JAKE
That’s some damn fine teylu. That’s like
grandma’s teylu.
CU TSU’TEYwarily eyeing Jake --
TSU’TEY
(subtitled)
I say she will kill him.
CUT TO:
INT. THIRD LEVEL - NIGHT
The sleeping level -- families nesting in groups on woven
hammocks the size of trampolines. The hunters sleep along
SPOKES joining the inner trunk to the tree’s outer shell.
Jake lies awake in a hammockpeople rustling in the darkness
around him. Neytiri is nearbycurled up like a little girl.
She stares at him for a momentthen closes her eyes.
Jake watches the glowing bugs fluttering inside a night-
lighta pulse of life energy. A strange peace spreads
through him. He closes his eyes and --
CUT TO:
INT. LINK ROOM - NIGHT
GRACE is over JAKE in the LinkSLAPPING himas Max and NORM
hover.
GRACE
Come on backkidthat’s it.
JAKE
Wha --? Oh.
He looks aroundblinking. Reality crashing in.
GRACE
Damnyou were dug in like a tick.
(she helps him sit up)
Is the avatar safe?
JAKE
(huge grin)
YeahDoc -- and you are
not going to
believe where I am.
CUT TO:
50.
INT. COMMISSARY - MORNING
BREAKFAST the next day. The other drivers lean forward
hanging on Grace’s re-telling of the tale.
GRACE
-- so the kid’s out there one night and
he’s got the Queen Bitch herself offering
him the spare room and the car keys.
Unbelievable.
JAKE
It’s not something you can teach.
Some of the other scientists clap Jake on the shoulders in
congratulation.
MAX
That’s awesomeJake.
NORM chomps his baconfuming.
GRACE
(to Jakegetting serious)
For reasons I cannot fathomthe
Omaticaya have chosen you. God help us
all.
CUT TO:
INT. OPS CENTER - MORNING
JAKE has reported to SELFRIDGE and QUARITCH. Quaritch turns
from gazing out at the wall of forestdisplaying a feral
grin.
QUARITCH
Jarhead clan?
(he laughs)
And that worked?
JAKE
(grinning)
Yeah. They want to study me. See if I
can learn to be one of them.
QUARITCH
That’s how you seize the initiative. I
wish I had ten more like you.
SELFRIDGE
LookSully -- find out what these blue
monkeys want.
51.
(MORE)
We try to give them medicine and
education. Roads! But no -- they like
mud. I wouldn’t care except --
Selfridge turns to a large 3D GRAPHIC DISPLAYpointing. A
road runs from Hell’s Gate to a proposed new mine miles away.
SELFRIDGE
Their damn village is sitting right over
the richest unobtanium deposit for a
hundred klicks in any direction. Which
sucks -- for them -- because they need to
relocate.
JAKE
(taking that in)
Does Augustine know about this?
SELFRIDGE
Yeahshe doesand she’s on the next
ship back if she tries to cock-block me
on it.
JAKE
So -- who talks them into moving?
QUARITCH
(turning)
Guess.
JAKE
What if they won’t go?
QUARITCH
(icy)
I’m betting they will.
SELFRIDGE
Killing the indigenous looks badbut
there’s one thing shareholders hate more
than bad press -- and that’s a bad
quarterly statement. Find me a carrot to
get them to moveor it’s going to have
to be all stick.
Jake is shaken by the enormity of this new responsibility.
QUARITCH
You got three months. That’s when the
dozers get there.
JAKE
I’m on it.
CUT TO:
52.
SELFRIDGE (cont'd)
INT. BIO LAB - MORNING
JAKE pumps his chair across the labflanked by GRACE and
NORM. Grace holds STEREO STILL PICTURES in front of himone
at a time -- images of clan members she has shot over the
years -- a kind of flash card drill.
JAKE
Tsu’tey.
(next photo)
Mo’at.
(next photo)
Eytukan.
GRACE
He’s the clan leader --
(indicating Mo’at)
-- but she’s the spiritual leader. Like
a shaman.
INT. LINK ROOM
The dialogue is continuous as they enter.
JAKE
Got it. So who’s this Eywa?
NORM
Who’s Eywa? Ohonly their
deity. The
Great Mother. The goddess made up of all
living things. You’d know that if you
had any training whatsoever.
He hauls himself from wheelchair to Link.
JAKE
Who’s got a date with the chief’s
daughter?
GRACE
Knock it off. Jesusit’s like
kindergarten around here.
As Jake settles into the soft embrace of the link
Grace
inputs commands at the control station.
GRACE
Neytiri was my best student. She and her
sister Silwanin. Just amazing girls.
JAKE
I didn’t meet the sister.
53.
GRACE
(quietly)
Noshe’s dead.
(turning to him)
Okaylet’s go -- village life starts
early.
