Although I had no clue at all what it was at the time, I did have something of an interest in
Avatar in the months leading up to its release, mainly because I was glad that James Cameron was returning to directing after having not made a feature film since
Titanic. Yeah, he'd made documentaries like
Ghosts of the Abyss and
Aliens of the Deep (which I haven't seen but have heard that they're quite good), had pursued his passion for exploring the sea, and continued to refine digital and camera technology, especially for underwater photography, but as someone who really enjoys
The Terminator,
Terminator 2, and
Aliens, and who also thinks
Titanic is a pretty good flick, all things considered, it was nice to know he was getting back into actual filmmaking, which I happen to think he does really well. I wasn't sure what to make of the initial poster artwork when I saw it in a magazine, as it was just a blue face with a bright, yellow eye, but since it was Cameron, I was sure that, if nothing else, it would be a visual tour-de-force, with amazing effects, and I was glad to learn it would be in the same mold as the high quality, sci-fi action movies he became famous for. So, you're likely expecting me to next say that I was one of the millions who saw the film in theaters. However, that wasn't the case. I was interested, yes, and would've gone had the opportunity come up, but at the same time, it wasn't a huge burning desire, where I absolutely
had to see it in the theater, and so, it didn't happen (and I didn't see it when it was re-released the following summer or in September of 2022, either). The first time I saw
Avatar was over a year after it was first released (and had completely dominated the world), when I picked up the three-disc Extended Collector's Edition set on Blu-Ray. By that point, not only did I know that Cameron had beaten himself, with the movie surpassing
Titanic as the most profitable of all time, but I also knew of the general consensus: incredible and beautiful visuals, astounding special effects, and really fun, epic action scenes, but rather shallow writing and characters. Inevitably, it became one of those really popular movies where it was hip to hate on it, and if you did like it, you got jeered for it and were accused of being a mindless sheep.
Well, when I first watched it, I had to admit to being a "mindless sheep," as I thought it was quite awesome. Now, I did agree with many of criticisms about the writing and the characters, which I think are the movie's biggest weaknesses, and I also understood what people meant when they called it Dances With Wolves meets FernGully (I actually kind of like FernGully, though), but putting all that aside, I found it to be a very entertaining flick overall. As I expected, the visuals were an absolute knockout, as I was amazed at how Cameron and his crew realized the world of Pandora, and the movie is just beautiful to look at in general; I thought the CGI for the landscapes, the environments, and some of the creatures, especially the Na'vi, were about as good as you could get at the time (though others were still clearly CGI); and the action and battle sequences were positively epic. Again, I couldn't deny that Cameron's writing, as well as his directing here and there, felt very old hat and from the 80's and 90's, with the characters, especially the villains, coming off as one-dimensional, and the story progression being very predictable, and it's not a movie I've found myself going back to again and again, like some of his others, but as an entertaining and satisfying popcorn movie, I can safely say I'd watch this over anything by Roland Emmerich or Michael Bay.
In the mid-22nd century, Jake Sully, a paraplegic Marine, is sent to Pandora, a moon in the Alpha Centauri system that, from the outset, looks like Earth, but is actually a lush, exotic, jungle world full of bizarre and dangerous creatures. Because Earth's natural resources have all been used up, the Resources Development Administration is mining Pandora for its own valuable minerals, specifically an element known as "unobtanium." Jake's purpose is to replace his murdered twin brother, Tommy, who'd agreed to take part in the "Avatar Program," the RDA's attempt to communicate with the Na'vi, the moon's tall, blue-skinned, cat-like humanoid natives. Jake, along with anthropologist Norm Spellman and Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the program, are able to mentally link up with genetically-replicated Na'vi bodies and use them to explore the planet, collecting data and interacting with the Na'vi themselves when necessary. Assigned as security for Grace's small research team, Jake meets up with Colonel Miles Quaritch, the head of the RDA security force, who asks him to act as a spy and infiltrate the Omaticaya clan of Na'vi, and report back to him with information on the tribe and their home, the enormous Hometree, which sits atop a huge deposit of unobtanium. In return, Quaritch promises Jake an expensive spinal surgery to repair his legs. While escorting Grace and Norm out in the jungle in order for them to take samples, Jake unintentionally provokes some deadly Pandoran creatures and becomes separated from them. That night, while defending himself, Jake is saved from certain death by Neytiri, the daughter of the Omaticava clan's leaders. At first, she tells him to go back, but when she sees how the floating seeds from the sacred Tree of Souls are attracted to him, she decides to take him back to her clan. At Hometree, Jake is introduced to Neytiri's father, Eytukan, and her mother, Mo'at, the clan's spiritual leader. Upon learning he is a "warrior," the intrigued Na'vi decide to initiate him in order to learn more about him. Initially, Jake does as he was originally ordered and reports everything he learns back to Quaritch, but as time goes on and he becomes deeper ingrained within the clan, he begins to doubt his allegiance to his own race, especially as he and Neytiri become closer. And with the RDA determined to acquire the unobtanium beneath Hometree, and Quaritch more than eager to do so by force, Jake may soon have to decide just whose side he is on.
I can remember on the special features that James Cameron said the seeds for
Avatar were planted way back during his childhood in Canada, when he would go exploring around his home, searching for every type of creature and plant he could find. Those experiences have clearly continued to influence him to this day, as he's also an explorer and staunch environmentalist, with that latter mindset permeating every bit of the film's story. As for the movie itself, he's said to have first come up with the concept before he did
Titanic, having written a treatment in 1994 and planned to make it the immediate follow-up to his historical blockbuster. But, feeling that the technology wasn't yet there to fulfill his vision, as well as being quite burned out after the ordeal of making
Titanic, he decided to put
Avatar on the back-burner and spent the early-to-mid 2000's making those documentaries I mentioned, as well as refining the technology (sort of like George Lucas in the lead-up to the
Star Wars prequels). He officially revived the idea in 2006, after seeing how far computer-generated characters had come, especially when it came to motion-capture in movies like
The Lord of the Rings and Peter Jackson's
King Kong. As he always does when he makes a movie, Cameron went full-on into
Avatar, not only in terms of the designs and visuals but also to the point of developing an actual language and culture for the Na'vi. Even though I admire his commitment to his craft, to the point where he spent thirteen years developing the
Avatar sequels, I'm really hoping he doesn't let this franchise completely dominate the rest of his life.
As amazing as the movie's visuals are, as we'll get into, and totally on the ball as Cameron is in the world-building and action sequences, his writing is shockingly simple-minded and even by-the-numbers in some instances. Even though we have some really good actors here, the characters are very black-and-white, with few, if any, shades of gray, especially the villains, who are very one-dimensional and over-the-top in how scummy they are. There is a little bit of complexity in the protagonist of Jake Sully in how, even though he's been sent to Pandora purely because his genetics allow him to work his brother's avatar, he opted to go because it gave him a chance to feel alive again, and also in how he initially integrates and communes with the Na'vi because of the deal with Colonel Quaritch, only for things to eventually change. But the problem there is that you know exactly the direction his character is going to go and where he'll be by the end of the movie long before it happens. It also doesn't help that some of the dialogue is rather corny and on the nose with the movie's themes, like when Jake laments, "This is how it's done. When people are sittin' on shit that you want, you make them your enemy. Then you're justified in taking it," and when he has Tsu'tey translate an impassioned speech about how the humans can't take their land to the Na'vi. Speaking of on the nose... "unobtanium," really? You couldn't come up with a less pretentious, made up elemental name, Cameron? And there are melodramatic moments during the action scenes of someone performing a heroic act in major slow motion, which feel right out of a 90's action flick. There's also more to be said about the writing in terms of the very blatant environmental and imperialistic themes, as well as how the core story is not all that original (which, I will argue, isn't necessarily a bad thing, or as tied to the one movie that everyone points to), but we'll get into that later.
I've read that, before he went with Sam Worthington, Cameron offered the role of Jake to Matt Damon, but he couldn't do it because he was committed to the
Bourne movies at the time. I really wish Damon could've taken the role, as I think he would've made Jake a much more engaging character than Worthington, who I find to be just as bland here as he was in
Terminator: Salvation (yeah, ironically, a film in another franchise Cameron created). Jake's meant to be an everyman sort of guy: a disabled ex-Marine who's been given an opportunity previously afforded only to eggheads like his deceased brother, and he takes it because it'll give him a means of walking again. Though he feels out of his depth amid actual scientists like Grace Augustine and Norm Spellman, his first link-up with his avatar goes very well, as he's able to stand up and run almost immediately, and his motor controls are top notch. He absolutely loves this sensation, right down to being able to feel the ground with his toes, and is clearly disappointed when he has to come out of it. Wanting this feeling all the time, Jake, naturally, agrees to Colonel Quaritch's deal to infiltrate the Na'vi and deliver info on them in exchange for a spinal procedure. By happy coincidence, he ends up meeting Neytiri when he gets separated from Grace and Norm while out in the field, and is brought before the heads of her tribe, the Omaticaya, who decide to have him initiated due to his being a warrior like them. At first, Jake goes along with Quaritch's plan, telling him everything he needs to know, and doing so with the knowledge that he has three months to get the Omaticaya tribe to move before Hometree is demolished. But when Grace gets him away from the base and has them work out of an outpost up in Pandora's floating mountains, he slowly but surely begins to grow closer to the tribe and respect their connection to nature. He eventually stops reporting to Quaritch and admits in his video logs that he barely remembers his old life, adding, "I don't know who I am anymore."
Despite Quaritch telling him that he is going to get his legs back, as promised, Jake insists upon finishing his "mission," though any pretense about that is dissolved when he is officially initiated into the tribe and he and Neytiri choose each other as mates, despite her being betrothed. But when Jake attacks a gigantic, remote bulldozer that threatens to destroy one of the tribe's sacred sites, Quaritch, knowing he's no longer reliable, removes him from
his link. What's more, due to one of Jake's vlogs, where he said it was pointless to try to bargain with the Omaticaya to leave Hometree, the place is destroyed and many are killed, despite Jake and Grace's attempt to help them evacuate. What's more, their own personal hand in the tragedy leads to them being imprisoned in the attack, and Jake is then ostracized from the tribe. When he's removed from his link again, he's despondent to the point of
being almost catatonic. He gets another chance when he and Grace's group escape Quaritch's imprisonment and remove the link units from the outpost. Once he's back in his avatar, Jake is able to reclaim the clan's respect by taming Toruk, a large and very dangerous flying predator, and taking on the role of a mythic figure in Na'vi culture. He then rallies the Omaticaya to gather all of the clans across Pandora in order to fight back against Quaritch's forces. By this point, I should
really be rooting for and engaged with Jake, but because of Sam Worthington's rather monotone and un-charismatic performance, where he sounds a bit hollow and forced even when he's supposed to be rousing the Na'vi to battle, I find myself feeling indifferent, albeit not actively wishing for his death. It really makes me wish that Matt Damon had been able to take the part. Also, like in Terminator: Salvation, Worthington's natural Australian accent often breaks through, and it's always a bit distracting.
