War for the Planet of the Apes broader inspirations from films like "The Bridge on the River Kwai" and "The Great Escape". Feeling that there was a need to imbue Biblical themes and elements, they also watched Biblical epics like "Ben-Hur" and "The Ten Commandments". The influences and inspirations were made evident in the relationship between Caesar and Woody Harrelson's Colonel, a military leader with pretensions toward godhood. Reeves has compared their relationship to the dynamic between Alec Guinness's British Commander and Sessue Hayakawa's prison camp Colonel in "Bridge on the River Kwai". Another comparison is in Caesar's journey to find the Colonel, flanked by a posse
The Bridge on the River Kwai and a team of government dignitaries. However, cameraman Freddy Ford was unable to get out of the way of the explosion in time, and Lean had to stop filming. The train crashed into a generator on the other side of the bridge and was wrecked. It was repaired in time to be blown up the next morning, with Bandaranaike and his entourage present. The producers nearly suffered a catastrophe following the filming of the bridge explosion. To ensure they captured the one-time event, multiple cameras from several angles were used. Ordinarily, the film would have been taken by boat to