The human-ape relations are at an all-time low in the new trailer for War for the Planet of the Apes.

The third installment of the recently rebooted franchise sees humans and apes go to war with Woody Harrelson’s authoritarian colonel looking like a less stable version of Marlon Brando’s colonel Kurtz.

The trailer starts with audio from the two previous Ape films telling a potted history of the rise of Caesar, the ape leader played by Andy Serkis, who is still in charge after surviving a coup in the last outing.

This time Caesar and the apes are hidden away in the forest while Harrelson’s colonel seeks them out with the apparent goal of extermination. “Sometimes it is necessary to abandon our humanity, to save our humanity” is his argument, which has more than a few holes in it when it comes to logic.

From that point on it looks like a mix of mortars, missiles and murder as Harrelson explains his rationale for killing the apes despite the fact they just want to get along. “No matter what you say you’ll replace us,” he says. “That’s the law of nature.”

Matt Reeves is again in the directors chair and the film is set to be released in the US and UK on 14 July.