Rise of the Planet of the Apes Easter Egg - Nods to the Original Movies

There are quite a few nods the writers threw in this movie relating back to the original Apes movies:

During the movie, the TV newscasts recount the launch of a space craft called the Icarus, led by a Colonel Taylor, which eventually (shown in a newspaper) disappears while going around the dark side of Mars. In the original Planet of the Apes,Charlton Heston playing Colonel Taylor whose ship, the Icarus, crash lands on Earth in the distant future.

Caesar’s mother is named Bright Eyes, which is what Dr. Zira called Colonel Taylor in the original film.

During a confrontation between Tom Felton and Caesar, he yells out "Take your stinking paws off me, you damn dirty ape!" Which of course is one of the more memorable lines from the original movie.

The movie opens with poachers capturing apes in the wild. The scene is structured to recall the apes capturing humans at the beginning of Planet of the Apes.

As Caesar changes his eyes become green; this reflects the green outfits worn by the chimps in Planet of the Apes.

In Conquest of the Planet of the Apes Caesar led primitive apes in an uprising against man, and the biggest battle took place on a bridge. The same happens this movie.

Other name homages include, A female scientist is named Stewart, which was the name of the female Icarus crewmember. Dodge and Landon, also Icarus crewmembers in the original film, appear as names, but in very different roles than in Planet of the Apes. There’s a chimp named Cornelia, a play on Cornelius from the original film, a chimp named Franklin, a play on Apes director Franklin Schaffner, and an orangutan named Maurice, homaging Maurice Evans, who played Dr. Zaius.