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

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

When a movie is this good, accuracy becomes less important.

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.

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

Nobody Expects the Spanish Time Travelling Conquistadors.

All that said, the film is incredible.

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.

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

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

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

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.

Everybody gangsta until time traveling conquistadors show up

Say what u will but the cinematography in this film was absolutly amazing

Not all movies need to be historically accurate to be great. It’s a great movie & great representation. Still never been a movie like it.

Why exactly is a smallpox outbreak out of the question? The ships appearing at the end of the movie (spoiler) are not the first European ships that arrived to the the New World. The disease would have absolutely spread to people that had never made contact with Europeans yet, and those people would have no explanation for that disease.

I always got the impression the village we see wasn't supposed to be specifically a Mayan village, just a small local tribe. And them speaking the same language isn't that weird, different groups and cultures often speak the same language when in close proximity.

You gotta admit, that chase scene was bloody brilliant.

The Spanish landing at the end of the movie weren't necessarily the first Spanish to land in the Americas, they could've landed 2 years ago 60 miles north of them, passed small pox to the Maya there, and the disease made its way down to the city in the movie

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

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

It was never my understanding that the main characters were Maya. They were supposed to be a random jungle tribe that was captured by the Maya.

im confused about your issue with the small pox scene. it was never implied that the mayans had not had contact with the europeans. the fact that we see a ship at the end just means that a ship was there. that doesnt make it the first one.

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 think the smallpox scene was a sign that of European contact. Since the Europeans first went to explore Yucatan before setting sail out to conquer the bigger cities. So the final scene were the Spanish arrives, would not be a scene depicting their first arrival, but rather an indication that the natives societies soon would be conquered.

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.

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

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

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.

Honestly this movie is in my top 5 and usually I highly dislike inaccuracies but this one just doesn’t bother me 😅

2:49 “Crops of corn and maize” In other words, crops of corn and corn.

The main character lived in a chase scene for 600 years.

I've notice many films do this now. Like the show Vikings that takes Viking leaders from hundreds of years apart and put them together as one family. And then made it so Ragnar did all the events they did in their times.

According to the DVD commentary by Gibson and Farhad Safinia, the ending of the movie was meant to show the first contact between the Spaniards and Mayans that took place in 1511 when Pedro de Alvarado arrived on the coast of the Yucatán and Guatemala, and also during the fourth voyage of Columbus in 1502.

I never thought the villagers were Mayan. I thought they were attacked, kidnapped and the sacrificed by Mayans.

Why it's simple my friend, no one expects the Spanish Inquisition

Everyone confused about the main Characters being Maya, you have to remember that the Aztec were at war with neighboring tribes that did not want to join them, so when Cortez and the Spanish show up one of the reasons he was able to beat over 20k vs his 400-900 men, was because the neighboring tribes just like the one in the film, joined him because they also wanted to destroy the Aztecs, ultimately leading Cortez to turn on them after the big enemy was gone

This film was a masterpiece

On Mayan presence during colonization: The Spaniards actually battled the Mayans when they arrived in Mexico (Yucatan peninsula). Some erroneously believe the Mayan civilization vanished centuries before but this isnt the case. Rather, the golden age of the Maya's did come to an end centuries prior to colonization. On smallpox: Smallpox was introduced by the Spaniards to the Taino natives on the Caribbean islands. The Taino were an Arawak people who lived and traded along the Caribbean coast. It is only logical that European diseases were, after first contact by Columbus, carried through onto mainland Central America wiping out masses of native inhabitants before the Spaniards even set foot there. It is even not so far fetched to see Mayans being influenced as a vasal state by their Aztec overlords in terms of ritual sacrifices. It is furthermore argued that after the slow decline of Mayan civilization a lot of Mayans fled into the jungle and continued an isolated existence there. So having a tribe living in a hunter-gatherer context yet speaking Mayan is not that far fetched.

Tapir casting: Your look is great but we're gonna have to dub you.

this movies goes so hard man

The film is set in 1502 you’ve came to the conclusion that this is during the fall of maya because they’re having a drought which I’m sure they had plenty of

