Show me the path and tell me the truth.
First...
we saw a cloud of fire in the sky.
We cried out...
in fear.
We offered sacrifices...
to the gods.
We offered them blood...
but they did not answer.
Then your temple was burned, Huitzilopochtli.
Now, other peoples
have come to inhabit
this world.
Is it you, come to reclaim what is yours?
Is this the end for us?
Give me an answer.
ONE YEAR LATER
Captain...
I cannot do much more for him.
He refuses to co-operate.
Is he so ill?
The head wound reeks.
But what worries me most is he is spitting blood.
What do you want from me?
You want me to watch you die,
powerless to stop it?
Is that it?
All he wants is for this shame to pass quickly.
He wishes only to die.
No, you cannot die.
You are the great leader, Moctezuma.
Acatlxouhqui.
Marina.
I do not want it said that...
Moctezuma died like a dog...
stoned by his people.
I want to die like a warrior.
By my enemy's...
...hand.
He wants to die with honor, as if in battle.
At his enemy's hand.
He wants me to...
Absolutely not!
ONE YEAR EARLIER
Sir!
A messenger is here from Cholula!
It is urgent.
Let him in.
My lord...
What has happened?
The bearded men massacred us.
Them and their Tlaxcalteca allies.
They spilt blood in the Temple of Quetzalcoatl?
This cannot be.
This is what we were up against.
They killed the people of Cholula with this.
They are already at the gates,
on top of us.
What shall we do?
What do you want us to do?
They leave behind a trail of death.
We cannot defeat them.
They have not yet faced our warriors.
The Tlaxcalteca are fierce.
They outnumbered the Spaniards, but were defeated.
Sir!
We think it is time
to fight the distant men.
What do you want to do?
Wait.
But the Tlaxcalteca...
I heard them.
But only I know the will...
of the gods.
Now I need to ask...
their advice.
It is time.
They understand nothing.
I do not blame them.
I cannot read the signs either.
Everything fitted,
everything made sense.
It had to be Quetzalcoatl.
That is what is written.
It was not Quetzalcoatl.
If not him...
Who is it?
Perhaps another...
even more terrible, god...
or a device...
of other gods.
Why did this fate have to befall me?
What have I done
to deserve silence
from the gods?
How did they answer my father?
Tell the Council:
Do not act against the Lord of the distant men.
We will observe our customs:
We will receive them and hear them out.
Greetings.
From my King. Don Carlos.
My lord,
receive greetings from the great governor, King Carlos.
Give me my headdress.
Jeronimo, take it.
Thank you.
My lord...
you must be weary.
You have reached your lands, you have reached your city.
You are tired.
You have reached your lands,
you have reached your city.
This is the home they prepared for us.
It was his father's. Axayacatl.
Thank my Lord Moctezuma for his generosity.
It pleases me greatly.
Captains! With me. Xicotencatl!
Soldiers, wait here.
Bernal!
This is a palace?
It hasn't even got gates!
No.
No. It was clearly not designed for defense.
So, Captain Olid,
we must do it ourselves.
Bernal, Alvarado.
Arrange the cannons and culverins
around that rooftop
to cover all approaches.
That is not the problem, gentlemen.
We are in the middle of a lake
surrounded by water!
Well, with a decent gate and artillery up there,
it would take big balls to come at me!
Really? Good luck with that, Captain!
This is the square of our great temple
built in honor of Huitzilopochtli,
god of war and the sun
and of Tlaloc,
god of the rain.
This is the square of our great temple,
built in honor of Huitzilopochtli,
god of war and the sun and of Tlaloc, god of the rain.
What?
Witchy loathsome!
And where is the gold?
I don't know.
And these are the fiercest
warriors in the world,
feared by all peoples.
The chiefs are chosen
from the best families.
And they learn to fight from childhood.
These are the skulls of our sacrifices.
The skulls of those who were sacrificed.
They had the honor
of a flowery death
and deserve to be looked on
by the gods with pride.
They had the honor of a flowery death
and being presented to their gods.
Let's get out of here.
Do you remember the city?
Do you remember it?
Do I remember it?
Did you translate that right, Marina?
And how could I remember it?
Do I remember it?
How could I remember it?
The Fifth Sun is over.
Quetzalcoatl must return
and reign over his brother Tezcatlipoca.
It was foretold thus:
He would return the way he had gone,
to reclaim what is his,
accompanied by bearded warriors.
Hernan...
he speaks to you as if you were a god.
I am a man. Like you.
I simply come from a different place.
I am a man, like you.
What is that over there?
What is that?
The great market at Tlatelolco.
They buy and sell everything there.
The great market at Tlatelolco.
They buy and sell everything there.
And over there, what is that?
Blessed Father!
Why all this blood?
Is human sacrifice really necessary to please a god?
Why do you have to make sacrifices to your god?
Why all this blood?
Do you not need to eat?
Our gods need their food too.
Do you not need to eat?
Our gods need their food too.
Our duty is to feed them...
Our duty is to feed them so they give life...
...so they give life to the world.
So that The Sun and The Moon give light
and our crops germinate.
So they give light and the crops thrive.
He wishes to introduce you to his children.
Chimalpopoca.
And this is my beautiful daughter...
Acatlxouhqui.
Is she his daughter too?
Yes.
Good.
These distant men reek.
Their smell makes me want to vomit.
Moctezuma has no guards.
We have the only weapons here.
Clearly, palace uprisings
are not fashionable around here!
Now, tell us, what you do want?
What are you looking for?
Now.
Great leader,
Hernan Cortes
comes in the name of his king, don Carlos.
He asks you to surrender to him.
He also wishes you to recognize the one true God.
I wish to have the friendship...
of this great king, don Carlos.
