Other mistake: When Jaguar Paw is running to reach the corn to escape and gets knocked down by an arrow; Middle Eye was about to whack him when Blunted intervened. You can hear Middle Eye say in English "Get off me!" while he's being held back. (01:27:52)
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.
Continuity mistake: At the first few scenes of the film the natives are shown with dark, broken and corroded teeth. Halfway through the movie the main cast show pearly white teeth.
Continuity mistake: When the group encounters the little girl who foresees the future, the scars on her face move from shot to shot as dialogue takes place. In this same scene her face goes several times from very dirty to somewhat dirty.
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.
Continuity mistake: Cut Rock's scar changes. When Zero Wolf first cut him, he cut two straight lines. It looks like they are approximately 120 degrees apart from each other. Later at the market, his scar is shaped like an arc. (00:42:40)
Visible crew/equipment: When the prisoners are being sold at the market, there are several shots of people chanting right at the camera. In one of these shots, an obvious shadow of the camera and its magazine can be seen in the lower part of the screen. (01:10:36)
Continuity mistake: When Jaguar Paw is being chased through the jungle, there is one scene at night. He stops to rest, and turns his head to see the torches behind him. In the two close-ups of his face, the piercing in his lower lip is gone. It reappears as he turns head away from the torches and starts running again. (01:41:10)
Continuity mistake: When Jaguar Paw runs into the corn field, his whole body is painted blue, but when he falls into the pit of dead natives, his body is only sparsely painted blue in the front. In the next scene where he is running through the jungle, his whole body is painted blue again.
Continuity mistake: After the oracle girl watches Jaguar Paw's group walk by, she proceeds to tell the Mayan warrior what will happen in the future. While she is saying the bit about "he being born of mud and earth," look in the background and you will see the group pass by again.
Visible crew/equipment: When the hunters have returned to the village, and Blunted is being pushed by his mother-in-law, at one point she is behind him, trying to push him forward. In the same shot, to the right of the screen, you can see a white hand touching his stomach as if telling him to stay put. When the angle changes, there is no one in front of him. (00:15:15)
Continuity mistake: The monkey that falls into the hole where Jaguar Paw's wife and son are, isn't in the next scenes. What became of it? There were no remnants to show it had been eaten. Nor was there anyway for them to dispose of it.
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)
Continuity mistake: As Jaguar Paw steps out of his hut in the early morning checking for intruders, the straw from his hut goes down past his shoulders. In the next shot, where the camera is showing his back, the straw was cut above his shoulders.
Factual error: When Jaguar Paw runs into the huge pit of corpses, all is completely quiet and still. No people or animals are to be seen. This much unprotected meat in the topics would attract hundreds of vultures and other scavengers.
Continuity mistake: While Jaguar Paw and his wife are resting by the fire, talking, and enjoying the ceremonial dance, their son is resting dead asleep on his side. The next shot he is on his back playing with his hands - awake. (00:23:00)
Continuity mistake: When Blunted is soaking his penis in the water container, the old medicine man with an "x" on his forehead is running towards him from the jungle. In the next shot he has his arm wrapped around another Indian laughing. There are also several children in front of the medicine man when there were no other Indians around him other than the man he was embracing. (00:18:40)
Continuity mistake: Jaguar Paw notices his dad in trouble when his tribe was being invaded. He throws his wooden weapon and tackles his opponent. The wooden weapon lands on the floor next to his opponents head. In the next shot the wooden weapon is not there. (00:32:00)
Continuity mistake: When the main hunter's son is killed by Jaguar Paw seven additional hunters run up to join him. In the next scene and throughout the chase there are eight hunters along with the one in command.
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 ★