Ewan Herbert

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array(2) { [0]=> array(7) { ["name"]=> string(19) "Avatar Movie Script" ["comments"]=> string(65535) "AVATAR Written by James Cameron THE SOUND OF DRUMS, from a great distance, growing louder. FADE IN: WE ARE FLYING through mist, a dimly glimpsed forest below. VOICE (V.O.) When I was lying there in the VA hospital, with a big hole blown through the middle of my life, I started having these dreams of flying. We are very low over the forest now, gliding fast, the drums BUILDING to a PEAK -- VOICE (V.O.) Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up... CUT TO: EXT. CITY - NIGHT A SCREECH OF BRAKES as a vehicle WIPES FRAME, revealing -- JAKE SULLY, a scarred and scruffy combat vet, sitting in a beat up carbon-fiber wheelchair. At 22, his eyes are hardened by the wisdom and wariness of one who has endured pain beyond his years. Jake stares upward at the levels of the city. MAGLEV TRAINS WHOOSH overhead on elevated tracks, against a sky of garish advertizing. JAKE (V.O.) They can fix a spinal, if you've got the money. But not on vet benefits, not in this economy. The traffic light changes and Jake pushes forward with the crowd, pumping the wheels of his chair. Most of the people wear FILTER MASKS to protect them from the toxic air. In a LONG LENS STACK it is a marching torrent of anonymous, isolated souls. INT. JAKE'S APARTMENT - NIGHT The room is a tiny CUBICLE, prison cell meets 747 bathroom. Narrow cot, wall-screen droning away in the B.G. -- PERKY NEWSCASTER The Bengal tiger, extinct for over a century, is making a comeback. These cloned tiger cubs at the Beijing Zoo are... 2. Jake laboriously pulls his pants off -- rocking to one side, pushing the fabric down past his hip, then rocking to the other, and so on. His legs are white and atrophied. Utterly useless. But his arms are tattooed and powerfully muscled. A "Born Loser" tattoo prominent on his shoulder. JAKE (V.O.) I became a Marine for the hardship. To be hammered on the anvil of life. I told myself I could pass any test a man can pass. Jake struggles with his pants a long time. CUT TO: INT. ROWDY BAR -- NIGHT Not the kind of place you'd bring your mom. We find Jake near the pool table, BALANCING his chair, front wheels off the ground, while holding a tequila shot on his forehead. ONLOOKERS, including some other disabled vets, CLAP and WHOOP. Jake grabs the glass, SLAMS down the shot as they cheer. A WALL-SIZED SCREEN filled with the World Cup game -- men RUNNING on antelope legs. CU JAKE, watching what he can't have. Expression stony. JAKE (V.O.) Let's get it straight up front. I don't want your pity. I know the world's a cold-ass bitch. Jake's eyes shift -- HIS POV, seeing the bar through gaps in the crowd. A MAN on a barstool SLAPS the WOMAN he's with. Hard. She cowers but he's got her arm, shouting, raising his fist. An eternal tableau. People look away. CU JAKE -- not looking away. JAKE (V.O.) You want a fair deal, you're on the wrong planet. The strong prey on the weak. TIGHT ON JAKE'S HAND as he starts pushing the wheel of his chair. TRACKING WITH HIM as he rolls forward. 3. JAKE (V.O.) It's just the way things are. And nobody does a damn thing. Jake stops, unnoticed, next to the bullying man. He leans down and grabs one leg of the man's barstool -- and YANKS. The chair flips. The guy goes down HARD and -- JAKE hurls himself from the wheelchair, toppling on the guy, getting a grip on him like a pit bull and PUNCHING the crap out of him, right there on the floor. THE BOUNCER jumps in, trying to drag him off and it goes into SLOW MOTION, everybody yelling and pulling... JAKE (V.O.) All I ever wanted in my sorry-ass life was a single thing worth fighting for. CUT TO: EXT. ALLEY BEHIND BAR -- NIGHT THE BOUNCER hurls Jake out the door, sending him SPRAWLING on the pavement. A moment later, his chair CRASHES down on him, banging across the alley, landing in the trash. Jake struggles to rise on one elbow. He's bleeding and bruised, but still crazed and ready to fight. JAKE I hope you realize you've just lost a customer! He collapses onto his back, panting. JAKE (to himself) Candy ass bitch. He stares upwards at the levels of the city. MAGTRAINS ROAR overhead. It starts to RAIN. He just lies there, blinking -- then shouts jauntily to no one