| “ | This is a holy war. All of human history has led to this moment. If we lose, we'll be the last of our kind. It will be a Planet of Apes, and we'll become your cattle. Look at you. You think I am sick, don't you? I didn't mean to kill your son. But if his destiny was to inherit your unholy kingdom... I'm glad I did it. | „ |
| ~ The Colonel to Caesar. |
| “ | Mercy, You have any idea what your "mercy" would do to us? You're much stronger than we are, smart as hell. No matter what you say, you'd eventually replace us, that's the law of nature. The irony is we created you, you tried to defy nature, bend it to our will. Nature has been punishing us for our arrogance ever since. 10 months ago, I sent out recon units to search for your base, my own son was a soldier with one of the units, One day he suddenly stopped speaking. He became Primitive like an animal. They contacted me and said that they thought he had lost his mind, that the war was too much for him. Then the man who cared for him stopped speaking too. The Medic had a theory, before he stopped speaking, that the virus that almost wiped us out, The Virus that every Human survivor still carries, had suddenly changed, mutated, And if it spread it would destroy humanity for good this time. Not by killing us, but by robbing us of those things that make us human. Our speech, our higher thinking, would turn us into beasts. You talk about "mercy"? What would you have done? It was a moment of clarity for me, I realized that I would have to sacrifice my only son so that humanity could be saved. | „ |
| ~ McCullough explaining to Caesar the consequences of his Mercy and the new virus mutation. |
Colonel J. Wesley McCullough, simply known as the Colonel, is the secondary antagonist of 20th Century Studios' Planet of the Apes reboot franchise.
He is the ruthless leader of the Alpha-Omega, a rogue paramilitary force, obsessed with wiping out the entire San Francisco Ape Colony to save humanity from the evolution of the Simian Flu by any means necessary. He is the second arch-nemesis of Caesar after personally killing his wife Cornelia and their eldest son Blue Eyes in an attack.
He was portrayed by Woody Harrelson.
His Evil Ranking[]
What Makes Him Close to Being Pure Evil?[]
Before War for the Planet of the Apes[]
- In a prequel comic, he killed a group of scientists looking to find a cure to the Simian Flu, the virus that nearly wiped out humanity, because he thinks that killing people who are infected with the virus is the best cure.
- According to the movie novelization (and a deleted scene from the film), Malcolm came to the Colonel, describing Caesar's leadership and begging for peace with the apes. McCullough dismissed this and shot Malcolm in the head.
- Murdered anyone who was infected with the virus, including his own son. While his explanation of wanting to preserve was understandable, it shows his ruthless extremist ways as he also ordered anyone who didn't follow his methods to be killed, prompting some soldiers to desert.
War for the Planet of the Apes[]
- Sends soldiers repeatedly to find Caesar’s village, which leads to an attack that gets multiple apes and humans killed.
- Sneaks into the village to find and kill Caesar, but gets his wife and son Blue Eyes, thinking it was Caesar and claims “King Kong is dead”.
- Shoots at Caesar when he finds out his wife and son have died while escaping.
- He very likely ordered the execution of 3 infected soldiers, who were then buried in the snow. One of which was still alive and clearly in pain.
- Luckily the soldier was put out of his misery by Caesar.
- Kills apes and ties them to an “X”.
- Ambushes and enslaves the apes at the village and forces them to build a wall in extremely harsh conditions with barely any food or water.
- Makes his soldiers constantly chant to weed out those infected and kill any of them who are.
- When Percy causes an accident from being too weak to carry a log on a pulley, he shoots the weakened ape in the head with a gun, killing him.
- Makes Red whip Caesar and then was about to shoot him in the head himself because Caesar wasn’t telling the apes to go back to work, until the other apes got back to work themselves to save Caesar.
- Ties Caesar to an X like the other apes, leaving him to be dehydrated and starving.
- Makes Red unleash Caesar and takes him to the Colonel, where he threatens Caesar if he interferes with the work, he will slaughter the apes one by one and that the apes will get food and water when the work is done.
- He also said that he didn’t mean to kill Caesar’s son and wife but doesn’t feel remorse for it and even has a kick-the-dog moment by saying he was glad he did it if the son was to inherit Caesar’s leadership position, which angers Caesar, to which Colonel calls Caesar “emotional”. He also threatens that if Caesar kills him, that would mean the apes themselves would be executed, and puts Caesar back on the X.
- While he does give the apes food and water the next morning when Caesar asks him to, this is for pragmatic reasons to keep them strong enough so they can continue on doing their backbreaking work.
- When the other apes finally get food, Caesar gets nothing but a bucket of water on his head, then forces Caesar to work on the wall while still starving and dehydrating him.
- He nearly makes Caesar lose all hope until Nova (the virus-infected young girl) shows up to feed Caesar while the apes show their respect to Caesar, restoring his faith.
- After Rocket gets beaten up by Red, he asks if there is anyone else and sends soldiers to search the area before putting Rocket in the pen with the other apes.
- The next day, he threatens Caesar with a gun and then finds a virus-infected doll, which he touches but doesn’t show much care, then makes Caesar get back to work.
- While he does spare some apes and takes them in as henchmen, like Red, it is likely for pragmatic reasons, and he would likely execute them once their usefulness expires.
- Although McCullough comments on Caesar’s humanity, this does not prevent McCullough from repeatedly tormenting him throughout the movie.
- Although his goal is to protect and preserve humanity, this does not make him an anti-villain, as he killed the scientists working on making a non-lethal cure and killed anyone who disagreed with him, while starting a war with his rogue military battalion against the rest of the U.S. military.
- His actions brought out the worst in Caesar, as his personal cruelty to him leads Caesar down a darker path, with even Caesar admitting he himself is becoming like Koba.
- In the end, he is a brutal leader and is not only bad for the apes but also for humanity as a whole, as his extremist ways had consequences too, with the two factions of humanity, the Alpha-Omega and the remnants of the U.S military eventually getting wiped out by an avalanche proving his efforts to preserve humanity was in vain.
What Prevents Him from Being Pure Evil?[]
- Even though he completely ruined any chance of being an anti-villain by causing so much death and destruction for his goal, he at least stands out enough to be a well-intentioned extremist in the end who genuinely wants to preserve humanity and wants them to thrive not to mention that being infected with the new mutated strain is almost a fate worse than death as people became mute and start to lose their sense of self, being reverted back to primal instincts, so he is in a twisted way sparing those of that horrible fate by killing the infected and at the same time, saving others from suffering the same, even if it means killing his son/himself.
- He is genuinely tragic, as despite him killing his son for getting infected, it’s clear that he still loved his son and was remorseful that he had to kill him himself, as he kept a photo of him as a child.
- His death is played for sympathy as he got caught with the virus from touching a virus-infected doll and not wanting to spread it, he begs and Caesar to kill him, and when Caesar couldn't do it, he put the gun down, which the Colonel picks up and commits suicide, which shows that he really put his well-intentions to the limit and to the end.
Trivia[]
- He was originally considered Inconsistently Heinous until it was discovered some of his redeeming qualities were not strong enough to detract from his villainy or make him anti-villainous, allowing him to qualify here.
