Modern City

Modern City is a fictional location and a provincial setting featured in the Planet of the Apes multimedia franchise. It appeared in the 1972 feature film Conquest of the Planet of the Apes. The name of the city is never identified in the movie itself, and is only indicated as "Modern City" in the original script treatments, including the final draft. As such, its canonicity as a name is debatable, and its unclear whether Modern City is the actual name of the location, or whether this was just a general phrase used to describe the setting in the script. Modern City was later identified as "Forbidden City", and made an appearance in Battle for the Planet of the Apes.

Description
Modern City was located in North America, likely in Northern California, perhaps even close to the city of San Francisco. By the early 1990s, it served as the headquarters for Governor Breck, who enacted a totalitarian regime with regards to the treatment of intelligent apes, who had been pressed into indentured servitude.

The treatment of apes was harsh and brutal. They were sold at auction to the highest bidder, which usually consisted of the wealthy elite within the city. Governor Breck himself purchased a chimpanzee named Caesar, who turned out to be the intelligent son of two talking apes who had arrived on Earth from the future eighteen years earlier. Breck could not have predicted that this ape would soon lead a rebellion that would overthrow the human establishment of the city. Caesar ultimately decided to show mercy against his captors, though the reign of Governor Breck and those who supported him came to an abrupt and brutal end. This rebellion became known historically as the "Night of the Fires".

In the years following the ape revolution, the world erupted into a nuclear war. U.S. laser defense systems and ABM systems prevented an extinction-level event, but many metropolitan cities, including Modern City, were devastated, and became little more than radioactive wastelands. It is believed that Governor Breck succumbed to radiation poisoning during the fallout, though some sources cite that he was killed earlier in "Night of the Fires".

Points of interest

 * 172 Broadway: 172 Broadway was the location of a book store/library that was part of a strip mall shopping center in the then near-future reality of 1991. The manager of the store had a female organgutan work for her as an assistant. A chipmanzee courier named Lisa often delivered books and returned borrowed books to the store on behalf of her her owner. Although the orangutan was a seemingly competent assistant she, like most apes, was illiterate and did not always perform to the librarian's expectations. She admonished the assistant's inaccurate book retrieval skills by intoning the ubiquitous command of displeasure, "No!"


 * Ape Control: Ape Control governed all operations relating to the acquisition, sale and conditioning of servant apes. It is unclear exactly how Ape Control relates to Ape Management, though the two are clearly closely aligned with one another. Ape Control may even be an alternative name for Ape Management. Watch Commander's for Ape Control use a public address system to issue orders, warrants, and notifications to outlying areas relating to incidents involving apes. This may include illegal activities, unattended ape gatherings and other such occurrences. In 1991, Ape Control announced information relating to a protest gathering at the South Plaza Civic Center. During this incident, police officers rounded up a gorilla named Aldo and began beating him. A man named Armando and his chimpanzee friend, Caesar, were in attendance. Caesar shouted "Lousy human bastards!" at the guards, which ultimately resulted in Armando begin arrested.


 * Ape Management: Ape Management was a division of the reigning government of Modern City in California in the early 1990s. All such organizations relating to the central government fell under the auspices of Governor Breck. This included Ape Control, Ape Management, as well as the auction exchange where individuals could bid on apes as property. Ape Management was staffed by humans trained at administering conditioning, and if necessary, re-conditioning of its ape population. Apes were involuntarily pressed into service at ape management, where they were trained in menial tasks through repetition and negative reinforcement. In many cases, such conditioning equated to torture, including electro-shock training. Following the ape revolution led by Caesar, Ape Management fell into ruin. Shortly thereafter, a nuclear holocaust occurred leaving much of the original city center devastated. This region became a "Forbidden Zone", populated only by humans who had been mutated due to exposure to radioactivity. The Ape Management building became the headquarters of Governor Kolp's army.


 * South Plaza Civic Center: The Civic Center was one of the main points of interest for the upscale human population of Modern City, most of whom were advocates of ape servitude. However, there were those who felt that the treatment of these animals to be barbaric, and they held protest rallies on the steps of the plaza to voice their frustration. Ape Control allowed such demonstrations under specified guidelines. During one of the protests, two police officers were wrangling a runaway chimpanzee, and beating him with their night sticks. A talking chimpanzee named Caesar shouted out, "Lousy human bastards!", which caused quite a stir among those gathered. His handler, Armando, confessed to the outburst to protect Caesar. The governor's aide, MacDonald, came upon the scene and instructed the officers to sedate the runaway chimpanzee.