MAX
Link is ready.
Grace lowers the bio-sensor array over Jake’s chest.
GRACE
Don’t do anything unusually stupid.
She closes the clamshell and we --
INT. HOMETREE/ THIRD LEVEL - DAY
CU JAKE’S AVATARblinking awakestaring up at --
HOMETREElike a gothic cathedral overhead. Sunlight streams
down through gaps in the towering vault.
CUT TO:
INT. COMMONS - DAY
JAKE walks among the villagerswho go about their daily
tasks.
-- young girls sit togetherweaving and SINGING. They look
up as he passesthen go back to work.
--two men clean the fish they’ve caught.
-- a young mother pounds seeds into mealwhile nursing an
infant.
--children chase each other and climb like monkeys. One bold
LITTLE GIRL runs up to Jakestops -- staring -- then shrieks
with laughter as she runs back to her playmates.
GRINNINGJake turns to see NEYTIRI cantering toward him on a
DIREHORSE. She leads a second horsean old sway-backed
MARE. His grin drops.
EXT. RIVER NEAR HOMETREE - DAY
JAKE nervously grips the surcingle of the mare. Neytiri holds
its nose-ring while Jake clumsily mounts.
Jake bends one of its ANTENNAE down to the tip of his queue.
He hesitantly touches them together and --
54.
TIGHT SHOT -- the tendrils INTERWEAVE.
Jake’s PUPILS DILATE and his mouth drops open. The horse’s
eyes also go wide and it HONKS nervously. Neytiri touches her
fingertips to the neural interface.
NEYTIRI
This is shahaylu -- the bond. Feel her
heartbeather breath. Feel her strong
legs.
Jake closes his eyesnodding. One with the horse.
TSU’TEY and another young hunter come out of the forest
leading TWO DIREHORSES. The magnificent animals drink from
the edge of the pool. Tsu’tey watches Jake’s riding lesson
with disdain.
NEYTIRI
You may tell her what to do --
(she touches her head)
-- inside. For now
say where to go.
JAKE
Forward.
The horse LAUNCHES into a GALLOP. Jake flops aroundwith no
idea how to sit the animaland is promptly THROWN OFF. He
lands painfully in the mud.
He gets upbrushing mud off knees and assas Neytiri leads
the horse back to him.
NEYTIRI
Again.
SERIES OF JUMP CUTS -- Jake falls off the horse in various
waysseemingly landing harder each time.
ON JAKEface down in the mud of the riverbank. He painfully
rises to hands and knees. Which is when he sees --
TSU’TEY and another HUNTER thundering across the shallow
river on their direhorses. Spray blasts up from their
hooves.
Jake standscovered in mudas Tsu’tey stops his horse next
to himlooking down with disdain.
TSU’TEY
You should go away.
55.
JAKE
(to Neytiri)
I knew this guy could speak English.
Tsu’tey turns to Neytiriwho is leading the old mare back.
TSU’TEY
(subtitled)
This alien will learn nothing. A rock
Sees more.
She sighs in agreement. Tsu’tey and the other hunter wheel
their horses around and THUNDER OFF into the woods.
NEYTIRI gestures to Jake’s horse.
NEYTIRI
Again.
CUT TO:
OPS CENTER - NIGHT
Grouped around a table are JAKECOLONEL QUARITCHSELFRIDGE
and few ENGINEERS and OFFICERS. Jake is talking them through
plans he’s made of Hometree’s inner structure.
JAKE
You’ve got outer columnsthen a
secondary ring hereand an inner ring.
Then a core structureit’s like a
spiralthat’s how they move up and down.
QUARITCH
I’m going to need accurate scans of all
these columns.
JAKE
Roger that.
ANGLE ON MAXat the stairwell. He’s been watching Jake
talking rapidly to Quaritchbut can’t hear him. Frowning
he backs awaydown the stairs.
CUT TO:
INT. BIO LAB - DAY
JAKEGRACE and NORM are packing science gear and supplies.
GRACE
I’m not about to let Quaritch and
Selfridge micro-manage this thing.
(she looks pointedly at Jake)
We’re going up into the mountains.
56.
(MORE)
There’s a mobile link up at Site 26 that
we can work out of.
NORM
The Hallelujah Mountains?
GRACE
That’s right.
NORM
Yesssss!
(off Jake’s look)
The legendary Floating Mountains of
Pandora? Heard of them?
CUT TO:
EXT. RAINFOREST - AERIAL - DAY
A SAMSON THUNDERS over the rainforestclimbing into the mist-
shrouded mountains.
In the SEALED COCKPITNorm is up frontsitting left seat so
Trudy can talk him through the flight controls. Jake and
Grace are behind themin the jump-seats.
Grace and Norm’s UNCONSCIOUS AVATARS ride in the open back
compartment.
