"Apocalypto" Apocalypse Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tapir

Tapirs look a bit like pigs and according to Wikipedia, their closest relatives are horses and rhinoceroses. The main tribe, who we follow throughout the film, are hunting for food using hidden nets and deadly booby-traps. We get to know them a bit as they all have a laugh at big Blunted's expense when Jaguar Paw tricks him into eating the tapir's testicles to improve his virility.

Answer: Flint Sky

Flint Sky introduces himself when the strangers pass through, after their village was ravaged by another tribe. Jaguar Paw is unsettled by their story and Flint Sky tells him not to bring his fear into the village. Turtles Run is Jaguar Paw's son and I made the other two names up.

Answer: Owl

This scene showed us the closeness of the tribe as they were all gathered around to hear the old man's story. The owl in the story knows that nothing will ever be enough for man and he will try and keep taking and taking until the world has nothing left to give him.

Answer: Almost

Jaguar Paw "almost" escapes the ravaging of his village as he could have hidden with his family or run off but he chooses to go back and help. He is also "almost" killed by Middle Eye but Zero Wolf, the chief of the attacking tribe, says he wants him alive.

Answer: Blue

This priest of this tribe refers to them as "The People of the Banner of the Sun". As Jaguar Paw's tribe is taken through the town, we see other slaves working on cutting out stone. Jaguar Paw and his fellow slaves are taken through a passageway where they see paintings of blue-painted people being horribly tortured and killed and their fate dawns on them.

Answer: Their hearts are ripped out then their heads are cut off

The sacrifices are needed as the other tribe's crops have failed and sickness has killed their people. They feel they need to appease their god so cut out the still beating hearts of the first two Mayans, then chop their heads off. The heads roll down the long altar staircase to the waiting people below who are all cheering the deaths.

Answer: An eclipse

Jaguar Paw is third in line to be sacrificed but just before the priest plunges his knife into his chest, there is an eclipse and it all goes dark and still. Everyone is perturbed by this and the priest declares that the gods are now satisfied with the amount of sacrifices. To confirm this, he asks the gods to let the sun shine once more and lo and behold, the moon moves past the sun and Jaguar Paw is spared.

This also fulfils part of a prophecy a sick girl foretold before the slaves reached the town: "You fear me? So you should. All you who are vile. Would you like to know how you will die? The sacred time is near. Beware the blackness of day. Beware the man who brings the jaguar. Behold him reborn from mud and earth. For the one he takes you to will cancel the sky, and scratch out the earth. Scratch you out. And end your world.

He's with us now. Day will be like night. And the man jaguar will lead you to your end." (quotation from imdb).

Answer: A jaguar and her cub

The slaves are allowed to run for the jungle while Zero Wolf and his tribesmen throw spears and arrows at them. Zero Wolf's son is the finisher, standing at the far end of the run to kill the men as they lie helpless on the ground. Jaguar Paw is brought down but Blunted attacks Zero Wolf's son as he's about to kill Jaguar Paw, giving him a chance to escape. Jaguar Paw kills Zero Wolf's son and disappears into the grass. To get to the jungle, he then has to climb over hundreds of putrid sacrificed corpses as Zero Wolf and his tribesmen give chase. Jaguar Paw hides in the trees then has to run for his life as an angry jaguar chases him through the jungle.

He runs straight at his pursuers and one of them is killed by the animal which is then beaten to death by the other men.

Some of the men are unsettled by the killing of the jaguar as it is against the natural order. It also fulfils more of the oracle child's prophecy.

Answer: He tells him to open his veins.

The bitten man slits his own wrists to speed up his death. After jumping over a waterfall to escape, Jaguar Paw then falls into some quicksand. This covers the "reborn from mud and earth" part of the prophecy and Jaguar Paw starts to realise this is his forest and he shouldn't be afraid.

He starts to turn the tables, setting a beehive loose on his attackers, then rubbing some poison frog skin on some wood before using them as darts. Zero Wolf finally falls foul of one of the bone-crushing animal traps and the last two attackers are stopped in their tracks by the sight of huge boats arriving on the beach.

Answer: "Go to the forest...to seek a new beginning."

This is what the tribesman who passed through their part of the forest at the beginning of the film said.
I really enjoyed this film, finding it a dramatic and exhilarating study of man's place in the natural world and the sheer will of one person to survive and protect the ones he loves.