History Film / RapaNui1994

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler: Make very nearly wins the Birdman Race, being mere few steps away from the finish line, with the egg intact. He slips. The egg breaks]].

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: When Tupa orders his guards to just slaughter the restless Short Ears, Noro stops them, pointing out that the Short Ears are the only ones left that still know how to build moais. The priests calls his guards off.
* CruelMercy: [[spoiler: Noro is spared from the slaughter of all the Long Ears simply to rub it into his face that he's LastOfHisKind and how meaningless his victory in the Birdman Race ultimately is]].
* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Chief Ariki-mau keeps talking about some mysterious "White Canoe" and is clearly not right in the head, obsessing over it non-stop. [[spoiler: However, it is revealed that he just meant an iceberg, which are floating periodically around the island, and gets his wish fulfilled]].

* ForWantOfANail: [[spoiler: Make wins the Birdman Race, being mere few steps away from the finish line, with the egg intact. He slips. The egg breaks]].

* HumanResources: The bones of the dead are used for fish hooks and similar. Not wanting such fate, the chief seeks for the "White Canoe" to sail away directly to the afterlife.

** When they show the first signs of dissent, Tupa orders the slaughter of the protesting Short Ears, only to be stopped by Noro, who doesn't want the bloodshed. [[spoiler: Few months later, rather than the handful of people, ''all'' Short Ears stage a revolt and slaughter every single Long Ear on the island]].

Rapa-Nui is 1994 film that takes place on UsefulNotes/EasterIsland in the unspecified past, and is loosely ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory quite loosely]]) based on surviving legends of how and why the famous statues were erected.

Rapa-Nui is 1994 film that takes place on Easter Island in the unspecified past, and is loosely ([[VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory quite loosely]]) based on surviving legends of how and why [[EenieMeenieMinyMoai the famous statues]] were erected.

The Easter Island is home to two castes: the Long Ears, who are the ruling class, and the Short Ears, who are their slaves in all but name. The island itself has less and less resources to feed its increasingly inbred population, and the high priest of the Long Ears keeps forcing the construction of yet another moai statue, to placate the gods and bring fertility back to the barren land. Unfortunately, this means chopping down more trees for timbering and having fewer people able to work farms for the little food that remains, now that everyone is hauling the giant slab of stone across the island. Feeling rebellion is immanent, the increasingly restless Short Ears are eventually placated by letting their champion apply to the annual Birdman Race, normally a taboo for their kind. The prize is well worth it - the winner's tribe gets to rule the island for a year.

The Easter Island is home to two castes: the Long Ears, who are the ruling class, and the Short Ears, who are their slaves in all, but name. The island itself has less and less resources to feed its increasingly inbred population, and the high priest of the Long Ears keeps forcing the construction of yet another moai statue, to placate the gods and bring fertility back to the barren land. Unfortunately, this means chopping down more trees for timbering and having fewer people able to work farms for the little food that remains, now that everyone is hauling the giant slab of stone across the island. Feeling rebellion is immanent, the increasingly restless Short Ears are eventually placated by letting their champion apply to the annual Birdman Race, normally a taboo for their kind. The prize is well worth it - the winner's tribe gets to rule the island for a year.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Then Tupa orders his guards to just slaughter the restless Short Ears, Noro stops them, pointing out that the Short Ears are the only ones left that still know how to build moais. The priests calls his guards off.

* TheCuckoolanderWasRight: Chief Ariki-mau keeps talking about some mysterious "White Canoe" and is clearly not right in the head, obsessing over it non-stop. [[spoiler: However, it is revealed that he just meant an iceberg, floating periodically around the island, and gets his wish fulfilled]].

The Eastern Island is home to two castes: the Long Ears, who are the ruling class, and the Short Ears, who are their slaves in all, but name. The island itself has less and less resources to feed its increasingly inbred population, and the high priest of the Long Ears keeps forcing the construction of yet another moai statue, to placate the gods and bring fertility back to the barren land. Unfortunately, this means chopping down more trees for timbering and having fewer people able to work farms for the little food that remains, now that everyone is hauling the giant slab of stone across the island. Feeling rebellion is immanent, the increasingly restless Short Ears are eventually placated by letting their champion apply to the annual Birdman Race, normally a taboo for their kind. The prize is well worth it - the winner's tribe gets to rule the island for a year.

* SmallSecludedWorld: The Eastern Island is the only land within hundreds of miles. As far as the islanders are aware, there is no other land. And nobody ever returned from attempts to find other places. [[spoiler: In the finale, Haoa gives Noro and Ramana a canoe with a piece of flotsam beam from an European-style ship mounted on it, providing Noro with hope that there ''must'' be some other place to go]].

* VeryLooselyBasedOnATrueStory: The society of Eastern Island went through some serious upheaval in the past. There is a legend about the last "Long Ear young man" being witness to that. There was a tradition of a Birdman Race, established at least a few centuries later after the collapse of the previous society. And by the time Europeans arrived on the island, there was not a single tree on it, but a bunch of mysterious statues. That's about the amount of true things in the whole film.

* SympatheticPOV: For all its faults, the script manages to pull this off to great dramatic effect. For the first half of the story, the plight of the Short Ears is portrayed in a sympathetic light. However, once they start their bloody revolt, they are shown to be quite similar to, if not ''worse'' than, the indifferent cruelty of the Long Ears.

* WeUsedToBeFriends: Noro and Make knew each other since childhood, maintaining their friendship even despite coming from different castes. However, the events of the film slowly, but surely erode their relationship until they are sworn enemies.

* SympatheticPOV: For all its faults, the script manages to pull this off to great dramatic effect. For the first half of the story, the plight of the Short Ears is portrayed in a sympathetic light. However, once they start their bloody revolt, they are shown to be NotSoDifferent, if not ''worse'' than the indifferent cruelty of the Long Ears.

* CantKillYouStillNeedYou: Then Tupa orders his guards to just slaughter the restless Short Earts, Noro stops them, pointing out that the Short Ears are the only ones left that still know how to build moais. The priests calls his guards off.

* BrickJoke: A very, very dark example. When Make suggests to use jams as grease for logs used to transport the statue (which will cut down their rations), one of the Short Ears remarks [[spoiler: "pretty soon we'll nothing to eat but each other". After the revolt kicks-off, some of the Short Ears ends up eating the slain Long Ears]].

-->''Ariki-mau''': ({{Beat}}) ... why?

** Noro embarks on training under Haoa, Ramana's father. Because he's well-fed and has no real job as a noble scion, he's also pushed to his limit, running with extra weight for entire days only to face Haoa in brutal hand-to-hand combat every evening. 

In the backdrop of the brewing tribal conflict, Long Ear Noro (Creator/JasonScottLee) and Short Ear Make have their childhood friendship tested. Not over the tribal politics, but over Ramana, a girl both of them love and neither can have, since she's taboo for both of them for different reasons. But when for Noro it's all just fun and games to enroll in the Birdman Race, Make will pay with his head if he loses, while Short Ears will be worked even harder.