Directed by Mel Gibson, the 2006 released period epic movie Apocalypto is one of the few movies which has its story based around indigenous people and their history. That has also cast actors that come from the same indigenous background. Considering the film is epic, it has taken inspiration from the Mayan myths and history to create this fictional story.
The script of the film was translated into a modern version of the historical language of the Mayan Tribe, with a significant portion of the movie being released with subtitles for better understanding. The movie is set in Mexico in the year 1502, where a Mayan hunter who goes by the name Jaguar Paw along with his tribe people is forced to go on a journey to another Mayan city to perform their rituals of human sacrifice after their own city gets completely destructed by some outside force.
The movie has Rudy Youngblood as the main lead Jaguar Paw, Dalia Hernandez as Seven, Jonathan Brewer as Blunted, Moris Birdyellowhead as Flint Sky, Israel Contreras as Smoke Frog, Mayra Serbulo as Young Woman, and many more as a part of members of different tribes and the supporting cast of the film. Director Mel Gibson received much appreciation for maintaining the authenticity of the tribal and indigenous people, though some did call the film out for having historical inaccuracies.
Gibson stated his reason for going forward with a tribe-period story over a classic modern action drama as his wish to uproot the action genre and wanting to do it without any cars or modern tech. He wanted something different, and the Maya history, culture, and rituals were the ones that attracted him and his team the most. He revealed that he was fascinated that a tribe so knowledgeable and advanced yet so savage and cruel could exist peacefully at that time.
His fascination led him to make the movie, and it turned out to be a great commercial success at the box office with mostly positive reviews from both critics and viewers though there were historians upset with certain inaccuracies in the depiction of the tribe people and their culture.
Apocalypto Ending Explained
Based in the early 1500s, it has to be mentioned that this movie takes gore and cruelty on camera to another level in the name of rituals. The movie starts in a deep and isolated jungle area in Mexico where the Mayan people live their peaceful lives, with our lead, Jaguar Paw, as one of the tribesmen. The start of the movie takes its time to explore what the tribe’s life would have been like at the time.
We see them hunt, cook, sit by the fire, and eat in a very communal way. The strong bond of the tribe is established right away, with Jaguar Paw also living a peaceful life with his pregnant wife named Seven, his old father, Flint Sky, and his young son, Turtles Run. In a story told by one of the wise elders of the tribe, It is one of these peaceful nights that one of the elders of the tribe tells the people a story.
In a foreshadowing way, the story is about an unearthly being who is taken over by the feeling of emptiness, and to get rid of that feeling; he decides to take all that the world has to offer, leaving the world completely drained and torn apart. In a way, the story comes true for the tribesmen the very next morning when they find themselves under attack by a Mayan tribe led by a man named Zero Wolf.
The Attack
Jaguar Paw tries his best to keep his wife and son away from the invaders and hides them in a hole which the latter struggle to get out of once Jaguar and other alive members of the tribe get captured and taken away. Flint Sky, Jaguar’s father, ends up getting brutally murdered by one of the ruthless members of the invading tribe.
It is while the captives are being taken away that they come across a town completely empty and barren, with not a single soul alive. It is revealed that a deadly disease had passed the town, killing everybody that lived in it and also rendering their crops and lands completely destructed and useless. While crossing the town, the invading tribe also finds a small girl, seemingly alive and well, who looks at them and tells them about their future.
She reveals a prophecy saying that the end of the Mayan tribes all over will soon be here. They still keep on their journey with the captives, eventually dividing them into categories of two, slaves and sacrifices. The captured women would become their slaves, and the captured men would become the sacrificial offerings to their gods.
The men are taken to the top of a pyramid for their sacrifice, and soon the killings begin. Jaguar Paw is also one of the sacrifices, but when as soon as he gets on the altar to be cut open, a solar eclipse occurs, which is taken as a sign of the gods being satisfied, causing them to stop the ritual, giving Jaguar Paw more time to live and figure things out.
A Cruel Game
With still a lot of men left in capture and no sacrifices to make, the invading tribe decides to play with the lives of their captives by making them the target for their weapon practice. They are guaranteed freedom if they can protect themselves from the arrows that the tribe will shoot at them, with the only catch being that they can only run straight.
The first two slaves are let go, but one of them ends up getting killed soon, and the other gets wounded. Soon, it is Jaguar Paw’s turn to run with the leader of his tribe, but as the two starts to run, the leader of his tribe ends up passing on the spot, and Jaguar Paw ends up getting hurt in the back. The cruel members of the tribe continue shooting arrows at him, but Jaguar Paw’s brother intervenes, managing to get some time for Jaguar Paw to run.
The latter takes his chance to escape and finds himself running back to the dead village where they had found the young girl. He starts running toward his own home but soon reaches a jungle region where he decides to fight the invaders, killing them one by one as they come. His knowledge and understanding of what could be poisonous in a jungle actually help him fight off the invading Mayan tribe.
Soon, he manages to kill the leader of the tribe, Zero Wolf, and another important member of their tribe called Middle Eye. Jaguar Paw seems to be holding dearly and desperately at his last thread of life when he notices a bunch of Spanish soldiers coming in his direction. The last of the Mayan tribe members were also very close to him, so he quickly decided to leave the area completely and let the Spanish explorers take care of the tribesmen.
The End of the Mayan Tribe
The realization that the young girl’s prophecy has come true after all hits him as he crawls back home with three arrows stuck in his back. He reaches the hole where he had hidden his wife and his young son and digs them out, noticing that the rainwater has almost taken over the hole and that the last of his family and tribe could have drowned and died just like that.
Thankfully his son is safe, and his wife, too, who birthed his second child in the hole that was half-full of water. Grief-stricken that his tribe and the Mayan era had come to an end but happy that at least his family is safe, he leaves his home, away from the Spanish explorers, to start afresh and new life someplace else.
The film has been applauded for its depiction of the Mayan civilization and culture, and while it is an apt description of the tribe, historians and people with the Mayan ancestor called out the director and producers of the film for twisting their rituals to make an advanced and intelligent tribe look like a bunch of cruel people who enjoyed human sacrifices.
Even so, this film is one of the few films based on indigenous people that almost perfectly depicts their rituals and community, though some may call it a bit exaggerated for the screen. The movie has also taken its sweet time to explore different aspects of the tribes, even including aspects that align with the fact that the tribe, even at that time, was very well-advanced and intelligent.
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