Koba

"Humans attack your sons! You let them stay? Put apes in danger! Caesar love humans more than apes! More than your sons!"

- Koba berating Caesar over his compassion for humanity

Koba is an altered bonobo with a strong hatred for humans, stemming from years of abuse and neglect. He had a scar over his blind left eye and looks more feral than the other apes held at Gen-Sys Laboratories.

Koba was liberated from captivity during the Ape Rebellion and eventually became a prominent member of Caesar's colony of apes, as well as a member of the Ape Council, and one of the commanders in the Ape Army. He was initially a staunch ally of Caesar, but later became disillusioned with him after seeing his compassion and sympathy towards humans. This resentment leads to him overthrowing Caesar and leading the apes to war with humanity. Koba's actions lead to a battle with his former friend that resulted in his defeat and death. Even after his death, Koba's presence haunted Caesar, who was mentally scarred by his decision to kill him.

Koba was an antihero in Rise of the Planet of the Apes, and the main antagonist of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes.

Early Life
Koba was born and raised in a primate research facility. He was taught sign language and was very close to his handler Mary. Koba considered apes who didn't use sign language "big black caterpillars", and identified himself with humans. After his mother was beaten to death by their alcoholic caregiver Roger, funding for the program he was involved in was cut, and he was then sold to a TV studio under the care of Tommy. There, he lived with another ape who knew sign language named Milo. Tommy was the producer of a comedy show entitled Monkey of the House, and frequently made the two of them do tricks, electrocuting them if they failed. The show was cancelled due to poor ratings and litigation sparked by Milo biting an unruly child visiting the set. Turning to drink, Tommy began to take his anger out on the two apes. He slashed Koba's face with a knife after the bonobo attempted to defend himself, then blinded one of his eyes with a lit cigarette. Tommy eventually killed himself, and the two apes attempted to escape his home, only to be caught by animal control officers. Koba was subsequently separated from Milo and moved to various laboratories, where boredom and fear of physical abuse caused him to exhibit self-harming behaviors such as pulling his fur out and injuring his knuckles whilst trying to Sign with the walls and floors of his cage. He was eventually discovered by Gen-Sys neuroscientist Amol, who knew sign language and used Koba in various experiments. Although Koba formed a bond with Amol, the neuroscientist's superior, Steven Jacobs, fired him, and confronted Koba in his cage, deriding him as nothing more than an animal. This proved to be the breaking point for Koba, who repudiated all affection he had for humans and focused on Jacobs as the source of all his pain.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Koba was eventually sent to Gen-Sys Laboratories in order to test the new ALZ-113 retrovirus. Chimp handler Robert Franklin correctly guessed that Koba had been experimented on for years before he arrived, due to his docility on the operating table. This was a ruse, however, as Koba wanted to get close enough to Jacobs to kill him. While the refined ALZ-113 drug was tested on him, the ape had a strong shake in his restraints and Franklin was kicked in the face by Koba's wandering hand and accidentally exposed to the 113 by pulling the formula's feed tube out, and even though Franklin quickly put his mask back on properly he was infected with the virus and died two days later. Upon being subjected to various intelligence tests, Koba was quickly capable of scoring 15 on the Lucas' Tower test and spelling "Jacobs" on a chalkboard-screen with his finger, showing his great contempt for the man who authorized his torment.

Liberation
Koba was later freed by Caesar during the early stages of the Ape Rebellion and immediately admired him for liberating him along with the other experimented apes. It would seem that he went off on his own as he walked in the opposite direction of the apes during his escape (most likely to find Jacobs) but he later met up with the other apes as they were causing mass chaos in the city. He and the other apes then set their sights on the Golden Gate Bridge as their next target before escaping to true freedom.

Ape Leader
At the Golden Gate Bridge, Koba was ordered by Caesar to lead the chimpanzees in an attack from above using the bridge's high-wire supports. Once, Caesar gave his army the order to attack a large battle ensued. During, the battle Koba is shown holding his own against several officers and joins his new comrades in the celebration of the battle after the surviving police flee. He is then force to take cover after the police helicopter with (Steven Jacobs on board) appeared and starting wiping out many of the apes. But this threat is resolved when the army fourth in command Buck sacrifices himself to take down the helicopter to save Caesar. Steven Jacobs who been wounded by Buck's attack and the crashing of his helicopter had begged Caesar for help as his damaged helicopter dangled precariously over the water below. Caesar, angered over his friend's demise refused to help him and left Koba to do whatever he pleased with the human. Jacobs, recognizing Koba from the Gen-Sys Laboratories, got scared as the vengeful bonobo began to approach the helicopter and gently nudge it off balance with his foot. In defiance against Koba, Jacobs called him a "stupid monkey". With an angry snarl Koba pushed the helicopter plummeting into the bay, sending a screaming Jacobs to his death. With his vengeance complete (at least for now), Koba left the area with the other apes who made their way to the redwoods of Muir Wood Park.