When she first sees Jake, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) comes close to shooting him with one of her arrows, but sees what she believes to be a sign from her people's deity, Eywa, that he is not to be harmed. She later saves him when he's surrounded and nearly killed by a pack of viperwolves, but she also admonishes him for forcing her to kill some of them needlessly, saying it was his fault for causing a ruckus that led to the attack. She admits that she does admire him for his courage but, frustrated by what she sees as childlike ignorance, tries to make him leave the forest, only to see what appears to be another sign. Jake is then threatened by a Na'vi hunting party led by Tsu'tey, the Omaticaya's finest warrior and Neytiri's betrothed, but Neytiri insists on taking him to the Hometree and having him meet her mother, Mo'at, the tribe's Tsahik or spiritual leader. When she does, Mo'at decides to have him indoctrinated and appoints Neytiri as his teacher, much to her chagrin. She puts Jake through his paces, teaching him to bond with a direhorse, helps him with the language, shows him how best to handle and fire a bow, and educates him about her people's deep connection with the natural order of their home, with both the environment and the animals. At first, she thinks of him as a "skxawng," her people's word for idiot, but as time goes on and he gets more into it, she becomes impressed, particularly when he fulfills a dangerous rite of passage and manages to bond with a flying "ikran" or "banshee." The two of them also become closer, until Jake is finally made a part of the tribe and he chooses her as his mate, which she happily reciprocates, despite being betrothed to Tsu'tey. But then, things go downhill when Colonel Quaritch is ordered to destroy Hometree and, in an attempt to warn the tribe of what's coming, Jake is forced to admit he was a spy. Neytiri is devastated by this, feeling betrayed, and when the attack leads to her father's death, she screams at him to leave and never return. But like the rest of her tribe, she trusts him once more when he manages to tame Toruk, and fights alongside him and the rest of the Na'vi in the final battle.
As Dr. Grace Augustine, Sigourney Weaver plays my personal favorite character in the film. Grace is a hard-nosed, no nonsense biologist who, as head of the Avatar Program, is more interested in studying and preserving Pandora's ecosystem than mining unobtanium. She's also an advocate for peaceful relations with the Na'vi, having set up a school that taught a number of them how to speak English. She's not at all happy when Jake is brought onboard to replace his brother and makes her frustration very clear to Parker Selfridge, the RDA administrator. But, though she initially sees him as nothing more than a stupid grunt who could jeopardize her research, when Jake is accepted into the Omaticaya tribe, Grace encourages his bonding with them. She also learns of his deal with Colonel Quaritch but, seeing him as a way for her to reestablish relations with the tribe (which she succeeds in doing), she moves her team to Site 26 in the floating Hallelujah Mountains, getting Jake away from Quaritch's influence and making it easier for her to take him under her wing. This contributes immensely to his becoming closer with the tribe and their way of life. Through her research from the field, Grace comes to believe that all of the flora on Pandora are connected in an electro-chemical manner and the Na'vi have a way to access it directly. Unfortunately, she's unable to make Selfridge and Quaritch care that destroying Hometree would cause significant damage to that network, and she and Jake are only allowed to try to warn the tribe to evacuate, a warning that doesn't work at all. Grace and her team are then imprisoned by Quaritch, and though they're able to escape back to the outpost, Grace is shot by Quaritch in the chaos. Once Jake reestablishes himself with the tribe, he tries to have Grace's consciousness permanently transferred into her avatar, but she's too weak and ultimately dies from her wounds. Instead, her life energy goes into the Tree of Souls, where she's said to be with Eywa. Before she dies, Grace is able to tell Jake that she is, quietly exclaiming, "She's real."
It's weird to think that I first saw Joel David Moore in the low-rent slasher flick,
Hatchet, and then, just a few years later, here he was in the biggest movie of all time, even if in only a small supporting role like Dr. Norm Spellman. There's not much to say about Norm, other than he's an anthropologist who went through avatar training with Jake's brother and, unlike Grace, is very welcoming towards him, initially marveling over how much he looks like Tommy. While Moore does bring some of that same kind of awkward, doofy energy he's known for, he also plays Norm as a competent scientist, one who's rather knowledgeable about the Na'vi and has more experience in linking up with his avatar (not that Jake proves to be a slouch). Also, like Neytiri, he helps in teaching Jake the Na'vi language and their ways (and according to Jake, Norm also thinks he's a "skxawng"). Naturally, he's a staunch ally to Jake and Grace in their rebellion against Colonel Quaritch and the RDA, actually punching out a soldier at Hell's Gate when they try to remove Jake and Grace from their link units by force and later taking part in the final battle through his avatar. Although he gets injured, he's one of Jake's comrades who's lucky enough to still be standing by the time the battle has been won.
The same can't be said for Trudy Chacon (Michelle Rodriguez), a combat pilot who's sort of like a less high-strung version of Vasquez from
Aliens. She's tough and well-trained, but unlike most of her peers, grows sympathetic to the Na'vi due to her being the pilot for Grace's team. Even before then, she's more intent on using her ship's heavy firepower as protection against the deadly, airborne predators you tend to run into on Pandora. Though
she goes out with Quaritch and his forces in the attack on Hometree, when the other aircraft open fire on the tree and the fleeing Na'vi, Trudy can't bring herself to do it. She decides, "Screw this," and deserts the attack, telling her gunner, "I didn't sign up for this shit." She later breaks Jake, Grace, and Norm out of the brig and flies them to the outpost, later using her gunship in the final battle. Also helping them to escape is Dr. Max Patel (Dileep Rao), a scientist in the Avatar Program who greeted Jake and Norm when they first entered the link labs and also tried to help Jake in dealing with Grace. Most significantly, he's the one who told Grace of Jake's reporting to Quaritch, prompting her to move her research to Site 26. He almost joins them in their escape but Jake convinces him to remain at the base, saying he needs someone friendly on the inside to let him know what's going on. In that capacity, as Jake rallies all the Na'vi tribes for a revolt, he warns them of Quaritch's plan to rig the Valkyrie shuttle as a massive bomber to destroy the Tree of Souls.
Among the Omaticaya tribe, two of the most significant members are, naturally, its leaders: the chief, Eytukan (Wes Studi), and his mate, Mo'at (CCH Pounder), who also serves as the tribe's Tsahik or spiritual leader. When Neytiri first brings Jake to the tribe, Eytukan isn't very welcoming, having forbade any "dreamwalkers" from entering the tribe, but Mo'at, who speaks English, takes an interest in him. She actually tastes his blood by
poking him and then letting the blood drip into her mouth, then asks him why he's there. Though she's unsure he can be taught their ways, saying they've tried to teach other "sky people" in the past, upon learning he's a type of warrior, both she and Eytukan decide to initiate him in order to learn more about him. In the end, they, of course, do make him part of the tribe, but when his and Grace's part in the coming attack on Hometree is revealed, Eytukan orders them to be taken prisoner.
In the midst of the attack, Mo'at cuts them free, begging them to prove they really are part of the tribe by helping them. Though Eytukan dies in the battle, Mo'at survives and later tries to help Jake save Grace's life by transferring her into her avatar. Also, from the moment he meets the tribe, Jake has a fierce rival in the form of Tsu'tey (Laz Alonso), the tribe's greatest warrior and heir to Eytukan's throne. Neytiri also happens to be betrothed to him, which makes him very jealous when he sees how close she's becoming to Jake. When they venture up into the mountains so Jake can find and bond with a banshee, Tsu'tey is more than happy to have him go first in the treacherous climb up to where they roost, confident he'll die when trying to bond with one. But, much to his chagrin, he succeeds, and he begrudging goes along with it when Jake is officially initiated into the clan. But when he learns that he and Neytiri have become mates, he's absolutely furious and attacks Jake when he tries to warn them of how deadly the "Sky People" are, seeing him as nothing more than a shell rather than his "brother." Once Hometree is destroyed and the clan forced into the jungle, Norm is likely correct when he warns Jake that, now that he's chief, Tsu'tey will not let him anywhere near them. But, like everyone else, when Jake bonds with Toruk, Tsu'tey has nothing but respect for him and, from then on, they're staunch allies.
While James Cameron is no stranger to tackling the issue of corporate politics and how uncaring and lacking in scruples they can be, especially with the Weyland-Yutani Corporation in
Aliens (itself a holdover from the first film), his depiction of it here, in the guise of RDA administrator Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), is so on the nose that it's kind of eye-rolling. Selfridge is completely smarmy and condescending, caring about nothing but the bottom line and the amount of unobtanium they can mine. As expected, he really looks down on the Na'vi, seeing them as nothing but savages who are in the way of their operation, going as far as to call them "fly-bitten" at one point and that they can afford to move because they have plenty of trees to choose from. The way he literally laughs in Grace's face when she tries to explain how Pandora has a biological neural network running through it is especially infuriating, not just because you want to deck him in the face but it's where he truly comes off as a one-note, corporate asshole. Parker is reluctant to use force against the Na'vi, but it's only because it'll make him and the company look bad, and once it becomes clear that there's no way to make the Omaticaya leave Hometree, he authorizes Colonel Quaritch to destroy it after he promises there won't be many casualties. To Parker's credit, though, when he sees the extent of the death and destruction that results from the attack, he does seem genuinely shaken, and also comes off as unsure about the climactic attack on the Tree of Souls to shatter the Na'vi's morale and keep them from attacking anymore.
It's with Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch, however, where Cameron throws out any semblance of nuance or shades of gray. This guy is just a war-hungry sociopath, someone who sees everything on Pandora, Na'vi or otherwise, as an enemy to be squashed. He sees no point in trying to deal with the Na'vi diplomatically, calling the Avatar Program a "bad joke" by a "bunch of limp-dick science majors." To him, its only upside is to infiltrate the Omaticaya tribe and learn how best to make them leave Hometree or destroy them should the need arises, which he hopes it does. Thus, he enlists Jake to act as a spy for him, and he benefits greatly from the information he brings back, specifically in how to bring down Hometree and to destroy the Tree of Souls to finish them off. However, he's disgusted with Jake when he sides with the tribe over his own race. He senses something's wrong when Jake stops sending him reports and suggests he abort the mission. He tells Jake that, as he promised, he's gotten corporate approval to repair his legs and attempts to put him on a shuttle back to Earth immediately, an obvious method of getting Jake out of the way to ensure he won't interfere. When Jake insists he be allowed to finish his "mission" by going through the actual initiation ceremony, ensuring that the tribe will trust him completely and listen to him about moving, Quaritch reluctantly allows it. It turns out this justifies the colonel's suspicions, as he later shows Parker Selfridge and the others a vlog Jake made before their talk, where he says the tribe isn't going to leave. Quaritch then convinces Parker to allow him to destroy Hometree. Though he promises it'll be "humane," with few casualties, it proves to be anything but. After the attack, he has Jake, Grace, and Norm imprisoned, and when they escape, he takes it upon himself to try to stop them. While he doesn't halt their escape, he makes good on a threat he made to Grace earlier by shooting and fatally wounding her. Later, when all the Na'vi tribes begin amassing into a huge army, Quaritch decides to make a preemptive strike on the Tree of Souls in order to demoralize them to the point where they won't care about fighting anymore. During the battle, Quaritch repeatedly attempts to kill Jake personally, with the whole thing coming down to a final fight between the two of them.
I will say that, for as one-dimensional as he is, Quaritch is definitely a memorable and entertaining villain, thanks to Lang's macho, gun-ho performance, and he does prove to be a serious threat with how utterly ruthless he is. Not only is he big, muscular, and very strong for a man in his 50's, but he's such a badass that he's able to run out and fire on the heroes as they escape the base without the use of a gas mask, which is necessary
due to Pandora's toxic atmosphere. It's only when a soldier comes out and gives him that he even realizes he was exposed, as he was so focused on killing them. There's another moment where his sleeve catches fire but he's so focused at the time that it takes him several seconds to even realize it. He's also someone who doesn't take betrayal lightly. Once Jake proves to be his enemy, Quaritch is determined to bring him down, having his command ship relentlessly chase after and fire missiles at him during the final battle. When Trudy intervenes, Quaritch doesn't split any hairs, telling his men, "Light her up!" And after his ship crashes, he manages to bail out in his big AMP mech suit and continue the fight, battling both Neytiri and Jake hand-to-hand, while also attempting to kill Jake himself by finding and destroying his avatar link unit.
