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Film / Rapa-Nui (1994)
aka: Rapa Nui

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*Kevin Costner sold in a separate package

Rapa-Nui is 1994 film that takes place on the eponymous island of Rapa Nui (also known as Easter Island) in the unspecified past, and is loosely (quite loosely) based on surviving legends of how and why 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 imminent, 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.

In the backdrop of the brewing tribal conflict, Long Ear Noro (Jason Scott Lee) and Short Ear Make have their childhood friendship tested. Not over the tribal politics, but over Ramana (Sandrine Holt), 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.

None of this made particularly good impression on anyone upon premiere. The film is mostly known (but not exactly remembered) for being one of the biggest box-office bombs ever produced and irreversibly ruining Kevin Reynolds' directing career and being first step to his fall-out with Kevin Costner (the other being Waterworld), who co-produced this film.


This film contains examples of:

  • Anarchy Is Chaos: The eventual revolt descends into unstoppable and uncontrollable chaos, topping over the society of the island.
    (Witnessing his fellow tribesmen eating charred, human carcass)
    Make: You can't do this... I-it's taboo...
    Short Ear: And who's gonna stop us?
  • Asshole Victim: Tupa is so needlessly cruel and then gloats about it, it's hard not to cheer when he is suddenly killed off.
  • Blood Sport: The Birdman Race is an annual competition, where each tribe sets up their champion. The goal: to bring an egg from a rocky islet as the first man. Obstacles: steep cliffs, the sea current, and sharks that populate it. Means: all blows are allowed, including tossing other contestants off the cliff, breaking their limbs and beating them to death. By the end of the race seen in the film, only Noro and Make are still alive.
  • Brick Joke: 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 "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.
  • The Caligula: While he lacks a psychopatic steak, chief Ariki-mau is clearly delusional, openly incompetent, and just doesn't care if things are going bad. His only life goal is to find "the White Canoe" and sail on it away from the island.
  • Can't Kill You, Still Need You: 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 priest calls his guards off.
  • Cruel Mercy: Noro is spared from the slaughter of all the Long Ears simply to rub it into his face that he's Last of His Kind and how meaningless his victory in the Birdman Race ultimately is.
  • The Cuckoolander Was Right: Chief Ariki-mau keeps talking about some mysterious "White Canoe" and is clearly not right in the head, obsessing over it non-stop. However, it is revealed that he just meant an iceberg, which are floating periodically around the island, and gets his wish fulfilled.
  • Dramatic Irony: The audience is fully aware of not only how futile the attempts to placate the gods with moai will be, but that constructing them is the very reason the island is suffering from barren land, food shortages, and lack of resources.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: While it's hard to call chief Ariki-mau "evil", he genuinely doesn't understand why Short Ears are rebellious and have any sort of demands. After all, it is their job to work till their death for meager food ration.
    Noro: Just give them SOMETHING!
    Ariki-mau: (Beat) ... why?
  • Forbidden Fruit: Ramana is off-limits to both Noro and Make, respectively, due to her belonging to a different caste and being the daughter of an outcast. Therefore, they are all that more interested in her and compete more for her hand than for the power that comes from winning the Birdman Race.
  • Face Death with Dignity: Heke, the old carver, intentionally stands in front of a giant slab of stone sliding in his direction, utterly disillusioned with the prospect of building moais. While everyone at the site calls for him to move, he embraces his easily avoidable death as better than continuing to be worked to death. 
    Heke: (looking at the row of statues) What for?
  • Green Aesop: Since it was one of the early 90s "eco-friendly" movies, it handles the aesop with typical for that era utter disregard for subtlety. Still, one of the driving forces behind the plot is man-created ecological disaster and total deforestation of the island, deliberately cutting down even the last tree.
  • Human Resources: The bones of the dead are used for fish hooks and similar. Not wanting such a fate to befall his remains, the chief seeks the "White Canoe" to sail away directly to the afterlife.
