- If I see that animal near my house or my kids again...
- Douglas Hunsiker
Douglas Hunsiker was a pilot for Global Airlines and an ill-tempered neighbor of the Rodman Family.
Biography[]
Rise of the Planet of the Apes[]
Clashing with the Rodmans[]
Hunsiker worked as a pilot and first clashed with the Rodmans when an all too curious three-year-old Caesar; who was at the age of a human toddler, escaped and frightened his children when the curious chimpanzee wanted to ride a bicycle found in Hunsiker's garage, propelling Hunsiker to run at Caesar with a baseball bat. Hunsiker chased Caesar around, causing the frightened chimp to fall off the fence and slash his thigh on gardening tools and almost struck him; before Will and Charles arrived to save him. Even though Charles insisted that Caesar was simply being playful, Hunsiker warned the Rodmans to not let Caesar near his house or his children again.
Five years later, Hunsiker accosted Charles, whose conditions returned after eight years of his ALZ-112 treatment, over damage to his car. He refused to listen to Charles; who tried to prevent him from calling the police, and started threatening and poking Charles. This provoked an angry Caesar, who was watching from his window, to retaliate and bite off Hunsiker's right index finger. Witnesses called the police and Animal Control deported Caesar to the San Bruno Primate Shelter.
Fatal Move[]
Days after the incident, Hunsiker still recuperating from his finger reattachment surgery, confronted a man at the Rodmans' home and was accidentally sneezed on by the man. Shocked and irritated, Hunsiker demanded the man to leave, unaware that he had been infected with a lethal virus. Days later, Hunsiker continued with his job and headed to the airport, listening to news reports about apes from a laboratory and the zoos escaping across the Golden Gate Bridge. Arriving at the airport, Hunsiker noticed his nose was bleeding, but ignored it before heading to the terminal.
Spreading the Virus[]
In Hunsiker's cockpit, he flew his plane to France while infecting passengers with his sneezing, triggering the spread of the ALZ-113 across the planet via international flight routes and leading to a worldwide pandemic that would later become known as the Simian Flu. However, Hunsiker died before the pandemic began.
Personality[]
Hunsiker was a crass and bad tempered man who seemed to be almost paranoid concerning the well-being and security of his property and his children; which manifested itself in acting in a hostile fashion towards the Rodmans; including their associates such as Caesar and Robert Franklin.
But this behavior backfired on Hunsiker as his unjustified attempt on the harmless Caesar's life resulted in the ape gaining a grudge and his injuries resulted from when he abused Charles. Hunsiker's tendency to meddle in neighborly affairs also exposed him to the ALZ-113 virus carried by Franklin; which Hunsiker spread through air travel and caused a worldwide pandemic that destroyed human civilization and nearly wiped out humanity.
Notes[]
Hunsiker's nose bleeding - a symptom of ALZ-113 in humans.
- An earlier version of the script gave Hunsiker's first name as Douglas. In the same script, Steven Jacobs was infected with the virus at the Gen-Sys Laboratories before taking a taxi home. Hunsiker then used the same taxi to take him to the airport, thereby infecting him also.
- In the scene where Hunsiker shows up at the airport while infected with the virus, he has a bandage and metal splint around the finger that Caesar had injured. This is also visible when Hunsiker confronts Franklin.
- Hunsiker is the only ape-hating character; who didn't die on-screen; unlike Steven Jacobs and Dodge Landon.
- Hunsiker must have left his keys in his car and the engine turned on for Charles to try to drive it.
- Hunsiker was played by British-born Canadian actor David Hewlett who is best known to fans for his role as Dr. Meredith Rodney McKay in the Canadian-American sci-fi show Stargate Atlantis and its parent series, Stargate SG-1.
- Madison Bell, who plays his daughter Alice, was also in Stargate Atlantis with actor David Hewlett, portraying the role of his character's niece Madison Miller.