Logline: As the Spanish scourge descends upon the cloud-shrouded citadel of Machu Picchu, a humble corn grinder must become a warrior to reclaim his people’s stolen future—the sacred seeds of life—from the steel-clad invaders before the final sunset of the Inca Empire.
Director: Mel Gibson
Screenplay: Mel Gibson & Nick Romero
Principal Cast:
- Nick Romero as Achiq (The Sower), a low-born puric (commoner) whose family has tended the sacred corn terraces of Machu Picchu for generations. He is a man of the earth, not a warrior, but possesses an unmatched knowledge of the mountain paths.
- Joe Jukic as Captain Valerio De La Cruz, a hardened, veteran conquistador. Pragmatic, weary, and driven not by gold alone, but by a desperate need to secure a viable food source for a failing Spanish colony. He sees the Inca granaries as a strategic prize.
- Tony Medeiros as Father Mateo, a zealous Dominican friar. Where Valerio sees sustenance, Mateo sees blasphemy. He believes the “pagan” seeds, housed in a “demon’s ziggurat,” must be seized and the structure sanctified with Christian blood.
- Special Appearance: Qhapaq Inka Tupac (The Emperor), a divine ruler caught between prophecy and a crumbling reality, portrayed with serene and tragic gravitas.
TREATMENT
ACT I: THE CLOUD FORTRESS
The film opens not with dialogue, but with the rhythmic, hypnotic sound of stone on stone. NICK ROMERO as ACHIQ, his hands calloused and sure, grinds maize in a ritual as old as his people. We are high in the Andes, in the breathtaking, mist-enshrouded citadel of Machu Picchu. It is a city of stone and sky, a marvel of engineering and faith. Achiq is not a warrior or a priest, but a puric—the backbone of the empire. His world is his family, his terraces, and the sacred corn, the lifeblood of the Inca.
We are introduced to the Sapa Inca, Tupac, the emperor. He is not a tyrant, but a revered, almost ethereal figure, presiding over rituals at the “Ziggurat”—the film’s dramatic name for the central religious complex of Machu Picchu, which houses the Imperial Granary. This granary is not just a storehouse; it is a temple, containing the ancestral seeds of every strain of corn, a genetic and spiritual library of the civilization.
Meanwhile, a ragged but deadly band of Spanish conquistadors, led by JOE JUKIC as CAPTAIN VALERIO, ascends the treacherous slopes. They are not the shiny, confident invaders of legend. They are haunted, starving, and riddled with disease. With them is TONY MEDEIROS as FATHER MATEO, whose eyes burn with a feverish need to eradicate the “idolatry” he sees in every carved stone. Valerio has heard tales of an “unconquerable city in the clouds” and, more importantly, its legendary stores of food that could save his men.
Using guile and the terrifying novelty of their steel and horses, they find a secret entrance. Under the cover of a moonless night, while the Emperor sleeps in his palace, guarded by traditional warriors unprepared for this new kind of foe, the Spaniards infiltrate the heart of the city. In a sequence of intense, quiet horror, they bypass the slumbering guards and breach the granary. They ignore gold and jewels, instead stuffing their sacks and satchels with the priceless, multi-colored corn seeds. As they flee, Father Mateo, in an act of profound desecration, sets a small fire at the altar of the granary.
The discovery at dawn is catastrophic. The Emperor is shamed, his divine protection proven fallible. The priesthood is in chaos. The theft of the seeds is not just a loss of food; it is the theft of their future, their connection to the sun god Inti. In the ensuing frenzy, Achiq’s small son is accidentally trampled by panicked nobles. His wife screams, “They have taken our tomorrow!”
Achiq, cradling his dead child, looks from his family’s tragedy to the plundered granary. A primal fury ignites within him. He is no longer a grinder of corn, but a sower of vengeance. He knows every hidden trail, every waterfall and canyon of the sacred valley. While the Inca army prepares for a conventional war, Achiq grabs a simple bolas and a farmer’s knife. He does not seek to defend the empire; he seeks to reclaim its soul. He slips out of the city, a shadow against the stone, beginning a one-man pursuit.