in particular -- JAKE If it ain't rainin' we ain't trainin'! CAMERA PULLS BACK high and wide, as Jake lies spread-eagled amongst the trash, getting drenched. TWO LONG SHADOWS enter FRAME, coming to rest across him. 4. Jake sees two pairs of SHINY SHOES stop next to him. He squints up at -- TWO MEN. Matching suits. Their features unremarkable and blandly threatening in the way of FBI agents and auditors. AGENT 1 Are you Jake Sully? JAKE Step off. You're ruinin' my good mood. AGENT 2 It's about your brother. CUT TO: INT. MUNICIPAL CREMATORIUM - NIGHT DOWN-ANGLE on a large rectangular cardboard box. HANDS ENTER FRAME, pulling open the top to reveal a DEAD MAN'S FACE. He looks EXACTLY like a clean-shaven version of Jake. His IDENTICAL TWIN -- TOMMY. JAKE (V.O.) The strong prey on the weak. A guy with a knife took all Tommy would ever be, for the paper in his wallet. WIDER, showing Jake and the two agents in a high tech CREMATORIUM -- a row of stainless steel furnaces. Jake stares down at his own face. JAKE Jesus, Tommy. JAKE (V.O.) The Suits' concern was touching. AGENT 1 Your brother represented a significant investment. We'd like to talk to you about taking over his contract. The ATTENDANT closes the box and seals it with a tape dispenser, like it's a package for shipping. The cardboard coffin is rolled into the furnace. JAKE (V.O.) The egghead and the jarhead. Tommy was the scientist, not me. He was the one who wanted to get shot light years out into space to find the answers. 5. PUSHING IN ON JAKE as he watches, bathed in orange light. JAKE (V.O.) Me -- I was just another dumb grunt gettin' sent someplace I was gonna regret. INSIDE THE FURNACE the burners quickly eat away the cardboard; TOMMY'S FACE is, for a moment, wreathed in flame but not touched by it, as we -- DISSOLVE TO: JAKE'S FACE, in icy darkness. CLOSE ON his eyes -- they OPEN suddenly, and he takes a sharp breath. JAKE'S POV -- the inside of a metal coffin. A SERVO WHINE and we are moving, emerging into a large chamber -- INT. CRYO VAULT JAKE'S POV -- A TECH in medical scrubs FLOATS WEIGHTLESSLY toward us. Wherever we are, we're not on Earth. Jake squints as the lights flicker on, revealing -- WIDE SHOT -- the multi-tiered CRYO VAULT. Hundreds of CRYO- CAPSULES are opening like morgue drawers, as med techs pull themselves about in ZERO-G, tending to their patients. JAKE (a hoarse whisper) Are we there? MED TECH We're there, Sunshine. TIME CUT -- SCORES OF PEOPLE emerge from their cryo-capsules in ZERO-G. Pale spirits of the dead rising from rows of open coffins. The MED TECH floats among them, using his announcement voice. MED TECH People, you have been in cryo for five years, nine months and twenty two days. You will be hungry, you will be weak. If you feel nausea, please use the sacks provided for your convenience. The staff thanks you in advance. 6. FOLLOWING JAKE as he pushes away from his capsule, gliding to the LOCKERS across the aisle, his paralyzed legs not an impediment in weightlessness. CUT TO: EXT. SPACE Against the cold infinity of stars glides an INTERSTELLAR SPACECRAFT -- ISV VENTURE STAR. As it moves past like an endless train, we realize this thing is ENORMOUS -- over half a mile long. PAN WITH IT 180 to REVEAL -- A GAS-GIANT PLANET called POLYPHEMUS, ringed with dozens of moons which cast beauty-mark shadows on its vast face. The ISV diminishes away from us toward the largest MOON-- a blue and surprisingly Earth-like world called PANDORA. The ship dwindles to a speck against the BLUE MOON. CUT TO: EXT. PANDORA ORBIT ISV Venture Star drifts above a spectacular vista -- the sapphire seas and unfamiliar continents of Pandora. CLOSE ON ISV -- two massive "VALKYRIE" SHUTTLES are mated to a DOCKING NODE. One of them separates from the starship and moves away, its thrusters FIRING in short bursts. As the shuttle moves away, descending toward Pandora, we hear the sound of DRUMS, building, louder and louder until we-- CUT TO: EXT. RAINFOREST - TWILIGHT FLYING OVER A LANDSCAPE of massive cliffs and towering mesas carpeted in rainforest. Great scarves of cloud swirl around the mesa tops. A primeval landscape, vast and forbidding. The trees are alien, the color too cyan. There are waterfalls, rivers, and distant flocks of WINGED CREATURES. Suddenly the carpet of virgin rainforest gives way to -- AN