History Buffs: Apocalypto

Man, dude was being chased through that jungle for 600 years? What a legend.

Nobody Expects the Spanish Time Travelling Conquistadors.

Historic accuracy? No. A master class in film pacing? Hell yes.

The sick girl was meant to be a symbolic glimpse of their doomed future.

You don't get it? The chase scene just took 600 years, duh.

History Buffs: “Nooo it has to be historically accurate!” Mel Gibson:”Haha Spaniards go splish splash”

Why can't this film be based on multiple historical events and cultures throughout the region over centuries? It's a piece of art that got me interested in the history of Central America as a teen. I think it plays a great role as an introduction to the amazing historical and cultural turmoil of the region over a long period of time.

Ive read somewhere (maybe Dan Carlin’s Hardcore History) that perhaps 90% of those that died of spanish-introduced diseases, actually died without every seeing the Spanish. The diseases perhaps spread along the internal trade routes of the Mayans.

When I first watched Apocolypto, I thought it was all about the Aztecs, not the Mayans...

Everybody gangsta until time traveling conquistadors show up

Mel isn’t known for his adherence to history, nor does he claim it but his films are visually spectacular!

I always appreciate History Buff’s videos. An interesting note is if at the end it was Cortez in 1519 then it is possible timeline wise if we look up who Geronimo de Aguilar was. He was a shipwreck friar who landed in Mexico in 1511 with dozen others, made a slave, set to executed to a Mayan God, escaped but captured again by a rival Mayan tribe and subsequently lived as a slave for 8 years while learning Mayan. After Cortes arrived in 1519 Aguilar meetup with him and along with Marlintzin (who knew Mayan and Nahault) served as translators for Cortez during his conquest. Hence this information I myself happen to learn recently can conveniently tie up lose ends in the movie. Since Aguilar and other were around prior to Cortez, they could have inadvertently given the local population smallpox in 8 years. As well as explained Mayan tribes hostile to one another which historically would have been accurate as least in Aguilar’s experiences. But don't take my word for it, looked up Aguilar and Marlintzin.

For what it's worth, the movie is absolutely visually stunning and really intense. So even though it's totally worthless from a historical stand point, its a very entertaining watch

That ending is just: "Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!"

With the Smallpox it's entirely possible that the girls mother had exposure to Europeans somehow, it's not explicitly stated that the ship seen at the end of the movie was the absolute first contact.

They did a awesome job with the dialect my husband is from Mexicito Chiapas and speaks one of the many Mayan dialects and he understands a lot of what they are saying.

The answer is simple: the conquistadors were sailing in the correct timeline until they went into the Bermuda Triangle and thus, were transported 600 years earlier. Just one of the many strange supernatural occurrences of the natural world

I was traveling through Guatemala when this came out. The newspaper said, "we were expecting braveheart and we got mad max."

My impression was that this took place at the arrival of Hernan Cortez in the early 1500’s. At that point only remnants of the maya existed. The civilizations in power during that period were the Aztec and Inca. The Aztec were looking to please their gods through human sacrifice as that was their custom. It’s also worth mentioning that at the arrival of Hernan Cortez the Mayan/Aztec calendar had just completed a full cycle. I always associated the eclipse with the completion of their cyclical calendar and of their prophesies. As their prophesies suggest, at the completion of their calendar was the moment that their “teacher” would return, Quetzalcoatl. Instead they got a Spanish conquistador, who scholars have suggested that the Aztec were certain was Quetzalcoatl himself. My point here is that the captors were Aztec no doubt. I had to stop midway to write this, as I do agree that there are inaccuracies, you seem not be the person to critique this film

I always thought that the villagers dying of small pox was kind of a hint that the Spanish had already arrived in the New World and the news just hadn't reach that particular part of the continent yet. Foreshadowing if you will. I mean if you think about it makes sense, there was never that many Spaniards in the New World and they didn't conquer it all at once, it would make sense for some more remote tribes to only hear about them a lot later after they had arrived or even for the disease to reach them before the Spaniards themselves.