WTF Happened in ‘Avatar’ Anyway? Catch Up Before ‘The Way of Water’
Avatar was a big f*cking deal in 2009 and 2010. The only thing that got people to stop talking about it on the daily in my circle was the release of Beyoncé and Lady Gaga’s equally iconic “Telephone” music video. But now it’s 2022 and James Cameron is finally releasing Avatar: The Way of Water, the first sequel to the game-changing blockbuster. Do you remember what happened in Avatar? The plot is pretty simple. Avatar’s wow factor was never going to be subtle themes and twists. Even if you haven’t watched it in more than a decade, it will come back to you pretty quickly.
However, there are some silly science fiction terms you may have forgotten and some key things you need to keep in mind from the first film if all you remember are blue cats, ponytail sex, Papyrus font, and “I see you.” Here’s a quick refresher before you return to Pandora.
Pandora is a very special moon.
While Avatar takes place in space, it is not in a galaxy far, far away. The fictional world that Cameron created is located in the real Alpha Centari star system—the closest to our own sun and solar system. In the first film, the government is interested in Pandora for its unique wildlife and a mineral called unobtanium. Get it? It’s called unobtanium because it’s difficult to obtain. Unobtanium is unobtainable. The reason this mineral is hard to get is because the indigenous population of Pandora, called the Na’vi, have a symbiotic relationship with the planet’s wildlife. So the scientists on Earth send in a group of scientists and soldiers to infiltrate the Na’vi and convince them to move, allowing the government to mine for unobtanium.
To do this, they develop a technology called the Avatar Program, where humans are hooked up to synthetic Na’vi bodies (their avatars) and puppeteer them.
Jake Sully is a very special boy.
The film’s protagonist is a young man named Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who joins the Avatar program as a last-minute replacement for his recently deceased twin brother. Jake is arrogant and not super interested in training. He kind of just goes for it. As a human, Jake is a recent paraplegic, and puppeteering an avatar allows him to feel the sensation of walking again. As a soldier, he has an easier time relating to the warriors of the Na’vi compared to his companions Norm (Joel David Moore), who has an encyclopedic knowledge of Pandora, and his Jane Goodall–esque scientist boss Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver). Nerds may love this movie, but this movie kind of hates nerds.
Jake falls in love with Neytiri.
At a certain point, Jake gets separated from the group and is rescued by a Na’vi woman named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), who takes him into her tribe and teaches him their culture. This is where you get the Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves comparisons. This is a familiar story structure. They may or may not connect their ponytails when they have sex, depending on which cut of the movie you see. They definitely use their ponytails to bond with the dragons they ride and the Mother Willow trees they pray to using what’s called a neural network.
The bad corporate military is bad.
Jake is making progress with the Na’vi and earning their trust. He bonds with a big dragon called Toruk. The Na’vi allow Grace to observe and chill with them. But the military and corporate mining company get trigger-happy and greedy and tell Jake and Grace that they, Neytiri, and her people have an hour to evacuate or they will be killed. The Na’vi fight back, with backup provided by the moon’s wildlife, and ultimately defeat the “sky people,” aka humans from Earth.
A few characters died and others stayed on Pandora.
Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the film’s villain, is killed by Neytiri. Jake’s coworker Trudy (Michelle Rodriguez) gets killed, as does the Na’vi chief Tsu’tey (Laz Alonso), but Jake’s fellow avatar Norm survives and is allowed to stay in human form. Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi), the secondary villain who’s all about the money money money, departs Pandora.
Another casualty is Dr. Grace Augustine. The Na’vi pray to the deity Mo’at and ask that the Tree of Souls revive Grace in her avatar form since her human body is dying. That unfortunately fails.
Jake Sully is technically not an avatar anymore.
Jake is alive but can’t go home—and TBH, he doesn’t really want to. So the Na’vi try the same prayer they tried with Grace, and it works. Jake wakes up in his avatar body and his human body is essentially dead. He’s 100 percent Na’vi now. Should the sequel be called Na’vi: The Way of Water instead? Guess we’ll find out.
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