OPEN-PIT MINE. A lifeless crater -- as if a giant cookie- cutter took a chunk out of the world. Down among the terraces are EXCAVATORS and TRUCKS the size of three story buildings. And beyond the mine is the HUMAN COLONY -- 7. EXT. HELL'S GATE - TWILIGHT HELL'S GATE is a cluster of squat concrete and steel structures surrounded by chain-link FENCE 10 meters high, topped with razor wire. At the corners are towers with automated SENTRY GUNS swiveling on servo mounts. Visible beyond the gun towers, the VALKYRIE SHUTTLE roars in across the treetops. VECTORING NOZZLES change angle, bringing the ship to a SLOW HOVER. EXT. RAIN FOREST - TWILIGHT Through a screen of jungle canopy, we see the VALKYRIE thunder overhead. Camera TILTS with it until leaves block the view. A BLUE INHUMAN HAND reaches INTO SHOT, parting the foliage to reveal the shuttle hover-taxiing across the compound. REVERSE -- ECU of two intense, cat-like golden EYES watching. INT./EXT. SHUTTLE The CREW CHIEF stomps down the aisle yelling -- CREW CHIEF Exopacks on! Passengers don their EXO-PACK breathing gear with practiced moves. Everybody except JAKE, who's turning his this way and that trying to figure out the straps. CREW CHIEF Remember people, you lose your mask you're unconscious in 20 seconds and you're dead in four minutes. Let's nobody be dead today, it looks bad on my report. The crew chief stops by Jake long enough to bark -- CREW CHIEF Exopack on, let's go! BENEATH THE SHUTTLE air blasts outward for a hundred meter radius as it settles onto its landing gear. INSIDE everybody is queued up in the aisles, with duffles ready. Rows of tense, expectant faces in breathing masks -- and we DIP DOWN to find Jake, wheelchair putting him at the level of everyone else's WAISTS. 8. THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine. CREW CHIEF Go directly into the base! Do not stop! Go straight inside! HAND-HELD, running with the arriving colonists who double time down the ramp. They jog across the exposed apron toward a walkway covered in CHAINLINK which leads to the complex. Inside the chain-link tunnel are a couple of SEC-OPS TROOPERS, CORPORAL LYLE WAINFLEET and PRIVATE FIKE. Sec-Ops is the colony's private security force. These guys are laid back, hardened, and haggard. WAINFLEET Look at all that new meat. THEIR POV -- Jake rolls down the ramp. FIKE Check it out, man. Meals on wheels. WAINFLEET That is just wrong. Jake, pumping his chair, looks around as -- A huge TRACTOR, taller than a house, ROARS past on muddy wheels. He notices something sticking in the tires -- ARROWS. The neolithic weapons are jarring amid all the advanced technology. Beyond the tractor, two VTOL vehicles take off. Armored and heavily armed, they are AT-99 "SCORPION" GUNSHIPS. MITSUBISHI MK-6 AMPSUITS -- human operated walking machines 4 meters tall -- patrol the perimeter. They are heavily armored, and armed with a huge rotary cannon called a GAU-90. Beyond the outer fence stands a black wall of forest hundreds of feet high. A SENTRY GUN OPENS FIRE from a tower. TRACERS light up the twilight. A shadowy SHAPE SHRIEKS and drops off the fence. It is an armed camp in a state of siege. WAINFLEET and Fike give Jake and his chair the hairy eyeball as he approaches. JAKE What're you two limpdicks starin' at? As Jake rolls past, SOMETHING SWOOPS down behind him and -- 9. K-KRASH! SMASHES against the chain-link right next to his head. A vicious AERIAL PREDATOR a meter across gnashes glass fangs against the steel. It STABS at him through the chain link with a tail ending in a glistening stiletto. A STINGBAT. WAINFLEET casually BLASTS IT with his PISTOL. It drops off the fence, tail still lashing. WAINFLEET Seen a lotta guys leave this place in a wheelchair. Never seen anybody show up in one. Jake stares at the gnashing fangs of the dying alien. ON A WALKWAY of the OPS CENTER, seen from above, a UNIFORMED FIGURE grips the railing, watching Jake pump his chair through the tunnel below. The hair is clipped short. The scalp is etched by long parallel SCARS where some Pandoran denizen's claws raked across it. The bare arms, below tightly rolled sleeves, seem hewn out of some hard tropical wood. Criss-crossed by scars. The MAN raises his masked face to look at the sky. He eyes are an icy steel gray. HIS POV -- the mighty POLYPHEMUS seems to