James Cameron's Avatar 2 has finally arrived in theatres and there's a lot to break down
regarding the highly anticipated sequel.
I'm going to be diving into the plot, explaining the ending and further story details that
take place within the expanded world of Pandora, to help guys put together a much greater picture
of the Avatar universe, especially when it comes to what's next with Avatar 3.
As a warning, this analysis will contain spoilers, so if you do happen to be someone who hasn't
seen the film yet, then I would recommend watching this
video after you've seen it.
If you want to keep up to date on all of my Avaatr 2 videos coming over the next few weeks,
then don't forget to support this upload by giving it a like rating,
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But without further a do, lets dive into James Cameron's Avatar The Way Of Water explained.
So after 13 years, Avatar: The Way of Water continues the storyline of James Cameron’s
2009 film, which went on to become the highest grossing movie of all time.
The science fiction epic pays tribute to classic blockbusters of the
past and continues its tale about a native civilisation fighting back against a now returned
technologically advanced human army.
While Avatar 2 may be similar at times in it's central plot
to the first film, it's this time around that it brings a deeper sense of emotion through
the telling of a family trying to stay together in
the face of a potentially devastating situation.
And as we reach Avatar 3 and move beyond it, we'd guess that based on the way this movie
ends, that the Sullys will come up against more
issues while trying to keep their pact.
As a brief recap, the previous film ended with the humans forced to leave Pandora after
their failed attempt to destroy the Tree of Souls, a heavily
sacred location for the Na’vi tribe.
And right at the beginning of Avatar: The Way Of Water, Jake Sully fills us in on whats
been going on for him and Neytiti in the 13 years since that
happened.
Jake tells us and we see in an opening prologue how he and Neytiri built a family and became
the parents of a group of kids, which includes Lo'ak, Neteyam, and Tuk as their
natural born children.
Then there's also Kiri, a girl that was mysteriously born from Grace’s avatar body following
her death in the first film, and while this still remains a mystery by
the end, she clearly reminds us of Grace in many ways, and that's primarily because Sigourney
Weaver has reteamed with James Cameron to bring the girl to life with her performance.
And Jake and Neytiri have further adopted a human
son in Spider, who we learn is the son of the first film's villain, Miles Quaritch.
We discover that following the original war, he was left
on Pandora as a young child and eventually raised by scientists who remained on the planet.
And while Spider wants to be a true Na'vi, we learn that Neytiri finds it difficult to
get close to the boy as their adopted son, because she
knows that he is the son of Quaritch, who killed her father and almost destroyed her
home.
While this narrative beat does come into the limelight later on in the film, we gather
that Spider is seen as a true brother by others such as Neteyam and that he also likes Kiri,
who looks back at him in a similar romantic way.
Alongside the developments in Jake and Neytiri's new family, it's not long before we learn
about the return of the humans and why they are really back all these years later.
On one side of things, the RDA return to predictably mine
more resources while also trying to stop Jake Sully from becoming a problem to that operation.
Jake and Neytiri's peaceful family life is disrupted when spaceships arrive on the planet,
and we learn that it's not only humans looking to gather the natural resources of Pandora,
but also a resurrected Miles Quaritch and his
team of recombinant marines.
We switch focus to a somewhat origin for their resurected selves and we quickly learn that
these recombinant marines don’t remember their deaths from the
original war, with their individual backups being cut out.
But to fill Quaritch and his team in, we see the avatar versions of them speaking to their
resurected selves in videos that they recorded just in case.
In human Quaritch's video, he says that if Recombinant Quaritch did ever watch this video,
it would mean that he would be looking for revenge against Jake Sully.
But when Quaritch and co arrive on Pandora, we learn about something that makes their
visit this time a bit more interesting to the previous one.
We are told by the new military leader that their arrival on Pandora is not just
about collecting the moon's precious resources, but that it's also part of the first step
into making the planet a new home for the humans,
following the mention that their world is now on the bring of total collapse.