Before we really get into the world-building, I want to comment on how
Avatar is a beautiful movie to look at in general. I can remember when I first watched it and was so happy that it looked nothing like the washed out, desaturated, color-timed visual style that was the norm for movies back then. Instead, when the movie starts off, one of the first things you see is Jake awakening in his cryo-unit, bathed in a deep blue light, and when he emerges from it and floats about inside the large
ship taking him to Pandora, not only is the feeling of weightlessness breathtaking but so is the look of the interior, which has a white-blue look to it that I really love. This lovely visual style continues throughout the movie, as we see how lush and beautiful the jungles on Pandora are, especially at night, when they become bioluminescent, and we get many spectacular, science fiction visuals like the night sky, with the planet that Pandora orbits taking up much of the horizon, the moon's floating
mountains, the mystical Tree of Souls, and such. Even scenes that are meant to be kind of dreary in how they look, such as when Colonel Quaritch questions Jake about his resolve in the Hell's Gate dining hall, the times when it's overcast and rainy outside, and the aftermath of the destruction of Hometree (save for when everything is covered in ash and desaturated), have a certain beauty to them. That may not be enough for some people, and I understand that, but when you give me such an amazing feast for the eyes, I can forgive a number of faults.
James Cameron has often stated that
Avatar is his
Star Wars and I don't think there's any question that the world-building here is definitely on par with it, far more so than any of his previous movies, where he also excelled at it. However, I'll go ahead and get this out of the way, as many have commented on it: the human side of things, especially the RDA's military-level security force, do give me major
Aliens vibes. The RDA security force definitely make me think of the Colonial Marines,
from the way they're dressed and the assault rifles they carry around to their cocky, "hurrah" attitudes. Also, Colonel Quaritch is kind of like if you took Sergeant Apone and made him into a villain. Also, the main command center, referred to as Hell's Gate, reminds me a lot of the Hadley's Hope colony, right down to how it's often overcast and rainy on the outside, and the same goes for the interiors as well. And finally, there are the vehicles and weaponry, especially the SA-2 Samsons, which
make me think of the dropship deployed from the Sulaco, and the AMP suits, which Quaritch uses in his final battle with Jake, are like a more militarized version of the big cargo loaders in Aliens. Cameron has really been criticized for plagiarizing himself here, and the same goes for composer James Horner, who's said to have ripped off his own score for Aliens in a few places, neither of which I can really deny. But since I really like
Aliens, I'm not all that upset that it influenced much of what we have here. Plus, a number of other beloved filmmakers have been accused of going back to the well time and again, so I don't know why Cameron was singled out in this instance.
From the movie's opening, Cameron makes you feel like you are undoubtedly in another time and place, with Jake awakening from cryo-sleep, along with hundreds of other troops being transported to Pandora, in an enormous ship that was undoubtedly based on those seen in
2001: A Space Odyssey (a film Cameron admires a lot). Again, the effect of weightlessness is completely convincing here, and the exterior shots of the ship entering Pandora's orbit and deploying the Valkyrie shuttle that takes
the men and equipment down to the surface are just classic science fiction imagery. Your first glimpses of Pandora from the air, as the shuttle enters the atmosphere and heads to Hell's Gate, are equally awesome, and you also see the scope of the mining operation, as the ship flies over a digging site where the work is being done by an enormous machine and large, futuristic trucks. Finally, it lands at Hell's Gate and as everyone disembarks, you see how large and bustling the place. At this
point, you've also gotten a sense of how advanced the technology is this far into the future, with the holographic readouts in the ship's cockpit and Jake mentioning in his narration that medical science has gotten to the point where spinal injuries can be repaired, although it's very costly and not affordable for someone in his position, given the economy (even this far in the future, some things haven't changed). But, of course, that's nothing
compared to the Avatar Program, where people are able to link their minds and consciousnesses with bio-engineered bodies made from both Na'vi and human DNA, the latter coming from the operator themself in order to make the link possible.
Again, the interior of Hell's Gate reminds me a lot of the inside of Hadley's Hope, especially with its long, claustrophobic corridors made up of dull-colored steel, and the hangar where the aircraft and AMP suits are kept is like that of the Sulaco, only on steroids in terms of size and the number of enormous vehicles kept in there, with a space full of weights where Colonel Quaritch is seen pumping iron. You can tell that Cameron hasn't lost his interest of how the military make look in the far
future, as you also get a look at the troops' big locker room and there's a dining hall that also doubles as a briefing room, with window shutters that can be closed and replaced with an enormous, holographic map, which Quaritch uses to show his men the extent of the amassing Na'vi. There's a big control room overlooking the base's runway, where the aircraft are monitored and also where a huge, holographic schematic of Pandora's landscape and geology is housed, which Parker Selfridge, whose
small office is just off to the side, has a hard time operating. Speaking of Parker, he has a little strip on the floor where he can put golf in his downtime. But the most significant room is the laboratory housing the avatars, which is joined to the link room, containing the MRI tube-like link capsules where the users are neurally connected to them. When Jake and Norm first link up with their avatars, they awaken in a clinical room not unlike a
doctor's examination room. Once Jake finds he's able to perform almost perfectly in his avatar immediately, he runs outside and into a large compound/training area, complete with a basketball court and obstacle course, as well as a large garden beyond that and a longhouse akin to what you'd see at a summer camp, where the avatars are kept when they're not in use. And finally, you learn that Grace has a small outpost in the floating Hallelujah Mountains called Site 26, which is basically a smaller version of the laboratory back at Hell's Gate, complete with both link units and living areas.
Noteworthy vehicles include the aforementioned SA-2 Samsons, which are often used in non-combative situations, such as in transporting personnel and equipment, but are fairly well armed nonetheless, with machine guns mounted on the doors and missile launchers on either side of the cockpit. I find them to be very memorable in appearance thanks to those big, circular, rotatable rotors attached to their roofs. The Samsons also have an armed, gunship counterpart in the form of
Scorpions, which come armed with really powerful machine guns and rocket launchers. But that's nothing compared to the Dragon, the enormous transport and assault ship Colonel Quaritch commands during big-scale battles. It's not only one of the largest aircraft in the film but is the most heavily armed, with machine guns, door gunners, and projectiles that range from missiles and rockets
to grenades, and it can also deploy numerous troops and AMP suits. Speaking of those suits, which are just big mech exoskeletons, they're probably the most memorable weapons in the film, with their enormous assault rifles and bayonets on the rifles' undersides that can also be used as a weapon if the need arises.
When you first see Pandora, you can easily be fooled into thinking you're looking at Earth, as it's very similar, but when you see that it's orbiting a large, blue planet, you realize it's actually a moon. Its atmosphere is toxic to humans, causing them to lose consciousness within twenty seconds and die in four minutes, forcing them to wear special masks and filtration packs called "exopacks" whenever they have to go outside. Much of the landscape is covered in thick rainforests, with
gigantic trees, breathtaking waterfalls and lakes, and a wide diversity of plants and animals. The jungle is already quite impressive during the day, with its bright green coloring and rays of sunlight streaming through the canopy, and a number of plants similar to those found on Earth, only much large in size, but at night, everything become bioluminescent and very colorful, with bright blues, greens, and purples glowing in the darkness, making the place truly look like a fantasy world.
Among the most noteworthy locations are Hometree, one of the massive trees which the Omaticaya tribe have made their home, and which contains enormous roots, gigantic columns at the base, and a natural, spiraling staircase inside its hollow trunk that the Na'vi use to climb up and down it; the sacred Tree of Souls, a willow-like tree with white, fibrous tendrils that hang down
and glow a white-purple glow at nighttime; and the floating Hallelujah Mountains, which are full of unobtanium, whose superconductive properties allow it to float in magnetic fields and thus, allows them to float within Pandora's powerful Flux Vortex, which also tends to mess with aircraft radar and sensors.
Most significantly, Pandora has something of a mind all its own, as all of the flora communicate with each other through electrochemical means, similar to synapses between neurons, and the Na'vi, who refer to this consciousness as Eywa, are able to access it directly, uploading and downloading data from it. For instance, the spot known as the Tree of Voices is where the voices of the Na'vi ancestors could be heard by their neurally connecting to it through the queues that are parts of
their anatomy. The Tree of Souls, in particular, is believed to be the spot on Pandora that's the most closely connected to Eywa, with the Na'vi able to establish a neural link that can connect the entire tribe together in order to communicate with her. The tree can even connect to the human nervous system through its root fibers and it can be used as a natural version of the avatar link system, able to transfer a human consciousness through "the Eye
of Eywa" and into an avatar body permanently, as Jake does at the very end of the movie. It also expels floating "seeds" that kind of resemble small jellyfish and dandelion seeds, and are said to be "very pure spirits." The Na'vi place these sprites on the bodies of their dead, hoping that
their consciousness will be with Eywa, as part of their belief that all
living things on Pandora return to her once they've died. The fact that a large mass of
them are attracted to Jake during his and Neytiri's first meeting convinces her that there's something special about him and that she must introduce him to her clan. Also, before the climactic battle, Jake prays to Eywa through the Tree of Souls, believing that she chose him for some purpose, likely to unite the clans in order to defend their home, and asks her for help, telling her how Earth's natural resources have been totally depleted. Though Neytiri says that Eywa only preserves the balance of nature, she does prove to have a type of sentience when, as things are at their bleakest during the climax, huge herds of Pandora's animals join in the battle, tipping the tides in the defenders' favor.
The Na'vi themselves are, undoubtedly, the most well-known and iconic creation of
Avatar, and let's face it, they are very memorable creatures: these very tall, slim, blue-skinned humanoids with cat-like faces, eyes, ears, and tails. One of their most distinctive features is their natural queues, a patch of skin found at the end of a long braid of their hair that opens up to reveal a set of thin, pink tendrils. An extension of their nervous systems, these allow them to connect and communicate with many other
Pandoran creatures through a bond called "shahaylu," as well as with the moon's own neural network through access points like the Tree of Souls. The Na'vi are also shown to be very strong and hard to kill, thanks to their carbon fiber reinforced bones, and though mostly a peaceful race of hunter-gatherers, they can be fierce warriors when threatened, using arrows dipped in a powerful neurotoxin as weapons and riding on
various beasts like direhorses and banshees when in battle. Though there are many different tribes across Pandora, they're all connected in their belief in Eywa, feeling that everything returns to her when it dies, and their wish to live in absolute harmony with nature and their environment. They respect all life and kill only when necessary, often saying a prayer for their prey's soul to return to Eywa while thanking it for its sacrifice. They have a fairly complex culture and language all their own, with both a general leader or chief and a spiritual leader, a "Tsahik," who communicates with Eywa directly.
Direhorses are among the Pandoran animals the Na'vi are able to connect with through their queues and are often rode by hunting parties and armies. They're about the size of a small elephant, have long necks with big crests on the back, elongated heads akin to a giraffe, a long, slimy tongue to boot, and two long antennae from the tops of their heads where the shahaylu is made, allowing riders to communicate neurally with their mounts. Also, like a lot of Pandora creatures, direhorses have six
legs, and their cries are actually the recycled shrieks of the Velociraptors from
Jurassic Park. Learning to mount and ride one is part of Jake's training, but the real rite of passage comes when he has to climb up to the home of the ikran or mountain banshees and bond with one of them. The banshees are scaly, winged reptiles that are very dinosaur/Pterosaur-like in appearance, with colors ranging from green to orange and a mixture of blue and green, long snouts filled with sharp
teeth, tiny secondary eyes positioned behind the main ones, and two pairs of wings. The bond between a banshee and a Na'vi is much deeper than that of a direhorse, as the banshee itself will choose who it deems worthy of domesticating it by focusing on and attacking them. Once they've bonded, it remains that way for life, with the Na'vi bringing their banshees back to their home, where they roost close at hand, and riding them both
when hunting and attacking from the air. Similar to the banshees is the "Great Leonopteryx" or Toruk, a large, red and yellow-colored flying reptile whose Na'vi name means "last shadow," as when it swoops down from above, its shadow is the last one its prey will ever see. Because of its great size and power, it's the apex aerial predator of Pandora and has a special place in Na'vi culture, to the point where one who manages to bond with and master it is seen as a mythical figure called Toruk Makto, or "Rider of Last Shadow," who helps the Na'vi in times of need. Naturally, when Jake manages to pull this off, he earns the tribe's respect, especially since he's only the sixth person to ever do it.
