Welcome to the Heavy Spoilers show I’m your host Paul and it’s time to open Pandora’s box as we dive into Avatar the Way of Water. In this video we’re gonna be breaking down the new characters, plot and also the ending. James Cameron has also touched upon some things to do with Avatar 3 and 4 and in this video we’re gonna be going through it all.
This is gonna be one of the big movies of the year so if you don’t want anything ruined then I recommend that you turn off now. If you enjoy the video, then please hit the thumbs up button and don’t forget to subscribe for videos like this every day.
With that out the way, thanks for clicking this, now let’s get into Avatar the Way of Water.
When does Avatar: The Way of Water pick up?
Ok so when we last left the planet, we’d just seen the US military being overthrown by the Na’vi due to Sully switching sides and leading an uprising. After the defeat of Colonel Quatrich, the humans were forced to flee Pandora and there has been peace on the planet ever since.
We learn that Jake has created a family with Neytiri, and he’s also adopted the son of Quatrich who had to stay on Pandora.
Born in Hells Gate he was too young for Cryosleep and therefore couldn’t return home.
He’s not the only person they adopted either and they also have taken Kiri under their wing who’s quite a mysterious character.
Voiced by Sigourney Weaver there’s a big question mark over how she came to be. If you cast your mind back to the first one, you’ll remember that she played the character Grace who died whilst trying to transfer her mind into her Avatar. Just before her death Grace told Jake that she was with Eywa, and she passed away leaving her Avatar body behind.
We discover that Kiri was born from her and that though Grace’s avatar was rendered brain-dead it was still naturally alive. She conceived Kiri who now carries human traits such as eyebrows and four fingers. This was something from the first movie that the Avatars carried due to them bearing human DNA. Kiri has a strong spiritual connection to the planet, and this is likely due to Grace seeing Eywa before her death. Kiri even witnesses Grace at one point in the movie, but we don’t learn too much about how she was conceived.
Kiri’s deepest wish is that she could’ve met Grace and she often visits her Avatar and also watches through recordings that she left behind.
Now due to her body being brain dead there’s three ways that she could’ve been conceived.
The first is pretty f**ked up and I dunno if we necessarily wanna be going that route cos I doubt Cameron will either. The second option is that Kiri is actually an immaculate conception and that she came to be after Grace came into presence with the God. She has a way to tap into the spiritual side of things and I think that she may end up becoming a really important character in the upcoming movies.
There’s also talk that she and Norm had a thing and that she was pregnant before she passed away which means they were getting it on in their Avatar bodies.
Kiri can also control the plant and animal life under water and if she can do this then it’s possible, she can do it with the trees and animals on land.
Now Grace isn’t the only character who finds new life in the movie and both Wainfleet and Colonel Quatrich return once more.
We discover that just before his death that Quatrich uploaded his mind, emotions and everything that made him him. He has been processed through the recombinant programme which has allowed him to return once more. Due to him being duplicated before his death, Quatrich doesn’t have any memory of his because technically from his perspective he never experienced it.
There’s lots of interesting things that they can do with him and potentially he may come to realise that he’s a slave that’s simply being used by the army rather than actually having a life of his own. To him he’s the clone and this has given him almost a detachment from reality in which he doesn’t really view spider as his son even though the entire thing that made Quatrich Quatrich is what makes up him. There’s lots of deeper questions here such as what it means to be human and whether a perfect duplicate becomes that completely or if it’s simply a copy.
He also hated the Na’vi but has now himself become an Avatar and the dislike is Quatrich coming from him.
Quatrich, quite rich, that’s my one bad pun of the video.
Very much a ship of Theseus situation that they could end up exploring in future movies as we do know that the character will be back. Now because of when he was uploaded, he also carries the same hatred for Jake that the original did. To him, Jake is a traitor that destroyed the hope of humanities survival and with depleting resources back on Earth, Sully doomed the entire species because he needed to f**k some blue cat lady.
His words not mine.
Jake and the Na’vi in Avatar: The Way of Water
Now after the humans land, we get a one-year time jump and see as Jake and the Na’vi have started launching guerrilla attacks on the human bases. Spider is captured early on by Quatrich and his forces and realising that he has intel that could endanger their people Jake and the family decide to up sticks.
The humans have way of basically seeing someone’s thoughts by putting them on what’s an MRI machine on drugs. Jake would likely be aware of this and not want to bring his family into it.
They travel out to the Metkiyena who have become almost one with the ocean and the Aquatic life that live there.
The movie is basically about Jake and Neytiri’s family learning to adapt there and navigating how to best handle the human threat.
It’s very much a Fish out of Way of Water and much in the same way that the first movie focused on Jake learning something new the family now have to in this new environment.
Now along with Spider and Kiri, Neytiri and Jake have three other children.
These are Neteyam, Lo’ak and Tuktirey or Tuk for short.
In the movie we watch as they all start to integrate and also meet several of the Metkiyena.
This includes their leader Tonowari who is voiced by Cliff Curtis. There’s also his wife Ronal who’s played by Kate Winslet. On top of this the pair have a daughter Reya who sort of starts up a thang with Jakes son.
Now Winslet said she’d never work with Cameron again after the s**t she got put through on Titanic and she’s said in interviews that during production that she’d sometimes wake up wishing for death.
Yaaaay.
Well, she’s back and Winslet actually set a world record for the movie while filming the underwater scenes. She held her breath for over Seven Minutes which is amazing. But Cameron wanted 8 so get back under.
Now after Spider is kidnapped by Quatrich and his forces early on as a way to locate Jake and his family.
They also start hunting the Tulkuns and we learn what the humans are really there for. They are extremely intelligent and inside them exists a fluid that completely stops all aging within humans. Humanity is now Whale Hunting them and trying to harvest this in order to sell it on and stop humans dying.
Towards the end of the film Jake’s two sons decide to head out and get him back which is when they come across a Tulkun used as bait.
The humans then attack leading to the kids being captured and a big battle on water taking place. They manage to escape with Spider, but Neteyam is shot upon jumping off the ship. He ends up dying from his wounds as his body is taken to shore and he very much becomes the first blood in the family.
The ending of the film somewhat acts as a mirror as we start chronicling the birth of his son and we end with the characters death.
Throughout the movie we saw as Jake gave his children a hard time due to the pressure that was caused by the humans coming back. He had to raise them as soldiers rather than as the family we first saw them being. Jakes kids were also bullied by the Metkiyena, and I think he feels like this war has taken away the lives they should’ve had together.
To make matters worse, Quatrich has Jake’s daughters, and he wants to trade his life for theirs. Surrounded by fire Jake and Neytiri head out into the night onto the sinking ship along with Spider.
They launch an attack that wipes out a lot of the humans with Neytiri becoming almost feral as she takes them out.
Jake frees Tuk but Kiri is taken hostage by Quatrich. At this point Neytiri grabs Spider and though Quatrich initially pretends not to care about him dying, he hands Kiri over when he realises, she’s willing to take a son for a son.
Clearly Quatrich cares about him, and we’ll talk more about this later on.
Jake goes to leave but Quatrich says that he won’t stop until he kills him and his whole family and thus, he returns to battle him again. The family are faced back onto the ship as the fire spreads, and it all starts to go down. In the end Jake seemingly drowns Quatrich under the water but he’s rescued by Spider. Jake nearly drowns too but the family travel down there and get him.
On land Quatrich calls him son and asks him to come with him but Spider does the Na’vi AHHH at him and swims off back to his family. This is very much a son for a son but rather than killing Spider they have taken him away from Quatrich. He may never know the love that having a family brings and will likely spend the rest of his existence fighting this war.
The movie ends with a funeral at sea. We know from the first movie that the Na’vi have a circle of life in which they’re born before they return to Eywa, and the son returns to the spiritual world.
Jake offers to leave the Metkiyena, but he’s embraced by them, and this now becomes his home. The movie ends with them reaching out to Eywa underwater and here Jake experiences seeing his son along with Neteri.
Jake vows to not let Quatrich take his home and that going forward they will make their stand here. The movie ends with his eyes opening and this is much in the same vein of how the first film climaxed too.
Avatar 3 and Avatar 4 are almost finished
Now going forward there is a fair bit that we know about the rest of the Avatar films. Avatar 3 was filmed simultaneously alongside this movie with principal photography on it starting back in 2017. All of the cast of course returned, and it has been stated that Quatrich will be the villain in both 3, 4 and 5. Oona Chaplin and David Thewlis have been added to the cast as new characters and we know that the former will be called Varang. As for Thewlis we don’t know his character name, but he did say that he needed to do motion capture for the movie and has stated in passing that his character is one of the Na’vi.
We also have Michelle Yeoh who will be playing Dr. Karina Mogue.
Cameron has stated in interviews that he got some notes back for the Avatar 3 script and that he must’ve been getting better because all he got for Avatar 4 was an email saying this is f**king crazy.
The title of the third film will be The Seed Bearer, 4 will be called The Tulkun Rider and lastly five will be called the Quest for Eywa.
We meet Tulkuns in the movie and these are the giant whales that live within the ocean. We witness Jake’s son riding them and they will likely become something else that the other Na’vi learn to ride. Just like how in Dune we hand the worm riders I think that the Tulkun rider will be a similar sort of thing. These great beasts will even the playing field in the sea and allow the Na’vi to take down the humans. The humans of course want them too and I think that they will become of the utmost importance due to the fluid within them.
I’m guessing that this last one will have a strong focus on Kiri due to her connection to Grace who as we mention connected with her. When she was uploaded into the tree it seems that she remained there and moved into Pandora with Eywa rather than going to her body like Jake did.
We will likely learn who her true father is even though I think we will go with the immaculate conception thing.
