a WOODSPRITEa seed of the Great Treeon the body.
Earth is poured over the LENS and we CUT TO --
79.
JAKE WAKING UP in the Link. DARK as a coffin. He pushes the
lid offletting in lightand lies there. He looks pale and
haggardwith a scraggly beard.
JAKE (V.O.)
Hard to believe it’s only been three
months.
JAKE SITS in front of the video log cameralate at night. It
is many log entries later. He has lost a lot of weight. He
looks like a junkie watching a test pattern.
JAKE
(to the lens)
I can barely remember my old life. I’m
not sure who I am anymore.
CUT TO:
EXT. COMPOUND - DAY
Under a sky of thunderheadsthe forest is a dark wall beyond
the fence. SELFRIDGEwearing an exopackTEES UP while GRACE
and JAKE approach from the direction of the Ops Center.
SELFRIDGE
Good of you to stop by. How’s it going
out there? Our blue friends all packed
up yet?
Selfridge swings his DRIVER with good form.
SELFRIDGE
SeeI keep hooking it. It’s the damn
pack.
THE BALL drops into the mud just past a marker which reads
220. A TROOPER walks over to retrieve it.
SELFRIDGE
The low gravity and the high air density
cancel out so --
JAKE
You called us back to report -- you want
to hear it or not?
SELFRIDGE
Go ahead.
GRACE
Jake is making incredible progressyears
worth in just a few months. But -- we
need more time.
80.
SELFRIDGE
Not what I was hoping to hear.
It starts to rain. Selfridge calmly pulls an umbrella from
his golf bag and snaps it open.
GRACE
Parkerit’s their ancestral home.
They’ve lived there since before human
history began. You can spare them a few
more weeks.
SELFRIDGE
This thing is inevitable. What does it
matter when it happens? I’m sorryDr.
Augustine. You’re out of time.
He leaves them standing there to get drenched.
CUT TO:
INT. ARMOR BAY
A break tableunder a harsh overhead light. Quaritch pulls
up a chairturns it aroundand sits astride it facing Jake.
He studies Jake’s palesunken face. The scraggly beard.
QUARITCH
You’re not gettin’ lost in the woodsare
you son?
Jake can’t meet his eyes.
QUARITCH
Your last report was two weeks ago. I’m
starting to doubt your resolve. From what
I seeit’s time to terminate this
mission.
Jake eyes flare with alarm.
JAKE
No. I can do this.
QUARITCH
Lookyou’ve given me plenty of usable
intel. Like this “Well of Souls” place --
I’ve got them by the balls with that
when it turns into a shit-fight. Which it
will.
Jake feels hollow insideknowing what he’s done.
81.
QUARITCH
So you’ll get your legs backlike I
promised.
(puts his hand on Jake’s
shoulder)
It’s time to come in.
Jake ponders this. Isn’t this what he was doing all this for?
JAKE
I’ve gotta finish this thing. There’s
one more test -- the Dream Hunt. It’s the
final stage of becoming a man. Then I’m
one of them. They’ll trust what I say...
It’s hard for him to even form these words --
JAKE
... and I can negotiate the terms of
their relocation.
QUARITCH
Then you need to get it doneCorporal.
CUT TO:
EXT. HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS - NIGHT
Strange horizontal LIGHTNING branches through the floating
mountainstwisted by the magnetic fields. The sky is black
and heavy with clouds.
INT. SHACK KITCHEN - NIGHT
Jake is gulping black coffee like a tequila shotlooking
pretty STRUNG OUT. GRACE is smoking furiously.
GRACE
JakeI can’t allow this. You’re just
not strong enough.
JAKE
It’s the last door -- I’m going through
it. You can help me or get out of the
way.
Jake pushes past her toward the corridor --
GRACE
(grabbing him)
Will you listen to me? Sometimes the
Na’vi themselves die in these vision
quests. The venom takes you to the edge
of death.
82.
(MORE)
And the psychoactive alkaloid in the worm-
- we have no idea what that’ll do in an
avatar brain.
Jake breaks free and wheels awaydown the corridor.
GRACE follows JAKE as he crosses to the Link. A sheet of
LIGHTNING flashes across the sky outside.
Norm is initializing the Link.
NORM
Calibrating. Thirty seconds.
She puts her hands on his shoulders.
GRACE
No matter what you prove out there-- you
are still in here.
(shaking him)
Right here.
JAKE
I have to go all the way -- become one of
them--
GRACE
(furiously)
GoddammitJakeyou can
never be one of
them!
Norm looks upstartled at the VEHEMENCE in GRACE’ voice.
GRACE
Our life out there takes millions of
dollars of machinery to sustain. You
visit -- and you leave.