ACT II: THE HUNTED BECOMES THE HUNTER
The Spaniards believe their escape is assured. They are wrong. They are now in Achiq’s world. The descent from Machu Picchu becomes a gauntlet of terror.
Valerio, the pragmatic soldier, wants only to get the seeds back to the colony. Father Mateo, however, is slowly losing his mind, seeing demons in the swirling mists and interpreting every setback as a divine test. The tension between the two Spaniards boils over, fracturing their command.
Achiq does not engage them head-on. He is a ghost.
- He uses a bolas to trip a scout, sending him screaming into a deep ravine.
- He triggers a rockslide, burying two conquistadors and their precious sacks of seeds, which are lost forever.
- He uses animal calls to lure a soldier away from the group, dispatching him silently with his farming tool.
His attacks are not just kills; they are reclamations. After each ambush, he carefully retrieves any pouches of seeds he can find, tying them to his own belt. Each seed pouch is a life regained.
The Inca army, led by a proud general, engages the Spaniards in a pitched battle on a stone bridge. It is a spectacular, brutal sequence in the classic Gibson style: spears against pikes, slings against crossbows. The Spanish firepower and steel eventually win the day, but at a great cost, scattering the remaining seeds and further decimating their numbers.
Achiq watches this battle from the cliffs above, realizing the folly of fighting the invaders on their terms. His way—the way of the hunter, the guerrilla—is the only way. He tracks the now-decimated Spanish band, now just Valerio, a terrified Father Mateo, and a handful of the hardiest survivors, to a sacred river at the base of the valley.
ACT III: THE FALL OF THE MOUNTAIN
Valerio, cornered and desperate, makes a final stand at the river, using the last of their gunpowder to create a defensive position. Father Mateo, in his madness, begins baptizing the remaining seeds in the river, shouting prayers in Latin, believing he is cleansing them of evil.
Achiq does not attack from the front. He dives into the raging, icy water, a creature of pure instinct. He surfaces amidst the Spaniards, creating chaos. In the ensuing melee, it becomes a personal duel.
Achiq confronts Father Mateo, who holds the last, largest sack of the ancestral seeds. The friar, seeing Achiq not as a man but as a manifestation of the devil, raises a crucifix. Achiq, with a cry of pure, unadulterated grief and rage, tackles him into the torrent. The two men struggle in the water, a clash of worlds—faith against faith. Mateo disappears beneath the current, the seeds spilling from the sack and scattering into the river, lost to both cultures forever.
Finally, it is Achiq versus Valerio. The weary, steel-clad captain against the agile, earth-born farmer. It is a brutal, hand-to-hand fight. Achiq is wounded, but he uses his knowledge of the environment, luring Valerio onto a slippery rock and using his bolas to entangle the conquistador’s legs, pulling him into the water where his armor becomes a coffin.
Exhausted and bleeding, Achiq staggers from the river. He has won. He has annihilated the invaders. But as he looks at the few, small pouches of seeds tied to his belt, he knows it is a pyrrhic victory. The heart of the seed library is gone, scattered to the currents.
He climbs back to the peaks, not to Machu Picchu, but to a hidden, high valley known only to his family. We see him, alone, kneeling in the rich soil. With a trembling, determined hand, he takes the few remaining seeds and presses them into the earth.
FINAL SHOT:
The camera pulls back, soaring high above Achiq. We see him as a single, small figure in a vast, green valley. The mists of the mountains roll in, enveloping him. The great stone city of Machu Picchu is seen in the distance, now empty, a silent, beautiful tomb. The civilization has fallen, but in that one, small patch of earth, Achiq has sown the future. The cycle of life, though wounded, continues. The final image is of the first green sprout breaking through the dark soil, a tiny, defiant promise against the encroaching shadow.