Apocalypto

Revealing mistake: At 48:28, there's a shot of a large bird on a rock in a river, a Cattle Egret, and it flies across screen and goes out of view on the left. Cattle Egrets are originally from Europe and were not present in the Americas until around 1877. (00:48:25)

jpdenk

Revealing mistake: Watch closely when the first two 'slaves' run for their freedom amidst flying spears. When Jaguar Paw's friend (the chunky fellow) gets speared, it is a 'through the armpit' effect. When he's gasping for breath in the next shot, the entry of the spear is actually more in the middle of his chest.

Kate Giles

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Mistakes

Factual error: During the big sacrifice scene an eclipse happens. An eclipse occurs when the moon passes between the earth and the sun. Later, apparently that night, the night mood is set by a shot of a full moon. The moon cannot be full until fourteen days after an eclipse, when it is directly opposite the sun.

5thgroup

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Quotes

Jaguar Paw: I am Jaguar Paw! This is my forest! My sons and their sons will hunt here after I am gone.

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Trivia

Trivia: As a bit of an easter-egg, Mel Gibson included a single-frame of an actor dressed as Wally/Waldo from the "Where's Wally/Waldo?" book series in the theatrical version of the film. It was reportedly seen as being in poor taste, so it was removed from the initial DVD release. However, he was allegedly added back into the film for the Blu-Ray release.

TedStixon

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Questions

Question: When they come across the girl crying over her mother's body, one of the guards says she has the sickness, and when they arrive in the city, they come across an old man who has the laughing sickness - what sicknesses are they referring to?

Answer: It is not specifically identified, but it appears to be the degenerative neurological disease called kuru. It is fatal and believed to have been spread in ancient sub-tropical cultures by cannibalism. Its symptoms resembles the encephalopathy disease known as Creutzfeldt-Jakob (Mad Cow), which is also called the laughing sickness, and is contracted by eating contaminated flesh.

raywest ★

Answer: Kuru only happens when you eat your relatives and the disease was discovered and studied in Papua New Guinea where eating your dead relatives was a way to carry them with you. There are books about it, fascinating stuff. Eating strangers is safe, not that I recommend eating anyone. The disease the girl has is smallpox brought by the Spanish, thus the ships at the end of the movie are not the first Spanish to visit the area. The laughing sickness could be straight up madness considering the horrible times everyone is living through, or a side effect of the limestone quarrying.

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