Freedom
Later, in the forest of Muir Woods Park, he attacked Dr. Will Rodman and was about to kill him before he was stopped by Caesar who pushed him away from Will. Koba attempted to attack Will again only to be threatened by Caesar although angered by this, he backed off and ran into the woods but soon acknowledged Caesar's leadership with the other apes.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes Firestorm
Koba's first days of freedom were problematic for him, as he had never seen the moon before, had difficulty sorting through his now more vivid memories, and integrating with the non-altered apes, whom he still considered beneath him. Nevertheless, he continued to look up to Caesar, and hoped to be given a greater role in maintaining the safety of the colony. When the colony was attacked by the forces of Anvil, Koba proved his trustworthiness by discovering tracking devices in fruit left as bait by Anvil mercenaries, then held off an assault amidst tear gas whilst Caesar and the other apes moved to a safer location. Upon returning to Caesar, Caesar embraced him and called him his brother.

Life of Peace
Ten years after being freed from captivity, Koba has risen to great prominence in the newly created Ape Colony which has taken to live in a village residing on the mountains, capable of holding a capacity of thousands. He has grown much closer in friendship with his leader Caesar to the point of serving as an honorary brother and advisor to Caesar, despite his opposition to Caesar's fondness for humans. Koba along with the other adult apes is now a mentor to the younger apes and is also idolized by Caesar's son, Blue Eyes who sees the bonobo as an uncle. At some point, he met and befriended two chimpanzees Stone and Grey who would often be found following Koba's orders seeing him as their leader.

Hunting Trip
One day, during a hunting trip in the woods Koba is with his fellow apes secretly observing a herd of deer awaiting Caesar's command which alerts the deer into a panic and have them flee in terror. As the deer run from Caesar's group they encounter Koba and his group who attempt to attack but are knocked aside despite their efforts. Koba then hears Caesar's call for help as he holds off a bear attacking his son. The bonobo immediately comes to his friend's aid and stabs the bear in the back with a spear, fatally injuring it and saving Caesar and Blue Eyes. Caesar thanks Koba for his assistance and they collect the body of the bear for food before heading back to their village. Arriving in the village, Koba talks to the maimed Blue Eyes and tells him not to feel bad about his scars as they show he is strong.

Hatred Reborn
The next day, Koba would hear the sound of a gunshot and followed the other apes to it's origin. Koba and the other came across a shocking and horrifying sight Rocket's son Ash wounded and a group of humans armed with loaded guns staring at them. After the humans put their weapons down Koba and the other apes scream at them (in English) to leave the forest which they do out of fear. Under Caesar's orders Koba, Stone, and Grey follow the humans in their van back to the human settlement where they discover just how many humans survived the simian flu a decade ago. After this Koba and his group head back to the colony for a council meeting on discussing what should be done about the rediscovery of humans. Koba suggests wiping them out for what they did to Ash but he is denied by Rocket who agreeing with Ash that it was an accident. Koba chastised Rocket for this but the latter states he follows Caesar. Their argument is broken up by Caesar who states the apes have done so much and can't afford to lose their homes because of war. Koba then speaks to Caesar talking about his past with humans and while saying he is devoted to him for freeing him states that something must be done about them to which Caesar says that he will do something about them.

March into the City
The Ape Army march into the city where Caesar addresses the humans (in English) telling them that they do not want war but will fight if they must. He tells them to stay out of Ape Territory while they will do the same with staying out of human territory with that the apes march out of the city. As they do so Koba (the last to leave) angrily glares at Malcolm and the other humans before leaving the city with his people.

Turning Against Caesar
Malcolm, the co-founder of a human settlement, enters the Ape Village where he attempts to make peace with the apes to gain access to a hydroelectric generator at a dam in their territory, which could provide long-term power to the city. Koba encourages Caesar to let him kill Malcolm and to wipe the other humans out while they are still desperate. However, seeing prospects for peace, Caesar allows Malcolm and his group access to the dam provided they work unarmed. This angers Koba who begins to show signs of rebelling against his leader for being merciful to the race that caused so much pain and grief in the past. Koba claims that if the humans get more power they'll become dangerous, but Caesar reasons that if the humans are left to do their work then they'll leave. Feeling betrayed, Koba reminds Caesar of the abuse he suffered at the hands of humans, pointing to his multiple scars and finishing with his blind eye as: "Human work!" His defiance starts a sudden silence in the village as Caesar stands up above Koba, but Koba escapes the conflict by asking for his king for forgiveness, which Caesar accepts. Koba then leaves in shame and disappointment.