During thisJake pulls himself from his wheelchairlevering
himself into the Linkhauling his useless legs inside.
GRACE
(softening)
You can never truly be with her.
Jake stopspinioned by the truth. He seems suddenly very
lost.
JAKE
You know why I’m here? Because Quaritch
sent me.
NORM
What?
83.
GRACE (cont'd)
JAKE
That’s right -- to embed with the
Omaticaya. To find out how to screw them
out of their home. By deceit or by
forcehe didn’t care. And if it turned
out to be forcethen how best to do it.
Norm is in shock. But Grace is eerily calm.
GRACE
And what about nowJake?
JAKE
I’m not that guy any more.
Grace nods. She’s been on his journey every step of the way.
GRACE
I know.
JAKE
But if I tell Quaritch the truthhe
yanks me out -- I never see her again.
And if I tell her the truththe clan
throws me out -- that’s if they don’t cut
my heart out and show it to me.
Jake looks hopelessly at the two of them. In his own perfect
Hell.
NORM
They won’t understand what you’ve done.
JAKE
They don’t even have a word for “lie” --
they had to learn it from us.
Grace sees he is on the verge of tears. Lost and alone
between worlds.
GRACE
I know. I taught it to them.
JAKE
(pleading)
Grace. I’ve gotta go. They’re waiting.
NORM
Link is ready.
Grace stops him as he tries to close the lid.
84.
GRACE
Jake. You can’t carry this burden much
longer.
JAKE
(smiling wanly)
It’s okay. Mo’at says an alien mind
probably can’t survive the Dream Hunt
anyway.
Grace closes the lid. It feels like closing a coffin. She
watches his psionic patterns aligning to his avatar
somewhere out in the night.
GRACE
(to Norm)
Prep my link. I’m going in.
CUT TO:
INT. COMMONS/HOMETREE - NIGHT
JAKE SITSeyes closedas Neytiri and another young hunter
paint his face and body in preparation for uniltaron -- the
Dream Hunt.
NEYTIRI
When your Spirit Animal comesyou will
know.
Their eyes meet with emotion neither can conceal any longer.
TIME CUT. GRACE stands with the crowd at the ramp to
HOMETREE’S LOWEST LEVEL. Jake barely sees her as he goes down
the spiral. She tries to followbut is barred by a hunter.
BELOWseemingly in the womb of the earthJake walks slowly
into the center of a tight circle of seated elders and
hunters. An ELDER is slowly rapping a large WATER DRUM.
TIME CUT -- MO’AT purifies him with smoke from burning herbs
CHANTING in a low monotone. Jakesquattingwashes the
smoke over himself with his palms.
MACRO - MO’AT’S FINGERS unwrap a piece of wood riddled with
holes. She catches the end of a glowing purple WORMand
draws it out of the wood.
MO'AT
(subtitled)
Oh wise wormeater of the Sacred Tree --
bless this worthy Hunter with a true
vision.
85.
MO’AT places the worm on Jake’s out-stretched TONGUE. It
twists on itselflighting his mouth before he closes it. She
indicates he should chew. He does.
MACRO -- AN EARTHEN JAR is opened. EYTUKAN removes a
writhing black ARACHNOIDthe Pandoran equivalent of a
scorpion.
He places it against the back of Jake’s neck and presses. The
insect drives its stinger into Jake’s skin and --
Jake grimaces. Mo'at and Eytukan step backleaving Jake
alone in the circle.
Neytiri watches intentlyjoining in the low chant.
SLOW DOLLY IN on Jake. His eyes OPEN. He looks around at the
faces -- they seem to TRANSFORMbecoming threatening.
Jake looks down at the palms of his hands.
JAKE’S POV -- his hands recedehis whole bodythe ground
and --
INSTANTLY the circle of Na’vi recedesas if to a distant
horizonleaving vast ground in between. SPACE is utterly
distortedand SOUND as well -- echoingTHUNDEROUS.
ECU JAKE -- pupils DILATED black. He looks around and --
The onlookers are gonereplaced by a ring of glowing trees
which seem miles high. The whole image is bathed in spectral
radiance. Jake looks down --
JAKE’S POV -- his body and hands transforming -- fingers
stretching into tendrilslegs becoming roots which spread
outward across the grounda thousand glowing dendrites which
connect to the roots of the trees and --
CUT TO REALITY -- Jake is on his hands and kneesPUKING in
the dirt. He contortscrying out in agony as the venom
contracts his muscles but --
IN HIS VISION Jake stands serene on a FLOATING MOUNTAIN
CLIFF. A GREAT BLACK SHADOW covers himthe unmistakable X
silhouette of a diving LEONOPTERYX. The LAST SHADOW.