fill the sky, beyond the clouds. MAN (V.O.) You are not in Kansas any more... CUT TO: INT. COMMISSARY - TWILIGHT THE MAN from the balcony -- COLONEL MILES QUARITCH -- is the HEAD OF SECURITY for the Hell's Gate colony. A hundred new arrivals watch raptly as he paces like a panther across the front of the large cafeteria. He stops, stance wide. Without his mask, we see that Quaritch's features are rugged and handsome, except for the SCAR, which runs from scalp to jaw down one side of his face. On one hip he carries a very large PISTOL. QUARITCH ... You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day. 10. JAKE ROLLS IN, watching from the back. COLONEL QUARITCH raises his hand and points out the window, toward the dark treeline. QUARITCH Out beyond that fence every living thing that crawls, flies or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees. The room gets very quiet. QUARITCH We have an indigenous population of humanoids here called the Na'vi. They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin which can stop your heart in one minute. We operate -- we live -- at a constant threat condition yellow. PAN ACROSS the solid faces of miners, Cat-machine drivers, engineers, geologists, as they take that in. QUARITCH As head of security, it's my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed -- (pausing for effect) -- not with all of you. If you wish to survive, you need a strong mental attitude, you need to follow procedure... PUSH IN ON JAKE, watching as the briefing continues. JAKE (V.O.) Nothing like an old-school safety brief to put your mind at ease. CUT TO: INT. CORRIDOR People are roaming in both directions, looking for rooms, lugging duffels and cases. An eager young XENOANTHROPOLOGIST, staggering under an overpacked duffel, runs to catch up to Jake. NORM Hey, you're Jake right? Tom's brother? You look just like him. (off Jake's wary look) Sorry, I'm Norm Spellman, I went through avatar training with him. 11. Norm offers his hand and Jake shakes it. NORM He was a great guy -- funny. It was a big shock to all of us. JAKE Yeah. Jake pumps the wheels of his chair, rolling on. Norm walks with him. NORM And duh! -- obviously you look like him. I mean, if you weren't genetically identical, you wouldn't be taking over his avatar. JAKE That's why I'm here. NORM So -- you want to go check it out? CUT TO: INT. BIO-LAB - DAY JAKE AND NORM enter the BIO-LAB -- a large lab complex with many adjoining rooms. MAX Me and Norm were out here to drive these remotely controlled bodies called avatars. They're grown from human DNA mixed with DNA from the natives here. A scientist, DOCTOR MAX CULLIMORE, is supervising the uncrating of two SHIPPING CONTAINERS. The nearer has the sides removed, revealing -- a ceiling-height acrylic TANK. Norm stops to stare, and Jake rolls past him as if drawn by some unseen force, toward -- THE AMNIO TANK. There is a FIGURE floating lanquidly inside, which looks like a man. A very large, very blue, man. Blood circulates through a synthetic UMBILICAL in the abdomen. As the figure turns in the amniotic fluid, we see that it has a lemur-like TAIL. The skin is cyan-blue. Long black hair drifts, graceful as seaweed. JAKE Damn. They got big. 12. NORM Yeah, they mature on the trip out. (to Max) So the proprioceptive sims worked pretty well. MAX Yeah, they've got great muscle tone. Give us a few hours, you guys can take them for a spin. THE FIGURE'S sleeping face turns toward us, and the features are -- despite feline ears and a long feral snout -- definitely JAKE'S. JAKE It looks like him. NORM No, it looks like you. This is your avatar now, Jake. ON JAKE, mesmerized as he stares into the tank. JAKE (V.O.) The idea is -- every driver is matched to his own avatar -- STEREOCAM VIDEO SHOT OF JAKE -- facing the camera, talking directly to the lens. JAKE'S VOICE-OVER up until now has been part of this VIDEOLOG. JAKE -- so their nervous systems are in tune. Or something. Which is why they offered me this gig, because I can link with Tommy's avatar, which was insanely expensive. (looking off camera) Is this right? I just say whatever in these videologs? WIDER, showing Norm working nearby with Max. NORM Yeah. You just need to get in the habit of documenting everything -- what you see, what you feel -- it's all part of the science. Good science starts with good observation. 