We did learn that Earth was in a bad state in the opening sequences of the original film,
but this time it seems like there's more urgency surrounding
it's current position.
This marks the end of the prologue where we jump forward a year after the humans return
and learn that Jake and the Na’vi have begun smaller battles against
the humans, which involves them attacking their supply trains to get more weaponry and
tools.
Jake goes head first into a particular battle and
realises that his kids have come down with him onto the frontline too, when he gave them
orders to stay out of the heavy combat on the ground.
It's a big thematic point in the film when it comes to Jake facing the internal battle
of being a warrior versus simply protecting his family.
And it's not long before those fears start to hit home.
After the kids take a small trip away from the new Omaticaya base, which
is now a hidden cave system in the hallelujah mountains, Quaritch is busy revisiting the
death site of the original Quaritch, and that is right
next to where the Sully kids currently are.
While he does end up catching them, most of the kids are saved by Jake and Neytiti, other
than Spider, who Miles recognizes as the real son of
the previous Quaritch.
While this new Quaritch makes it clear that he doesn't feel attached to the boy right
now, because himself and the human Quaritch are different, due to his implanted
memories, they begin to form a connection and the boy becomes important in learning
the native ways, so that he can have an equal fight against Jake.
And with Jake knowing that Quaritch is now after him, he makes the hard decision
to not put any more of his family at risk nor the Omaticaya people, and decides to leave
the forest.
Neytiri and the kids don't want to go through with this, but Jake brings them around
due to the risk that it poses to the tribe.
So they leave and travel to another side of Pandora, known to be home to the Metkayina
people, a new clan of Na’vi that are biologically connected more to the oceans.
The family arrives at the coastal tribes home and begs for their
protection, with quite the mixed response from the clan.
We learn that the Metkayina are able to remain for longer inside the water, with their
heartbeats remaining low and their tails being the shape of fins, so they can move more quickly
within it.
This is their natural environment, whereas the Sullys are warriors of the forest,
so they have to learn their customs.
This involves riding new sea creatures that are a sacred part of their culture, with one
particular creature being the Tulkans, which members of the
Metkayina clan create bonds with, reminding us of the bonds that Jake made with his Banshee
and Toruk in the previous film.
Tulkans are massive whale like sea creatures that are really
intelligent and can communicate with the Na’vi.
But we also learn about their history and culture and how they want peace more than
anyone else.
This becomes important to the plot by the third act, but towards the Sully families
earlier moments with the metkayina, we learn that Jake's son Lo’ak, is the only one to
bond with a Tulkun, and the one he bonds with is actually
an outcast called Paykan.
We discover that Paykan wanted revenge on the humans because they killed his mother
during a whaling assault.
That assualt failed but many Tulkans died, with
Paykan being held responsible.
And when Lo'ak helps remove a metalic device from his fin, that same scene that we saw
at the end of the Avatar re-release, things begind to get tense
between the Sully's and the the Metkayina's leaders in Tonowari and Ronal.
Tonowari is more forgiving and that's part of the reason why Jake and his family were
allowed in to begin with, whereas Kate Winslet's Ronal is more harder
to please, often getting in tense arguments with Neytiri.
But we learn that to them, killing a Tulkun is the type of instance that would create
war with the Metkayina as both the na'vi and the sea creatures have a close connection.
And when it comes to why the humans were attacking the Tulkans to begin with, we later learn
that the sea whales are the only source of Amrita,
a liquid found in their brains that can apparently stop human aging.
Similar to the original film, this substance is funding the recent
colonization of the planet.
Of course, Quaritch is on the hunt for Jake, and when he finds out that he is hiding within
one of many Na'vi tribes in the area, he begins to plot his path of
revenge by using the wildlife in the area to his advantage.
Quaritch burns local villages, interogates a tribe leader who's staying hush about Jake's
location and he kills innocent creatures to know avail.
