History Film / Apocalypto

''Apocalypto'' is a film by Creator/MelGibson. Boy, is it ever a film by Mel Gibson.

** At one point in one of the trailers, it turns into a rapid-firing seizure-inducing bombardment of striking images. But a single image depicts MelGibson standing around with his buddies on the set with a big smile on his face.

* SadlyMythtaken: Kukulkan ([[AztecMythology Quetzalcoatl for the Aztecs]]) was probably the only one god in the Mesoamerican pantheon that did not demand human sacrifices and actually spoke against them.

* DeusExMachina: [[spoiler: In the form of European missionaries.]]

* CrapsackWorld: The film shows the Mayan civilization in a horrific state of decadence, scourged with drought, famine and diseases. We see fields of rotting crops, slaves burning down entire forests to make lime dust, young children dying of plague, and poor people who have been starved to the point of insanity. In response to all this, the priests are demanding more {{Human Sacrifice}}s.

* AnnoyingArrows: Jaguar Paw gets pierced by an arrow through the abdomen, and we see what a horrific weapon a bow is. Yet he keeps on running like nothing happened, and the wound heals over time.* ArcherArchetype: Snake Ink, the most cold and intelligent of the slavers, is an awesome archer. At one point, he shoots an arrow into the sky and pierces a running man through the head.

* AnnoyingArrows: Jaguar Paw gets pierced by an arrow through the abdomen, and we see what a horrific weapon a bow is. Yet he keeps on running like nothing happened, and the wound heals over time.* TheArcher: Snake Ink, the most cold and intelligent of the slavers, is an awesome archer. At one point, he shoots an arrow into the sky and pierces a running man through the head.

* BeatStillMyHeart: The human sacrifices.

* ShownTheirWork: While the stuff about the Mayans is either completely wrong or up for debate, one gruesome fact the film did get right was the jaguar attack. Jaguars have the strongest jaws of any of the big cats, and unlike the rest which will usually go for the jugular, the jaguar will instead crush its prey's skull between its jaws as in the film.

* OutsideContextVillain: The {{Mayincatec}} civilization to Jaguar Paw's forest-dwelling people.
** And though their villainy is more [[InferredHolocaust inferred]], [[spoiler:the Europeans at the end.]]

** Also counts as a BadassBoast.

* {{Gorn}}: The human sacrifices are especially horrific, when the victims are pulled over an altar and a priest cuts their chests open. And pulls out their dripping, [[BeatStillMyHeart beating hearts]] while they are still alive and kicking... which is TruthInTelevision. He then proceeds to decapitate them, then bounce their heads down a long flight of stairs, followed by their corpse, to the cheering of the crowds below.

* AnnoyingArrows: Jaguar Paw gets pierced by an arrow through the abdomen, and we see what a horrific weapon a bow is. Yet he keeps on running like nothing happened, and the wound heals over time.
* TheArcher: Snake Ink, the most cold and intelligent of the slavers, is an awesome archer. At one point, he shoots an arrow into the sky and pierces a running man through the head.

* FreezeFrameBonus: At one point in one of the trailers, it turns into a rapid-firing seizure-inducing bombardment of striking images. But a single image depicts MelGibson standing around with his buddies on the set with a big smile on his face.

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* {{Gorn}}: The human sacrifices are especially horrific, when the victims are pulled over an altar and a priest cuts their chests open. And pulls out their '''dripping, [[BeatStillMyHeart beating hearts]]''' while they are still alive and kicking... which is TruthInTelevision. He then proceeds to decapitate them, then bounce their heads down a long flight of stairs, followed by their corpse, to the cheering of the crowds below.

* BadBoss: Zero Wolf starts out as a competent chieftain and a AFatherToHisMen, but after his [[spoiler: son's tragic death]], he degenerates into completely AxemCrazy behavior against everyone around him. During the obsessive hunt through the jungle for Jaguar Paw, the slavers are motivated by fear of their boss more than anything else.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: The Holcane slavers capture all adults but spare the children, in an uncharacteristic gesture of mercy. This is an alteration of reality on the writers' part, as the Mayans enslaved and sometimes sacrificed children in RealLife too.
** On the other hand, [[FridgeHorror they were probably dooming those children by leaving them on their own in the jungle with no adults to guide them and take care of them]].
** Zero Wolf has standards in the first half of the movie - he gets infuriated when Middle Eye plays his "game" with the exhausted slaves.

* AluminiumChristmasTrees: One Mexican newspaper criticised, amongst other things, the inclusion of a "black panther" as MisplacedWildlife, guess they never heard of [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_panther#Jaguars black jaguars]].
** Almost every known complaint about this movie is this. Yes, the Mayans did sacrifices too (though it's possible they adopted the practice only after being conquered by central Mexican peoples in ancient times). Yes, they had blue paint and used it to paint the sacrifice victims. Yes, while the Mayan civilization was way past their prime when [[spoiler: the Europeans arrived]] and the biggest cities had been abandoned to the jungle by that time, the Mayans were not extinct (and still aren't), and the Spaniards did in fact find some smaller cities struggling for survival like the one that appears in the film.

* AwesomeMcCoolName: Zero Wolf. It's hard to get more badass than that.
** Jaguar Paw qualifies too.

* BadBoss: Zero Wolf starts out as a competent chieftain and a AFatherToHisMen, but after his [[spoiler: son's tragic death]], he degenerates into completely AxeCrazy behavior against everyone around him. During the obsessive hunt through the jungle for Jaguar Paw, the slavers are motivated by fear of their boss more than anything else.

* BlueAndOrangeMorality: The Mayan religion. At one point Blunt prays to the Goddess of the Scaffold to free them from the "bad Mayans". The scaffold was where human remains were hung ([[{{Mayincatec}} at least in the Aztec faith]]...)
** He was actually praying to give him strength to [[TakingYouWithMe bring down as many as he could with him]].

* CharacterFocus: From the point where Jaguar Paw escapes most of the other characters (except Seven) drop out of the story and it focuses all on Jaguar Paw running away from Zero Wolf, leading to a lot of instances of WhatHappenedToTheMouse

* ConvenientEclipse: The eclipse occurs just as [[spoiler: Jaguar Paw is about to be sacrificed]], and is taken as a sign that Kukulkan is satiated. The Mayan priests, however, would have known that the eclipse would happen. This is actually shown in the film; while the people are awed and frightened, the priests and king are serene. They timed the sacrifices to match up with the eclipse.
* CostumePorn: The Mayan elite, particularly the high priests and the royal family.

** Interestingly enough, that was the whole point of the movie as based on the opening quote. It was showing how the Mayan civilization was already long since killing itself before the Europeans came over.

* DecoyProtagonist: Blunt comes across as a classic underdog-hero while Jaguar Paw acts like his comedic trickster-sidekick. Guess which one turns out to be the real hero of the story?
** Which would have been effective if all the advertising and reviews for the movie didn't outright say that Jaguar Paw was the protagonist.

** DiabolusExMachina: [[spoiler:Unless they're actually Conquistadores.]]