Why Humans Are Called Echoes In Kingdom Of The Planet Of The Apes

Summary Ape society views humans as "echoes" due to regression from the Simian Flu pandemic, showcasing ape dominance over a devolved humanity.

Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes explores prejudices between apes and humans, highlighting apes' perception of humans as inferior.

The apes' perception of humans may lead to their underestimation of the potential of remaining "non-echo" humans.

The dubbing of humans as "echoes" is Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' clever way of denoting humanity's status on Earth. Set 300 years after the Planet of the Apes reboot trilogy, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes depicts life on Earth through the eyes of Eagle Clan chimpanzee Noa. Whereas the reboot trilogy charts the rise of simian intelligence under the messianic ape Caesar and the ape effort toward establishing a society beside the dwindling human race, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes reveals the distant aftermath, following Noa among a new generation of apes.

In Noa's lifetime, apes keep to themselves, adhere to the laws of their elders, and, especially in the Eagle Clan's case, are quite removed from the human race. As such, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes' plot line centers on a conflict between apes over exploring a large-scale contention between humankind and apekind, as the Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy has done before. However, while Noa fights to retrieve his captured clan from the enslavement of a power-hungry false prophet called Proxima Casaer, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes still sheds significant light on humanity's narrative.

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Related Planet Of The Apes: All Movie Timelines Explained A complete guide to every timeline introduced in the Planet of the Apes franchise, from the original timeline to the prequels' timeline.

Apes Call Humans Echoes Because They've Devolved

The Simian Flu Virus Affected Speech And Brain Function In Humans

Image via 20th Century Studios

By the events of Kingdom, nearly every ape on Earth has evolved, and humans have regressed into a feral state, warranting their epithet of echoes.

As per the Planet of the Apes' prequel trilogy, apekind's evolution into intelligence arose with the development of an Alzheimer's cure. A strain of the vaccine, which caused an outbreak nicknamed the Simian Flu Pandemic in Planet of the Apes' modern lore, increased the intelligence of infected apes while simultaneously decimating the human population. The Simian Flu not only killed 99% of humanity but wreaked havoc on the consequent generations of humans who survived. By the events of Kingdom, nearly every ape on Earth has evolved, and humans have regressed into a feral state, warranting their epithet of echoes.

Humans have limited brain capacity and cannot speak in the feral state. Presumably, because humans have devolved into echoes of their former selves, the ape population started to refer to them as such until the term became integrated into the simian language as slang. Granted, by the end of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes, it's revealed that there are a lot of humans who have not regressed to this state. Yet, apes use the term to describe the human race universally, indicating a dynamic of inequality between the apes and humanity.

Humanity's Echoes Name Shows The Ape's Dominance

Echoes Are Deemed Lesser Than

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As instances in Kingdom demonstrate, apes judge humans as slow, smelly, and pest-like, even though intelligent and fluent humans like Kingdom's supporting character Mae exist. Generalizing the human race as echoes establishes apekind's prejudice, which sees humanity as less than and apes as the dominant species. While, in many ways, apes have the upper hand, their prejudgment may come to be their downfall. Since humanity's status is so low in their eyes, the apes might not foresee the humans who haven't devolved coming together to reclaim dominance after the events of Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes.