"Avatar: The Way of Water" is here,
and it's as epic as we hoped for. But being the second in a series of new movies,
there's a lot to unpack as the film's final scene fades to black. Warning: Spoilers ahead!
Jake and Neytiri flee their home to protect their children,
ultimately seeking refuge with a group of Metkayina on Pandora’s reefs. However,
it takes some convincing to get local leaders Ronal and Tonowari to give them shelter. They
claim that the Metkayina aren’t at war yet and that the presence of Jake and his family
will inevitably bring bloodshed to their shores. And that’s exactly what happens.
After Kiri has a seizure from bonding with the Metkayina’s spirit tree, Norm flies in
on an RDA helicopter to help. The vessel’s signal is detected by Quaritch and his crew,
who quickly set out to search the islands for Jake. They torture Na’vi, kill animals,
and put whole villages to the torch, ultimately driving the Metkayina to war. And while the final
battle ends up being a victory for the denizens of Pandora, it still comes at a heavy cost.
When Jake tells Tonowari and Ronal that he’s the one the RDA is searching for,
the response is hostile. They blame him for the violence threatening their shores,
and they’re right to do so. It’s foolish of Jake to think that he can outrun Quaritch, and it’s
even more foolish of Norm to take a chopper right where they are. However, it’s also true that the
war would have probably found the Metkayina sooner or later. The hunting of the Tulkun
is becoming increasingly important to the RDA, making open conflict with the locals inevitable.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" spends a lot of time exploring the nature of the Tulkun,
the giant whale-like creatures that ceaselessly migrate through the oceans of Pandora. We learn
that the Tulkun are extremely intelligent, with brains far more complex than those of humans.
They’re capable of music, art, mathematics, intense emotion, and high-level communication,
even getting their own subtitles when chatting with their Na’vi kin. All that development
makes it even more devastating that the RDA is hunting the Tulkun mercilessly.
In an extended action sequence, we see Captain Mick Scoresby and his team of Tulkun hunters
brutally target and immobilize a mother Tulkun who refuses to abandon her young calf. The humans then
enter the creature’s mouth and drill a hole up into its brain, extracting a viscous fluid
that apparently "stops human aging." Scoresby tells Spider that a single vial of the stuff is
worth "80 million," and that it has become the focal point of the RDA’s operations on Pandora.
There are a few interesting details here. One, this mission seems to have nothing to do with
the RDA’s main goal of preparing Pandora for full colonization. Early on, General Frances Ardmore
tells Quaritch that her job is now to make the moon habitable for human settlement. And yet,
many of her forces are still just mining valuable resources for Earth’s elite. Additionally,
Scoresby’s dialogue suggests that the quest for unobtainium has quieted. Perhaps that’s
because of the Na’vi resistance back in the forest, or perhaps it’s for some other reason.
Quaritch decides to use the violent hunting of the Tulkun to lure out Jake, and it works. Afraid for
the life of his new Tulkun friend Payakan who’s been outcast by his clan for going against their
pacifist ways, Jake's son Lo’ak swims out to Three Brothers Rocks to warn him. But by the
time he gets there, Payakan has already been tagged for the hunt, and the RDA are en route.
At the end of "Avatar: The Way of Water," Jake says that his
family’s unity is both their greatest strength and their greatest weakness.
"This family is our fortress."
The latter proves to be true here, as all of the kids want so desperately to help each other that
they all end up getting caught. They stay true to the "Sullys stick together" mantra,
but that puts them in the middle of harm’s way. In a way, Jake’s love for his children causes
the big battle at the end. He calls in Norm because Kiri has a seizure and he desperately
wants to help her, leading the RDA right to him. Then the values he’s instilled in his kids cause
them to get captured, and his love for them forces him to make some difficult choices.
With the kids captured by Quaritch and held hostage on his giant boat, "Avatar:
The Way of Water" enters its massive, multi-stage climax. At first, it looks like Jake is going to
avoid violence. He’s fully prepared to hand himself over in exchange for the safety of
the children, and he encourages the Metkayina to stand down. In this moment, you can almost
see Jake’s exhaustion written on his face and his fear of what another battle could do to
his family. He seems almost defeated before the battle even starts. But then, Payakan intervenes.
In one swift blow, the Tulkun throws the entire RDA ship into disarray,
launching its massive body across the deck and causing widespread destruction. It’s the exact
opening the Na’vi need, and they waste no time springing into action. Jake, Neytiri,
Tonowari, and Ronal lead the charge while Payakan continues his rampage. The Tulkun
cleverly manipulates the way the humans hunt his kind, using Scoresby’s explosive
harpoon against him and ripping off his arm before sending the hunter to his death.
It’s easy to imagine how powerful a whole herd of Tulkun could be in battle, but no others
come to aid Payakan and the Na’vi. It seems that, despite the violence being committed against them,
they’re still dedicated to their pacifist ways. It remains to be seen how those convictions will
hold up as humanity’s plunder of Pandora continues. The franchise could produce
some interesting conversations about the role of nonviolence in the struggle against oppression,
but knowing director James Cameron, we probably won’t get anything that deep.
As the sea battle at the end of "The Way of Water" winds down,
an eclipse brings a brief nightfall, and the fighting continues in the dark. With the RDA’s
forces severely diminished and their equipment mostly destroyed, Neteyam goes in solo to free
the younger kids from their bindings. It’s a great moment for the big brother,
showing both how much he’s learned from his parents and how much he cares for his family.
With the kids freed, Neteyam is ready to go, but Lo’ak begs him to help rescue Spider
as well. The young human spends most of the movie in the captivity of his reborn father,
and Lo’ak says that it would be wrong for them to leave him there. Reluctantly, Neteyam agrees,
and they manage to get Spider out as well, albeit at a serious cost.
One of the more interesting things about "Avatar 2" is the less-than-traditional
family at its center. While three of the main kids are Jake and Neytiri’s biological children,
Kiri is adopted, and Spider isn’t even Na’vi. Despite these differences,
they all treat each other largely the same, embracing a "no one left behind"
policy for the whole clan. It’s admirable and touching, but it also gets Neteyam killed.
It would be miraculous for the massive Sully family to make it through "The Way of Water"
completely unscathed. And as you might have guessed from general genre tropes,
it’s the responsible older brother who ends up taking the fall. Neteyam does his best to get all
the kids out safely, but he catches a stray bullet and dies soon after, surrounded by his family.
The loss is brutal, especially for Neytiri. The Sullys end up going back to the ship to
rescue Tuk from Quaritch’s grasp, but you get the sense that Neytiri might have returned
regardless to seek vengeance. The death of a firstborn child is no light matter,
and the mother puts her rage on full display by absolutely wrecking the remaining RDA crew.
While Neteyam’s death is incredibly sad, it’s made a bit less devastating by the
film’s final scenes. His body is laid to rest on the sea floor in the tradition of the Metkayina,
and we see his parents communing with his spirit, or at least his memory,
by bonding with the spirit tree. In the Na’vi faith, energy is only ever borrowed,
as Jake reminds us in a monologue. Sooner or later, you have to give it back to Eywa.
While it’s nice to see Jake and Neytiri get a bit of optimistic closure for their son’s death,
we still don’t really understand what they’re seeing during the bond. Is this just a memory,
or are they truly seeing Neteyam again? Perhaps
future films will further explore how this ancestral connection works.
After absolutely decimating Quaritch’s remaining crew in arguably the best
action sequence in "Avatar 2," Neytiri pulls an extreme tactic to secure Tuk’s safety. Quaritch
emerges with the girl held under his knife, so Neytiri responds in kind. She grabs Spider,
pain and rage burning on her like an aura, and threatens to gut him if Tuk
isn’t released. While Quaritch scoffs at first and claims that he doesn't care about his son,
he quickly blanches, seemingly despite himself, and lets Tuk go.
Would Neytiri have killed Spider in this scene? It’s hard to say.