And we will come to know another god.
He will offer tribute to Carlos
and will know another god.
What you have up there is not a god,
great leader, but a devil.
You must renounce it.
Stop sacrificing people
and eating their flesh. That is appalling.
Barbaric.
That is no god. It is a devil.
You must forget sacrifices.
And not eat their flesh.
You cannot say that.
You offend us. Now go to your palace.
That offends us. Go back to the palace.
Very well.
Let us go, gentlemen.
AXAYACATL PALACE, ONE YEAR LATER
He's dying.
What?
Why does death concern you so much?
Does death not concern you?
It is not the same for us.
We do not ask to be born, nor to die.
It just happens.
- And afterwards? - Have you seen it?
No.
But I do not want to see it.
Not until I am ready.
Perhaps he is, Hernan.
Come and sit on my lap.
Come.
You still do not understand, do you?
Even after so long with us.
I am a soldier of God.
In his name, I demolished idols and burnt down temples.
And still I wake up in the night...
anguished by my sins,
the lives I have stolen.
If I quake...
at the thought of those eternal flames...
What awaits him?
Tell me, what awaits him?
I do not know about any flames.
But if it's so important to you, tell him.
I have tried many times.
But he has such faith in his beliefs.
- If only he would be baptized. - Is that all you ask of him?
What harm can a bit of water on his head do him?
He would see it as a humiliation.
Another, on top of everything else.
I would not know how to talk to him about it.
Ask his forgiveness.
God forgives, doesn't he?
He forgives, because he is God.
If God forgives,
why can you not forgive and ask forgiveness?
Tecuhichpo...
Here, in this mirror...
is where my father Axayacatl...
used to observe the stars.
Look, this is your star.
It determined your fate...
If you touch the water...
the stars will disappear.
Father...
what does my star say about my destiny?
Sometimes it is best not to know.
I want to know.
What for?
Even if you could read the gods' thoughts,
you could not change their plans.
To them... we are nothing.
MOCTEZUMA PALACE ONE YEAR EARLIER
Since your arrival...
I have sought a gift...
to equal yours.
He wanted to give you something like your cross.
This greatly surpasses it.
Thank you.
Why is gold so important to you?
In our world...
this is the most valuable thing.
Tell him.
In our world, it is very valuable.
If we gave you as much of it as we could gather...
Would you leave this place?
This is only the beginning, is it not?
How many more will come?
If we gave you all the gold, would you leave?
You are just the first.
How many more will come?
Thousands and thousands...
will arrive on these shores.
It will not cease.
Hence, I ask that you invoke the protection of my king.
Thousands and thousands will arrive on these shores.
That is why you must accept the protection of my king.
Would you order your warriors...
not to fight, but become slaves?
No. No.
Nor will I ask it of mine.
They know it...
but they do not understand.
Hence,
a warrior will do battle,
a mother will give birth,
a farmer still
sews crops.
Each of them...
until their last breath.
My lord, I come to ask your forgiveness.
ONE YEAR LATER
Ololiuhqui.
What have you done to me?
I will guide you.
Do not be afraid.
My lord, where are we?
Nowhere.
I must ask your forgiveness for my mistakes,
and my failures.
For so much blood spilt...
for everything I have done to you, Moctezuma,
and for everything I have yet to do to your people.
I accept your apology,
though it is of little use now.
There's still time.
For what?
At the very least,
I want you to avoid the agonies of hell.
Listen to me, I beg you.
I speak as a man with one foot already in that place.
Each of us...
must reckon with his gods.
Let me ask mine...
why they have stayed silent
all this time.
If I die with honor, I will ascend,
accompany the sun on his journey,
from sunrise to sunset.
Perhaps one day I will return,
as if I were a hummingbird...
or a butterfly.
I will stick with my gods.
Very well. Very well.
The time has come.
We could have been friends.
Yes.
If you had not deceived me.
Now, fulfill your destiny,
just as it is written.
The time has come!
No!
The time has come!
No!
The time has come!
Very well.
War is a form of love.
ONE YEAR EARLIER
Gorgeous!
Let me see!
Leave our women be, foul beings!
Even our whores are too good for you.
Look.
Let's go! We're surrounded.
No, no one tells me what to do,
and certainly not one of these monkeys!
What is that?
It belongs to one of the soldiers
we were looking for.
They must have been ambushed.
We cannot be certain of that.
We are surrounded by enemies.
How long until they attack
and annihilate us all?
I have something in mind.
It is risky, excessively so,
but if fortune smiles upon us...
we could conquer Tenochtitlan
without spilling a drop of blood.
Two of my soldiers have disappeared.
This is all that remains of them.
Is this Moctezuma's hospitality?
Tell him he must come to our palace.
Now! Together!
If his people see us united, they will not resist.
Tell him!
The great governor Moctezuma will come to Axayacatl palace.
I will not!
I am the great leader.
He refuses.
He cannot refuse!
Or blood will flow, Castilian style.
Starting with your family.
My lord does not want blood to flow
like it did in Cholula.
And certainly not your family's.
I will go. Stop.
He says yes.
We are leaving, gentlemen.
In here.
Marina, lend me that.
It's cold in here.
I'll get you another.
I demand that you stop this...
and take us back to our palace immediately.
He wants to go back to his palace. Now.
That is not possible. I have explained why.
What harm have I done you
to deserve such treatment?
I have given you a home, food...
He does not know what he has done
to be treated like this.
He has not done anything.
ONE YEAR LATER
Captain!
What is it?
Moctezuma wishes to see you.
Let's go.
Hernan, just you.
My lord Moctezuma, how are you?
My time...
has come.
The pain...
I cannot...
bear it...
anymore.
Is this what you want?
Do it.
Very well.