- At least this time...I was able to protect you.
- Luca's final words to Caesar before his death.
Luca was an evolved gorilla that appeared in Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and War for the Planet of the Apes. Luca was the leader of both the Gorilla Guardians and the Gorilla Guard, a member of both the Ape Council and was the fourth-in-command of the Ape Army. During the final Human-Ape War, Luca was helping Caesar in his quest to find Colonel McCullough.
Biography
Early life
Twelve years ago, Luca was one of the Gorillas liberated from the San Francisco Zoo by the forces of Caesar during the infamous Ape Rebellion where he joined his new comrades in the Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge. He would survive the battle and find true freedom in the safety of the Muir Woods Park where he and his people would later build a large Ape Colony. Overtime, Luca's strength stood out from the rest of the gorillas in the colony and he would be promoted as the new fourth-in-command of the Ape Army. Luca's new rank allowed him to become the leader of the Gorilla Guardians whose sole purpose was to protect the village gate from any possible intruders, and the leader of the Gorilla Guard, a subdivision of the Ape Army. This also earn him a spot on the Ape Council where he would become close friends with the ape king Caesar, and his top lieutenants.
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Hunting trip
Luca took part in the deer hunt, carrying bolas and spears on his back for Caesar. His efforts came in handy as the apes were able to catch one of the fleeing deer but were force to fight and take back to the village a dead bear which had tried to take the deer for itself.
Rediscovery of Humans
When the apes heard a gunshot in the woods they quickly ran to its origin, where they discover to their great shock Blue Eyes with a wounded Ash confronting humans, armed with guns. After the humans put their guns away, the apes scare them off by talking and ordering them out of the woods. Caesar then tells Koba, Stone and Grey to follow Malcolm's Group in their van to make sure they leave the forest and find out just how many more humans are left. Luca tries to follow Koba's group but he is immediately halted by Caesar so he wouldn't make the humans aware they were following them.
Council meeting
He then appears with the other apes in the village as they host a council meeting over what to do with the humans. He takes part in the discussion by pointing out the apes don't know why the humans had come to the forest and what they're planning. When Koba says they should just take action against the humans, Luca makes a joking remark about this to the others. The meeting ends with Caesar saying he has come up with a way to deal with the humans peacefully.
March into the city
The next morning, the ape army march on horseback into the ruins of San Francisco where they come face to face with the remaining humans. Luca stays silent as Caesar gives his warning to the people about staying away from the Muir Woods Park to the humans or else there will be a war. He then watches as Caesar personally tells Malcolm to never come back into the village, before leaving with his army as the humans express fear at the sight of a large army consisting of talking apes.
Human intruder
When Malcolm entered the village gazing at the ape's skills and capabilities, Luca emerged from his hut and confronted the human, alerting the other gorillas to the area before capturing the intruder who quickly surrenders after seeing what he's up against. Luca and the others gorillas easily overpowered him, then dragged Malcolm through the village bringing him before the Ape King, Caesar. During the interrogation Luca continuously knocks down Malcolm to the ground in front of Caesar, most likely to prevent him from making an attempt on his king. He then sits with the other apes as they watch Caesar pass his judgment onto their human captive.
Koba's command
When Koba usurps Caesar, Luca joins him and the other apes as they launch an attack on the human armory in San Francisco before heading for the colony shelter. Arriving at the city, Luca and the army engage in a fierce battle with humans; during the battle he is seen carrying two injured Apes while suffering many injuries himself only for Blue Eyes to help him get the wounded behind the back of old truck. Later on, he throws a flaming oil canister at humans and attempts to break open the gates of the human camp with the other gorillas using a ram before Koba uses the tank (which he hijacked) to blast open the gate allowing the army to enter the city and plunge it into chaos. It is unknown if he participated in the rest of the attack.
Imprisonment
The next day, Luca is shown imprisoned on a bus along with Rocket, Maurice, and other apes by Koba for still being loyal to Caesar. Two days later Blue Eyes appears to tell the prisoners they will soon be freed which encourages all the captured apes to tip the bus where they then break out and flee the area.
