Trivia: Don't leave when the credits roll. There is a scary snippet you don't want to miss.
Trivia: In the end of the old Planet of the Apes movie, we see remains of the Statue of Liberty. In this movie, we see Caesar assemble the Liberty statue (some kind of a puzzle).
Trivia: Bright Eyes is what they called Caesar's mom in this movie. This was also the name given to Charlton Heston by Dr. Zira in the original movie Planet of the Apes (another tribute to the old film).
Trivia: Dodge yells to the apes behind bars, "it's a mad house! A mad house!" This line was said by Taylor when he was behind bars in the original "Planet of the Apes" film.
Trivia: Caesar was the first to acquire speech and say NO to Tom Felton when he was beating him in the primate exhibit with the taser. This was also a tribute to the Escape of the Planet of the Apes movie that describes the gorilla General Aldo as the first ape to acquire the power of speech—and the first to say "No!" to his human captors.
Trivia: Dodge says to Caesar, "Take your stinking paws off me, you damned dirty ape!" This is the first line Taylor said in the original "Planet of the Apes film."
Trivia: One scene shows a newspaper reporting that an American space ship had gone missing. The headline was, "Lost in Space?" This is an obvious connection to the plot of the first "Planet of the Apes" where Charlton Heston and his crew land on a future earth where apes are the dominant species.
Trivia: In order to show he is in charge, Dodge sprays Caesar with a fire hose. This was done to Taylor by his ape guard in the original "Planet of the Apes" film.
Answer: It's not necessarily a sign that the orangutan understands human motivations. It could be, and probably more likely *is*, a sign that the ape has shown its intelligence previously during its stay in the habitat, was abused by the humans as a direct or indirect result, and was subsequently conditioned to play dumb.
Phixius ★