Ao: The Last Hunter

Ao and Boorh hunt in the icy reaches of Northern Siberia as Néā is born. A polar bear attacks the camp, and Ao avenges a fallen guardian but Boorh dies in the clash.

News of an attack by anatomically modern humans reaches the hunters, wiping out their clan. Ao mourns the loss of his kin, and a small band of Cro-Magnon hunters confronts him; he chooses mercy and spares their lives. They escape, leaving Ao to face an uncertain future.

Ao discovers solace in music, playing a bone flute and remembering a childhood on the ocean in Southern Iberia. He decides to leave Siberia and search for his twin brother Oā, hoping to reconnect with his lineage.

While crossing through Northern Europe, Ao slips into a dug pit camouflaged by leaves and is helped by a Cro-Magnon hunting party, but Unāk captures him and holds him in a camp. Among the captives is Āki, a pregnant Homo sapiens, and her husband Āka, whose fate becomes linked with Ao's future.

Ao hatches a desperate escape using a wasp nest to create a distraction and break free. Āki follows his trail and, in a dark cave, wakes to the sound of her cries as she gives birth to a daughter named Wāma; Ao believes Néa, his lost daughter, has been reincarnated. The moment binds them with wary hope.

That night, Ao fights to protect Wāma while Aki guards the vulnerable infant as Agūk's warriors close in. Ao's defense leads to a hard-won victory, but their fragile alliance is still tested and the danger remains.

They push on toward Ao's homeland, but Ao grows very ill in a swampy stretch. Aki retrieves Wāma and carries Ao to an abandoned campsite where she nurses him back to health; there they salvage supplies to continue the journey.

Together they discover a dramatic cave adorned with ancient drawings. Ao misreads one painting as a living creature, but Āki corrects him and teaches him to make handprints, pressing pigment onto the wall. The act becomes a shared symbol of their growing bond as they practice new skills and care for Wāma.

They reach a cavern filled with mammoth skeletons and Neanderthal skulls lining the walls. Ao is drawn to mate with the tribe, but the chief and the tribe reject him; Aki's trust falters and she lashes out with Ao's polar bear wrap. The isolated older Neanderthal man mocks Ao, and Ao returns to the cave, playing his bone flute as memories of Oā haunt him.

Aki pursues Ao as dawn breaks, and their fragile bond is tested anew. Yet love and longing endure as they decide to stay together for Wāma's sake. When Aki returns with Wāma, Ao forgives her enough to continue their journey.

They trek across a blistering desert toward Ao's homeland in Southern Iberia, facing heat and dehydration. In a desperate turn, Ao finds a nursing mare and uses its milk to keep Wāma alive; a sudden rainstorm breaks the tension and they consummate their bond in the rain, marking them as a mated pair.

In Southern Europe Ao discovers that Oā and their entire clan have fallen to illness, and grief nearly drives him to suicide. Aki steadies him, reminding Néa's memory demands he survive, and a gust of wind pushes him back from the edge as they embrace.

Four years pass and the family reaches Southern Iberia to settle near the last signs of Neanderthal life. Néa is now four, Ao carries her on his shoulders, and Aki is pregnant with their next child. They walk toward a rocky beach and listen to the heartbeat of the unborn child, a quiet, hopeful note for a future that blends lineages.