Aronofsky realized that since writing in 2000 the battle scene between the armies of Mayans and conquistadors, "The Lord of the Rings" film trilogy, "Troy", "King Arthur", and other films had featured massive battle scenes. He felt less inclined to mimic the scale and rewrote the battle to be mainly between Jackman's conquistador character and the Mayans. The director realized that, with one man against the army, the rewrite was a suitable metaphor for his film's theme of a man defying odds to do the impossible and conquer death.