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 the Thai authorities officially renamed the river. The Mae Klong is now called the Kwae Yai ('Big Kwae') for several miles north of the confluence with the Kwae Noi ('Little Kwae'), including the bit under the bridge. In 1962 Spike Milligan and Peter Sellers, with Peter Cook and Jonathan Miller, released the record "The Bridge on the River Wye", a spoof of the film version of "Kwai" based around the 1957 "Goon Show" "An African Incident". It was intended to have the same name as the film, but shortly before its release, the film company threatened legal action if the