Steven Jacobs

"I run a business, not a petting zoo!"

- Steven Jacobs Steven Jacobs is a character in Rise of the Planet of the Apes and serves as the main antagonist. He is portrayed by David Oyelowo.

He was the greedy CEO that ran the Gen-Sys laboratories, where Dr. Will Rodman was researching a cure to Alzheimer's Disease. After two years in charge of the lab, one of Rodman's chimps went berserk and Jacobs shut down research on the 'ALZ-112' drug for a further eight years. It was only when Rodman revealed he had used the drug on his own father, with limited results, that Jacobs approved development of a refined version.

The refined drug, now called 'ALZ-113' however is fatal to humans while it greatly and alarmingly increases intelligence in apes. Once Rodman realized the potential dangers of the new drug presented, he warned Jacobs to stop the testing of the 'ALZ-113'. Jacobs however ordered further testing of the refined virus despite Rodman's warnings, caring only for the profits to be made at it's success. Soon after all the tests of the new drug, a hyper-intelligent ape by the name of Caesar, stages a rebellion against his captors and later rescues his fellow intelligent apes from the Gen-Sys labs that were being experimented on by the cruel and greedy Jacobs. After Caesar frees all the apes from the laboratories Jacobs flags down a police helicopter where he commandeers it and the crew, directing them to crush the ape rebellion in an effort to avoid bad publicity for the company he works for as well as himself.

Caesar and his apes then go on to battle a large force of police stationed on the Golden Gate Bridge. During the battle on the bridge Jacobs arrives on the police chopper which then begins gunning down apes, much to the delight of Jacobs. After killing several apes, Jacobs spots Caesar on the bridge and attempts to have the chopper gunner kill him with a hail of gunfire, until a silverback gorilla named Buck, throws Caesar out of the way of the incoming gunfire and sacrifices his life by jumping on the police chopper and attacking its occupants, which causes it to crash on the very edge of the bridge, killing the entire crew and severely wounding Jacobs. After watching his friend Buck succumb to his wounds sustained from gunshots and the crash, Caesar hears Jacobs pleading for help as the helicopter is about to tip over the edge. However in retribution for the death of his friend Buck and the cruelty Jacobs has shown the apes, Caesar turns his back on him. Once Caesar leaves Jacobs to his fate, Koba, a sadistic and bloodthirsty ape that Jacobs ordered testing on earlier, walks up to the remains of the helicopter and callously kicks it over the edge, sending a terrified and screaming Jacobs plummeting to his death in the bay below.