Dreyfus

“	We've been through hell together! We spent four years, FOUR YEARS fighting that virus, and another four fighting each other! It was chaos! But do you all know what we're up against?! And I want you to know, it's not just about power! It's about giving us the hope to rebuild, to reclaim the world we lost!	„
	~ Dreyfus

“	I'm saving the human race!	„
	~ Dreyfus' final words.

Dreyfus is the central antagonist of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes. He is the leader of the Human Resistance, and although not necessarily evil by any means, Dreyfus is willing to take extremist means to save and protect humanity.

He was portrayed by Gary Oldman, who also portrayed Count Dracula in Bram Stoker's Dracula, Drexl Spivey in True Romance, Norman Stansfield in Léon: The Professional, Egor Korshunov in Air Force One, Jean-Baptiste Emanuel Zorg in The Fifth Element, Carnegie in The Book of Eli, Dr. Zachary Smith in Lost in Space, Mason Verger in Hannibal, Vladislav Dukhovich in The Hitman's Bodyguard, Lord Shen in Kung Fu Panda 2, Ruber in Quest for Camelot, Daniel Clarke in Call of Duty: Black Ops and General Grawl in Planet 51.

Biography

Dreyfus is a former police chief who is appointed as the leader of the human resistance. Having experienced personal loss (his wife and two sons having succumbed to the Simian Flu).

Sending Malcolm to Ape Territory

Dreyfus is first seen talking to Malcolm and the rest of the group relay the information about the ape tribe, including their ability to speak. Dreyfus is reluctant to believe their report, despite the insistence of both Malcolm and Carver otherwise.

Dreyfus sees Caesar and his colony arrive and tries to stop Malcolm from approaching them. He is then shocked to see Malcolm's group were telling the truth about the apes talking as Caesar spoke to the humans and threaten them with war if they trespass into ape territory. After this, Dreyfus calms his people by telling them that the apes will not come back and tells them he has a plan.

Talking with Malcolm, Dreyfus explains that now he has discovered the ape encampment at a local power station. Seeing no other solution, Dreyfus has one goal: wipe them out. However, Malcolm tells his associate, they can't afford a war since they have lost so much already and tells him he to give him three days to talk with Caesar.

Dreyfus is hesitate but complies though he tells Malcolm if he is not back in that time, he will get some of the other survivors and get weapons and they will go to the Apes' home and slaughter all of them.

Battle with the Apes

During the middle of the movie, Dreyfus and the survivors have their power restored and he happily looks at a tablet which holds a picture of his deceased family. He soon preps his personal militia for battle, as the apes attack.

He kills many apes but soon sees that he had underestimated the apes' capabilities as they kill many of his men before ultimately breaking through the human's defense and Dreyfus witnesses them terrorize the other humans who suffer as they are killed or imprisoned.

Unable to do anything, Dreyfus escaped the area along with others as the apes take over the city.

Death

“	They're animals! They attacked us!	„
	~ Dreyfus argues with Malcolm, doubting the apes want peace.

Near the climax of the film, Dreyfus, encountering Malcolm in an abandoned underground bunker reveals to him that he and his men have made contact with a military base up north and they are already on their way to help them fight the apes. When Malcolm discovers that Dreyfus has set up a bomb ready to be detonated, he then threatens Dreyfus and his two men with a rifle and orders him to deactivate the bomb.

Dreyfus refuses and has no choice but to willfully sacrifice himself and his two men with the bomb detonator for the survival of the human existence and for the extinction of the ape colony.

Despite Dreyfus' efforts, Malcolm manages to escape and survive the explosion and the apes survive the bomb and the fall of the tower, with the exception of Koba (who falls to his death shortly after).

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Trivia

Gary Oldman mentioned in an interview that Dreyfus was the designated leader of a community of humans who were lucky enough to survive the flu, the disease and ensuing social uprising following the global pandemic at the end of Rise of the Planet of the Apes. Oldman's character was a police officer before the fall of civilization, and has subsequently been elected to lead over his group of survivors. The human community, desperate to find power, ventures off to a nearby power station, to see if it's still operational. There, the humans "discover that there's a whole community of apes living there. We believed that they were all completely fire-bottomed and wiped out". They're not wiped out yet, but that might change when Oldman finds out about the apes. "There's only one answer for him; Wipe them out", he teased.

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