Kingom of the Planet of the Apes is one of this summer’s big blockbusters, and with its release in a few weeks, that means its time to up its promo game. We’ve gotten plenty of trailers and posters, and there are standees in theaters, but that’s apparently not enough. 20th Century has decided that we need to see some “real” apes out there, reigning over humans as they do in the film.
Earlier in the week, a group of apes—as in, people dressed to look like apes—on horseback were spotted in San Francisco’s West Bluff Picnic Area. They didn’t speak a word to anyone or do anything but look pretty intimidating—so much, in fact, that SFGate claims cyclists had nearly fallen over upon seeing them. A similar event took place in Los Angeles, wherein another set of saddleld up apes showed up on Venice Beach, staring people down while they strolled around the beach.
Thus far, the apes have only showed up in those two spots, but it’s San Francisco that has the most significance to the franchise. Both Rise and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes are set in the city, and the former has a big set piece near its end, wherein Caesar and the other apes storm the Golden Gate Bridge. The entire sequence was pretty great back in 2011, and funnily enough, the apes spotted in San Francisco were said to be toward the Fort Point National Historic Site at the base of the bridge. In Dawn, Caesar’s lieutenant Koba finds an armory within Fort Point, which becomes the central location for that movie’s big setpiece to close out act two. It’s just all-out carnage with some incredibly ridiculous visuals, like Koba dual-wielding machine guns while riding on horseback and charging through fire.
Like the earlier movies, Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes appears to be set in or around San Francisco, since one trailer shows apes hanging around at the remains of the Golden Gate Bridge. Having actors show up at the real world parallel is pretty cool if you remember these movies fairly well. And if you don’t, well, you’re probably going to remember the sight of three dudes riding horses dressed as apes for quite a while.
Kingdom of the Planet of the Apes comes to theaters on May 10. Ahead of its release, io9’s looking back at the three reboot films, starting with Rise.
[via San Francisco Chronicle]
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A version of this article originally appeared on Gizmodo.