Restoring Caesar to power
He joins his comrades on the journey to the Rodman House where they are shocked and happy to see their leader Caesar alive and well waiting for them. Hours later, he appears with his fellow ape brothers watching Caesar fight Koba. Later in the battle, he helps Rocket and Blue Eyes tend to a wounded Maurice, who had been shot on the edge of his cheek by Koba, to safety. He then finally appears when the apes are bowing down to Caesar as they prepare for the impending war with humans.
War for the Planet of the Apes: Revelations
More to come...
War for the Planet of the Apes
Battle Against Humans
Luca participated in defeating the human group that were attacking in the woods and helped capture them. Caesar allowed the human survivors to leave but the apes were concerned.
Caesar's quest for revenge
When Caesar gets the feeling that there was an intruder, he runs into Luca who was on patrol. They met up with Rocket and Maurice before discovering Caesar was right and they attacked the human intruders. The group returned to the other apes to find many of them dead including Blue Eyes and Cornelia.
The next day, they locate Cornelius as Luca reveals Winter was gone, deducing he betrayed them to save himself. Caesar then has the ape colony head for the area that Blue Eyes and Rocket discovered as he leave to seek revenge against the Colonel by himself, Luca being loyal along with Rocket and Maurice would join him on his quest.
Next Luca is seen on top of a telephone tower with the group and notices a figure near the horses and gives an alarmed cry. They chase it to an abandoned ski lodge only to realize it's another ape called "Bad Ape". After Bad Ape tells them about the Human Zoo which is the Colonel base, they go and find it.
Final Battle
As Caesar goes down to investigate, there are crosses being put up by soldiers. Luca jumps down and tackles one and kills him. As the soldier was about to shoot the unaware Caesar, Luca protects Caesar from humans who attacked them from behind but in the process gets stabbed in the chest with the soldier's bayonet rifle.
Death
After Caesar kills the human, he goes to his dying friend side, Luca says that at least now he was finally able to protect him. Nova approaches him and places the pink flower he previously gave her, in his ear. Luca soon succumbed to his wounds and peacefully passes away.
Legacy
Luca's death had caused Caesar to see that he was putting his fellow apes in danger and caused him to regain his former-self. It can be assumed that Maurice, Lake and Rocket would share stories of Luca's life with Cornelius so that the young prince doesn't forget a friend of his father and what he did for the colony.
Personality
Dawn of the Planet of the Apes
Luca, like most gorillas, acts very tough but can also be very humorous when he was joking with the Ape Council. It is shown he is very dedicated to his role of being placed in charge of guarding the village entrance from any possible intruders as shown when he quickly alerted the other gorillas of Malcolm's presence in the Village.
Luca also displays a fierce loyalty to his fellow apes which was best shown during Koba's attack on the San Francisco Human Colony where he was willing to risk his life to save as many wounded apes while being wounded himself in the process. This side was shown again when in aftermath of the human tower's destruction he saved or freed many wounded apes from debris.
As a follower of Caesar, Luca does not believe that all humans are bad, as evident by the fact that he became friends with Malcolm.
War for the Planet of the Apes: Revelations
More to come...
War for the Planet of the Apes
Luca was still a hardened combatant as he continues to help Caesar in the war against Colonel McCullough and his army. He is shown to understand things that must be done as shown when he did not interfere when Caesar strangled Winter to death for his betrayal to the colony which led to the massacre of many apes which included Caesar's oldest son and wife.
Despite this tough outlook on things, Luca was shown to have a soft aside as he placed a pink flower on the ear of the orphan human girl Nova. This shows that Luca was truly a caring ape as he did not harbor any grudge towards all humans even in times of war.
In his final moments, Luca did not mind dying as he told Caesar that he was happy to have died protecting his king. This showed his immense loyalty to not only protect his fellow apes but to righteously serve his leader and best friend.
