The plot is based on Rapa Nui legends of Easter Island, Chile, in particular the race for the sooty tern's egg in the Birdman Cult.

Tupa (George Henare), his advisor tells him to build more and bigger moai statues to curry favor with the gods and encourage them to come sooner.

The king's advisor ruthlessly enforces the rules and status quo by publicly killing a Short Ear fisherman who had accidentally caught a taboo fish.

The king's advisor claims that Ramana's skin is too dark and that she should be purified by spending the time from now until the Birdman Competition (six months) in the "Virgin’s Cave".

He further explains that Noro's father sailed away after discovering a piece of a shipwrecked Spanish galleon, thus breaking the long-held belief that Rapa Nui is the only land left with people on the Earth.

The resources of the island are being rapidly used up and depleted (with the last remaining tree being cut down), due to the extensive moai construction and overpopulation.

Noro sneaks some food to his Short Ear friend Make (Esai Morales) and shares his plans to marry Ramana.

After a supply shortage results in the death of one of the Short Ears (Heki, the former master carver), they demand half of the wood, food and other materials and that they be allowed to compete in the Birdman Competition.

Nine competitors must swim to a close by islet surrounded by pounding surf, climb the cliffs to get an egg from the nest of a sooty tern and bring it back.

A post-credits scene states that archaeological evidence proves that Pitcairn Island was settled some 1,500 miles (2,400 km) away, providing hope that Noro, Ramana and their daughter made it to a new land.

Interpretations of this story have been made, ranging from a class struggle, similar to that depicted in the film, to a clash between migrant people, with incomers fighting natives.

There is no single accepted interpretation, and many scholars consider the story to be either pure myth, or such a garbled version of real events as to be ultimately indecipherable.

[7] The deforestation is a fact of the island's history, which may have caused widespread famine due to ecological collapse and a catastrophic drop in population, accompanied by wars between clans for control of dwindling resources.

[8] However, it has also been proposed that the deforestation was primarily due to Polynesian rats (Rattus exulans) and that the islanders adapted to this change gradually.