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Village Inhabitants
Jaguar Paw
The main character of the film, Jaguar Paw is a young hunter, with a pregnant wife and young son. He has to return to save these, after his capture by the Mayans.
- Badass Boast: Given after his jump down the Inevitable Waterfall.
- Made of Iron: Takes an insane amount of abuse and injuries.
- Nature Hero: Played straight during The Chase, where he can work the environment to his advantage againt the slavers.
- Oh, Crap!: When seeing the jaguar cub next to him...and then seeing he's between the cub and its mother.
- Has a second one where he survives jumping off the waterfall and taunts the slavers to chase him down, only for Zero Wolf to kill an subordinate cautioning safety and jumps right after him.
- Panthera Awesome: The point of his name.
- Papa Wolf: He will do anything to get back to his wife and children and protect them.
- Sole Survivor: Eventually, all other adult village members but him and his wife and first child are killed.
Seven
The pregnant wife of Jaguar Paw. She becomes enclosed in a hole in the ground, and has to escape from it.
- Action Girl: Though she doesn't fight in the conventional sense, she survives being tossed into a pit, saves the life of her son, stabs a vicious monkey to death, and keeps herself and her children alive even as the rains flood the pit.
- Damsel out of Distress: Escapes from the hole and kills the things that attack her.
- Pregnant Badass: Kills a rabid-acting monkey, binds her son's wounds, and keeps him from drowning even as she goes into labor — and lives to tell the tale.
- Living MacGuffin: For Jaguar Paw, whose determined to get back to her.
Blunted
The Butt-Monkey of the village, despite or perhaps because he's married to the most beautiful woman.
- Butt-Monkey: His mother-in-law scorns him and the rest of the men tease and humiliate him for laughs, tricking him into eating raw tapir balls and rubbing crushed chili peppers into his genitals when he comes to them for help with impregnating his wife.
- Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: He seems pretty dumb and put-upon, but he proves to be a strong, capable fighter against the Mayans until they finally subdue him, ends up being vital to Jaguar Paw's survival.
- Heroic Sacrifice: He sacrifices himself to ensure Jaguar Paw can escape from the slavers.
- Miss Conception: If one pays attention to the chili gag, it implies the problem is nothing to do with Blunt's sperm and everything to do with a Type 1 case of this — whilst Blunted has to soak his blistering penis for relief, his wife is seen drinking gallons of water. (On the other hand, why wouldn't they engage in foreplay first?)
- Obnoxious Inlaws: His mother-in-law despises him for not being able to produces grandkids.
- Sacrificial Lion: Is killed by Cut Rock midway through, after his Heroic Sacrifice.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: He's fairly chubby and plain-looking, but his wife is gorgeous
Flint Sky
The father of Jaguar Paw, and the chief of the village.
- Mentor Occupational Hazard: He's an older, experienced teacher to his son but dies early on.
- Slashed Throat: How Middle Eye kills him.
- Not So Above It All: Despite being the responsible chief, he's not above the occasional bit of immaturity; he plays a prank on poor old Blunted by telling him to rub chili peppers on his genitals as a cure for his infertility, and later collapses with laughter at the sight of Blunted trying to soothe his inflamed groin.
Turtle Runs
The son of Jaguar Paw and Seven- Adorably Precocious Child: He’s a cute and happy kid introduced playing with a monkey and letting his father lift him up.
Sky Flower
The wife of Blunted.- Defiant Captive: She does a lot of biting and struggling against her captors.
- Happily Married: She seems close with her husband and embarrassed by him being mistreated by her mother.
- Uncertain Doom: She’s dragged off and raped by a Raider during the battle and isn’t taken back with them, implying she was killed.
Curl Nose
A hunter and friend of Jaguar Paw.- Big "NO!": Yells one when he’s overpowered during the raid and sees his wife dragged away.
- Human Sacrifice: His final fate.
Village Girl
A girl too young for the slaver’s to bother taking.- Promotion to Parent: She’s last seen caring for the other children left behind by the raiding party.
Mother-In-Law
Sky Flower's mother.- Obnoxious In-Laws: She is very rude to Blunted and tells her daughter to leave him. Although she seems to warm up to him a bit after he’s taken as a sacrifice and she’s tossed out onto the streets following after him.
Cocoa Leaf
Another hunter and friend of Jaguar Paw.- Doomed Hurt Guy: He’s injured during the original raid and has trouble standing and walking afterwards, eventually being thrown off a cliff for not being considered worth the trouble.
The Mayans
Zero Wolf
The leader of the band of Mayan slavers. After the death of his son, he becomes a complete lunatic, bent for revenge on Jaguar Paw.
- Ax-Crazy: After the death of his son, he loses all reason and temper.
- Bad Boss: Averted initially, but becomes this after the death of his son. At the waterfall, he stabs one of his men dead merely for advising a safer way down, gets another man killed when they all jump down the waterfall, and orders the abandonment of a third man bitten by a snake.
- Character Development: Surprisngly, the character in the film who undergoes the most development. He starts as a competent chief and A Father to His Men, but after his son's death, he degenerates into complete Ax-Crazy, Bad Boss, Stupid Evil behavior.
- Despair Event Horizon: The death of his son.
