Incredibly brutal adventure epic captivates with a 139-minute fight for survival in the jungle

Since 1993, Mel Gibson has not only been an actor in front of the camera, but also behind it active as a director. The Hollywood star, known from action series such as Mad Max and Lethal Weapon, directed his best film in 2006 with the relentless adventure film Apocalypto, which you can now watch on Amazon Prime.

Adventure film on Amazon Prime: With Apocalypto, Mel Gibson has created a gripping survival epic

The story of Apocalypto takes you to the first half of the 16th century and is all in one Mayan village on the Yucatán Peninsula settled. Here people live peacefully in harmony with nature. But then the community is attacked by another tribe that brutally tears entire families apart.

Although it is the hunter Paw of the jaguar (Rudy Youngblood) manages to hide his pregnant wife and son in a safe place in the jungle, but he himself cannot escape the attackers. He is taken captive and is to be sacrificed in a ritual. A merciless fight for survival begins.

You can watch the trailer for Apocalypto here:

Apocalypto walks a fine line between authentic historical film and Hollywood blockbuster. On the one hand, only the Mayan language Mayathan is spoken throughout the film and translated with subtitles. On the other hand, Gibson stages the story as a mixture of action-adventure and survival thriller.

Two years before Apocalypto, Gibson took a similar approach with The Passion of the Christ. Aramaic, Latin and Hebrew were spoken in the controversial Jesus film. At the same time, Gibson set the suffering and the crucifixion very stylized as a spectacle in the scene, among other things through the use of slow motion.

With Apocalypto, Gibson’s approach works surprisingly well. With every minute he takes us deeper into the jungle and increases the tension to the unbearable level. Through his powerful and hard images The film achieves a level of conviction that in the end it really feels as if we were standing at the foot of a Mayan pyramid.

Even more streaming tips from Amazon and Co.: In the podcast we tell you the biggest November highlights

If you’re looking for more streaming tips for an exciting movie night, we have some exciting titles ready in this edition of our Moviepilot podcast Streamgewerbe.

There are many exciting films not only on Amazon Prime in November. You can also discover interesting new releases on Netflix, Apple TV+ and Disney+, including the new thriller by master director David Fincher.

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