These only scratch the surface of the bizarre creatures found on Pandora. When Jake messes around while Grace and Norm are taking samples out in the jungle, he runs afoul of a hammerhead titanothere, which is like a rhinoceros with the head of a hammerhead shark. Its head is easily able to smash down fairly large trees, its skin is far too thick for rifle-fire to penetrate, and it has a small crest of brightly-colored feathers on the back of its head, acting as a threat display. It's shown to be
quite territorial and prone to charging, but even it will retreat if it comes across Pandora's apex land predator, the thanator. This creature is like an enormous black panther, with long quills attached to some large pads at the back of its head that flare up before it attacks. It is absolutely ferocious and relentless in its pursuit, as it chases Jake to the point where he has to jump down a waterfall in order to evade it. Also, during the final battle, after her banshee is killed, Neytiri manages to ride a
thanator and use it to battle Colonel Quaritch in his AMP suit. And among its vocalizations is yet another recycled sound from
Jurassic Park: the roar of the T-Rex. After Jake escapes the thanator that pursues him, he later has to deal with a pack of viperwolves, which do look canine in appearance but are hairless, with shiny black skin, long antennae sticking out of the backs of their heads, and paws that are like hands, with thumbs allowing
allow them to climb trees. Their vocalizations are hyena-like laughs and giggles that are quite unnerving. There are some more docile creatures seen in the film, such as prolemuris, which are like lemurs mixed with colorful tree-frogs, and hexapede, blue-skinned, deer-like creatures that have spade-like crests on the back of their heads and long membranes hanging down from their chins and running down their necks.
Judging the movie's visual effects, which were undoubtedly groundbreaking for the time and pushed the computers to their breaking points and beyond, I can safely say that, when it comes to creating the world of Pandora, be it the big, sweeping shots of the landscape and the horizon, or the intimate details of the jungle interiors and such, it succeeds with flying colors, as I really believe I'm in another world. I also think the instances where live-action actors and actual sets and props
are combined with the CG elements, like the shots of the landscape from within the Hell's Gate control room, the actors interacting with the big, holographic readouts, when they're sitting and standing around in the hangar and outside, as numerous aircraft and AMP suits bustle around them, when you see the suits' operators inside them, and Jake's human self interacting with Neytiri at the end, all work really well. Granted, while I like that they combined some real location
shots with the digital landscapes, like in Hawai and New Zealand, I wish
they'd used some more practical sets and animatronics, but for the most part, I'm satisfied. As for the creatures, however, I'm more mixed. I think the Na'vi, for the most part, look good, with all the detail that goes into their design, and the motion capture for the faces is startlingly good, especially when it comes to Grace and Norm's avatars, as I can really see Sigourney Weaver and Joel David Moore's facial features and
expressions in them (strangely, sometimes I can see Sam Worthington's face in his avatar, but other times I can't). But, that said, there are definitely times when the Na'vi come off as synthetic and, sometimes, the close-ups of their faces and the details in their skin run into the Uncanny Valley, which I think they could've avoided had they used some practical effects mixed in there. And
unfortunately, as cool as their designs are, most of the rest of the Pandoran wildlife doesn't look that convincing to me, coming across as little more than very advanced video game graphics, as you've likely gathered from some of the screenshots. Again, some animatronic creatures, which is what Stan Winston Studios excelled at, combined with the digital work could've helped.
Getting back to the writing, not only are the characters not that complex or multi-faceted, but the themes are about as subtle as a brick to the head. The most blatant one is the pro-environmental advocacy, which you don't need to be a genius to decipher. Not only are the imagery of the unobtanium mining, the clearing of the Pandoran forests, and the greedy corporate interests behind it all symbolic enough of what's currently happening on Earth but, we also learn
that, by this point in the future, the Earth has been totally drained of its natural resources and Pandora could suffer the same fate. James Cameron has said he even conceived Pandora to be a fantastical version of what Earth used to be before mankind began to overdevelop it. Another not so subtle theme is that of imperialism, as you can see the Na'vi and the RDA as any indigenous, native cultures and the more technologically advanced or militantly stronger invaders who have oppressed
and colonized them, be it the Native Americans and the European settlers, the American colonists and the British, or the Indians and the British Raj. Again, Cameron has said these parallels were meant to be as blatant as possible. Similarly, the attempt to force the Omaticaya tribe to leave Hometree and then driving them out by destroying it has been seen as a parallel to forced evictions to make way for development, be it during China's
development boom or Amazon tribes being displaced. Other critics have read the movie as being anti-military and even anti-American, saying that the RDA's security force is a very unflattering depiction of the American military, and even comparing the destruction of Hometree and its aftermath to the 9/11 attacks. Cameron, in turn, has said that it's not meant to be anti-American, and that you could see either the villains or the heroes
as the American military, depending on your point of view, but he has admitted it was meant as a criticism of the United States' part in the Iraq War, right down to Colonel Quaritch's attack on the Tree of Souls being referred to as a "shock and awe" campaign, and with Quaritch himself saying they will, "Fight terror with terror," when talking about the amassing Na'vi forces.
Now, I don't want to start a political debate on whether or not the film really is anti-American or anti-military, as that's not the kind of stuff I concern myself with when watching a movie or a television show, unless it's really blatant. Yes, the villains are far too broad and have little-to-no redeeming aspects, but as to whether or not they're meant to be a condemnation of the U.S. military, if you see it that way, then I can't convince you otherwise, but I don't really think about it too hard;
I just care about being entertained. By the same token, until I read up on it, I never considered Hometree's destruction, as devastating as it is in the story, to be an allegory for 9/11, but I will admit that, once it's planted in your mind, you can see it that way, especially the aftermath, where everything is burned up and covered in ash. And the parallels to both the Iraq and Vietnam wars are quite clear. In any case, getting back to my original
point, I won't deny that these themes are hardly subtle, and Cameron, again, has even said they're not meant to be, but is that really a problem? Like I've said, I wish the characters were more multi-faceted, and I dislike how clunky, on the nose, and pretentious some of the dialogue and concepts are, like the unobtanium, but as for what the movie is trying to say, I think sometimes it's necessary to be very direct. While there are always going to be some who paint it as nothing but two-and-a-half hours of white guilt, I would wager it wouldn't be as criticized if those other issues were ironed out, as it might've made the thematic bluntness more palatable.
For all of its technical achievements and impressive world-building,
Avatar has also been criticized as not being all that original in its basic story, which has often been called a mixture of
Dances With Wolves and
FernGully: The Last Rainforest, the former for its story about a soldier who eventually finds himself siding with those he was originally fighting against and the latter for its blatant environmental message and depiction of a colorful, magical setting. True enough, but the
same, basic story has been told in numerous other movies, like
The Emerald Forest, Hayao Miyazaki's
Princess Mononoke,
Lawrence of Arabia,
The Man Who Would Be King, and
Medicine Man, among many others. In fact,
FernGully itself is a variation on this story, as it features the character of Zak, who originally works for a logging company but ends up getting pulled into this world of rainforest fairies, where he
becomes close with the lead female character of this "tribe" and fights to help save them and their home. And the colorful presentation of the environment in that film is similar to the world seen not only in Avatar but Princess Mononoke as well (a movie that I do think tells this story much better than either Avatar or FernGully). So, while it may not be all that original, Avatar is part of a far
greater tradition than having simply "stolen" from
Dances With Wolves and
FernGully, and is in good company with a wide variety of acclaimed adventure stories and films, so I don't get what the issue is, except that maybe people expected something more from such a big, groundbreaking science fiction epic that was years in the making.
Action-wise, the first major scene is when Jake and Norm first link up with their avatars. The two of them get into their link units, as Grace settles Jake down into his, placing a grid over his torso and telling him to let his mind go blank. She closes the unit and orders the link to be initiated. As it begins, Jake looks around curiously inside his unit, then closes his eyes and does what Grace said. While Grace goes to link with her own avatar, Dr. Max
Patel looks through a window above the room where Jake and Norm's are waiting for them to take control. The link is finalized and Jake awakens inside his new body, responding immediately to ocular and auditory stimulation, then confirming that he can speak. While Norm does some tests to make sure his motor and cognitive controls are working, Jake sits up on his gurney and relishes having feeling in his legs and feet again. He doesn't
listen to the questions being asked and slides his legs over and plants his feet on the floor. Though they tell him to slow down and not try for too much at once, Jake gets to his feet and stands up. Seeing this, Max tells them to get him back on the gurney but Jake isn't having it. Despite stumbling a bit and having to balance on the wall, and his body's tail swinging around, he's completely confident and exhilarated. Those in the room plan to sedate him, while Max tells him he's not used to
his avatar yet, but Jake says he feels great. Ignoring Norm's warning that they're going to sedate him, Jake walks out the door on the room's opposite side, while Norm tries to follow after him. He walks outside, into the avatar compound, and sees two playing basketball, while others are testing an oversized obstacle course. Running past the basketball players, with Norm and the two technicians following him, Jake heads onto the obstacle course. Norm tells him they're not
supposed to be running but Jake is having the time of his life, relishing being able to run at all. He heads through the course, nearly hitting someone in an AMP suit at the end of it, and goes on through a garden, before skidding to a halt. Catching his breath, he, again, relishes the feeling of his feet in the dirt. That's when Grace appears in her avatar, much to his surprise, and tosses him a fruit, which he bites into and savors the taste of. That night, he and the others call it a night in the longhouse, after which he's returned to his true body.
Jake's next link-up comes not long after that, as he, Grace, and Norm are flown out into the depths of the Pandoran wilderness by Trudy Chacon. They fly over a big, lovely lake fed by some small waterfalls, past a large flock of bird-like creatures, and as they fly on past some enormous trees and over and down the length of a large waterfall, Jake lets out an excited, "Whoo!" Trudy then brings her SA-2 Samson down to rest in a small clearing in
the middle of the jungle. Those in the avatars disembark, as Trudy powers down the engine, and they head into the jungle, Jake leading the way and acting as security for Grace and Norm. After coming across a small pack of prolemuris, Grace and Norm stop to take some samples. Jake, however, becomes restless and wanders away from them. Not too far away, he finds a batch of large fungi that plop down into the ground when
touched. At first startled, he decides to have some fun and does it to more of them. However, when all of the fungi have gone down, a hammerhead titanothere spots Jake and immediately bugles at him in a threatening manner. Grace and Norm come running and Grace warns Jake not to fire, saying he'll only make the titanothere angry. The titanothere, however, seems to be plenty angry already, as it smashes trees on either side of it in a territorial manner. Grace warns him not to run or
the titanothere will charge. She reiterates to hold his ground but, when it does come running at him, Jake instead charges at the titanothere, yelling at the top of his lungs. The creature stops right in front of him, continuing to act territorial, but Jake calls its bluff and yells for it to come on. He acts all tough and actually shit-talks it, when it suddenly runs away back to its herd, clearly scared. However, it's not afraid of Jake, but of the ferocious thanator that climbs up onto a small rise
behind him. Jake doesn't notice the thanator until it's ready to pounce on him, turning around to see it let out a fierce roar. It jumps over him and threatens the titanothere herd, before turning its attention back to Jake. Jake asks how he should deal with it and Grace's advice is pure and simple: "Run! Definitely run!"