We’re told early on via Jake’s narration that she’s never fully trusted the kid,
but she still seems to treat him with love and respect the few times they do interact. It’s
possible that this was all just a gambit, but it’s also possible that Neytiri wanted blood.
"This is our home!"
Unfortunately, "The Way of Water" doesn’t give us much real character analysis here
to grab onto. The film clocks in at an absolutely bloated 192 minutes,
leaving plenty of time to build up to this moment with more intrigue,
but that’s not what we get. Clearly, James Cameron is more interested in giving us a sixth underwater
swimming sequence than a bit more character development, and the film sadly suffers for
it. Even still, Zoe Saldaña is so good here that it almost doesn’t matter.
If you thought "Avatar: The Way of Water" was done after the whale fight, or after Neteyam’s death,
or even after Tuk’s rescue, you’d be wrong. There’s still more action,
mainly in the form of Jake and Quaritch’s dramatic showdown. The two start on the
sinking deck of the RDA ship, battling close up with combat knives. However,
their duel quickly takes itself underwater as the entire vessel begins to flood.
For all the beautiful alien creatures in "Avatar 2," the film looks most impressive when the
performance capture is front and center. Jake and Quaritch's subaquatic fight isn’t just the film’s
narrative climax, but also the pinnacle of its technical achievement. James Cameron's underwater
performance capture technology truly shines here, and the fight itself is brutal to watch. In the
end, though, Jake manages to choke the older man out, leaving him to sink to the bottom of the sea.
Given that Quaritch ultimately survives this battle, you might catch yourself wondering why
Jake didn’t finish the job. It seems he could have snapped his neck, thus removing any chance of the
villain coming back. Of course, you have to factor in Jake’s exhaustion. He’s close to death himself
by the end of the fight, and it’s not ridiculous for him to assume that Quaritch is out for good.
As the RDA ship floods and sinks and the sea is set ablaze around it, Spider joins his adoptive
kin in seeking out Jake, Neytiri, and Tuk. What he ends up finding instead is his father,
unconscious and drowning on the ocean floor. No matter how much Spider hates him, he can’t let
himself abandon him, so he grabs Quaritich’s limp body and drags him to the surface.
This is a questionable move to say the least. Just a few moments prior, Quaritch declared that he
would track Jake to the ends of the world as long as he was alive. Saving the villain and allowing
him to escape could end up dooming the Sullys down the line, and since Spider is basically a Sully
himself, it might seem odd that he rescues his father. However, his allegiance still lies with
the Na’vi, as he rejects Quaritch’s invitation to join him and quickly returns to his real family.
Jack Champion is fantastic as Spider throughout the movie, and you can see his inner turmoil play
out on his face. He has no love in his heart for his father, but he also can’t let him die. He’s
even more conflicted because Quaritch just gave up Tuk to save his son’s life. Looked at in this way,
Spider’s actions make sense. He’s begrudgingly repaying a debt and avoiding patricide,
but it’s clear he would have rather simply not found Quaritch at all. Even so,
it’s hard to imagine the Sullys being thrilled when they find out what Spider has done.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is a story about family. Jake grapples with his
responsibilities as a father and feels torn between his desire to fight and his need to
protect his children. Neytiri faces a similar dilemma as she’s pulled between her duties as
a mother and her larger community. However, it’s not the parents who take center spotlight at the
end of "Way of Water," but the children. They’re the ones who save the day and lead the way home.
Using her ability to compel the natural forces of Pandora to obey her, Kiri locates where Jake,
Neytiri, and Tuk are trapped under the wreckage of the ship. She finds her mother
and sister and leads them out, while Lo’ak goes to find his father. Exhausted from his
battle with Quaritch and panicking at the rising water, Jake tells his son to leave him behind,
convinced he can’t hold his breath long enough to get out. But Lo’ak refuses to
hear it. Bringing the lessons of the film full circle, he encourages his father to calm himself,
teaching him the same slow breathing technique he learned from Tsireya.
Safely away from the wreckage, Jake places his hand on his son and echoes Tsireya's line:
"I see you."
And for the first time, he truly does.