13. JAKE Right. (to camera) So, whatever. Here I am. Doing science. (looks around) Never been in a lab before. MAX Log off. It's time to meet your boss for the next five years. He leads Jake and Norm through the short corridor to the -- CUT TO: INT. LINK ROOM - DUSK The LINK ROOM contains a dozen PSIONIC LINK UNITS, which look like coffins crossed with MRI scanners. NORM Grace Augustine is a legend. She's the head of the Avatar Program, and she wrote the book -- I mean literally wrote the book -- on Pandoran botany. MAX (low, over his shoulder) That's because she likes plants better than people. DR. GRACE AUGUSTINE sits up in her link, stretching and cracking her neck after a long session. She's fifty, with a strong face and fiercely intelligent eyes. GRACE (YELLING) Who's got my goddamn cigarette?! A TECH scurries to bring it to her, already lit. Around here they jump when Grace barks. Grace stands, scowling, as Jake, Norm and Max approach. MAX And here she is, Cinderella back from the ball. Grace, I'd like you to meet Norm Spellman and Ja -- GRACE Norm. I hear good things about you. How's your Na'vi? 14. NORM (Na'vi, subtitled) May the All Mother smile upon our first meeting. Grace nods approvingly, taking a drag on her cigarette. GRACE (SUBTITLED) Not bad. You sound a little formal. NORM (SUBTITLED) There is still much to learn. Jake waits while they ignore him, chattering in fluent Na'vi. MAX Uh, Grace, this is Jake S---- GRACE (turning to Jake) Yeah, yeah, I know who you are, and I don't need you. I need your brother. (to Max) You know -- the PhD who trained three years for this mission. JAKE He's dead. I know it's a big inconvenience to everyone. GRACE How much lab training have you had? Ever run a gas chromatograph? JAKE No. GRACE Any actual lab work at all? JAKE High school chemistry. But I ditched. Grace wheels on Max. GRACE You see? You see? They're pissing on us without even the courtesy of calling it rain. (turning away) I'm going to Selfridge. 15. She shoves past Jake. MAX Grace, that's not a good idea. But she's already out the door and clomping down the corridor. Max turns to Jake with a pained look. MAX Here, tomorrow, oh eight hundred. Try to use big words. CUT TO: INT. OPS CENTER - DUSK It looks like an air-traffic control tower, with lots of screens and bay windows showing the whole complex. ADMINISTRATOR PARKER SELFRIDGE takes a ball from a newly opened case of TITLEISTS and sets it on the floor. Selfridge is young, charismatic, focused. Some would say ruthless. He assumes the stance and lines up his putt, toward a practice cup across the control room floor. He glances up as Grace strides toward him. GRACE Parker, I used to think it was benign neglect, but now I see you're intentionally screwing us. SELFRIDGE Grace. You know I enjoy our little talks. GRACE I need a research assistant, not some jarhead dropout. Selfridge looks down and hits the ball. Grace kicks the practice cup aside, and the ball rolls past. Selfridge looks at her with a sigh. SELFRIDGE Actually, we got lucky with him. GRACE Lucky? How is this in any way lucky? As Selfridge saunters over to retrieve the ball -- 16. SELFRIDGE Well -- lucky your guy had a twin brother, and lucky the brother wasn't an oral hygienist or something. A Marine we can use. I'm assigning him to your team as security escort. GRACE The last thing I need is another trigger happy asshole out there! SELFRIDGE Look, you're supposed to be winning the hearts and minds of the natives. Isn't that the whole point of your little puppet show? If you look like them, if you talk like them, they'll trust you? Selfridge crosses to his office, behind a glass wall nearby. Grace follows. SELFRIDGE But after -- how many years? -- relations with the indigenous are only getting worse. GRACE That tends to happen when you use machine guns on them. On Selfridge's desk is a magnetic base, and hovering in mid- air, in the invisible field, is a lump of METALLIC ROCK. Pure UNOBTANIUM. He grabs it and holds it up between thumb and forefinger, in front of Grace's eyes. SELFRIDGE This is why we're here. Unobtanium. Because this little gray rock sells for twenty million a kilo. No other reason. This is what pays for the party. And it's what pays for your science. Comprendo? He places it back in the magnetic