Jake takes off into the jungle, with the thanator hot on his heels. It nearly gets him when he climbs through the middle of the "V" created by two trees, then cuts along a small ridge to its left to keep up with him. It tears apart bamboo-like plants in its pursuit, nearly swiping Jake out from under his feet with its big paw at one point, and pursues him to a large tree, whose roots he manages to hide within. The thanator swipes at him through the roots, then
pushes its head in to try to snap at him, before ripping them apart. Jake fires at it with his assault rifle, managing to force it back, until it comes in and yanks the rifle out of his hands with its teeth and tosses it aside. When it sticks its head back under the tree, Jake takes the opportunity to climb out from under it and run further into the jungle. The thanator quickly catches up to him, climbs up onto a fallen log, and jumps at him, knocking him
to the ground. Before he can crawl away, it grabs his backpack with its mouth and violently shakes him back and forth. Jake unbuckles himself from the pack and is flung to the ground. He gets back up and continues running, as the thanator also continues the pursuit. Coming to the edge of a cliff overlooking a huge waterfall, Jake runs straight for it and jumps. The thanator almost catches him in midair but just misses him in order to keep itself from falling as well. Jake pluges down the falls and
hits the pool at the bottom. He gets dragged along by the current and struggles to keep his head above the water. He manages to grab onto a fallen tree leaning over into the water and pulls himself up with it. He looks back up the top of the cliff and sees the thanator roaring in frustration at its inability to get after him again (this whole scenario makes me think of the scene in
Predator where Dutch falls down the waterfall). Once he's back in the jungle, Jake carves a spear for himself and
heads on into its depths, unaware that he's being watched from above. Neytiri is introduced as she watches Jake from a large branch, then draws her bow and points at him. She's about to shoot, when she sees a seed from the Tree of Souls float by and land on the tip of her arrow, as if telling her not to harm Jake. Taking this as a sign, she puts away her weapon and heads off. Meanwhile, Grace and Norm are forced to end their search for Jake, as Trudy reminds them that night operations are forbidden. She says Jake will have to survive until morning, but Grace is confident he won't.
Come nightfall, Jake, realizing he's being hunted, creates a makeshift torch out of his spear by wrapping the end in his jacket and dipping it in a natural petroleum deposit he finds. As creatures stalk and watch him from the darkness, he strikes a match and lights up his torch. Swinging it around behind him, he sees he's being stalked by a pack of viperwolves. Though they recoil from the fire, they make their way around him as he backs away,
some climbing across tree branches to follow him while avoiding the torch. He then finds himself caught off and surrounded by the creatures, as they emit their unnerving, hyena-like laugh and snarl at him. He repeatedly makes them recoil from the torch but when he backs away, they continuously regroup and surround him again, growling and hissing at him. He then tells them to go ahead and attack, saying, "I don't have all goddamn night.
Come on! Come on!" One of them charges at him from behind but he swings around and knocks it to the ground with his torch. Another leaps at him from above, but he jabs it with the other end of his torch and it retreats when it hits the ground. Dropping his torch, Jake takes out a knife, and when one viperwolf jumps at him and knocks him to the ground, he wrestles with it, pins it, and kills it with a slash. He rushes for his torch, but another viperwolf runs and grabs his leg, causing him to
fall. He kicks it away when it leaps at him, but another comes at him from the side and pins him down, snapping at his head as he struggles with it. Suddenly, Neytiri, armed with her bow and arrow, runs into the fray and shoots it. Jake flings its body off him, while Neytiri jumps in, shooting another viperwolf, while fending off several more with her bow. One jumps at her and knocks her to the ground, causing her to roll, but she pulls out her own knife and stabs it death. She quickly grabs her
bow and uses it to fend off more of them, snarling and hissing at them. This appears to make them retreat, and then, to Jake's surprise, she takes the still burning torch and chucks it into a stream. She heads over to a viperwolf that has an arrow in its side, as it whines and gasps in pain. Speaking in Na'vi, she puts it out of its misery with her knife, while Jake retrieves his extinguished torch and sees that the forest has become beautifully bioluminescent. He talks to Neytiri, thanks her for
her intervention, but she ignores him and whispers in Na'vi to another downed viperwolf, caressing its body and removing her arrow. When she does look at Jake, it's with a dismissive expression and she then walks away.
Following this is when Neytiri, calling Jake strong-hearted but ignorant and stupid like a child, tries to make him leave, only for the seeds from the Tree of Souls to appear attracted to him. She changes her tune and has him follow her, across the enormous branches of the trees, which are covered with glowing fungi that react when touched. He asks her what her name is, when his feet are suddenly ensared and he falls roughly to the .
ground A band of Na'vi warriors on direhorses come at him, while Jake gets to his feet and pulls out his knife. He tries to run in the opposite direction, only to be faced with more, who yell battle cries and point their arrows at him. Those on horseback do the same and soon, he's surrounded. Neytiri drops down into the center with him and yells for her people to be calm, when Tsu'tey is introduced as he jumps off his horse and stomps
towards Jake. He tells Neytiri that "demons" like him aren't allowed there, when she tells him there has been a sign and it's a matter for the Tsahik to discern. Tsu'tey orders his men to bring Jake with him and they take him back to Hometree. There, at the base of the tree, Jake is introduced to both Eytukan, whom he makes the mistake of approaching to shake hands with and is promptly subdued, and Mo'at. After learning of his status as a type of warrior, they decide to initiate him in
order to learn more about him. Once Neytiri is appointed to teach him, she leads Jake to a gathering of the clan higher up in the tree. Naturally, they all stare at him, and Jake makes several faux pas, such as accidentally smacking some in the face with his tail and stepping on the tail of a Na'vi woman. Afterward, Jake is led to a large, leaf-like hammock he has to climb down to reach. This is where he's finally brought out of the avatar and back into his own body, though not before a lot of trying on his friends' part. Once Jake has his wits back about him, he tells Grace that she will never believe where he is.
The next time Jake links with his avatar is to begin learning the ways of the Na'vi. First, he attempts to bond with and ride a direhorse named Pale. After clumsily mounting her, he joins his queue with one of her antennae, which she immediately reacts to. Her pupils dilate and she rears up, almost throwing Jake off. After Neytiri calms her, she tells Jake about the nature of the shahaylu, telling him to use it to feel Pale, inside and out. She then tells Jake to
order Pale where to go, but when he does, she takes off faster than he was expecting and slips off, landing face-first in some mud. Laughing, Neytiri goes to retrieve Pale, while Tsu'tey and another Na'vi ride by, telling Jake he should go away and Neytiri that she's wasting her time with him. Once they've rode off, Neytiri tells Jake to try again. Following that, Max sees how Jake is reporting to Colonel Quaritch about the structure of Hometree
and thus, Grace decides to move her little group to Site 26 up in the Hallelujah Mountains. In the next scene, Trudy flies them up to the mountains, first encountering the effects of the Flux Vortex and then coming upon the breathtaking sight of the mountains floating high up in the sky. Once they've arrived at the outpost and Grace has shown them where everything is, we get our next scene with the Na'vi. Neytiri takes Jake to the very top of Hometree, and after he admires the impressive
view, he's introduced to her banshee, Seze. Neytiri tells him about the life-long bond between Na'vi hunters and their banshees, and also that, eventually, he will have to choose one all his own. Neytiri flies off into the sky with Seze, flying around Hometree's trunk, then up past the branches and down at Jake, forcing him to duck down on the branch. He then watches her fly on behind him. Following that, as Jake makes a vlog, we get a montage of his training. We see Neytiri teaching
him the Na'vi language and how best to hold a bow and arrow; Norm teaching him the language as well as the meaning behind the phrases, specifically, "I see you,"; him and Neytiri running and swinging along Hometree's branches; him attempting to ride a direhorse again and doing better before falling off; and Neytiri teaching him how to read the forest. In one impressive feat of strength, Neytiri jumps off a branch and lands on and slides down the enormous leaves below her to
break her fall. Once she's done, Jake attempts it but is much less graceful, as he gets snagged in a bunch of vines and clumsily lands on and slips off some large fungi growing out of the tree's side.
Grace is able to reestablish contact with the tribe and meet up with some of her former students from her school, and there's a nighttime moment where Jake and Neytiri come across a gecko-like creature that floats off using spinning, glowing wings. The two of them then swim in a river together, followed by more training out in the jungle, as well as a moment where Neytiri places one of the sacred seeds on the body of a Na'vi who has died. Then,
when she and Jake are out hunting in a gentle rainfall, he manages to score a clean kill on a hexapede. He runs to it, ends its suffering with his knife, and speaks to it in Na'vi, saying its soul will go to Eywa, while its body will become one with the tribe. Impressed by this, Neytiri tells Jake that he's ready to make a shahaylu with a mountain banshee. In the next scene, he, Tsu'tey, and several other warriors ride direhorses up a path in the
mountains. Dismounting, they make a precarious climb up a long, thin root descending from one of the floating mountains, having to jump and grab onto some vines when they reach the top. They then make their way across floating, vine walkways and up through a tunnel, before reaching their destination, a large ledge overlooking the peaks as banshees fly about in the air. Neytiri flies in on Seze and joins them, while Tsu'tey, noticing how winded Jake is, announces that he will go
first. He and Neytiri then make their way up a narrow ledge behind a waterfall and peek around the bend at the end to find a rookery full of banshees. Neytiri tells him, "Now you choose your ikran. This you must feel inside. If he also chooses you, move quick like I showed. You will have one chance, Jake." He asks, "How will I know if he chooses me?", and she answers, "He will try to kill you," to which Jake comments, "Outstanding."
Creeping into the rookery, Jake whips out his lasso and walks along the edge. The banshees screech and snarl at the intruders' presence, and a number of them that Jake challenges merely take flight. Then, he comes across one with a green and purple skin colorization that stands his ground and returns his snarl at him. Knowing he's been chosen, Jake smirks and says, "Let's dance," whipping his rope around in front of him. Behind him, Tsu'tey laughs
and tells the other Na'vi that Jake is going to get himself killed. The banshee lunges at Jake but he dodges and ensnares his snout with the whip. He gets on the banshee's back and tries to wrestle him to the ground, but he flaps his wings, threatening to take to the air. After several seconds of struggling, the banshee appears to tire out, as Jake puts him in a headlock and forces his body farther down onto the ground. Neytiri yells for Jake to bond with him,
but when he grabs one of the tentacles, the banshee flings his head back, smacking Jake and then flinging him off. Jake almost slips over the edge but grabs onto a root sticking out of the edge of the cliff. Though Neytiri is concerned for him, Tsu'tey is absolutely loving this. Jake manages to pull himself back onto the cliff and runs at and jumps back on the banshee. The two of them struggle some more, when Jake gets the banshee down to
the ground, wraps his legs around his snout, and finally connects his queue with one of his tentacles. The banshee's pupils dilate and he instantly stops struggling. Having subdued the beast, Jake unwraps his snout and climbs up onto his back. Neytiri runs up to him, telling him the first flight seals their bond and that it must happen immediately. She angles the banshee towards the edge of the cliff and tells Jake to command him to fly. Jake does, but the banshee goes straight down
the side of the cliff and struggles and flops about in the air. Jake grabs his neck and the banshee flies right at a wall across from him. He grabs onto the wall and nearly sends Jake falling to his doom, when he scrambles along the wall and falls again. Jake falls onto the banshee's back and yells at him to fly straight. He obeys his command and does so, as things go from clumsy and frantic to graceful. Jake commands him to bank to the left, which he does, flying amongst the floating cliffs, then makes
him level off. Neytiri is happy to see this and runs to Seze; the other two Na'vi cheer Jake on, but Tsu'tey yells at them to stop. Neytiri and Seze join Jake and his banshee in their flight, and as they fly among the floating mountains, Jake says in his narration that this was something he was born to do. Later, at sunset, he and Neytiri talk about their experiences in their flights.
