Refresh Your Memory of Caesar’s Beginnings With a New ‘War for the Planet of the Apes’ TV Spot

A lot happens in the modern Planet of the Apes trilogy — so much, that the studio has gifted us with a 4-minute long video ahead of War for the Planet of the Apes’ release to catch us up on everything we might have forgotten from the previous two movies.

Long story short: the simian flu, first developed as a cure for Alzheimer’s and other brain diseases, has steadily wiped most of the human population from the planet, while simultaneously giving apes — chimpanzees, gorillas, orangutans and their brethren — heightened sentience and intelligence. The humans don’t like this, so fighting between the two parties escalates with atrocities on either side until we get here, to the final war that’ll decide the fate of Earth. The refresher also works as a “Hey, Remember When This Actor Was in an Apes Movie?” video — remember James Franco in Rise? Remember Gary Oldman from Dawn?

In War for the Planet of the Apes, the third chapter of the critically acclaimed blockbuster franchise, Caesar and his apes are forced into a deadly conflict with an army of humans led by a ruthless Colonel. After the apes suffer unimaginable losses, Caesar wrestles with his darker instincts and begins his own mythic quest to avenge his kind. As the journey finally brings them face to face, Caesar and the Colonel are pitted against each other in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both their species and the future of the planet.

War for the Planet of the Apes opens in theaters July 14.