  • I'm Standing Right Here: When trying to solve the problem with Short Ears' refusal to continue to work, Noro, Tupa and Ariki-mau have a heated argument a mere few steps away from them, including the fact they don't believe a Short Ear could be even capable of winning the Birdman (given they barely have anything to eat and are overworked). This is not done for comedic purposes, but out of sheer desperation the characters are facing.
  • Men Act, Women Are: Both Noro and Make are characterised by their actions and decisions. Ramana is simply beautiful, then spends most of the film locked in a cave, being more of an inspiration to both men than an actual character.
  • No Good Deed Goes Unpunished:
    • 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. A few months later, rather than the handful of people, all Short Ears stage a revolt and slaughter every single Long Ear on the island.
    • When Short Ears are allowed to compete in the Birdman Race, Tupa makes a requirement that should they lose, their champion will be slain for the glory of the winner. Noro spares Make, and Make starts a revolt that very same night.
  • No Name Given: The grand majority of characters, many with spoken lines, remain nameless. If they are credited, they are given undescriptive titles like "Long Ear Overseer" or "Priest".
  • Path of Inspiration: While not outright stated, it is clear throughout the story that religious taboos (note the plural) are the only thing that still keeps Long Ears in charge. But once Make breaks a lot of them by killing the high priest Tupa, a Long Ear, there is no turning back and a full-blown revolt starts.
  • Puppet King: Ariki-mau is an old, senile man, clearly fearful of dying and making decisions on a whim. High priest Tupa, who officially is merely his advisor, is the real power ruling the island. However, as long as Ariki-mau is present, he works as a genuine mediator, preventing Tupa from overly harsh treatment of the Short Ears. The first thing that happens after he leaves on the iceberg is a full-scale revolt of Short Ears.
  • "Ray of Hope" Ending: By the end of the movie, the island is ecologically devastated, its society has been all but destroyed in a brutal rebellion, Make has become a bloodthirsty tyrant, and Noro and Ramana have set sail in search for a new home, their ultimate fate uncertain. However, a post-credits scene states that archaeological evidence proves that Pitcairn Island was settled, providing some hope that Noro and Ramana managed to find a new land.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: True to the legend it is based on and (somewhat) plausible archaeological clues, once the Short Ears revolt, it ain't pretty. And the fact that they've murdered everyone on their path is probably the least awful thing they did.
  • Sinister Minister: Tupa, the high priest, is the only clear-cut villain of the story, abusing both his position and religious taboos for his own personal amusement. He spares no chance to Kick the Dog whenever he pleases. It backfires horribly when the Short Ears simply had enough of it and he decided to yank them some more, ordering a new moai to be erected even faster and of more complex design.
  • Sins of Our Fathers: Noro is not regarded particularly highly by other Long Ears, since his father took the bravest men and the biggest canoe and just sailed into the ocean in search of anything out there, never to return.
  • Small, Secluded World: The Easter 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. 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.
  • Spark of the Rebellion: Make killing the high priest Tupa, after he came to the Short Ears village to do some more Evil Gloating. The sheer act of defiance against so many taboos is enough for others to follow, even despite their initial shock and reservations.
  • Sympathetic P.O.V.: 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. Noro even makes a "Not So Different" Remark, pointing out that Make turned into just another blood-thirsty tyrant like Tupa.
  • Threatening Shark: One of the participants in the Birdman Race is devoured by sharks, after first cutting his leg on a rock.
  • Training from Hell:
    • 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.
    • Make meanwhile has to combine the preparations and physical training for the Birdman Race with the fact that he is doing back-breaking labour for the whole day with barely any food, moving the moai across the island.
  • Very Loosely Based on a True Story: The society of Easter 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.
  • We Used to Be Friends: 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. When sparing Noro in the finale, Make even invokes this trope verbatim.

Alternative Title(s): Rapa Nui

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