- "You're asking me to risk imprisonment for the sake of two fugitive apes? The answer is: a thousand times, yes."
- ―Armando
Señor Armando was the owner of a circus, a human friend of Cornelius and Zira, and foster-father of Caesar.
Biography
Circus leader
A believer in Saint Francis of Assisi, "who loved all animals", the jovial, warm-hearted Armando readily came to the aid of Cornelius and his pregnant wife Zira in 1973 during Escape from the Planet of the Apes, when most of humanity has rejected them, and even the United States Government planned to prevent their ever having children, since they someday "may constitute a threat to the human race." While Armando did his best to help the pair, and conceal their newly-born son Milo (later called Caesar), he couldn't prevent their murder at the hands of Dr. Otto Hasslein. He did, however, take responsibility of Caesar, raising him publicly as a circus chimpanzee, while privately teaching him human knowledge and introducing him to human habits.
Public
In the fourth Apes movie, Conquest of the Planet of the Apes, Armando brought Caesar to a large city for the first time in 1991, after raising him mostly in "the provinces" and remote areas, where Caesar had been unaware of apes' adoption as pets (to replace the dogs and cats lost to a spaceborn plague), which had led gradually to their subsequent enslavement. Armando kept Caesar on a short leash in public, while coaching him on apelike mannerisms when nobody was looking. All the same, fate got the better of them; when Caesar saw an ape (the gorilla Aldo) mistreated, he swore his frustration – bringing himself and Armando to the attention of the police.
Fugitive
Slipping away, Armando and Caesar tried to formulate a plan to prevent further trouble. Armando already claimed to be the one who cried out, and planned to tell the authorities that Caesar was frightened of cities, and ran away because of the public commotion. He told Caesar to wait for him near the docks where shipments of apes arrived nightly for "conditioning" and training as servants, and to infiltrate a shipment if Armando failed to return. Caesar did so, finding himself by degrees sold to Governor Breck, and assigned to Ape Management's command post.
Fate
Armando underwent a lengthy, tense interrogation at the hands of the state's authorities, who ultimately believed his alibi, and that Caesar was mute and not the son of "the talking apes". They insisted, though, that he pass a screening by the "Authenticator" – a hypnotic device which compelled its subjects to tell the complete truth – before he was released. Armando first refused to submit on gentlemanly grounds, then when he saw no other way out, he threw himself through a window (falling to his death) rather than reveal what he knew about Caesar.
When Caesar learned of Armando's death, it became the last straw for him, and he began to perpetrate an Ape revolt, executed over the rest of Conquest.
Notes
- Armando was the owner of "Armando's Sensational Circus" in Escape. By Conquest it was "Armando's Old-Time Circus". [1]
- An admirer of Saint Francis Of Assisi because of his love and respect for animals, Armando proclaims him Baby Milo’s patron saint. [2]
- In the 2011 reboot Rise of the Planet of the Apes, the main human character is Will Rodman. His surname is a partial anagram of Armando, oddly enough, both the Conquest of the Planet of the Apes and Rise of the Planet of the Apes films bear similar plots, and both these humans raised their own Caesar from birth, and kept them on a leash in public. Another ironic fact was that both Armando and Will would never see their adoptive ape sons take control of their ape empires.
Appearances
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (novel)
- Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
- Conquest of the Planet of the Apes (novel)
- Escape from the Planet of the Apes (Power Records)
- Planet of the Apes Magazine: Escape from the Planet of the Apes
- Planet of the Apes Magazine: Conquest of the Planet of the Apes
- Revolution on the Planet of the Apes: Little Caesar
External Links
References