field. SELFRIDGE Those savages are threatening our whole operation. We're on the brink of war and you're supposed to be finding a diplomatic solution. So use what you've got and get me some results. CUT TO: 17. INT. LINK ROOM - DAY NEXT MORNING, GRACE, NORM and JAKE approach their link units. Jake glances through a PRESSURE WINDOW. In an adjoining chamber (the AMBIENT ROOM) JAKE'S AVATAR lies on a gurney, breathing slowly in PANDORAN AIR. NORM'S AVATAR is on a second gurney. Both are attended by med techs in exo-masks. Norm slips into his LINK CHAIR, expertly donning biometric sensors. GRACE How much link time have you logged? NORM Five hundred and twenty hours. Grace looks pointedly at Jake. JAKE Like -- an hour. GRACE Tell me you're joking. Grace opens the hood of Jake's link unit. Jake starts hauling himself across from his wheelchair. She reaches to help him but -- JAKE Don't! I got this. Grace steps back, hands raised. He drags himself into the unit. GRACE So you just figured you'd come out here to the most hostile environment known to man, with no training of any kind, and see how it went? What was going through your head? He meets her eyes with a defiant glare. JAKE Maybe I was just tired of doctors telling me what I couldn't do. Grace watches him laboriously pull his inert legs into the link chair by hand. 18. Jake settles into the warm fluid gel packs lining the unit. It seems to enfold him. Grace adjusts his biometric sensors, then lowers the UPPER CLAMSHELL -- GRACE Relax and let your mind go blank. That shouldn't be hard for you. JAKE Kiss the darkest part of my lily white -- But the SLAMMING HOOD muffles the rest. MAX Initiate link. The LINK TECH touches some controls. ON A LARGE MONITOR a 3D SCAN of Jake's brain appears. Regions of activity flow with complex shifting colors. MAX That's a gorgeous brain. Nice activity. GRACE Go figure. (walking away) Alright, I'm going in. TECH Phase-lock at forty percent. He's in transition. Max watches a display showing the avatar's nervous system aligning with Jake's -- two ghostly networks of light merging. MAX That's it. Find your way home. ECU JAKE, inside the link unit. His eyes move under the lids, like a dreamer in REM sleep as -- INSIDE JAKE'S MIND -- radiant streamers coalesce into a pulsing TUNNEL OF LIGHT and -- THE SCREEN FLARES WHITE -- ZZZWHAP! -- resolving into an overexposed, out-of-focus image -- two BLURRY FACES wearing masks, looking down. ECU JAKE'S AVATAR -- two very intense eyes FILL FRAME, the pupils contracting. Golden irises pulse with life. 19. MAX He's in. TECH Phase-lock ninety nine percent. The link is stable. Blinking, Jake slowly sits up on the gurney. He looks down at his AVATAR BODY, touching his chest with one hand. MAX Take it slow, Jake. We need to check your motor control. Try touching your fingertips together -- But Jake isn't listening. He's staring at his legs. He eases them off the gurney and -- HIS BLUE FEET touch the concrete floor, taking his weight. JAKE STANDS, feeling the strength in his legs. His expression is child-like with wonder. HIS POV -- looking down at the med techs, who seem the size of children next to his 9' tall frame. He sees something like a blue tentacle curl across his arm and he JERKS AROUND in alarm. HIS TAIL. As he turns to see it, the tail sweeps instruments off a table with a crash. Jake laughs and grins at Max. MED TECH Easy, Jake, I need you to sit down -- But Jake takes a step, then another. The wires to the bio- monitors pull taut, and he yanks them off his chest. MAX Jake! Wait, we have to run some tests -- But Jake pushes past the protesting med techs, toward the door and -- EXT. AVATAR COMPOUND - DAY Jake emerges, blinking in the morning sun. He finds himself in the AVATAR COMPOUND -- a living and training area. Nearby, a couple of AVATARS are playing one-on-one in front of a (non-regulation height) basketball net. Others go about their daily activities around the compound. 