10,000 BC (2008)
12-month trend
12-month trend
Monthly article views
2025-09 to 2026-08
A prehistoric tribe of mammoth hunters must lead a rebellion against an advanced civilization to save their people from slavery.
The story
In 10,000 BC, a hunter-gatherer tribe called the Yagahl lives in the Ural Mountains, surviving by hunting woolly mammoths. As their food source becomes scarce, a young girl named Evolet is brought to their camp. The tribe's shaman prophesies that 'four-legged demons' will come for them after their last mammoth hunt, and that Evolet will be betrothed to the hunt's champion to lead them into a new way of life. Unwilling to trust the prophecy, the tribe's chief hunter sets out alone to find another way to save his people, entrusting his friend and his young son, D'Leh, with his sacred White Spear.
Full plot (contains spoilers)
Years later, the adult D'Leh hunts mammoths and wins the White Spear and Evolet, but gives them up after an accidental triumph. When horse-mounted riders attack and abduct tribe members, D'Leh, Tic'Tic, Ka'Ren, and a boy named Baku set out on a rescue mission. They encounter a sedentary Naku village and eventually form a coalition of tribes. They discover an advanced Egyptian civilization ruled by an 'Almighty' god-king who uses kidnapped tribesmen to build pyramids. D'Leh learns his father was killed defending a slave. After Tic'Tic is fatally wounded and gives D'Leh the White Spear, the group infiltrates the civilization to start a rebellion. Ka'Ren sacrifices himself during the uprising. D'Leh eventually kills the Almighty with the White Spear, breaking his illusion of godhood. During the battle, Evolet is fatally wounded but her life is restored in exchange for Old Mother's life. With the civilization destroyed, the Yagahl return home with seeds collected by D'Leh's father to begin a new life.
- First release year
- 2008
- Runtime (minutes)
- 109
- Production countries
- United States
- Original languages
- English
- Directors
- Roland Emmerich
- Writers
- Roland Emmerich · writer; Harald Kloser · writer
- Cast and characters
- Steven Strait · mammoth hunter; Camilla Belle · Evolet; Cliff Curtis
- Genres
- action-adventure; fantasy adventure
- Themes
- Survival; Prophecy; Rebellion; Sacrifice
- Tone and mood
- Epic; Action-oriented; Mythological
- Setting
- The Ural Mountains and an advanced Egyptian civilization in 10,000 BC.
- Premise and plot tags
- Prehistoric; Hunter-gatherers; Ancient Civilization; Mythology
- Source material / true-story basis
- Fiction of Robert E. Howard, Quest for Fire (1981), and Fingerprints of the Gods
- Reception
- The film was a moderate success at the box office but received generally unfavorable reviews from critics.
- Reported review scores
- Metacritic · score: 34 · scale: 100 · review count: 29
- Awards and nominations
- BMI Film Music Award · work on the film · win
- Production trivia
- The film was the first of 2008 to surpass the $200 million mark.; The woolly mammoths were based on elephants and fossils, while the saber-toothed cat was based on tigers and ligers.; The production spent eighteen months on research and development for the computer-generated imagery.
Film metadata comes from the open sources listed in Credits & Contact. Catalogue details may be incomplete.
Your lists
Loading your lists…