Ten years after conquering the Earth, ape leader Caesar wants the ruling apes and enslaved humans to live in peace. But warring factions of apes led by a militant gorilla general as well as various human groups threaten the stability.

Black girl: Lawgiver, who knows about the future?
The Lawgiver: Perhaps only the dead.
[first lines]
Title Card: North America, 2670 A.D.
The Lawgiver: In the beginning God created beast and man so that both might live in friendship and share dominion over a world of peace. But in the fullness of time evil men betrayed God's trust and in disobedience to His holy word waged bloody wars, not only against their own kind, but against the apes, whom they reduced to slavery. Then God in his wrath sent the world a saviour, miraculously born of two apes who descended on Earth from Earth's own future and man was afraid for both parent apes possessed the power of speech
Virgil: All knowledge is for good. Only the use to which you put it can be good or evil.
Mandemus: Stop! Stop! Caesar forbids yoooooou!
Governor Kolp: So speech makes them human?
Soldier: Speech makes them intelligent. And intelligence makes them not human, but humane.
Caesar: Can one murder be avenged by another?
Virgil: Perhaps only the future will tell.
Virgil: Teacher only reverted to type under provocation. He... he spoke like a slavemaster in the old days of our servitude when we were conditioned to mechanical obedience. He, uh, he uttered a negative, uh, imperative.
Caesar: Could you put that into words which even Caesar could understand?
Virgil: Uh, he said, "No, Aldo, no!"
Lisa: [upon finding a playing dead Cornelius] Cornelius, are you alright?
Cornelius: No, Mother, I'm just dead.
Lisa: I don't want to have to remember my husband. I want to love him now.