Jake is next flying with Neytiri, Tsu'tey, and the other hunters, and decides to be a bit mischievous. He has his banshee bank towards Neytiri and knock Seze slightly off-balance, and when she realizes what he did, Neytiri playfully returns the favor, all to Tsu'tey's annoyance. Jake and Neytiri are next seen flying straight down the side of a cliff, performing some very impressive stunts in midair. Following that, they fly on and over the
Tree of Souls, which appears onscreen for the first time. When they're flying again shortly afterward, Jake learns they're not the only airborne hunters, as Toruk comes screeching down at them from above. Jake spots him right after he sees his shadow and has his banshee dive straight down, with Neytiri doing the same with Seze. Toruk flies after them, snapping at the back of Jake's banshee, and chases them down past the canopy and into the jungle
below. The chase continues through the treetops, until Toruk gets caught up in a mass of vines and is unable to keep up his pursuit. He turns around and flies back the way he came, while Jake and Neytiri have their banshees grab onto the trunk of a huge tree and look around to see if he's really gone. Once they're convinced he is, they both laugh from the sheer exhilaration of what they just went through. Later that night, Neytiri tells Jake the legend of Toruk Makto and how an ancestor of hers
was one of the honored few who carried that title. Following a short lull, where Jake starts to question who he is, he's made part of the tribe, with Eytukan declaring him a son of the Omaticaya and part of the Na'vi. Much of the tribe, including Tsu'tey, put their hands on him and each other as part of the ceremony, while Grace watches on tearfully. That night, Neytiri takes Jake to the Tree of Voices, and the two of them become mates. When Jake awakens back in his link unit, he thinks to himself, "The hell are you doin', Jake?"
The next morning, as the two of them sleep out at the tree, Neytiri is awakened by the sound of an engine approaching. Looking up and seeing an enormous vehicle similar to a bulldozer pushing its way through the trees and heading right for them, she tries to awaken Jake. However, he hasn't linked with his avatar yet, and there's a suspenseful montage as he prepares to do so, only for Grace to convince him to eat something first, while Neytiri desperately tries to awaken his avatar body and
pulls it along the ground to keep it from being run over or crushed by the tree's falling branches and trunk. Eventually, after scarfing down his food, Jake links up and awakens in his avatar to see Neytiri hovering over him, yelling for him to wake up. Getting to his feet and realizing what's happening, he runs to the bulldozer and waves his arms back and forth, yelling at it to go back. The video cameras atop it spot him and, back at Hell's Gate, its remote operator stops it. He tells Parker
Selfridge what's going on but Parker tells him to keep going, saying this "native" will move. He pushes the controller forward and Jake and Neytiri have to rush out of the bulldozer's way; seeing this on the screen, Parker comments, "There, see? He moved." Jake rushes to its side, climbs up onto the roof, and smashes the cameras with a rock, rendering the operator blind. One of a squadron of soldiers, both in normal gear and AMP suits, fires
on him from the ground, forcing him to retreat before he can totally disable the bulldozer. He and Neytiri rush back into the woods, as Tsu'tey and two other Na'vi warriors arrive and see what's happening. It turns out the bulldozer Jake attacked was one of a group leveling the forest. Neytiri cries mournfully over the loss of the Tree of Voices, while Tsu'tey, glaring at the sight of them together, rides off back to Hometree. Meanwhile, at Hell's Gate, Colonel Quaritch examines the recording of Jake's assault on the bulldozer's cameras and realizes it's him. Enraged at this, Quaritch storms out of the control room, telling one of his men to get him a pilot.
At Hometree, the Omaticaya clan prepare to retaliate, with Eytukan declaring that Tsu'tey will lead the war party. Grace arrives in her avatar, attempting to calm them, but Tsu'tey isn't having it, saying, "We will strike them in the heart!" Jake and Neytiri arrive and the former tries to talk Tsu'tey out of attacking, but Tsu'tey, enraged at his and Neytiri being together, stomps towards him and shoves him onto the ground. He accuses him of mating with Neytiri and she herself confirms to
him and everyone, including Mo'at, that it's true. Now even angrier, Tsu'tey attacks Jake with a knife when he, again, tells him not to attack. Jake manages to dodge and fling him to the ground, then pulls out his own knife and tells him, "I am not your enemy!" He throws his knife to the ground and exclaims, "The enemy is out there, and they are very powerful!" At that moment, Quaritch and his men arrive at Site 26 and prepare to storm the outpost. Jake continues trying to reason with
Tsu'tey but he gets charged again and sliced across the chest. Tsu'tey comes at him again but Jake punches him in the face, knees him in the gut, and delivers another punch that completely floors him. Jake declares that he's a member of the tribe and has the right to speak, while Tsu'tey gets to his feet and glares at him while wiping his bleeding face. Speaking in Na'vi, Jake prepares to tell the tribe the truth, but at the outpost, Quaritch pushes his way in
and flings Norm aside when he tries to stop him. Finding the link units, he presses the abort button on Grace's, forcing her out of her avatar. Seeing her fall, Jake realizes what's happening and tries to speak faster, only for Quaritch to end his link. His avatar falls to the ground lifeless, and Tsu'tey pulls his head up by his braid and declares him to be, "A demon in a false body." He prepares to slit the body's throat, but Neytiri jumps on his back, flings
him off, and crouches down by the avatar, brandishing her own blade and hissing at Tsu'tey. Disgusted with her, he opts not to fight and storms off. At that moment, as he awakens back in his link unit, Jake finds Quaritch standing over him. The colonel tells him, "You crossed a line," and knocks him unconscious. He then tells one of his men, "Wheel this meat outta here," and the soldier binds Jake's hands behind his back.
Back at Hell's Gate, when Jake and the others learn of Quaritch's impending attack on Hometree, they convince Parker to, if nothing else, let them warn the tribe to evacuate. As Jake and Grace link up, Parker tells the former, "You got one hour. Unless you want your girlfriend in there when the axe comes down, you get them to evacuate. One hour." Back in his avatar, Jake appears before Eytukan and Mo'at and warns them of the oncoming attack and that they have to evacuate. When Mo'at asks
him if he's sure, Jake is forced to admit to everyone, including Neytiri, that he was sent there as a spy to learn their ways. Though he tries to explain that he fell in love with Neytiri and the forest, she tearfully turns on him, yelling that he'll never be one of them. Eytukan orders both Jake and Grace to be taken prisoner, while the clan decides to fight. Meanwhile, Quaritch, flying in his fortified Dragon, leads a squadron of Scorpions and Samsons to Hometree.
Jake and Grace are bound to some totems made up of bones near Hometree, when they hear Quaritch's forces approaching. They warn the Omaticaya to run for the forest, when the aircraft come over a nearby ridge. Ignoring Jake and Grace's pleas, the Na'vi prepare to stand and fight, as the aircraft fly over a lake and bank near the shore. Eytukan tells Tsu'tey to take his warriors and attack from above using the banshees, while Quaritch sees Jake and Grace's predicament and remarks, "Well, well,
well. I'd say diplomacy has failed." He then orders one of his gunners to fire gas canisters at the base of the tree. The ensuing cloud of gas frightens the Na'vi and sends some direhorses running. Eytukan orders the other warriors to fire upon the Dragon but, as expected, their arrows bounce harmlessly off the hull and windows, while hundreds of others retreat from Hometree. Quaritch, amused at how ineffective yet persistent this response is, decides to turn up the heat. The Dragon fires missiles,
hitting the base of Hometree's columns and sending the Na'vi running from the ensuing explosions, which rip up through the tree's interior, chasing Tsu'tey and his warriors to the top. Now knowing they're outmatched, Eytukan orders everyone to run to the forest, while up in the Dragon, Quaritch, seeing this, remarks, "And that's how you scatter the roaches." Neytiri, glancing at Jake and Grace, runs and leaves them behind, as the aircraft drift
down into formation; Jake realizes they're about to destroy Hometree's columns. While Eytukan orders everyone, including Neytiri, to take shelter in the forest, Mo'at approaches Jake and Grace with a blade. At first, it looks as though she's about to cut Jake's throat, but then, she says, "If you are one of us, help us," and cuts him and Grace loose. Quaritch orders all of his forces to switch to missiles and target the columns, while Jake and
Grace try to help lead the Na'vi to safety. The colonel orders, "Bring it down," and they all fire at the columns, the explosion blowing many of the escaping Na'vi off their feet. They fire again, causing more damage and terrorizing and hurting the Na'vi more, when up in Samson 16, Trudy decides she's had enough and abandons the attack.
Quaritch coldly sips from his mug of coffee as the onslaught continues, with some missiles from his own ship causing an explosion that blows back Eytukan, impaling him on a piece of shrapnel. The attack ceases, and everyone, both human and Na'vi, watches as, after a short lull, Hometree's columns give way. Creaking loudly, it begins listing over to the right, as the Na'vi run for cover. Up on top, Tsu'tey and his warriors now mount their banshees simply to escape, and below, the Na'vi run for it as
the tree falls over, with chunks of bark and branches crashing down all around them. Neytiri especially has to dodge to avoid being crushed, whereas some other Na'vi aren't so lucky. Finally, Hometree collapses completely and the debris settles. Now that it has, those who escaped scream in anguish over their home being destroyed, and back at Hell's Gate, the images of the destruction on the control room's monitors really upset those watching, including Parker. Quaritch, however,
says, "That's good work, people. First round's on me tonight." He tells his pilot to get them out of there and the Dragon and the rest of the aircraft head back to Hell's Gate, leaving the burning, smoking remains of Hometree behind. Down below, Neytiri finds her father, alive but mortally wounded, impaled through his center. Before he dies, he gives his crying daughter his bow, telling her to use it to defend the tribe. Jake, searching for
Neytiri, comes upon this and tries to comfort her, but she angrily screams at him to leave and never come back. Back at Hell's Gate, Parker orders the avatar links to be terminated. The soldiers go to do so, ignoring Norm and Max's warnings about it, and Norm gets so angry when one soldier tries to pull him away from a unit that he punches him. He's then restrained as the soldier ends Grace's link and her avatar collapses amid the retreating Na'vi.
Jake's link is terminated as he walks away alone, in total despair, and when he's pulled out of his unit, he's so despondent that he puts up no struggle whatsoever. Norm, who's handcuffed to some railing, yells angrily at the soldiers who carry Jake away, while Grace, as she's restrained, yells, "You murderer!" at someone, likely Parker. The Omaticaya clan are then seen heading into the forest, away from Hometree as it burns in the distance. Neytiri looks back at it, possibly thinking of Jake, before joining the others.
Jake, Grace, and Norm are in a holding cell, when Trudy comes to bring them some food. Acting like she's still on the RDA's side, she entices the man watching them into thinking they're getting steak for dinner. When he looks for it on the cart, she pulls out a handgun and puts it to his head. She forces him down to the floor and then knocks him out with a whack to the head. She yells for Max, who comes running in and unlocks their cell. Next, they're heading for the hangar, Trudy and Norm
running ahead of the others in order to get the ship ready. Reaching the door, Norm grabs four exopacks out of a box on the wall and, putting them on, they run out to the ship. Meanwhile, Jake convinces Max to stay behind and keep them informed of what's going on. Trudy and Norm climb aboard the Samson and fire up the rotors, but this doesn't go unnoticed in the control room. Quaritch is told of an unauthorized engine ignition on Samson 16, and when he looks on the screen, he
sees Norm and Grace helping Jake aboard. That's all it takes to send him stomping towards the hangar, grabbing an assault rifle from one of his soldiers on the way. He kicks open the door, not even bothering to put on an exopack, though it forces everyone in the control room to. He opens fire on the Samson as they manage to get Jake and his wheelchair aboard and begin to lift off. When he runs out of clips, he tosses the assault rifle aside
and pulls out a handgun, continuing to fire on them as they fly down the runway and escape Hell's Gate. That's when a soldier comes running and gives Quaritch an exopack, which he puts on without a second thought. Onboard Samson 16, everyone celebrates having escaped... except Grace, who got shot in the torso. Jake sees this and tells Norm to get the trauma kit, though Grace tries to write it off. They head to Site 26 and use the
Samson to lift the cabin containing the link units up into the air, with Norm using his avatar to guide them. Jake tells Trudy to head to the Tree of Souls, then injects Grace with a stabilizer. He tells her that he plans to have the Omaticaya help her, though she doesn't think they'd be willing to help them. Come daybreak, they fly past and land near the tree, where the entire Omaticaya clan has gathered. Despite the knowledge that he won't be welcome, especially with Tsu'tey, Jake gets into his link unit and returns to his avatar.