While this brutality doesn't get him anywhere, he now knows that he has to persuade Jake
to come to him, and the best way to do that, is to influence the same
sort reaction he got out of the tribe leader when he killed their creatures.
What Quaritch doesn't realise though is that the resilience of the sully family and the
Metkayina becomes stronger than ever after they eventually become
united.
Of course, Lo’ak and the rest of the children have a hard time getting used to their new
home, but they manage to put aside their differences and have each others backs by
the end.
Lo’ak even meets Tsireya, Tonowari's daughter, and they have an immediate connection by the
end of the story too.
It doesn't just becomes Jakes war it becomes a war for all
of them.
And that isn't the only power that the Na'vi have going for them, because we learn a lot
more about Eywa's presence and how this specificly links to Kiri.
Kiri being the very different figure in the Sully family begins to discover
things bigger than herself when arriving at the Metkayina's camp, and this involves her
being able to hear the heartbeat of Eywa, being able
to hold her breath for a lot longer than the others can underwater and the ability to control
things in the ocean.
There's a moment where she connects to what is essentially the
Metkayina's Tree of Souls in the sea, and once she bonds with it, she meets Grace in
Eywa, with her mother making it clear to her that she has abilities beyond what she believes.
We don't learn of her father and I presume we are going
to learn about that, a lot more about her connection to Eywa and her abilities to greater
depth in the upcoming sequels.
But right now we know that she's super powerful and that there's
something bigger at play with this character to come down the line.
And this all ultimately leads to Quaritch's plan during the final act, bringing every
piece together in dramatic fashion.
The final battle between the Sully and the Metkayina tribe
against the RDA humans led by Quaritch comes into full effect, and it's probabaly up there
with Top Gun Maverick for one of the most thrilling final hours to a movie this year.
With Quaritch teaming up with the quite annoying
Captain Scoresby and his team of Tulkun plunderers, they decide to hunt a Tulkan down near the
Metkayina's home in order to attract Jake.
He already figures out that this is a trap and
tries to convince the Metkayina not to fight back, but as mentioned before about the connection
they have to the Tulkans and sea cretures, this
becomes quite difficult.
Lo'ak and the other kids warn Payakan about the approaching RDA, and with them becoming
aware that the other Tulkan have already been attacked and that the RDA
begin to arrive, the war finally begins.
Before Jake, Neytiri and the Metkayina arrive, Lo'ak, Tuk, and Tsireya are captured, with
Quaritch telling Jake over radio that a war doesn't have
to start if he hands himself in.
Payakan ambushes the RDA ship though and with that distraction it allows Jake and the Metkayina
time to make their attack first.
While the huge battle commences, underwater, Kiri connects to the
Spirit Tree and uses her mind abilities to attack the crafts that chase her and Tonowari's
children, while Neteyam helps Lo'ak, Tuk, and
Tsireya, so that they can go and save spider, who begins to fight back and disobey his recombinant
father.
With the RDA ship all but destroyed, Tuk and Tsireya rescue a now captured Kiri
but Quaritch manages to once again get a hold of Tuk.
Also while Lo'ak and Neteyam eventually get to Spider, and all of them escape, on the
way out, Quaritch shoots Neteyam and he becomes very weak.
They manage to get him back to Jake and Neytiri on a nearby reef, but Neteyam eventually dies
from the gunshot wound and it's a heartbreaking moment for the Sully family.
Jake tries to calm Neytiri down and tells her that
she has to have a strong heart and what follows is a powerful sequence of events where she
tries to get revenge for her dead son.
While the RDA ship sinks and gives us scenes that remind us of James Cameron's Titanic,
Jake tries to save Tuk and Kiri, but sees that Quaritch has Kiri at knifepoint.
After a relentless killing spree by Neytiri to get onto the ship,
she eventually grabs Spider and holds him at knifepoint too, with us still knowing that
she doesn't particularly have great feelings for the
child knowing that he is Quaritch's son.