Usurpation
The following day at the river dam, Caesar and several apes accompany the humans to keep an eye on them as they work, all except for Koba. Caesar asks Maurice where the bonobo has gone, which the orangutan tells him: "Still angry… Said he was going hunting".

Meanwhile at San Francisco, Koba with Grey and Stone spies on the human armory and sees they have enough weapons to wipe out all of his people with that he quickly heads back to the village to warn Caesar. But Koba is caught in the act by two human guards who threaten him, yet he manages to catch them off guard by playing dumb and walking away, rolling his eyes in frustration.

Upon reaching the village and searching for Caesar, he speaks with Blue Eyes who tells him that Caesar is at the dam with the humans. Arriving at the dam he attacks Malcolm and moves to strike Alexander only for Maurice and Malcolm to stand between them with this action he angrily shouts for Caesar to come out to which he does. Koba confronts Caesar about his tolerance of the humans saying that they threatened his sons but he still lets them work on the dam. Koba goes onto rant about his leader's tolerance to humans saying Caesar loves them more than apes and even more than his own sons. Caesar then angrily beats Koba to near death for his insolence but stops himself after remembering the "Ape Not Kill Ape" law and Koba begs Caesar to forgives him which he does. This would be the breaking point between their relationship as this would cause Koba to secretly make plans to usurp Caesar and deal with the humans. Grey asks a sulking Koba why he didn't tell Caesar about the large collection of guns in the city under human guard, but then responds that they would keep it a secret. Koba then approaches Blue Eyes, the former seemingly broken after having lost Caesar's trust in him, and warns his nephew to protect his father, claiming to continue fearing for Caesar's safety as long as the humans remained within the ape territory. He later returns to the armoury targeting range where he was caught before, managing to run into the same two humans again. Still playing dumb, Koba "plays" with the intoxicated men and steals an M4A1 assault rifle from them, waving it around like a plaything before suddenly opening fire and killing them both with it.

The night power is restored to the city, the humans rejoice and Malcolm's team celebrates with the apes. Meanwhile, Koba ambushes Carver and beats him to death, taking his hat and lighter as trophies. Returning to the Ape Village, he has his two henchmen set the village alight. In hiding, Koba uses the assault rifle to shoot Caesar in the shoulder as the two lock eyes, presumably killing him as the latter falls off a ledge into the darkness below. Koba then leaves the rifle and Carver's hat at the scene of the shooting. The ape village is then set ablaze by Grey on Koba's orders as the ape colony enters a frenzy with the loss of their homes and Alpha Male, just as Blue Eyes appears with the gun and Carver's baseball hat and gives them to an arriving Koba who takes advantage of the confusion and blame humans for Caesar's death and the burning colony's home. Manipulating Blue Eyes and the apes as he takes up the mantle of alpha for himself and orders war with the humans as the only option to avenge Caesar.

Leading His People Into Madness
Assuming leadership, Koba orders the young and females into hiding and leads the male apes to war in San Francisco. The pack overwhelms the armoury and charge the gates of the highrise heavily armed. During the battle, Koba's horse is quickly killed at the beginning of the battle, along with several other apes. The apes become worried by so many casualties and consider retreating, but Koba does not give up. He picks up a dead apes gun, jumps onto another horse by pushing the ape on the horse of it and after grabbing a second gun, he begins shooting at the humans, killing several of them. Blue Eyes, Luca and several other apes watch in shock as Koba was showing his true colors and a love for violence like no other ape had ever shown before. He was about to enter the human's main building, but a tank, supporting the humans appears and begins to frequently fire rockets and bullets at the apes, killing many of them, including Stone. Koba attacks and takes control of the tank, using it to enter the human's main hideout. After heavy casulties, Koba and the remaining apes begin to capture all the surviving humans. Koba eventually corners a human (who was attempting to resist the apes), and orders Ash to kill the unarmed man, but the chimp refuses to do so, citing Caesar's teachings. Koba then roughly drags Ash up some stairs and kills him by throwing him off a balcony. He then tells the terrified apes that Caesar is gone and they follow him now. After this, he rounds up any human survivor in the city declaring they are the apes prisoners and will now know life inside a cage. He also places Caesar's remaining sympathizers as prisoners on a bus adjacent to the humans; these apes include Maurice, Rocket, Luca and several others. With this act, Koba essentially became ruthless, that both humans and the other apes feared the most.

