Caesar was born in the San Francisco biotech company Gen-Sys Laboratories as the son of a female chimpanzee nicknamed Bright Eyes and an alpha male chimpanzee of Bright Eyes' troop in the West African Jungle. Following the death of his mother, Caesar was found by the chimpanzee handler, Robert Franklin, and the eccentric scientist, Will Rodman. Upon the discovery, they realized that Bright Eyes' earlier rampage was not due to the ALZ-112 (an experimental drug that, through neurogenesis, repairs brain cells and increases mental capabilities) in her system, but due to her maternal instincts to protect her newborn baby whom she had secretly given birth to a day or two earlier. Because Bright Eyes' aggression was believed to be the effects of the ALZ-112, head of Gen-Sys, Steven Jacobs, shut down the project and ordered the apes in the facility's possession, to be euthanized. However, Franklin was unable to bring himself to put the infant down and convinced a reluctant Will to take him instead, sparing the infant's life in the process
