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Outbyte Driver Updater FREEFix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitchesFind Drivers →Outbyte PC Repair FREEClear out junk files and repair common Windows errorsFree Scan →The “cliffs” in Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes’ opening egg hunt are buildings, buried beneath so much vegetation that they read as part of an ancient landscape. Wētā FX choreographed the climb in previs before building its detailed digital world around the apes; director Wes Ball says one opening shot contains roughly 16 million plant assets.
What the opening reveals
The sequence follows an ape clan on an egg hunt, climbing what initially appears to be a natural cliff face. The visual reveal is that the rock-like formations are buildings. Wes Ball described the effect in an interview: “This is what I love about the opening shot so many people don’t realize that the opening shot is buildings.” The line is reproduced as transcribed, without adding punctuation absent from the transcript. Offscreen Central interview with Wes Ball and Erik Winquist
![The Kingdom of The Planet Of The Apes [Blu-ray] [Region A & B & C]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51B5U9JjjRL._SL160_.jpg)
How Wētā planned the climb
Sequence supervisors Stephen Unterfranz and Phillip Leonhardt said the team previsualized the entire opening egg-hunt sequence to choreograph its action. The previs gave the filmmakers a way to shape the movement and timing of the climb before the detailed environment was built around the apes. The account also describes an initial previs being adjusted after capture, with animators sculpting and tightening the sequence; previs and captured performance were parts of an evolving process, not competing alternatives. The Art of VFX interview with sequence supervisors Animation World Network production overview
How buildings became an overgrown landscape
Once the action was choreographed, Wētā FX built the digital setting to support it: structures had to register as ancient cliffs while still preserving the underlying clue that they were made by people. Ball said the team spent months working on the overgrowth. He estimated roughly 16 million plant assets in the particular opening shot he was discussing—not across the whole film. Offscreen Central interview with Wes Ball and Erik Winquist
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- Generations in the future following Caesar?s reign, apes are living harmoniously as the dominant species ? and humans are living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Small details make the setting feel alive
The effect depends on more than covering a building with foliage. Ball said the rest of the climb needed to look completely overgrown, with leaves moving in the wind and insects in the air. Those details give the environment signs of motion and life, helping the viewer read it as a landscape rather than a static architectural surface.
What belongs to Wētā FX—and what does not
Wētā FX’s production account describes broader film-level technical work that included facial capture, procedural environment dressing, shader and texture efficiencies, fire and water workflows, and anamorphic lens profiling. Those are film-wide developments; the available accounts do not establish that each technique was used in this particular opening shot. The Art of VFX interview with sequence supervisors
Rank #2
- Generations in the future following Caesar?s reign, apes are living harmoniously as the dominant species ? and humans are living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Wētā Workshop contributed physical character, costume, and prop elements for the Eagle Clan and Marauders, including beach-sourced weaving materials, scrap-metal jewellery, and a flax design for carrying an eagle egg. The project page says the elements were digitised at Wētā FX, but it documents that related physical-design work—not the construction of the digital cliff environment. Wētā Workshop project page
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Why the reveal works through the action
The opening does not pause to explain the buried human world. The audience discovers it by watching the apes climb: first the setting reads as a natural obstacle, then its architecture becomes visible beneath the growth. Previsualizing the action before elaborating the environment helped the team make the climb legible while leaving room for the overgrowth and moving details that disguise—and eventually reveal—the structures.
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Rank #4
- Generations in the future following Caesar?s reign, apes are living harmoniously as the dominant species ? and humans are living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
Rank #3
![Kingdom of The Planet Of The Apes [Blu-ray]](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/51mYdPnxVPL._SL160_.jpg)
- Generations in the future following Caesar’s reign, apes are living harmoniously as the dominant species — and humans are living in the shadows. As a new tyrannical ape leader builds his empire, one young ape undertakes a harrowing journey that will cause him to question the past and make choices that will define a future for apes and humans alike.
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