In a bizarre real-life incident reminiscent of Planet of the Apes, a group of monkeys escaped with a batch of COVID-19 blood test samples. Planet of the Apes is a sci-fi franchise of movies, books, TV series, and comics about a world in which intelligent apes have taken control over the planet.
Occurred in India
According to Sky News, a group of monkeys (specifically, red-faced rhesus macaques) near Meerut Medical College in Delhi, India, attacked a laboratory assistant and stole a batch of COVID-19 blood test samples that the assistant was carrying.
The COVID-19 blood samples had been taken from three patients. Later on, one of the culprit monkeys was seen in a tree chewing on one of the sample collection kits. Scientists have warned that there is a risk of the COVID-19 virus mutating and infecting primates, which could devastate primate and other animal species in the area.
As of this writing, Planet of the Apes is trending on Twitter, as people all over the Internet are immediately drawing comparisons between the sci-fi series and the bizarre real-life incident.
Though there isn’t much in common between this story and the Planet of the Apes origin depicted in Rise, the connection of monkeys and disease seems to be enough to prompt the comparisons. Some other users on Twitter argue the situation is more akin to the other movies. Check out a selection of tweets below:
About Planet of the Apes
Based on a 1963 novel by French author Pierre Boulle, the first Planet of the Apes film was released in 1968. There were a series of sequels that directly followed a few years after the first movie. In 2001, a Tim Burton-directed, revamped Planet of the Apes was released.
A newly rebooted series began in 2011 with Rise of the Planet of the Apes, starring James Franco and Andy Serkis. Unlike the installment that preceded it, Rise was critically acclaimed and breathed new life into the franchise.
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In Rise, a chimpanzee is given an experimental serum that was designed to repair the brain, in order to help Alzheimer’s patients. This leads to the subject, a chimpanzee named Caesar, becoming highly intelligent.
In turn, Caesar gives the serum to other chimpanzees to make them intelligent as well, and they start an uprising against humans. The success of Rise led to two more sequels, Dawn of the Planet of the Apes (2014) and War for the Planet of the Apes (2017).
So, what do you all think about this news guys?