- Even Evil Has Standards: Berates Middle Eye for pushing an exhausted slave off a cliff, albeit more because it was done without his permission than any moral qualms.
- A Father to His Men: Before Jaguar Paw starts thwarting his plans, and kills his son.
- Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Jaguar Paw tricks him into setting off a spike trap for tapirs, with fatal consequences.
- It's Personal: After the death of his son.
- Pet the Dog: All his scenes with Cut Rock, notably guiding him into the next world peacefully before his death. After that, though...
- Punchclock Villain: Initially, he's presented as a capable warrior and a ruthless slave trader, but one who sees this as a job and duty rather than taking any sadistic joy in killing or having any personal malice against those he fights (in contrast to Middle Eye, for example). After the death of his son, he becomes a malicious and sadistic killer.
- Roaring Rampage of Revenge. After his son is killed.
- Skeletons in the Coat Closet: His armor is decorated with animal skulls and even human jaw bones.
- You Have Failed Me: Murders Snake Ink for speaking up to him.
Middle Eye
The second-in-command to Zero Wolf.
- Ax-Crazy: Even more so than Zero Wolf. Zero Wolf was had to go through traumatizing events to become this, Middle Eye is just a plain sociopath to start with.
- The Dragon: Zero Wolf's top enforcer, who has plenty of Kick the Dog moments.
- For the Evulz: Enjoys murder for the heck of it.
- High-Pressure Blood: When Jaguar Paw kills him, blood spurts form his skull in quite a fountain.
- Kick the Dog: Too many to count, his murder of Flint Sky, his rape and murder of Sky Flower, etc.
- Psycho for Hire: He seems to be there more for the killing than for anything else.
- Rape Is a Special Kind of Evil: The only slaver to be a rapist, clearly setting him apart from the others.
- Robbing the Dead: He steals one of his companion's stuff after he's killed by a jaguar, claiming the dead man would have wanted him to have it.
- The Sociopath: He inflicts depravity after depravity with no indication of glimpsing how it affects anyone else, while finding it fun.
Drunkards Four
A Slaver who is rattled by the chase for Jaguar's Paw.- Cruel and Unusual Death: He's bitten in the neck by a venomous snake and refused a Mercy Kill with the advice to slit his own wrists, which he does, with some difficulty.
- Doomsayer: He babbles about bad omens on their quest.
- Only Sane Man: Thinks the chase for Jaguar's Paw is a bad idea with so many bad omens thrown their way, including his own poisoning by a snake.
Cut Rock
The New Meat of the slavers, and the son of Zero Wolf.
- Freudian Excuse: Not thoroughly explored, but with a father like that....
- Generation Xerox: Clearly attempted by Zero Wolf, but Cut Rock does not meet his expectations.
- Morality Pet: For Zero Wolf.
- New Meat: He seems to be on his first raid with the clan.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Dies at Jaguar Paws hands pretty rapidly.
Snake Ink
A raider who cuts the rope to the hole Seven and Turtles Run were hiding in.- Death by Pragmatism: Is killed by Zero Wolf for advising that they move slowly and safely down a waterfall rather than jump off of it.
- Even Evil Has Standards: He looks uncomfortable when faced with a crying girl in another devastated village they pass through, although he does shove her back when she talks to them.
- Perpetual Frowner: He often has a stiff, suspicious look.
- Scarily Competent Tracker: He's able to tell that Jaguar Paw hasn't broken through a certain path of jungle and notices the blood drop on another raiders back, causing them to realize that their quarry is in the tress.
High Priest
The conductor of the sacrifices.- British Teeth: He has some visibly rotten teeth.
- Evil Laugh: Gives one when the eclipse reaffirms the crowds faith in him.
- Greater-Scope Villain: He’s the one who sent Zero Wolf out raiding.
- Rabble Rouser: He urges sacrifices in this manner, calling for people to be sacrificed to do things like end an eclipse when he's perfectly aware it isn’t really necessary for his culture's survival and prosperity but continues to do so anyway to keep their power.
- The Un Fought: Jaguar Paw never fights him, although with the Spaniards coming the man’s future is far from optimistic.
Other Natives
Oracle Girl
The daughter of a village apparently previously slaughtered by the Mayans. When they pass back through with their prisoners she is still there.- Creepy Child: She has plague scars and speaks pretty threateningly towards the slavers.
- Inelegant Blubbering: Does this for a moment when they first appear.
- No Name Given: Her name is unrevealed.
- Waif Prophet: A thin, skinny girl who nonetheless makes an eerie, and somewhat accurate prophecy about the fate awaiting the Raiders.
Fish Hunter
Leader of a previous tribe (apparently made up of fishermen) attacked by the raiders. They provide a warning to Jaguar Paw about the local raiders while traveling through his land. They are recaptured themselves however.- Harbinger of Impending Doom: Three times! His talk about having his lands ravaged and seeking a new beginnings provide the first warning of the Mayans and he then reappears in a dream warning Jaguar Paw a bit later. Then, after they’re all captured he tells Jaguar Paw what he knows of the temple their being taken to.
- Reasonable Authority Figure: He trades for passage across another tribes land and seems focused on trying to find something good for his own people.
- Thousand-Yard Stare: He has a constantly numb and subdued expression.