Jake awakens back near the ashy, smoldering remains of Hometree and walks amongst the destruction. Suddenly, his banshee comes flying towards and lands in front of him, loyal as ever. Patting his head, Jake tells him, "There's something we gotta do. You're not gonna like it." He mounts him and flies back to the Hallelujah Mountains. Finding Toruk flying through the sky there, Jake flies far above him, figuring, "Toruk is the baddest cat in the sky. Nothing attacks him. So why would
he ever look up?" Jake then has his banshee peel right down at Toruk, before jumping off and diving at his back. Following a swift cut to black, the Omaticaya are shown praying at the Tree of Souls, when Toruk's shadow passes over them and they see him coming at him. But, as he flies in, they see that Jake is riding him. Once they've landed, Jake hops down and detaches his queue, while the others look at him in amazement, Mo'at quietly calling him, "Toruk Makto." Jake makes his way
through the crowd, as the Na'vi treat him with absolute reverence, and approaches Neytiri, the two of them exchaning the significant expression of, "I see you." Now reunited, the two of them regain their bond and Jake asks Tsu'tey to help him. Initially unsure, Tsu'tey agrees to help, given he is Toruk Makto, telling him, "I will fly with you." Jake tells Mo'at and Neytiri of Grace's injuries and that he's there to ask Eywa for help. That night, he
brings Grace to the Tree of Souls (when she sees where she is, she jokes, "I need to take some samples,") and set her and her avatar at the foot of it. The tree's root fibers begin to spread across her, and though Mo'at warns that Grace may be too weak for the ritual to work, Jake remains confident. They then attempt it, Mo'at asking Eywa to place Grace into her avatar permanently, but after several seconds, she tells the other Na'vi to be quiet. Grace,
still in her own body, comes to, and as Jake holds her hand, she tells him, "I'm with her, Jake. She's real." From her point of view, Jake's voice grows echoing and distant, his image becomes warped and stilted, and her soul heads up into the tree. She lets out one last breath as she expires, the glowing from where all the Na'vi were connected to the tree goes out, and, when her avatar remains inert, Mo'at breaks it to Jake that Grace was too weak and is with Eywa now. Neytiri then removes Grace's exopack mask from her face, as the other Na'vi look on, solemnly.
Choking back the loss, Jake takes Neytiri's hand and turns to Tsu'tey, asking him permission to speak and to translate what he's about to say to the clan. Standing at the base of the tree, they face the clan and, as Tsu'tey translates, Jake speaks, "The Sky People have sent us a message... that they can take whatever
they want. That no one can stop them. Well, we will send them a message.
You ride out as fast as the wind can carry you. You tell the other
clans to come. Tell them Toruk Macto calls to
them!" The Na'vi get to their feet and begin whooping and yelling, as he goes, "You fly now, with
me! My brothers! Sisters! And we will show the Sky People... that they
cannot take whatever they want! And that this... this is
our land!" Everyone cheers at that, and Jake and Neytiri rush to Toruk and mount him. After they take off, following Toruk letting out an impressive cry and wing display, Tsu'tey and everyone else rush to their own banshees and fly after him. They're
shown inspiring the other Na'vi clans, such as the Horse Clan of the plains and the people of the Eastern Sea, and they all gather at the Tree of Souls, with Jake watching over them. Meanwhile, at Hell's Gate, Quaritch tells his men of the gathering clans, showing them a large holographic readout of their amassing numbers, saying, "Everyone on this base, every one of you, is fighting for survival, and
that's a fact. There's an
aboriginal horde out there, massing for an
attack. These orbital images tell me that the hostile numbers have gone
from a few hundred to well over
2,000 in one day. And more are
pourin' in. In a week's time, there could be 20,000 of 'em. At that point,
they will overrun our perimeter. Well, that's not gonna happen. Our only
security lies in preemptive attack. We will fight terror with terror." Switching to an image of the Tree of Souls, he goes
on to say, "Now, the hostiles believe that this mountain territory of theirs is protected by
their... their 'deity.' And when we destroy it, we will blast a crater in their
racial memory so deep, that they won't come within 1,000 klicks of this
place ever again. And that, too, is a fact." The soldiers all cheer at this and are then seen loading explosives into the Valkyrie shuttle. Max contacts the group
and tells them of this plan, that the shuttle is being rigged as a bomber, and the attack will begin at 6:00 the next morning. Though Norm and Trudy are sure that they're doomed, Jake is confident that, with the number of warriors and their having home-field advantage in the mountains, they have a chance.
Following the scene where Jake goes to the Tree of Souls and asks Eywa for help, Quaritch's enormous attack force takes off from Hell's Gate. Once they enter the Hallelujah Mountains and hit the Flux Vortex, they have to switch to manual flight mode. At the same time, the Omaticaya and Eastern See warriors, led by Jake, Neytiri, and Tsu'tey, come flying in on their banshees. A number of Quaritch's forces land on the ground, deploying armed soldiers and others operating AMP suits, while the
Dragon deploys dozens more. The ground forces make their way through the forest, ready for any ambush, while the numerous up in the air head on to their target. With the Tree of Souls in sight, Quaritch orders the Valkyrie to get ready to drop its payload. His warning to his men that the Na'vi are out there waiting is proven to be true, as the warriors and their banshees are clinging to the sides of mountains floating high above the invaders. Down on the ground, the men sense
movement coming in fast; it turns out to be the Horse Tribe, coming in fast on their direhorses. This is sensed up in the Dragon as well, and the ground forces prepare to attack as the tribe, Norm in his avatar among them, close in. At the same time, the Omaticaya clan come down at the air forces. Using com links, Jake tells Tsu'tey that he plans to punch a hole through them. They descend upon the Valkyrie, just as the Horse Tribe close in on those on the ground. Jake, Neytiri, and Tsu'tey
fly down at the ships, Toruk ensnaring one craft's tail with his talons and sending it slamming into the side of a mountain. Tsu'tey then comes roaring in and fires an arrow, which goes right through another ship's windshield and impales the pilot. Neytiri does the same to another, and soon, all of the warriors come down on them. Quaritch orders all aircraft to use their weapons, while down below, the ground forces open fire on the Horse Clan.
Though some are, naturally, downed within seconds, Norm provides a surprise by firing back with his own assault rifle. Up in the sky, the battle truly begins, as the aircraft target their attackers. On the ground, the Horse Clan prove they can give as good as they get, with one managing to impale a soldier even after he gets shot off his horse, while up above, Toruk grabs one Scorpion and slams it into another. Jake opens fire with his own assault
rifle, sending another Scorpion plummeting down to the ground below. They target the Valkyrie, attacking the gunmen on its roof and those firing from the cargo bay, with Neytiri managing to kill one soldier with an arrow shot. On the ground, Norm gets knocked off his horse but keeps firing.
Quaritch orders the Scorpions to pursue and destroy, and they begin firing missiles at the banshees, blowing Na'vi off them and sending them falling to their deaths. They also begin targeting the Horse Clan, forcing them to retreat. Norm radios Jake, telling him of the situation, when the Dragon comes around the bend in front of Jake. Recognizing him, Quaritch orders his pilot to get after him, and the ship fires missiles at Toruk. Neytiri is pursued and fired upon as well,
but just as Quaritch has Jake in his sights, Trudy comes flying in with Samson 16 and fires along the Dragon's roof. She flies down and levels off in front of the ship, prompting Quaritch to order her shot down as well. Trudy veers to her right, using parts of the floating mountains to avoid the onslaught, then returns fire, managing to shoot through one of the Dragon's windshields, namely the one Quaritch is behind. Quaritch arms all of the Dragon's airpods and blasts her with an onslaught
of gunfire and missiles, driving her back. She takes a direct hit across her front and backside, causing an explosion back there. She tries to stabilize her ship and flies under some cover, while a Scorpion chases Neytiri through the forest and into the midst of the land battle. An AMP suit fires on and hits Seze, causing her to crash and throw Neytiri off her mount. Getting back to her feet, Neytiri runs to Seze, only to find she's died from her injuries. Neytiri looks around her and sees horrific death
and destruction, with Na'vi getting blown off their horses and sent flying by huge blasts from the Scorpions. Up in the sky, Tsu'tey comes at the Valkyrie and manages to leap at and land in the cargo bay. He fires an arrow as he jumps, managing to get one soldier, and when he lands, he grabs another and throws him aside, throws another off the ramp, smacks another with his bow and throws him out, and floors one last one with his
bow. But, one soldier manages to fire upon him and blasts him out the back, sending him falling to his death. The same happens to another Na'vi who tries to jump into the bay. On the ground, Norm takes a shot to his left shoulder, while Quaritch finishes off Trudy by blasting her ship and sending the fiery wreckage falling down below. At that moment, Neytiri sees a burning direhorse running past her, one final sign of how bleak things are. Jake
attempts to contact Tsu'tey and Trudy, learning of their deaths when he gets no response, while Norm is forced to abandon his link. Only two minutes away from the Tree of Souls, the Valkyrie begins its bomb run, arming its first cluster. Pinned down behind a tree, Neytiri contacts Jake, telling him of Seze's death and that the ground forces are closing in on her. Jake orders her not to attack and to retreat, but Neytiri prepares an arrow and peeks around the tree, ready to fire.
A man in an AMP suit tells the others to stop, as he's detecting movement from something large that's closing in fast. At first, Neytiri thinks she's been spotted, but it turns out to be a herd of hammerhead titanotheres that come charging in and make short work of the AMP suits and the soldiers. The one man in his AMP suit fires on one of them, only to get flipped backwards and then smashed by the creature's huge feet. Seeing this, Neytiri tells Jake that Eywa has answered his
prayer, but Jake sees that himself, as swarms of mountain banshees join the aerial battle. Seeing this, Jake flies Toruk back into the battle, where Scorpions are getting knocked out of the sky and gunmen yanked from their positions in the aircraft by the banshees. Viperwolves join in the ground battle, as does Neytiri, who's surprised when a thanator appears and offers itself as a mount for her. At the same time, Norm emerges from the cabin containing the link units, armed with an
assault rifle. Told that all escorts have either been downed or are retreating, Quaritch decides to go ahead with the bombing and orders the Valkyrie to press on to the tree. At the base of it, Mo'at sees the shuttle approaching, despite the heavy attack it's under. Jake comes flying in, jumps off Toruk and onto the shuttle's roof, and fires on the remaining gunmen with his assault rifle. They prepare to drop their payload, when Jake throws a grenade into one of the turbines and jumps back onto Toruk before it
explodes and sends the Valkyrie down to the ground. Inside the cargo bay, a soldier gets squashed between two masses of explosives when one slides back against the other. The shuttle crashes near the tree and is destroyed in a massive explosion. Jake next targets the Dragon, jumping on its roof and preparing to disable it in the same way. Just as he unpins and throws the grenades, Quaritch veers the Dragon to the side, knocking
him off his feet and causing one of the grenades to roll and attach itself near him. Jake tumbles and grabs onto the missile turret, as the grenade explodes, ripping a hole in Quaritch's airpod and compromising it with Pandora's toxic atmosphere. While trying to climb back up onto the ship, Jake dislodges a missile and grabs it. Seeing this, Quaritch runs to the back and pops open a hatch on the roof. Brandishing a handgun, he fires at Jake,
causing him to lose his grip on the missile and fall over the side. However, the missile hits one of the turbines, blowing back Quaritch and sending the Dragon tumbling to the ground. His right sleeve burning, Quaritch climbs into the AMP suit in the back of the Dragon, while Jake falls to the canopy and uses the layers of foliage to slow and soften his fall. He lands and tumbles along the ground, watching as the Dragon comes crashing down.
