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 over the River Kwai name was used. Producer George Martin edited out the "K" every time the word "Kwai" was spoken. The Bridge over the River Kwai The Bridge over the River Kwai () is a novel by the French novelist Pierre Boulle, published in French in 1952 and English translation by Xan Fielding in 1954. The story is fictional but uses the construction of the Burma Railway, in 1942–1943, as its historical setting, and is partly based on Pierre Boulle's own life experience working in Malaysia rubber plantations and later working for allied forces in Singapore and Indochina during World War II. The