault.

Mae and Noa slip into the vault through a hidden entrance and plant explosives on the seawall holding back the ocean. Trevathan catches them and Mae kills him. Inside are weapons and what Mae was after: a key to bring satellites back online.

Proximus confronts them on the way out. Mae sets off the explosives and the sea floods the vault. Noa pins Sylva underwater and, with his clan, calls the eagles. The birds attack Proximus, who falls off a cliff.

The clans regroup and Noa starts rebuilding the village. Mae comes to say goodbye. He notices she's hiding a gun behind her back, but they part without a fight. Mae takes the key to a group of talking humans in a bunker, and they manage to reach other survivors.

In the last scene, Noa looks at the sky through a telescope.

Noa is played by Owen Teague through performance capture. The character was created for the 2024 film, with no counterpart in Pierre Boulle's novel or the original series. A sequel is in development at 20th Century Studios, with Matt Shakman directing from a script by Josh Friedman.