Battle With Caesar
Blue Eyes later learns his father is alive, and by himself, manages to free the humans and the apes loyal to Caesar. The freed apes join Caesar and travel to the summit of the high rise to confront Koba who is surprised to see Caesar still alive before jumping to confront him. At first, it establishes a frenzied argument between the two apes as Koba stated that the apes now follow him but Caesar remarks that they follow him to war with the humans. Koba, however proudly states they will win the war with him leading them, saying "Apes together strong!" He mocks Caesar by saying "Caesar weak", but Caesar, unhurt and defiant, quietly retorts "Koba weaker". Enraged, Koba attacks his former friend and the two apes engage in a brutal fight. Both fighters use nearby objects and debris as melee weapons and shields, and the other apes can do nothing but watch. As the fight goes the two apes trade words on what caused this with Caesar stating he had loved and trusted Koba like a brother while the latter remarks that Caesar was a brother to humans while Koba fights for apes to free them from tyranny. Caesar angrily rebuked Koba's claims stating "Koba kill ape", that he did this for himself and he belongs in a cage, which leads the bonobo to attack him more angrily. While Caesar and Koba battle to establish supremacy, C-4 explosives (implanted by Dreyfus) detonate underneath the tower, injuring and killing several apes. As Caesar and others assist the injured and trapped from the falling debris, Koba picks up Grey's (who was trapped under debris) assault rifle and opens fire on Caesar, killing one of the apes Caesar rescued. Blue eyes throws some building debris at Koba, to which he angrily retaliates by firing at Blue Eyes, Rocket and Luca, injuring Maurice in the process. After viewing what Koba has done to Maurice and the other apes, Caesar furiously dives at Koba, knocking him off guard and sending the two tumbling down a platform. Caesar falls to safety while Koba is left dangling on a ledge clinging for dear life.

Death
Koba, dangling from the ledge pleads to Caesar to save him, citing the "Ape not kill ape" law. Caesar grabs Koba's hand and starts to pull him up relieving Koba, until he looks into Caesar's eyes and hears him say in a dark tone; "You are not ape". Caesar then lets go of Koba's hand and lets the screaming bonobo fall from the tower, to his death, thus putting an end to the rogue's reign. The apes, including Caesar, then mourn Koba's death, as he had previously been like a brother to Caesar.

Havoc on the Planet of the Apes
Coming soon!

Legacy
Despite his death, Koba's actions still had a great effect on the other apes, as his prejudice towards humans made it impossible for the apes to have peace with them, and it resulted in the impending war with humans to come. Therefore Koba got exactly what he wanted in death, war with humanity.

Personality
Koba was the most dangerous enemy the apes and the humans had ever faced. He was brilliant, pitiless, callous, and psychopathicly vengeful. This is stemmed from the fact that Koba was cruelly experimented on by human scientists, to the point where he was against humans to the point of total monomania.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes
Koba, traumatized and disordered by the years of experimentation, abuse and neglect he had received, was psychologically unbalanced and extremely vengeful, with a bitter grudge against humans, notably Steven Jacobs. Malakai Youmans noted that Koba's neutral expression was identical to those he'd seen on the faces of child soldiers he'd encountered in Central Africa. Highly intelligent and bitterly cynical, Koba enacted his vengeance against Jacobs at the climax of the Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge, by brutally killing him without saying a word and a mere, adamant and malevolent glare flashing in his eyes. He was also short-tempered, aggressive, ruthless, strong, vindictive, powerful and had a strong hatred for humans due to them treating him like a guinea pig and torturing him with their research. Ironically, his hatred and vengeance was the cause of humanity's downfall due to him pulling off his gas mask and putting on the face of Robert Franklin and infecting him with the ALZ-113 that would later affect all of humanity.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes: Firestorm
When he was younger, Koba believed that apes who didn't use sign language are "big black caterpillars", and he did not always hate humans, he was very close to his mother, and his human handler/caregiver Mary.

Despite his past experiences, Koba did have a kinder side which was shown when he was under the care of human caretaker named Mary who was like a mother to him. Now after suffering under the foot of humans he only shows this side when he is in the company of his own kind who truly understand and can relate to what he went through. He served as a mentor to the younger generation of apes, especially his honorary nephews Blue Eyes and Ash, the sons of his close friends, Caesar and Rocket. He was also kind to the other adult apes, including Maurice of whom he offered fruit to during the early days before the Ape Village was established. His bad experiences at Gen-Sys Laboratories and with some of his cruel caregivers, has on the other hand blinded (both literally and figuratively) him to the point where he has forgotten, or disregarded the fact that not all humans are bad.