20. Jake flexes his legs -- JUMPS -- and lands a little unsteadily, but his expression is joyful. He takes a few steps and breaks into a RUN. People are calling to him, somehwere, but he doesn't hear them -- he's running. RUNNING! He finds himself in the COMPOUND GARDEN, and stops amid neatly tended rows of ALIEN PLANTS. He looks down, wiggling his toes in the warm soil. Then inhales deeply -- revelling in the alien smells -- earth, plants, the nearby forest. He looks at his bare footprint in the soil of an alien world. GRACE (O.S.) Hey Marine! Jake turns at the familiar voice to see -- A statuesque FEMALE AVATAR walking toward him. AVATAR GRACE is magnificent, with panther thighs, flat muscular stomach and firm athlete's breasts. She wears shorts and a T-shirt. In human years she would be about 35. JAKE Grace? GRACE Well who'd you expect, numbnuts? Think fast! She throws him a piece of Pandoran fruit, which he catches. GRACE Motor control is looking good. Jake bites into the fruit, the juice running down his chin. NORM (O.S.) Hey, check it out. Jake turns to see NORM'S AVATAR posing like a bodybuilder -- chest shot, back shot, bi's. NORM I am a living god. CUT TO: EXT. MINE PIT - DAY A WIDE SHOT of the terraced crater of the UNOBTANIUM MINE. A quiet beat, then -- 21. K-WHOOOOM! The entire face of one terrace is blown skyward in a chain of EXPLOSIONS. The "shot" blasts hundreds of tons of rock loose. LONG LENS ANGLES of enormous WHEEL-LOADERS shovelling up ore- rich rock and dropping it into DUMP TRUCKS. EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY A wall of steel FILLS FRAME. The DOZER BLADE crushes everything in its path, reducing trees to kindling. WIDER, showing the CLEAR-CUTTING operation near the mine, as a road is cut through the jungle. Remotely operated DOZERS three stories tall rip into the tree-line. One of the dozers has rotating SLASH-CUTTER, a vicious spinning head, mounted on a hydraulic arm, that hogs through the enormous tree trunks in a spray of wood-shrapnel. The heavy machines are escorted by AMPSUITS. COLONEL QUARITCH, on foot, leads a squad of troopers wearing breathing masks and carrying almighty big AUTOMATIC WEAPONS. A BANSHEE -- a fearsome aerial predator -- HURTLES from above, diving toward them on wings 3 meters across. We get a glimpse of glassy fangs before -- P-P-POOM! Quaritch cranks off three rapid SHOTS with his massive sidearm, and the creature drops with a SHRIEK. It crashes near them and Quaritch FIRES two more well placed rounds. The newbies stare at the thing's barracuda teeth. QUARITCH For you pogues, this is a banshee. A small one. See, they like it when I bring fresh meat out here. And this clearcutting really stirs up the hornet's nest. So keep your head on a swivel. If it moves, shoot it. If you're not sure it's moving -- shoot it! If it looks like a bunch of flowers you want to take home to Sally Rottencrotch -- SHOOT IT! What're you gonna do? TROOPERS Shoot it, sir! QUARITCH Outstanding. Let's roll. 22. Quaritch leads his squad into the gloom of the forest, his eyes scanning. Flanking the squad, LYLE WAINFLEET drives an AMPSUIT, his massive feet CRASHING through the underbrush. As his gaze comes down, he sees something ahead of him on the trail -- an intricate TOTEM of woven sticks, bones and feathers hanging across the trail like an orb-weaver's web. He tears it down with the barrel of his rifle, and stomps it into the mud as he moves on. INT. AVATAR LONGHOUSE - DUSK Jake sits on a wooden bed in a long hut of tropical-style construction -- beamed ceiling, open sides covered by screen. Around him the other avatars are bedding down for the night, pulling insect netting around their cots. In one hand, Jake holds the end of his long braided QUEUE of hair. CLOSE ON the queue -- the ends of the hair writhe slowly with their own life, like tendrils of a sea creature. JAKE That's kinda freaky. GRACE switches off the overheads. GRACE Lights out amigos. See ya' at dinner. Jake sits in the twilight, listening to the SCREECHES and HOOTS from the forest. Finally he lies down, CLOSING HIS EYES and -- INT. LINK ROOM - NIGHT ECU HUMAN JAKE -- his eyes OPEN. Jake blinks, disoriented, as Max opens the upper clamshell of his link unit. In the next chair Grace sits up, yawning and cracking her neck as the scared tech runs to her with a lit cigarette. GRACE (looking down) Damn. Same old sack a' bones. JAKE struggles with the dead weight of his legs as he hauls himself out of the unit. CUT TO 23. INT. COMMISSARY - EARLY MORNING JAKE sits with GRACE, NORM and the other avatar "drivers", while around them miners, troopers and other base personnel wolf their breakfasts. Grace is engaged in a heated