CAMERA SCREAMS down on him as the shadow grows larger -- WE
RUSH into his faceinto the blackness of his pupil which
FILLS THE UNIVERSE and --
86.
REAL JAKE writhes in the dirthis back arched as his muscles
seize. He foams and thrasheshis eyes rolled back in his
headwhile inside --
TIME ITSELF HAS ACCELERATED -- clouds scream around the
mountain topsmist boils through the forest. He feels the
wind of time blowing through him as --
REAL JAKE claws the groundmoaningstaring blindly while --
INSIDEIN POV he FLIES over the landscape of Pandora --
--but the forest is BLASTED. Fires flicker among trees that
are BURNED black and lifeless in a smoky twilight.
A great WINGED SHADOW is cast belowrippling over the
devastated ground. AVATAR JAKE looks down at the shadow.
Realizes HE is casting itand we RUSH IN to his PUPIL and --
PULL BACK from the eye of a GREAT LEONOPTERYXflying lordly
and terrible over the land. It lets out an almighty SHRIEK
which seems to echo to eternity and --
SLAM CUT to Jakeon his backGASPING -- back in his body.
He weakly rolls up to one elbow and looks around the room.
MO'AT
It is finished.
Neytiri’s face is flooded with relief. The faces of the clan
elders look at Jake expectantly.
EYTUKAN
(subtitled)
Did your Spirit Animal come?
Jake looks from Eytukan to Mo'atTsu’tey and the elders.
How
can he tell them what he has seen?
Mo’at puts her splayed fingers against his faceseeming to
peer into his troubled soul.
MO'AT
(to Jake)
Something has come.
(to the otherssubtitled)
It will take time for the meaning to be
clear.
She steps backand Eytukan motions for Jake to stand. He
gets upweakly.
87.
OUTSIDE THE ENCLOSURE -- Eytukan emerges with Jake and the
others. The entire clan is gatheredwaiting to hear what
has happened. Jake looks up at the Leonopteryx Skull Totem
which seems to stare down at him.
GRACE watchesher eyes brimming. Proud. Relieved. Amazed.
Eytukan places both hands on Jake’s chest and holds them
there.
EYTUKAN
(subtitled)
You are now a son of the Omaticaya. You
are part of the People.
All the members of the clan press forwardcrowding around
and putting their hands on Jake’s shouldersbackchest --
hands upon handsuntil he is connected to everyone.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. RAINFOREST - NIGHT
JAKE and NEYTIRI run silhouetted in the night. Behind them
waterfalls cascade down in the silvery light. POLYPHEMUS
RISES behind the trees.
NEYTIRI DIVES from a rockslicing into a mirror of water.
Jake follows her and --
UNDERWATERthey swim over glowing ANEMONES.
They seem to float in a cosmic dance above a luminous garden
of waving shapes. Tiny purple fish swirl around them.
Their hands come togetherfingers twiningas they float
weightlesslyas if between worlds.
DISSOLVE TO:
EXT. WILLOW GLADE
Laughingthey run together into a stand of WILLOWS. Their
trunks are as gnarled as bonsai. Long faintly glowing
tendrils hang straight down in pastel curtains.
Underfoota bed of moss glows faintly. It REACTS to their
footsteps with expanding rings of light.
It is an exquisitely beautiful spot.
The willows stirresponding to their presence. She holds up
her handsletting the TENDRILS caress her.
88.
NEYTIRI
This is a place for prayers to be heard.
And sometimes answered.
Jake puts out his hands and the tendrils play over his
fingershis palmshis forearms. His eyes go wide. We hear
the WHISPERING of ancient Na’vi VOICES.
JAKE
It’s like -- a sound you feel.
NEYTIRI
We call this utraya mokri -- the Tree of
Voices. The voices of our ancestorswho
live within Eywa.
A few WOODSPRITES circle around themsome alighting on their
shoulders and arms.
They standvery close together now. Her eyes are intense
almost luminous. He feels drawn into them.
But she pulls back a little.
NEYTIRI
You are Omaticaya now. You may make your
own bow from the wood of Hometree.
(she looks away)
And you may choose a woman.
The Amazon warrior trying so hard to sound casual. Jake
suppresses a smile.
NEYTIRI
We have many fine women. Ninat is the
best singer --
JAKE
I don’t want Ninat.
NEYTIRI
There is Beyral -- she is a good hunter --
Jake puts his fingers on her lips to stop her.
JAKE
I’ve already chosen. But this woman must
also choose me.
She takes his hands and their fingers intertwinemoving
gently over each other.
89.
NEYTIRI
She already has.
He puts his face close to hers. She rubs her cheek against
