Trailer
Plot summary
Jaguar Paw lives in a Maya village in the rainforest with Seven, his pregnant wife, and their small son, Turtles Run. While hunting, he and Flint Sky, his father, meet refugees escaping war and devastation. Flint Sky tells him not to let their fear into his heart. That night an elder recounts a prophecy about a being whose emptiness can never be filled, who keeps taking until nothing remains. Raiders led by Zero Wolf strike the village the next morning, and Middle Eye kills Flint Sky. Jaguar Paw hides Seven and Turtles Run down an empty well. The raiders march the surviving adults through the jungle, leaving the children behind, and the captives pass burned forest and ruined maize fields.
Cast
- Carlos Emilio Báezas Turtles Run
- Amilcar Ramírezas Curl Nose
- Israel Contrerasas Smoke Frog
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about Apocalypto (2006)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- As a joke, Gibson inserted a subliminal cameo of himself into the film's marketing, the bearded director appearing in a plaid shirt with a cigarette hanging from his mouth beside a group of dust-covered Maya.
- For one waterfall stunt, the crew rigged a camera on a suspended rig to plunge over a real 150-foot drop alongside the actor rather than fake it.
- Heavy rains and two hurricanes interfered with filming in Mexico so badly that Touchstone Pictures pushed the film back from its original August 4, 2006 release to December 8, 2006.
- The film's massive central pyramid is actually anachronistic, built centuries before the story's setting, since the filmmakers blended architecture from different Maya eras for visual impact.
- All of the film's dialogue is spoken in a modern approximation of the ancient language of its setting, the Indigenous Yucatec Mayan language, and is delivered with subtitles throughout.
- Fellow filmmaker Quentin Tarantino became one of its loudest champions, calling the film a masterpiece and the best artistic film of its year.