One of the big mysteries in "Avatar: The Way of Water" is Kiri and her
special powers. Born from the "dead" avatar body of Dr. Grace Augustine,
Kiri grows up not knowing who her father was or how she came to be. She tries to learn
these answers by communing with the Metkayina’s spirit tree, but a seizure cuts her visit short.
Here’s what we know for sure: Kiri has an uncanny connection to Eywa and the natural forces of
Pandora, and no one knew that Grace was pregnant until after she was dead. Given these clues, it’s
possible that the father mystery is a red herring, and that Kiri was an immaculate conception created
within Grace’s avatar by Eywa. That would explain how she can "hear Eywa’s heartbeat," as she tells
Jake, and it would make her incredibly important to the story going forward.
Of course, there’s no proof yet that this is the case, but it seems likely. Kiri
is unique among all the other Na’vi, and she could be downright messianic.
After the battle with the RDA ends and Neteyam is laid to rest, Jake tells Tonowari that
he and his family will be moving on. You’d think the chief would be glad to see them go
given the amount of destruction they brought to his realm, but he’s not. He encourages
Jake to stay, telling him that his whole family is now part of the Metkayina clan.
In his closing narration, Jake reveals that he’s decided to stay. He says that he can't
save his family by running, and he’s right. Running didn’t stop the RDA from finding him,
and it didn’t stop Neteyam from dying. So with a new and powerful ally at his back,
Jake decides to stay and make his stand by the sea.
"Strong heart."
What exactly this means for the "Avatar" sequels is unclear. We’ll likely continue exploring new
locations and subcultures on Pandora, but the Metkayina will likely remain central to the
plot. A return to the forests of the Omaticaya would also make sense given Neytiri’s heritage.
Like its predecessor, "Avatar: The Way of Water" is largely about the balance of the
natural world. This theme is channeled into the cultural and spiritual beliefs of the Na’vi,
and "The Way of Water" adds another interesting layer in the form of the Tulkun. Showing another
hyper-intelligent species on Pandora is a great way to further develop the complex ecosystem of
the world, and it further contrasts the ways of the Na’vi with those of their human oppressors.
It’s particularly telling that the main thing sought by the RDA in the film,
the brain fluid from the Tulkun, stops human aging. It’s a tangible
affront to the natural cycle of life and death that the Na’vi hold so sacred.
Quaritch, Ardmore, and the rest of the human forces continue to represent imperialism and
environmental destruction on the largest scale. The RDA is run by company men only interested
in the bottom line, even as claims of humanity’s dire circumstances become more prevalent. Earth is
dying, but the RDA is still just trying to make money. It would be interesting to see how the
action on Pandora is pitched to regular citizens and how they feel about the moon’s occupation.
"Way of Water" also suggests that, as in our world, the fight for the environment
is being led by the youth. It’s fun to see the young Na’vi taking charge,
and it should be exciting to watch them grow with the franchise. Unlike humans,
they understand that the value of the natural world is greater than what we can take from it.
The third "Avatar" film has already been shot and is planned for release in 2024,
according to Cameron. And after the events of "The Way of Water," there are a lot of
places it could go. This time, humanity is still on Pandora in between the movies,
and General Ardmore will surely want revenge for the destruction of her valuable whaling vessel.
With colonization now the ultimate goal of humanity’s presence on Pandora,
more and more powerful tools of occupation are surely on their way. The Na’vi and their allies
will have to join forces to stand a chance. Fortunately, they now have Kiri on their side,
whose unique abilities we’ve likely only scratched the surface of. She could become the
key to freeing the moon for good, but she’s still just figuring out the limits of her abilities.
And, of course, Quaritch will be back to continue his spiteful vengeance quest against
Jake and his family. Maybe he’ll reconsider his position after being rescued by Spider,
but given how outright evil he is, that seems a long way off. Spider himself still seems
smitten with Kiri, and Lo'ak and Reya are building a solid foundation for a long-term
relationship. These romantic threads may become more important as the characters continue to age.
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is a huge step up from its predecessor,
and with luck, the next film will be even better.