Jaguar Paw has a pregnant wife, Seven (Dalia Hernandez) and a post-toddler (Carlos Emilio Baez). An invading tribe attacks the village. Jaguar Paw hides Seven and her child in a well, then joins his fellow warriors in the fight against the raiders. But the battle is lost. Jaguar Paw is captured, along with Blunted and others.
They are taken to a Mayan city, as unwilling participants in a human sacrifice ritual to appease the sun god. Jaguar Paw must escape, to retrieve his pregnant wife and young child from the well. Many improbable (but entertaining) events follow. The upshot is that Jaguar Paw runs for his life, chased by warriors of the raider tribe, led by implacable and physically imposing Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo) and his sadistic second-in-command Middle Eye (Gerardo Taracena). Jaguar Paw's longshot journey home fulfills the prophecy of a creepy and otherworldly plague girl, played in human and spirit form by Maria Isidra Hoil and Aquetzali Garcia.
How others will see it. This is an extremely intense film that contains graphic violence. According to imdb.com, the body count is 114, which is close enough for me since these things are hard to keep track of. Certainly, most die in a gruesome manner. The film is simply too much for most people. It was too much for the Academy Awards as well, which gave a miserly three nominations to Mel Gibson's remarkable project.
For those who enjoy this sort of thing (you know who you are), the film is a jolly good time. Like Braveheart, or (especially) The Passion of Christ, Apocalypto has unusually sadistic elements intended to draw strong responses from its viewers. This method of directing is controversial, but there's no denying that it can be effective. Violence in the guise of good against evil makes a powerful statement. Credit must be given to Mel Gibson for his ability to tread this ground without appearing completely exploitative.
How I felt about it. Apocalypto concerns man's inhumanity to man. This is Mel Gibson's favorite theme. The setting has changed, from Scotland or Galilee to the Amazon. The intensity has been ratcheted up a notch, as well. Gibson once again demonstrates that no ethnicity has a monopoly on evil. In Apocalypto, there are good tribes and bad tribes. The Mayan city is a hotbed of corrupted sinners and toiling slaves. They are all of similar races.
White Men, the usual villains, are nowhere to be found until the final reel.
Inevitably, Gibson faces charges of racism, since the "bad" Mayans are such bloodthirsty monsters. But the "good" Mayans redeem the race. They have all the ingenuity and humor of the best of Renaissance Europe. They simply lack Western technology. Which is a good thing, considering how the "bad" Mayans would use it.