Apocalypto

The movie starts off with a native Indian tribe out hunting tapir most likely to feed their village. As they are preparing to collect their meat that they just obtained, a group of unnamed refugees came through the forest. Their leader explains that they are fleeing from warfare and just want to pass through. Flint Sky allows them to pass and explains to his son, Jaguar Paw, that they were shrouded with fear and to never let that happen to him. The next morning, Jaguar paw’s village was raided by what seems to be a tribe of Mayans. They set huts ablaze, killed many villagers, and captured the rest leaving children behind. Jaguar paw was able to hide his pregnant wife and child in a vertical cave, but when he ends up getting captured they are left trapped. Before leaving with the captives the leader of the raiders, Zero Wolf, orders for Flint Sky to be killed right before the eyes of his son, after discovering that Jaguar Paw had killed one of their men in the struggle to save his family. This only fueled his anger but he was knocked unconscious and given the name “Almost”.

The captives were taken on a long journey through the jungle with the destination being Mayan cities just outside of the jungle. During the journey an injured captive named Cocoa Leaf almost causes all of them to dies while climbing a cliff and for this he was killed. They continued their journey through failed crop field and villages that were hit by the plague. A young girl who the Mayans said had “the sickness” was dying of plague and as they passed her she prophesized, an eclipse and the end of Mayan’s world at the hands of a man running with a jaguar. They look passed her and keep moving but not without fear. The female captives were sold as slaves while the males were going to be sacrificed to the Mayan God Kukulkan. As Jaguar Paw’s time approached an eclipse occurred and when light returned the Mayan figured their god was satisfied so they were to dispose of the others.

The captives were offered freedom if they could make it out without being killed. Jaguar Paw made it to the end but was shot and he killed Zero Wolf’s son to escape and was then pursued all the way back to his forest. There his pursuers were killed off slowly by a jaguar, and other traps and weapons made by Jaguar and his tribe. After Zero Wolf was killed by the tapir trap, Jaguar Paw saved his wife and now two children from almost drowning in the cave. The arrival on conquistadors had them puzzled but Jaguar Paw insisted they remain unnoticed in the jungle and find a new beginning.

The main society in the movie was Paleolithic. “Paleolithic hunting and gathering was done in groups, and success depended more on organization and cooperation than on individual

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