[edit] Plot Summary

Jaguar Paw (in middle played by Rudy Youngblood) and his father Flint Sky (to the right played by Morris Birdyellowhead) in their village.Opening quote: "A great civilization is not conquered from without until it has destroyed itself from within." — W. Durant

After a tapir hunt in the Mesoamerican jungle, Jaguar Paw (Rudy Youngblood), his father Flint Sky (Morris Birdyellowhead), and their fellow tribespeople encounter a procession of traumatized and fearful refugees. The procession's leader explains that their lands have been ravaged, and with Flint Sky's permission, the procession passes through the forest. When Jaguar Paw and his tribespeople return to their village, Flint Sky tells his son not to let the procession's fearful state seep into him. At night, the tribe's elder tells the village a fable of humans dangerously never filling their want, despite having the capabilities of the world's animals. The villagers follow the story with music and dance, leaving Jaguar Paw to ponder.

The next morning, after Jaguar Paw wakes from a nightmare, he sees strangers enter the village, setting aflame homes with their torches. The raiders, led by Zero Wolf (Raoul Trujillo), attack the villagers and subdue as many as possible. Jaguar Paw slips out of the village with his pregnant wife Seven (Dalia Hernández) and his little son Turtles Run, lowering them on a vine into a small cave (a chultun, shaped something like a well)[16] to hide them. Jaguar Paw returns to his village to fight against the raiders, but he is subdued with the rest of his tribespeople. A raider whom Jaguar Paw attacked, the vicious Middle Eye (Gerardo Taracena), prepares to execute Flint Sky in front of his son. Flint Sky tells Jaguar Paw not to be afraid, and Middle Eye slits Flint Sky's throat.

Before the raiders leave the village with their prisoners, one suspicious raider severs the vine leading into the ground cave, trapping Jaguar Paw's wife and son within. The raiders and their captives trek toward a Maya city, encountering failed maize crops and slaves producing plaster. They also pass a small girl stricken with plague who warns the raiders that their end is near. In the city's outskirts, the female villagers are sold as slaves, and the male villagers are escorted into the city to the top of a step pyramid. The high priest sacrifices several captives by pulling out their hearts and then decapitating them. When Jaguar Paw is on the altar to be sacrificed, a solar eclipse stays the priest's hand. The priest declares the sun god Kukulkan satisfied with the sacrifices, and he asks the sun god to restore light. The eclipse passes, and light returns to the world.

Zero Wolf, told to dispose of the captives by the priest, takes them to a ball field. Their captives are released in pairs to run the length of the field while the raiders target them with javelins, arrows, and stones. Jaguar Paw successfully reaches the field's end and though injured by an arrow, bypasses a raider "finisher", Zero Wolf's son, Cut Rock, by killing him. An enraged Zero Wolf pursues Jaguar Paw into the jungle with his fellow raiders. During the chase, a jaguar pursuing Jaguar Paw switches its victim and attacks one of the pursuers. The pursuers' morale breaks as they interpret the jaguar attack as an omen. The chase leads back to the forest in which Jaguar Paw's village was located. As he flees, Jaguar Paw jumps over a high waterfall and survives. He declares from the riverbank below that the raiders are now in his territory. The raiders jump over the falls as well and continue their pursuit.

Zero Wolf's raiders fall to both the forest's elements and Jaguar Paw's traps. A heavy rain sets in, which begins to flood the ground cave in which Jaguar Paw's wife and son are still trapped. Jaguar Paw bludgeons Middle Eye in hand-to-hand combat and kills Zero Wolf by luring him into a trap meant for hunting tapir. He is chased by two remaining raiders out to a beach where they encounter conquistadors and missionaries. The amazement of his pursuers allows Jaguar Paw to flee. He returns into the forest to rescue his wife and son from the cave. He finds that his wife has water birthed a healthy second son, and the family is rescued. Later, as Jaguar Paw leads his family away, he and his wife steal a glimpse of the conquistador's ominous ships anchored off the beach. She suggests that they approach these visitors. But Jaguar Paw does not agree and leads his family further into the forest to "seek a new beginning."