Abilities
- Animal Strength: Like all gorillas, Luca was extremely powerful and strong. His strength was recognized by Caesar, the ape king who trusts Luca so much that he had given him the rank of fourth-in-command of the Ape Army, and made Luca the leader of both the Gorilla Guardians and the Gorilla Guard. In War, Luca was also able to crush a human soldier to death with his sheer weight, though it resulted in him being stabbed in the chest. Luca was the strongest gorilla in the entire San Francisco Ape Colony, his strength was (possibly) rivaled only by the late Buck, the previous fourth-in-command of the Ape Army.
- Animal Speed: Despite his massive size, Luca was much faster than he appeared to be. He can run at a very fast speed that was enough to keep up with Caesar when he was hunting deer in the forest.
- Animal Endurance: Luca had shown to be withstand high degrees of pain as shown when he took multiple shots from human guns while attempting to save his ape brethren during the Battle in San Francisco.
- High-Level Intellect: Luca had been given the ALZ-113, through unknown methods, giving him increased intelligence.
- Expert Hand-To-Hand Combatant: Due to him being the fourth-in-command of the Ape Army, Luca was a capable fighter. Also like most gorillas, Luca used his massive strength and speed in battle to make himself a formidable opponent alone in single combat.
- Expert Marksman: Over the next two years throughout the final human-ape war, Luca had become very proficient in the use of firearms.
- Expert Horse Rider: Luca was able to ride a horse with ease.
- Expert Leader: Due to him being the fourth-in-command of the ape army, Luca was a capable leader.
- Sign Language: Like his fellow apes, Luca knows American Sign Language. He used it as a way of communication. He used most frequently when with Caesar.
- Speech: Having been given the ALZ-113, through unknown methods, Luca had gained the ability of speech. He did not have any verbal lines of dialogue in Dawn and War respectively. So It was unknown how good his english was.
Relationships
- See Luca/Relationships.
Notes
- Luca is Buck's successor as Caesar's fourth-in-command and the leader of the gorillas.
- Coincidentally, Luca's death was similar to Buck's dying scene from Rise as they both protected Caesar by sacrificing themselves.
- Luca likely comes from the group of apes that were liberated from the San Francisco Zoo by Buck as there were countless gorillas that followed the other apes to the Battle on the Golden Gate Bridge.
- It is unknown how he came to be infected with the ALZ-113 but it is likely that while the apes were attacking Gen-Sys Laboratories they stole canisters of the drug and exposed it to the other apes, or that he contracted the virus by interacting with Evolved Apes.
- As of now, Luca is the one of the few gorillas in the series to use sign language which was shown when he took part in the council meeting.
- At age 24, Luca was the third oldest of the apes (sharing this with Maurice) being two years younger than Koba who was the second oldest and Buck who was the oldest.
- In Dawn, Luca can be seen carrying weapons for the hunt, such as a bolo Caesar used to trap one of the deer.
Trivia
- Luca, Maurice, Rocket, and other apes who are loyal to Caesar and refuse to kill unarmed humans were caged and held prisoner by Koba.
- In Revelations, Luca tells Winter he is third-in-command of Caesar's Army, implying he got the rank temporairly after Rocket left with Blue Eyes.
- Despite it being said that Luca did not kill any humans; during the attack on the city he is seen throwing a flaming oil canister at a pillar, causing an explosion which probably killed or seriously injured nearby humans in the process.
- In the Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Official Movie Novelization, it is noted that Luca forms a close bond with Malcolm after himself, Caesar, Blue Eyes, Rocket and Maurice helped save Malcolm, Ellie, Alexander and their men from the dam. it is unknown whether the scenes only existed in the script that was used to write the book or whether the scenes were shot but ended up on the cutting room floor.
- Luca and his predecessor Buck are the only known Gorillas to have been given the ALZ-113 (off-screen) as all the other gorillas in the ape colony were not given this drug (on-screen).
- In the recent War for the Planet of the Apes trailer, it hints the possibility of Luca dying.
- This was later confirmed in the actual movie.
- Luca was twenty-two years old, during the events of Dawn and Revelations.
Gallery
- See Luca/Gallery.