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
However, Koba's hatred for humans was eventually reborn when humans were rediscovered 10 years after the Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge and Simian Flu. His actions of getting rid of them went too far as it resulted in the destruction of his people's newly built home in the Muir Woods Park and the impending war against humans that also harmed his ape brethren. He maintained his extreme respect towards Caesar's benevolence, but that didn't imply that he agreed with his leader. Despite Koba's tremendous respect for Caesar, this did not stop him from gunning down his old friend in the end.

Because of his hatred towards humans, he showed no remorse in wanting to hurt them or kill them whether they are good such as with his scenes with Will Rodman, Alexander and Malcolm. Koba sees all humans as nothing but pests of society and desires for all of them to suffer just as he did so underneath their whim. Koba also showed no mercy when killing his own kind when they fail to obey him as seen when he throws Ash to his death with Blue Eyes and other young apes watching on. During the course of Dawn, Koba begins to shows alarming signs of chronic mental disorder, the main traits of this being extreme violence, egomania and incapacity for remorse. This leads to Koba becoming a violent psychopath towards the end of the film.

Koba was also Machiavellian; He brainwashed Blue Eyes, Caesar's son, to fight by his side, and also staged Caesar's death and the destruction of the colony home, whilst blaming the humans who would have been the most obvious threat to the colony. Koba was highly intelligent and astute, sharing the same cerebrality as Caesar, even if his path of thought was far more erratic than Caesar. Koba was maniacal and deluded, his experiences in Gen-Sys Laboratories inspiring him into violence against humans, to the point of being megalomaniacal and egocentric, not to mention callous against his fellow apes: He was not at all above murdering his own people if they displeased him. Koba's concept of being incredibly manipulative was piqued when he successfully made two human soldiers think he was stupid, shown by his faked playfulness with guns. However, he showed his true colors to the soldiers when, during one encounter, after entertaining them with his feigned stupidity, he shot them both with their own guns without a second thought.

He shares the same charisma as Caesar, but he wastes his oratory and leadership talents by resorting to violence, oppression and tyranny. He preferred to use force rather than diplomacy to settle differences with an opponent. Koba was also a person of excellent intelligence and cunning, shown by him destroying the colony home, as well as attempting to kill Caesar, whilst simultaneously framing the humans in the process. Also, he was also a meticulously powerful tactician, shown by his proficiency in leading the human holocaust at the climax of the film. However, in his belief that physical power solved everything, he was powerless when Caesar used psychological warfare.

Koba was pyromaniacal, shown in his gleeful use of machine-guns during the final battle, and when he happily sets the ape colony home on fire.

Havoc on the Planet of the Apes
Coming soon!

Trivia

 * Koba's relationship with Caesar, in Dawn, is a direct mirror of the relationship between "Caesar" from the original movie series and his leading military commander, General Aldo. In the fifth film, Battle for the Planet of the Apes, soon after the collapse of human civilization (through nuclear war) Caesar and Aldo become divided over how to treat surviving humans. Caesar wants to coexist with them, while Aldo wants to exterminate them. Coincidently, both Aldo and Koba fell to their deaths after their confrontations with their Caesars.
 * Toby Kebbell replaced Christopher Gordon as Koba in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes for unknown reasons.
 * Koba makes two appearances in the first TV spot for Dawn. The first is him sitting on his horse at Caesar's side and the second is him on his horse, riding through the forest.
 * In the article by Collider, Toby Kebbell revealed a huge chunk of Koba's backstory revealing how Koba has come to despise humans and how he became blinded in one eye.
 * Koba is the first and only known bonobo to appear in a Planet of the Apes film. His first appearance was in Rise of the Planet of the Apes.
 * Bonobos are normally peaceful that never resort to violence. Koba is unknowingly the most violent bonobo in Caesar's kingdom.
 * This is probably due to his many years of imprisonment and torture.
 * Though Koba is supposedly killed when Caesar drops him into the pit, sounds of moving rubble and an ape breathing hardly suggests that Koba is alive and breathing. It can be possible that Koba might return in War of the Planet of the Apes.
 * Koba is the first and only known bonobo to be killed by Caesar.
 * In the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Official Movie Novelization, Koba is referred to as "One-Eye" in the humans' point of view.