Now tying back to earlier in the vid and the idea of cloning and so on I do think that they could potentially start exploring this avenue more and more. Now though it’s possible that Jake will kill the second version of Quatrich, I actually think that it would be more interesting if he was kept alive. Say that he comes to accept the idea that he is actually Quatrich rather than being a clone and instead of living an existence based around war he decides to try and form a relationship with his son.
His lines at the end could very much view this as a second chance with his son, rather than focusing on war. He has seen behind the curtain of what humanity is up to and being a Navi now may make him start to see empathy when he’s murdering people that now look like him. Therefore, he may leave the service in order to live in this paradise with his son instead of destroying it.
Now what would the army do at this point? Well, they still have his mind backed up and I think it would be crazy if they just decided that because the prior version had failed that it was time to create another Remcom using his mind. There’s no rule that we can’t have two remcoms of the same person running around out there and for this newer version it would be like he’d just come off uploading his mind. You could have two versions of Quatrich running around with one having gone through an entire character arc whilst the other is coming fresh off having just been resurrected. I think this would add such an interesting dynamic to the entire franchise and ask what it means to be human.
Now we know that at some point that the fight will likely be taken to Earth. The rumours around Avatar 5 say that they will be journeying to the planet. Now this could either be because they want to stop the humans once and for all or potentially Pandora itself is destroyed to the point that it’s inhabitable now.
The Na’vi don’t really have the technology for space travel and thus it is interesting to think about the reason why we’d be travelling there. If you saw the extended cut for the first movie, then you’ll know that we spent some time on Earth. Now that takes me into my next point about my crazy theory about Jake’s brother.
It’s theory time, theory time, theory time, theory time.
So, if you cast your mind back to the first movie then you’ll know that Jake only got on the Avatar programme because his twin brother was part of it. Jake’s brother died and thus he was asked to go out to Pandora as he’d be compatible with his Avatar. I think the recombinant angle adds a lot of avenues to the movie and I’d love it if we had a twist where it turned out that his brother was still alive. His body was cremated but if his mind was duplicated then there is the potential that they could bring him back.
With him being a twin as well, Jake looking at him in his avatar would add an extra dimension to their interactions.
Jake would pretty much be faced with the way he used to look, and his brother would represent the past that he left behind. Jake’s brother’s death is what pushed him on this journey and though I don’t think they’d go with it they could add some internal conflict within him. I think the film in general could end up being about freeing those trapped in the recombinant programme because those that are in it could potentially be enslaved. Who knows how many times Quatrich has been brought back and if one awakens and doesn’t act the way they want they can just press the reset button and start again. It removes freedom and those that don’t act the way they want are forced into a life of war and vengeance.
Might not happen but that’s the end of theory time, theory time, theory time, theory time.
Anyway, I’ve also seen some people saying that due to Cameron’s comments about 4 being crazy that they could even do some wild s**t like say it’s all a simulation or something. We’re dealing with host bodies and stuff but with the title of the fifth movie having Eywa in it I doubt they’ll do it.
Movies that do stuff like that without the premise already being built in normally get backlash for it and I’d kick the f**k off if it happened.
Now as for my thoughts on the film I think James Cameron has done it again. In terms of visuals this movie is unwatched and even the first one doesn’t come close in terms of environments and the beauty that’s on display here. It really is an experience that leaps off the screen and continues to remind me why cinemas are such an important part of our culture.
Now the plot is a little barebones and clocking in at over 3 hours I think there are some people who might struggle with the pacing and so on.
It’s an hour into the movie before we even get to the Metkiyena, but I think just how much the world absorbs you makes up for it.
Again, this is unmatched in terms of scope and scale and it’s something that I definitely recommend everyone check out. Just in the same way that the first movie was captivating this ups the stakes too. I have seen people saying the characters are shallow, but I do disagree with that too. It’s very much a coming-of-age story for the kids and the parents also having to weigh up with the costs of war. You also have some really interesting things with Quatrich and Kiri that no doubt will be explored in future sequels.
So yeah, Cameron has done it again, he’s created an amazing spectacle but at the heart of it is a story of family that I feel is timeless.
Now whether this tops the first one’s box office remains to be seen and I think this does very much feel like a middle chapter whereas that was more standalone. You kinda need to get all those people back but I think word of mouth for this movie will be very strong and people will probably return. I also think that on the whole most will enjoy it too.
Now as an experience I’d say this is 10/10
However as just a movie I’d probably mark it around the 8/10 mark. Has some great storytelling and things that set up the future but yeah, the pacing at points and the fact it doesn’t feel like a complete story just knocked it down from being perfect for me.
Now obviously I’d love to hear your thoughts on it so make sure you comment below and let me know.
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If you want something else to watch, then make sure you check out our breakdown of perfect scene in Spider-Man Homecoming. We break down the entire thing so it’s definitely worth checking out if you wanna know more.
With that out the way thank you for sitting through the video, I’ve been Paul and I’ll see you next time. Take care, Peace.
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