The movie Apocalypto depicts the journey of a Mesoamerican tribesman who must escape human sacrifice and rescue his family after the capture and destruction of his village. This happened during the declining period of the Mayan tribe. In the movie, the Mayan society is at it's breaking point, now needing resources in order to support their social, political and spiritual community, in order for them to survive, they scour hectares of forests to locate any valuable resources either from trees,or caves, or destroyed societies. Plundering any weak societies around them.
The opening scene of this movie starts with some group of men from the mesoamerican tribe hunting in the forest , after a successful hunt they return home with their kill, depicting that it's an ancient story set in the time, when men were meant for hunting and women practically act as slaves and take care of the children.
Then we move to a scene where the entire mesoamerican tribe is attacked by the Mayan tribe , killing every woman and child whilst taking the men back as captives to be used for their sacrifice. On reaching the Mayan tribe town they are taken up to a tower to be sacrificed to the god of the Mayan tribe, for the healing of their land .
The first sacrifice occurs in a very brutal and gorery display , where the heart of the victim was harvested while he was still alive , and soon after the victim was beheaded. Then the second sacrifice which continued with the beheading ,so did the third , until was time for the main character (jaguar paw) to be beheaded , and as if by magic ,the sky went dark indicating an eclipse , but they did know this because they were primitive. When the head of the village asked the chief priest what was going on , he only replied that the gods had heard their prayers and are satisfied with the sacrifice . This indicates that the people of Mayan practice a system of government where religion and politics are fused together.
The remaining captured men are brought to an open space where the forest can be seen in the distance, then they're allowed to go home free , if only they can make it to the forest before being struck down by the enemies projectiles. Of course none of them made it out alive ,except for the main character (jaguar paw), who manages to escape, after killing the son of the warrior head(Zero wolf) ,who came to check, if he was dead after being struck down .
Enraged by what just happened the head warrior (Zero wolf), chase after the wounded main character(jaguar paw) , tracking him every step on the way. Now in the forest (a forest he knows very well, where he practically did all of his hunting) he begins to ready his traps for his enemies, as they fall victim to it one after the other .
In the end the main character (jaguar paw) was able to outsmart the warriors , using the knowledge of his environment to his advantage he killed them all , well except for the two who got distracted , when seeing ships and boats for the first time , giving him the opportunity to escape back to his village to save his pregnant wife and son who he had initially hidden in a very deep well to save their lives.
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