But in this moment they both show that they do actually care about these children and
it leads to them being let go and a climatic fight between
Jake and Quaritch begining on the ship.
Nearly all of them become trapped underwater in the time that follows, and Jake manages
to strangle Quaritch with them both eventually sinking
below the ocean having run out of breath.
And this where the kids end up being the saviors of their dying parents.
Lo'ak finds Jake on the brink of death and teaches him to hold his
breath longer so that he can swim to the surface, with Payakan eventually giving them the final
push with his fin.
Spider finds Quaritch and decides to save him after some self-questioning,
but once on the sueface, he doesn't decide to flee with his dad.
And Neytiri and Tuk are rescued by Kiri, who illuminates the water using a pair of wings
which give her longer underwater breathing.
She gives them to Neytiri, and they all rise to the surface, with the family coming together
once again.
The movie ends with the Sullys giving the dead son a funeral under the
water at the Metkayina base and they send him to the bottom of the sea where his body
is absorbed, linking into what Tsireya says towards the beginning the film, in that 'the
way of water has no beginning and no end.
He becomes a part of the energy of Eywa and Pandora, so that means that the goddess is
real and that there is some kind of afterlife beyond this.
And we do clearly sea that because in the final scene,
Jake and Neytiri share an emotional moment with their dead son in the afterlife, following
their connection to the underwater tree of souls.
So what does this all mean for what's to come in Avatar 3 and the future of the franchise.
Well, at the end of the film, the surviving Sullys are ready to move away from the Metkayina
with Jake saying that to protect his family it's better to fight then run away from terror.
This could indicate that they are heading back to forest to face the rest of the RDA.
With the RDA returning in Avatar 2 with the aim to
colonise Pandora, we learned that they built a city called Bridgehead, with it funded by
the extracted Tulkan resource that stops human aging.
There's still plenty of humans at the Brudgehead base and I would guess that this is the next
target of battle for Avatar 3.
I would also suspect that we'd visit more corners of Pandora
just like we did in this film with the Metkayina, so an element of expansion alongside Sullys
fighting for their lost home would be a likely route to take.
There's also the question surrounding what happens to Quaritch after
the battle, and while he's not currently with Spider, I'd predict that we'd see some kind
of redemption arc for his character in the next few
films.
I'd doubt they'd wanna keep pushing him as the returning villain in every sequel, so
I could James Cameron taking a leaf out of Termiantor 2 and making him maybe go on a
reverse journey in the time ahead.
What we do know is that we haven't seen the last of him.
And then when it comes to Kiri and her powers, I'm sure we're going to learn about how important
she is to Eywa and her central role going forward
too.
She doesn't know who her father is and I think this could explain her powers to some degree,
but with her being born from Grace's dead body,
I would think that she's going to be more of religious metaphor when it comes to all
the links with Eywa.
We'll have to see what happens and where this goes in Avatar 3, but after I
rewatch the movie this weekend, I will be doing a theories video for the potential sequel
discussing all of these things and more in greater detail.
But that was my video explaining the plot and ending for James Cameron's Avatar The
Way Of Water.
Like I said in my spoiler free review, this film is a visual masterpiece that once again
adds to the list of great sequels by Cameron.
I did have issues with the plot, the dialogue and the pacing at the beginning, but by the
end, I had a fantastic cinematic experience with
the filmmaker's latest instalment of this evolving franchise.
I do hope this breakdown did help some of you guys understand the events and smaller
details a bit better, and I'm looking forward to hearing your thoughts on the film,
so don't forget to let me know down below in the comments section.
I will also be doing multiple videos in the coming week including a spoiler
filled video essay and a greater discussion on what could happen in Avatar 3.
So keep a look out for whenever I post and make sure you don't miss any of it.
For lots more videos surrounding Avatar 2 during its release, then subscribe to the
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But anyway, I hope you guys enjoyed it, I've been Cortex and as always make some noise.