TRUDY
It only takes tiny inputs. Hereput
your hand on the cyclic --
She points to the stick between her knees. Norm hesitantly
reaches over and rests his hand on hers.
TRUDY
Feel how small the moves are? You barely
have to think itand the aircraft
reacts.
ON NORM -- reacting to tiny inputs from the hot lady-pilot.
THE SAMSON is dwarfed by enormous ARCHES OF ROCK.
GRACE
See these magnetic formations. We’re
getting close.
TRUDY
Yeah we are. Look at my instruments.
On the dashmany of the displays are fritzing out.
57.
GRACE (cont'd)
GRACE
Yup. We’re in the flux vortex.
AHEADa cloud bank partsrevealing --
THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS. Right in front of them.
NORM
Oh. My. God.
Jake leans forward between the seatbacks for a good look out
the front canopy.
JAKE’S POV -- enormous islands of rock are hovering a half
mile above the ground. They are overgrown with rainforest
and straggly beards of vines hang down beneath them.
Waterfalls stream down the sides and dissolve into spray at
the bottom.
ON JAKEstaring in amazement. It is both awe-inspiring and
disturbing.
Trudy turnsgrinning at Jake.
TRUDY
You should see your face.
WIDE AERIAL -- the Samson is tiny as it approaches the
floating islands of rock. An archipelago among the clouds
they cast great shadows over the forested slopes below.
JAKE (V.O.)
Yeahso what
does hold them up? Grace
explained it to me -- some kind of maglev
effect because unobtanium is a
superconductoror something. At least
somebody understands it. Just not me.
CUT TO:
EXT. SITE 26 - DAY
A remote RESEARCH STATION -- TWO SHACKS and a few clusters of
instruments perched on a promontory near the Hallelujah
Mountains. The shacks are AIRLIFT MODULES the size of buses.
THE SAMSON LANDSbeating the grass with its rotor-wash. The
humans hop outwearing MASKS.
They move toward the Shacktaking in the spectacular
panorama.
CUT TO:
58.
INT. SHACK - DAY
NORM and TRUDY assist JAKE with his chair as they cycle in
through the AIRLOCK. GRACE is already insidestarting the
GENNY. She turns on the lights and equipment.
There are 4 bunksa clutter of science gearand -- through
a short connecting corridor -- THREE LINK UNITS in the second
module.
As Grace powers up the Link equipmentJake stops to look at
STEREO STILL PICTURES which are taped and tacked up around
her workstation.
CLOSE ON PICTURES -- Grace posing at the school with various
grinning children. There is one of her with two lanky girls
a younger Neytiri and an older girl who looks much like her.
GRACE
Jaketake number twoit’s the least
glitchy. NormI need you to operate
Jake’s link.
Norm glares at Jake as he passes.
JAKE
Hey. You got a problem?
Norm turns to Gracehis frustration boiling over.
NORM
I trained three years for this mission.
I speak the language fluently.
(he points at Jake)
He falls off the frickin’ turnip truck
and all of a sudden he’s cultural
ambassador!?
GRACE
It’s not our choiceNorm.
He glowers at Jake.
NORM
Yeahwell I didn’t come out here to wash
the dishes while you’re on some
interspecies booty call.
He stalks off.
GRACE
He can’t go far.
59.
She points to Jake’s link.
GRACE
Let’s get you in.
CUT TO:
INT./EXT. HOMETREE - BANSHEE EYRIE
LOOKING DOWN the central shaft of Hometree80 meters to the
ground. Villagers are ant-like.
Jake tries to keep up with Neytiri as she leaps up the core
trunk like a lemur. He climbs the last sectionarriving out
of breath beside her. She leads him OUTSIDEonto --
A large branch. Through gaps in the foliage Jake can see
other Great Trees scattered across the landscapelike
enormous umbrellas above the rainforest.
NEYTIRI strides out across the branch toward some kind of
STRUCTURE -- a WEB made of thick woven fiber. DARK SHAPES
clinging to it stir with a leathery RUSTLING SOUND.
Neytiri makes a series of TRILLS and CLICKS. One of the
shapes MOVES toward thememerging into a shaft of sunlight.
A huge MOUNTAIN BANSHEE. Much larger than the forest
bansheesthis thing is taller than a Na’vi with a 10 meter
wingspan. A leathery FWHOOPlike the crack of sailsas it
alights on the branch right in front of her.
JAKE
Holy shit.
NEYTIRI
Do not look in her eye.
Neytiri feeds it a large scrap of meatwhich it SNATCHES and
gulps down. She murmurs to it and strokes its NECK.
It lets out a signature SHRIEKand some of the others in the
shadows nearby answer.
Neytiri flip-catches her queue and gently connects it to the
Banshee’s ANTENNA. It shivers and stretches its wings as the