I admire your work and have always enjoyed your content but I think you are being terribly unfair to this movie. For starters, you praise the use of native language but then poison the well by asserting that its just a scam to lend authenticity to the film, a logic that could be applied to any historical accuracy present in any movie. You say the Mayan would never live in a village like that depicted. However its a fallacy to assuming people with similar languages must have identical cultures. What would happen to mayan speakers if they inhabited an area that could not support farming agriculture and larger villages? Is that a scenario that you think is impossible? We have that today. It would be like looking a movie about lumberjacks or fur trappers in Alaska or northern Canada, and saying "Oh this is such bullshit....people who speak English live in big cities like New York and London.....look that fur trapper talked to that city person....totally bullshit". Smallpocks. You get indignant that the native could be dying of a disease without directly contacting Europeans themselves. This is false, indeed waves of epidemics spread out far in advance of European settlers and explorers. Columbus landed in the Yucatan on his fourth voyage in 1502........10 years after first contact. Its is totally possible, and indeed very likely that European dieses were spreading and ravaging native populations within this time frame. There could easily have been undocumented Spanish contact before this, or Native Caribbean peoples who fled the Spanish but brought their diseases with them. This is totally plausible. In terms of the number of cities.....sure if you combine all the cities that ever existed from all time...they are everywhere. However Apacalypo isn't set against the entire length of the mayan civilization, but just a few days at the start of the 16th century. By then classical mayan civilization was over and the number of cities massively reduced (most were swallowed by the jungle after all).You say that this movie cant decide what culture its borrowing for and that you cant use both. However cultures mix all the time. Indeed a few minutes before you chided the movie for using both, you say that the late mayan civilization borrowed/was influenced by Aztec Culture. Since we know this movie is set in early 16th century and not the classical period, and because of its geographical setting, that type of influence and cross cultural admixture is to be expected....though its true the precise components of that admixture may not be documented historically. Ecological degradation and famine were not limited to the end of the classical mayan period. Nor were cities and hunter gatherer societies never adjacent or contemporaneous to each other. The mayans still had cities in the post classical period and they were influenced by the Aztec so many of the issues you raise can, if not be historically proven, at least plausible argued. At the same time there were still hunter gatherers living in other areas. Though are certainly inaccuracies in the film and nobody should use it as a substitute for actual research (something you could admonish for any movie) I think you have been incredibly unfair.

I think the smallpox scene showed that Europeans had already arrived. that girl gave a prophesy about it, perhaps because of her interaction with Europeans. there's no reason to believe the final scene shows Columbus

I watched it after having never seen anything like it (nor since) having a not clue about the period and was pretty entertained. I thought it was a cool story and it was interesting to see a little more context- though there are inaccuracies but I didn't think this was a documentary.

Actually Nick, Gerónimo de Aguilar shipwrecked on the Yucatan, a few years prior to Cortez. He was used as a translator for Cortez.

Even tho it’s very inaccurate it’s such a good film, not a word of English for over 2 hours but you can’t stop watching once it gets going

Why are people complaining, literally the whole point of the channel is to pick out historical inaccuracies in movies

Seeing the smallpox means this is happening after the first Spanish have already arrived. How hard was that to get your head around?

In the early 2000's i was flirting with this woman from Scotland. I said something smart and she was like, "oh you know about Scotland?" I said "yeah yeah, I've seen 'Braveheart'", she flip her lid, "you f*n Americans and your movies!!"

To be fair, Mel Gibson had absolutely nothing to do with writing/ directing The Patriot... It's a freaking Roland Emmerich movie... Gibson only acted in it.

I think a lot of the historical issues would have been resolved if they chose to focus on the Aztecs as opposed to the Mayans.

Really looking forward seeing your movie!

Jaguar Paw wasn't from a Mayan village. He was obviously in a hunter gather tribe that was raided by the Mayans

Are you telling me Inglorious Bastards is not what really happened during WW2?

Watching for the 3rd time in about 5 years. Along with every other video on this channel. Love the content. Always excited for the next one! Hope they never stop!

At this point, I'm just glad the ending is not Nick Fury trying to recruit Jaguar Paw

Time traveling Spaniards? Well that’s the scariest thing I’ve hear. Why? because . . . NOBODY EXPECTS THE SPANISH INQUISITION!!!

I enjoyed this so much thank you!

Thank you for this video!

"None of them seem to be carrying shields" - from Yucatan to Westeros, the art of using a flat piece of wood has been long forgotten.

I remember watching this when I was younger with my family we thought the movie was about a small tribe being taken by the Aztecs 🤷🏻‍♀️😂

The movie takes place after the first European landed in Central America, and after or at least shortly after Colombus contacted the Mayans for the first time: smallpox contamination on a small scale IS possible, as it was carried from Hispanolia to the mainland by local sailing travellers.

Ok. I lived in Mexico when I was young and got to study their history. Particularly the immediate time before the Spanish arrived. There were dozens of seperate cultures along the Atlantic coastline. Some Mayan (in the south), others spread along the Gulf of Mexico coast. Most of these played a subservient/vassal/client role to the more powerful Aztec Empire. To this day, dozens of new archeological discoveries are being made every year which rethink the relationships between these separate entities. None of which had horses nor come up with the wheel. So, I can do a bit of suspended animation instead of free gas bagging and understand it is a MOVIE. Not the best, but aimed at the vastly ignorant but curious masses. It was not msde for cultural nor historical accuracy, but to make money. With that all said, be a little less presumptuous and arrogant; then your videos would be shorter and more enjoyable.

Assuming the film is set circa 1500, it is entirely possible smallpox made it to Central America before Mayans saw "a single Spaniard." It is well documented that European diseases traveled much faster and wider than the Europeans themselves, wiping out entire regions before Europeans even set foot in the area. This is because the disease was carried by indigenous people who traded, traveled, and waged war among one another.

