Apocalypto is a 2006 American epic historical adventure film produced, co-written, and directed by Mel Gibson. The film features a cast of Native American and Indigenous Mexican actors consisting of Rudy Youngblood, Raoul Trujillo, Mayra Sérbulo, Dalia Hernández, Ian Uriel, Gerardo Taracena, Rodolfo Palacios, Bernardo Ruiz Juarez, Ammel Rodrigo Mendoza, Ricardo Diaz Mendoza, and Israel Contreras.

 

All of the ethnic tribes and peoples depicted in the film were Maya, as Gibson wanted to depict the Mayan city built for the story as an "unknown world" to the character (Jaguar Paw). Similar to Gibson's earlier film The Passion of the Christ, all dialogue is in a modern approximation of the ancient language of the setting. Here, the Indigenous Yucatec Mayan language is spoken with subtitles, which sometimes refer to the language as Mayan. This was the last film Gibson directed until 2016's Hacksaw Ridge ten years later.

Set in Yucatán, Mexico, around the year 1502, Apocalypto portrays the hero's journey of a young man named Jaguar Paw, a late Mesoamerican hunter and his fellow tribesmen who are captured by an invading force. After the devastation of their village, they are brought on a perilous journey to a Mayan city for human sacrifice at a time when the Mayan civilization is in decline.

 

The film was a box office success, grossing over $120 million worldwide, and received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising Gibson's direction, Dean Semler's cinematography, and the performances of the cast, though the portrayal of Mayan civilisation and historical accuracy were criticized. The film was distributed by Buena Vista Pictures in North America and Icon Film Distribution in the United Kingdom and Australia. While hunting in the Mesoamerican rainforest, Jaguar Paw, his father Flint Sky, and their fellow tribesmen encounter a procession of refugees fleeing warfare.

The group's leader explains that their lands were ravaged and they seek a new beginning. He asks for permission to pass through the jungle. Flint Sky comments to his son that the visitors were sick with fear and urges him to never allow fear to infect him. Later that night, the tribe gather around an elder who shares a story that cryptically foreshadows the events of the film: an individual who is consumed by an emptiness that cannot be satisfied, despite having all the gifts of the world offered to him, will continue blindly taking until there is nothing left in the world for him to take and the world is no more.

At sunrise the next morning, the tribe's village suffers a raid led by Zero Wolf. Huts are set on fire, many villagers are killed, and the surviving adults are taken prisoner. During the attack, Jaguar Paw lowers his pregnant wife Seven and their young son Turtles Run into a pit.

Returning to the fight, Jaguar Paw nearly kills the sadistic raider Middle Eye, but is captured. When Middle Eye realizes that Flint Sky is Jaguar Paw's father, he kills Flint Sky and mockingly renames Jaguar Paw "Almost".

The raiders tie the captives together and set out on a long forced march through the jungle, leaving the children behind to fend for themselves. Seven and Turtles Run remain trapped in the pit after a suspicious raider cuts the vine leading out of it.
 

On the journey, Cocoa Leaf, a badly wounded captive, almost falls off a cliff with the other captives dragged after him. After climbing back to safety, he is killed by Middle Eye, eliciting anger from Zero Wolf, who threatens his fellow raider with death if he kills another captive without permission.

As the party approaches the Mayan city of the raiders' origin, they encounter razed forests and vast fields of failed maize crops, alongside villages decimated by an unknown disease.

They then pass a little girl infected with the plague who prophesies the end of the Mayan world. Once the raiders and captives reach the city, the females are sold into slavery while the males are escorted to the top of a step pyramid to be sacrificed before the Mayan king and queen. Two members of the party are sacrificed, but as Jaguar Paw is laid out on the altar, a solar eclipse gives the high priest, who is performing the sacrifices by cutting out the captives' hearts, pause.

The Mayans take the event as an omen that the gods are satisfied. However, a glance shared between the high priest and the king implies that the true purpose behind the sacrifices is that they are a political tool wielded by the elite to pacify the unsuspecting and fearful masses, who are suffering from famine, disease, and poverty. Nevertheless, the ritual ceremony comes to an end and the remaining captives are spared.

They are then taken by the raiders to be used as target practice and offered freedom if they can run to safety. Jaguar Paw suffers an arrow wound, but escapes into the jungle, killing Zero Wolf's son Cut Rock in the process. Zero Wolf, Middle Eye, and seven others chase after him.

Fleeing back into the jungle, Jaguar Paw remembers his father's lesson about fear and resolves to kill his pursuers. The raiders are killed off one by one (including Zero Wolf and Middle Eye), either by traps laid out by Jaguar Paw or natural hazards until there are only two left.

The drought breaks and heavy rain begins to fall, threatening to drown Jaguar Paw's family, who are still trapped in the pit, despite their attempts to escape. Seven gives birth to another son, who is born under the surface of the dangerously rising water. Meanwhile, the two remaining raiders chase Jaguar Paw out of the undergrowth towards the coast.

As they come to the beach all three are suddenly halted in their tracks and stare in awe at something before them. It's revealed the Spanish and their ships have arrived at the new world, as the conquistadors make their way to the shore.

Jaguar Paw turns and flees while the raiders stand confounded by the alien invaders. Jaguar Paw returns just in time to save his family from the flooding pit and is overjoyed at the sight of his newborn son. Later, the reunited family looks out over the water at the Spanish ships. Jaguar Paw decides not to approach the strangers, and the family departs into the jungle to seek a new beginning.

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