Inside, Quaritch activates the AMP suit, grabs a rifle, and drops down from the ship as it explodes. He lands on the forest floor, while the Dragon's burning wreckage crashes behind him. Pissed off and ready to exact revenge for this humiliation, Quaritch marches off into the jungle. Unbeknownst to him, Neytiri is rushing to Jake's aid while riding the thanator.
Quaritch spots the cabin containing the link unit through a tree-line and makes his way towards it. Just as he's about to fire, he sees Neytiri and the thanator coming at him from behind and swings around just as the thanator jumps at him. He manages to grab and throw it behind him, but the creature charges him again. Though he tosses it behind him again, it charges once more, tackling and pinning him to the ground, and biting the suit's right arm as it brandishes the rifle. While it does
destroy the rifle, Quaritch punches it in the face with his left arm, then grabs at Neytiri with his other but misses. The thanator jumps at Quaritch again but he throws it against a tree behind him. He pulls out a large knife, and when the thanator jumps at him again, he stabs it right in the gut. As it roars in pain, he holds it and stabs repeatedly, then throws it aside, pinning Neytiri under its body, and finishes it off with a leaping stab to the jugular. He pulls the knife out and prepares to use it on
Neytiri, when Quaritch leaps down behind him and tells him that it's over. Quaritch comments, "Nothin's over while I'm breathin'!", and Jake responds, "I kinda hoped you'd say that." They rush at each other, Jake grabbing a section of his smashed assault rifle and using it as a shield against Quaritch's knife. He dodges a swing from him, gets knocked back when he blocks another one, dodges some more swings, running up and
under a huge tree root, and continues dodging as Quaritch slices through anything that gets in his way. At one point, when Quaritch swings his knife, Jake snares it in the handle on the rifle's underside and snaps it off by wrenching it hard. Quaritch grabs and punches at Jake, when he leaps off a large rock and stabs the rifle's bayonet right through the suit's cockpit, just barely missing Quaritch. Jake leaps off him and lands behind him,
while Quaritch rips the bayonet out and flings it at Jake. It misses him, but hits the link cabin's window behind him, cracking it. While Neytiri continues struggling to get out from under the thanator's corpse, Quaritch, unable to see Jake through the cracked windshield, detaches the whole thing and puts on an exopack. Jake takes out his own knife, while Quaritch asks, "Hey, Sully, how's it feel to betray your own race?" Jake hisses at him, when Quaritch says, "You think you're one of them? Time to wake up."
He turns and heads towards the cabin, smashing through the window and pounding his fist down on top of the unit inside. Opening it, he finds it was Norm's abandoned unit and heads to the unit across from it. Jake jumps on his back and Quaritch grapples with him, when Jake brings down his knife and stabs it right next to Quaritch's throat, into his seat's head-rest. He manages to grab Jake and throw him hard across the ground. Inside his link unit, Jake is exposed to Pandora's atmosphere
and begins to lose his grip on his avatar. Quaritch stomps towards him and Jake, his link weakening, collapses at his feet. Jake manages to reestablish the link, when Quaritch grabs him by his braid and hoists him up into the air. Holding him close to the cockpit, Quaritch removes his knife from his seat and prepares to slit his throat with it, when Neytiri, finally wrenching herself free from under the thanator's corpse, runs, grabs her bow and arrow, aims, and fires, hitting Quaritch in the chest. He
drops Jake and stumbles backwards, as Neytiri hits him with another arrow, right next to the first one. Neytiri rushes to Jake and hisses at Quaritch, who futilely tries to pull the arrows out but then collapses to the ground. Neytiri tries to awaken Jake, who emerges from his link unit and, gasping from the excessive carbon dioxide, reaches for a spare exopack mask on the wall. However, he loses his balance and falls to the floor. He drags himself
to the box and reaches for the mask, but doesn't have the strength to remove it and falls back onto the floor, coughing and gasping rapidly. Outside, Neytiri tries to rouse his avatar, when she turns and spies the cabin behind her. Realizing what's happened, she jumps through the smashed window and pulls the unconscious Jake up into her arms. Seeing the mask dangling from the box, she takes it and places it over his head. Jake revives from the oxygen, initiates the airlock, and after gasping a bit, stabilizes. He and Neytiri then share a real moment, having actually met each for the first time, with each telling the other, "I see you."
In the film's last few minutes, all the humans, save for those like Norm and Max, are forced onto a shuttle to leave Pandora, and Toruk is set free, as Toruk Makto is no longer needed. Jake returns to the link lab at Hell's Gate one last time for a final vlog, saying, "Whatever happens tonight. Either way I'm... I'm not gonna be comin' back
to this place. Well, I guess I better go. I don't wanna be late for my
own party. It's my birthday, after all. This is Jake Sully, signin' off." The movie ends at
the Tree of Souls, where the Omaticaya perform the ritual to permanently place Jake's consciousness into his avatar. The last shot is Neytiri watching over him, as the tree's seeds float down and cover both bodies, and the camera starts up high and comes down to Jake's face, as his eyes open.
Avatar would be the third and final time the late James Horner worked with Cameron, and at the time, he called it the hardest movie he'd ever worked on (and remember, this is the guy who vowed never to work with Cameron again after the ordeal of scoring Aliens, then eventually came back for Titanic). Unfortunately, of the three scores he did for him, this is probably the least memorable. It's certainly good music, as Horner was an awesome composer, and you can tell he was inspired by the Na'vi's tribal way of life for much of it, using it to create a sense of natural wonder and fantasy for the world of Pandora, as well as scored the big battle scenes to be as epic as the visuals, but nothing about it sticks out to me, save for how there are parts of the big action setpieces that are scored in a very similar manner to Aliens and how the tribal parts remind me of his score for Mighty Joe Young. That's what I meant when I said that, like Cameron, Horner was accused of ripping himself off for the film. Also, the score did contribute to that cliche at the time where images of death and destruction were accompanied by someone singing mournfully in an African-like language, especially when things go south during the final battle. Ultimately, it's one of those scores I've mentioned before where the music works really well while watching the actual movie, but you'd be hard pressed to hum or even recall sections of it otherwise. As for the song, I See You, by Leona Lewis, which Horner also had a big part in creating... it's okay, but, man, is it very old-fashioned and rather generic, definitely of the "I Will Always Love You" persuasion.
Of course, it wouldn't be James Cameron without there being multiple versions of the film. There are three, with the second being the "Special Edition," which was released to theaters in August of 2010, less than a year after the theatrical version. The added scenes here, which tack nine minutes onto the running time, are pretty superfluous, but there's one significant scene where, while making their way through the jungle, Jake, Grace, and Norm come across a long abandoned Na'vi school. As
they look through it, Grace mentions how great the students were and that they picked up on English extremely fast. They also find a copy of
The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, which Grace notes was her favorite (again, Cameron being really on the nose with his commentary), and says she wishes some of the Omaticaya would return and read the books there. She then laments, "The Omaticaya learned as much about us as they needed to." That's when Jake notices some bullet-holes in a chalkboard, but when he asks what happened, Grace ignores the
question. This is paid off in another scene that's only in the other version. You also get a glimpse of a different type of creature: a stingbat, a small, purple-colored bat. Similarly, in a moment right before this scene, as they're flying above the jungle, the team spots some sturmbeests, creatures akin to wildebeasts, down below, which Jake and the Na'vi hunt in a later scene. Other additional moments include a moment where Grace explains exactly how the mountains are able to float, Jake and Neytiri connecting their queues when they
mate, Jake and the Na'vi destroying the humans' excavation machines, and a moment after the final battle where Jake and Neytiri find Tsu'tey, still alive but mortally wounded, and Tsu'tey asks Jake to put him out of his misery, as well as his appoints him as the new clan leader.
The other version, running close to three hours, is the "Extended Edition," which was released on DVD and Blu-Ray in November of 2010 as part of the three-disc Extended Collector's Edition, which is what I bought in early 2011. Among the most noteworthy additions here is an extended opening on Earth, which you only see a little bit of in the theatrical version. You get a sense of how overpopulated the planet is and how dystopian this future is (I don't know about you but the way the
city looks does give me some
Blade Runner vibes), as well as how Jake lives there with his disability, with more pontificating narration from him like, "I became a marine for the hardship, to be hammered on the anvil of life. I told myself I can pass any test a man can pass," and, "You want a fair deal? You're on the wrong planet. The strong prey on the
weak, it's just the way things are. And nobody does a damned thing." He says the latter during a scene where he's in a bar and, despite his paralysis, manages to beat up a guy who was abusing a
woman, only to get tossed out into the wet street, along with his wheelchair. It's here where Jake is found, brought to the morgue to identify his brother's body, and offered the chance to take his place in the Avatar Program. As Tommy's body is cremated, there's an interesting transition where it zooms in on a close-up of his face surrounded by the flames, then transitions to the close-up of Jake when he wakes up in cryo-sleep. The other noteworthy new scene is a conversation between Jake and Grace where she tells him what happened
at the school, which you don't get in the Special Edition. In earlier scene in this version, you learn that Neytiri once had a sister named Sylwanin, and during this scene, you learn the awful details of her death, as well as the school's fate: "Neytiri's sister, Sylwanin, stopped coming to school. She was angry
about the clear cutting. And one day, she and a couple of other young
hunters came running in, all painted up. They had set a bulldozer on
fire. I guess they thought I could protect them. The troopers pursued
them to the school. They killed
Sylwanin in the doorway, right in front
of Neytiri, and then shot the others. I got most of the kids out. But
they never came back." Putting a photo of her and her students on a window sill, she goes on to say, "A scientist stays objective. We can’t be ruled by emotion. But I put ten years of my life into that school. They called me sa’nok... Mother. That kind of pain reaches back through the link." Though I'm fine with just the theatrical version as is, I really think they should've left in both this and the scene where they first find the school, as it really adds some of that depth I think the story and characters lack, and Sigourney Weaver's performance in the latter scene is really good.
So, do I think
Avatar is one of James Cameron's absolute best movies? No, while it's an impressive achievement in terms of technology and world-building, he's certainly made better movies in the past. Is it one of my personal favorites? No, I'd much rather watch either
The Terminator or
Aliens. Do I think it's an entertaining spectacle of a movie? Very much so. The writing may be simple and rather on the nose, with the characters not as fleshed out or as multi-faceted as they could be, and I don't think Sam Worthington is that great of a leading man, but when it comes to pure escapism and sense of wonder, I think it succeeds with flying colors. While not all of the CGI is successful, the world of Pandora is fully realized and breathtaking, the motion capture for the Na'vi is quite astonishing, some of the actors, like Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang, do manage to turn in memorable performances, the action and battle sequences are just epic, and though it's not among his best work, James Horner's music does do its job in context with the movie itself. Some may find it hard to get past all the commentary and allegory, thinking it's preachy, pretentious, and evoking white guilt, but I'm able to tune it out and view the movie as just a pure adventure story. In the end, despite its shortcomings, I do enjoy
Avatar and would be more than happy to visit Pandora again.