I'm from Yucatan and i remember every time someone says something about the Apocalypto movie in mayan history class, the teacher always says something about how WRONG it is historically and how "The road to El Dorado" is even more accurate.

its genius to figure out the cycle of the eclipse’s and then use it to legitimize ur divinity or connection to gods, big brain move.

No me esperaba ese epico cameo de AlternateHistoryHub, esos si son crossovers

To be fair, I looked it up. The film is supposed to be set at the beginning of the 16th century and is supposed to depict an individual Mayan City state rather than the entire empire from centuries earlier. That would justify the small pox and conquistadors, but not everything I suppose. I think they should have stated in the film what year it was, it would have avoided confusion.

nobody expects the Spanish -inquisition-

I love Braveheart, but I can’t get enough of you bringing back the “historians from England will say I am a liar” line and then saying “yeah I bet they do asshole.” 😂🤣

I watched this movie for entertainment not to prepare for a historical college exam. It's a great movie and that's all there is to it.

When you reconquista so hard you travel 600 years in the past

I've watched the audio commentary with Gibson and the co-writer, they openly admit that they blended some aspects of different periods of Mayan civilization, and they share that the film takes place in 1502. Although this film isn't by any means completely historically accurate, the filmmakers were never attempting to make it that way, their commentary goes over that notion several times.

Thank you for that Twitter analogy that really put things in perspective more than I think the numbers do.

Best collaboration ever. Legitimately. I'm so serious.

You made an unfair criticism of the village in 2:30 It's a periferal tribe not necessarily connected to the mayan empire. This is what most tribes from central to south america looked, and still look, like.

I would respect your opinion more if you hadn't given Gladiator a pass for the SAME STUFF! Are you judging films by history or story? Just pick one and stick to it.

Accurate or not, it's a super entertaining movie. It has great acting, great story, great cinematography, great action and even a great ending. What's not to like?

Before the famous conquest of Mexico by Hernán Cortés, there were several Spanish expeditions that explored the territory, for example. The Spanish who met Hernán Cortés and knew Maya was Jerónimo de Aguilar. Jerónimo de Aguilar was a Spanish sailor who lived with the Mayans before joining Cortés in his conquistador work.

According to Wikipedia, Apocalypto was **not** set in the 900s, but in 1502. This was never meant to be the height of the Mayan civilization, but its twilight and decline.

The smallpox girl was a prophetic vision bro, use your third eye.

My uncle is a historian in Mexico, with Masters in Mesoamerican civilizations. He was pulling his hair while watching this movie.

Bernardino Vázquez de Tapia testified in the early 1540s that: "The pestilence of measles and smallpox was so severe and cruel that more than one-fourth of the Indian people in all the land died."

the answer is simple, the Spanish sailed into the Bermuda triangle and that's how they ended up there

I'm usually quite fussy about historical inaccuracies but I find this movie absolutely brilliant. It is absolutely gripping from start to finish. Many of its scenes stuck to my memory like glue. I rewatch it every few years.

Smallpox is still a possibility. We aren’t sure that ship is the very first ship that came. Also some Mayans would have a natural immunity, which is why the wipeout rate wasn’t 100%. It was used as a foreshadow effect for what’s to come and how apocalyse’s are based on perspective.

I didn’t have a problem with the movie, since I didn’t take it as historical accurate. I found the movie entertaining. The Mayan structures/designs and people makeup, clothing and jewelry looked amazing. If I was looking for something historically accurate, I would check the history channel. Anyways if someone has seen any good Aztec/Mayan movies that want to recommend please let me know.

i mean in terms of walking 2 days from the village. You go to Afghanistan and there were still people who never visited the major cities even if they heard of them. Its not like isolated villages didn't exist. People live and die in the place they are born

Still not as bad as having Xena go from the Battle of Troy to speaking with Julius Caesar.

Thank you for crapping all over a great movie. Can’t wait to see your historically accurate masterpiece.

I’m just glad to know most of the stars of this film look even more fabulous in maturity.

21:15 Mayan priest drinking Gatorade is equally accurate to the actual movie's accuracy.

It is amazing to be how successful the Mayan, and Aztec empires were without iron or horse. Both empires had advanced mathematics, and writing. Their calendars extremely accurate, and a system of calculation and geometry so efficiently both civilizations erected great pyramids without the backbone of Pythagoras.

About the pox. Conquistadors made contact with Mayans in 1502 on the FOURTH voyage of Columbus. And it made contact with the Mayans in 1519 (Cortez). The first voyage of Columbus was in 1492 in the Caribbean. What is to say that indigenous people from the Island didn’t make contact with those in Central America or Mexico and propagated some sort of sickness? No one knows.

Re: the smallpox scene. Historically, there has been Europeans that have come before Cortes in that Yucatán peninsula going back at least 10 years prior to Cortes arrival. So while remote.. it is conceivable that the girl could have acquired smallpox from that exposure.

Nobody expects a time-travelling Spanish Expedition!

I actually liked the ending, because I thought it was about the Aztecs, and the ending was a "HOLY SHIT! they're doomed" moment!