Bone Tomahawk’s Mysterious Troglodytes Are Secretly Explained By This $160 Million Fantasy Action Movie

Bone Tomahawk‘s troglodytes are simultaneously the most enigmatic and terrifying thing about the movie, yet while their origins are left unexplained, another movie from 16 years before the horror Western may hold the key to their backstory. Bone Tomahawk is a masterful blend of genres that takes elements of traditional Western stories and mixes them with something altogether darker. This approach is mirrored in the troglodytes themselves, who both represent a monstrous, supernatural presence and humanity’s violent primal instincts.

According to some interpretations, the troglodytes constitute some of Bone Tomahawk‘s more problematic elements. Their role as the “savage other” dances around cinematic tropes that have historically been used to demonize marginalized communities, including Native Americans. However, as one 1999 action movie explains, the concept of a wild, cannibalistic tribe is not unique to S. Craig Zahler’s 2015 film. In fact, the troglodyte story has roots that stretch back into folklore – explaining why Bone Tomahawk resonates so profoundly with modern audiences.

The 13th Warrior’s Wendol Are Very Similar To Bone Tomahawk’s Troglodytes

The Two Antagonists Share Many Characteristics

Made in 1999 and boasting a budget of between $100-$160 million, The 13th Warrior is a fantastical historical action movie with a radically different tone from the understated and bleak Bone Tomahawk. Starring Antonio Banderas as an unlikely Arab soldier amidst a band of marauding Vikings, the movie follows a group of 13 fighters sent north to confront an ancient and mysterious evil. What they find – despite being on a completely separate continent to Bone Tomahawk and living centuries earlier, holds the key to understanding the 2015 Kurt Russell movie‘s formidable adversaries.

It transpires that The 13th Warrior‘s monsters are another tribe of cannibalistic humans, known as “Wendol“. In this case, the Wendol have regressed to a primal state, dressing in animal skins and seemingly believing that they exist somewhere in the liminal space between man and bear. They idolize the so-called “Mother of the Wendol“, who the warriors set out to kill, and live in an elaborate cave system – exactly like Bone Tomahawk‘s troglodytes. On the surface, these similarities are superficially interesting. However, closer inspection reveals that the Wendols’ backstory and literary inspiration simultaneously explain where Bone Tomahawk‘s troglodytes come from and what they represent.

The 13th Warrior And Bone Tomahawk Tell The Same Story

The Troglodytes And Wendol Share The Same Inspiration

At a glance, it would be easy to conclude that Bone Tomahawk borrowed key elements from The 13th Warrior‘s story – including cannibalistic enemies. Both movies feature an unlikely band of fighters traveling together to rid a wild land of a seemingly malevolent presence, and both feature antagonists who dwell in a sinister cave network full of unspeakable horrors and come across as more animal than human. However, while these links establish a connection between the projects, the real story is much more complicated.

In fact, both The 13th Warrior and Bone Tomahawk can trace their roots back to the oldest story in the English language – the epic Anglo-Saxon poem, Beowulf. In that story, a community is beset by a monstrous (yet uncannily human) apparition called Grendel, who eats his enemies and terrorizes the community. Not only is Grendel phonetically similar to Wendol, but he exhibits many of the same behaviors. This establishes both The 13th Warrior and Bone Tomahawk as part of a much older literary tradition and therefore makes their villains much more than simple monsters.

Just as Grendel embodies humanity’s dark, primal origins and in some way harkens back to an era pre-civilization, so to do the Wendol and troglodytes look to explore what lurks under the surface of “polite” society. The fact that both films establish antagonists that initially seem monstrous before turning out to be surprisingly human makes them much more disturbing than if they were purely supernatural. As a result, Bone Tomahawk‘s connection to well-established literary tropes means that the troglodytes are much more complex than the mindless killers they initially seem to be.

It’s Good Bone Tomahawk’s Troglodytes Never Got A Proper Explanation

It Only Adds To Their Power

It might have been tempting to provide an elaborate backstory behind how the troglodytes ended up becoming brutal cannibals. However, Bone Tomahawk‘s story is actually much more effective because there is no explanation. Not only does it invite the audience to come to their own conclusions, allowing their imaginations to fill in the historical blanks, but it also adds to their symbolic power. The allegory that the troglodytes represent about humanity’s potential for savagery is much more potent because it remains an ambiguous metaphor throughout.

The mindlessness of the violence also firmly aligns Bone Tomahawk with some of the most effective horror movies ever made. Films like The Texas Chain Saw Massacre and Alien work because the terror has no rhyme or reason – it simply happens with no earthly way to stop it. Bone Tomahawk‘s climactic scenes in the cave are so disturbing not just for the violence, but because they are so blasé. Avoiding the temptation to tell the audience everything about the troglodytes ultimately makes them much more sinister than the Wendol, who become less scary as soon as they are rationalized.