conversation with another SCIENTIST. Jake, isolated from the conversations around him, notices -- PILOT TRUDY CHACON approaching, dressed in her flight suit. She's a rock-hard former Marine with thousands of flight hours out in the badlands. TRUDY Sully -- Colonel wants to see you in the Armor Bay. Jake gives Norm a puzzled glance and pivots from the table. He wheels away, led by Trudy. TIGHT ON GRACE, scowling as she watches him go. CUT TO: INT. ARMOR BAY - MORNING JAKE AND TRUDY enter the ARMOR BAY, passing TILT-ROTORS under repair. There are the heavily armed SCORPIONS as well as several SA-2 SAMSON work-horses outfitted with door guns and rocket pods. JAKE You guys're packing some heavy ordinance. TRUDY Yeah, `cause we're not the only thing flyin' around out there. Or the biggest. I'm gonna need you on a door gun, I'm a man short. JAKE Yeah, no problem. She extends her fist and he taps it with his. TRUDY See ya on the flight-line, zero nine. (she points) He's down there. Jake rolls his chair along the central gallery of the Armor Bay, passing rows of AMPSUITS standing in service racks. Techs clamber over the `suits, loading ordinance with cranes and lifts. 24. At the end of the row is a makeshift GYM area. QUARITCH is bench-pressing massive plates. QUARITCH This low gravity makes you soft. (pushing the last rep) You get soft, Pandora will shit you out dead with zero warning. Quaritch racks the bar and sits up, sweating but not winded. QUARITCH I pulled your record, Corporal. Venezuela -- that was some mean bush. Nothing like this here, though. You got heart kid, coming out here. JAKE I figured -- just another hellhole. Quaritch chuckles appreciatively, claps him on the shoulder. The CHIEF MECHANIC yells from the nearest AMPSUIT -- MECHANIC That servo's in, Colonel, if you want to try it. Quaritch crosses to the `suit, with Jake following. QUARITCH I was in First Recon a few years ahead of you. More than a few. Two tours in Nigeria, not a scratch. I come out here and -- He points to his scarred face. QUARITCH They could fix this if I rotated back. But you know what? I kinda like it. Reminds me every day what's out there. Besides, I can't leave -- He looks out, as if he can see through the wall to the tree- line. QUARITCH This is my war, here. Quaritch climbs the `suit and reaches into the cockpit, throwing some switches. The `suit's gas-turbine spools up with a rising WHINE. 25. QUARITCH The avatar program is a joke -- buncha limpdick scientists. But we have a unique opportunity here, you and I. A recon Marine in an avatar body could get me the intel I need, on the ground, right in the hostiles' camp. The WHINE is now a roaring WHOOSH as the `suit trembles with power. The air boils above the exhaust vents. Quaritch reaches in and operates the controls, flexing one huge hand. He nods to the waiting mechanic -- QUARITCH Looks good. (to Jake) I need you to learn about these savages, gain their trust. Find out how I can force their cooperation, or hit `em hard if they don't. Maybe you can keep some of my boys from going home like you. Or bagged-and-tagged. JAKE (NODDING) That sounds real good, Colonel. So -- am I still with Augustine? QUARITCH On paper. You walk like one of her science pukes, you quack like one, but you report to me. Can you do that for me? Jake nods. Quaritch brings the `suit to life. He steps forward and pivots smoothly. He balances the two ton machine on one foot while sweeping the arms in strong, graceful arcs. Jake realizes he is doing a WU-SHOO KATA. A flawless display of strength and control. He's impressive, and Jake is impressed. Quaritch is the kind of man he respects -- focused, hard. Determined. QUARITCH Look, son -- I take care of my own. Get me what I need, I'll see you get your legs back when you rotate home. Your real legs. He raises the `suit's hand, and slams the canopy shut like the visor of a helmet. Jake watches Quaritch walk past, huge feet CLANGING -- KUNG! KUNG! KUNG! 26. INT. BIO LAB - DAY GRACE is on the move, gulping coffee, in a hurry to get their FIRST SORTIE started. She hands a clipboard to MAX. GRACE Start calibrating. We're on the flight line in ten minutes. Max nods and jogs ahead toward the LINK ROOM. JAKE and NORM fall in with Grace as they enter the CONNECTING CORRIDOR. GRACE What did Atilla want? JAKE Just Marines comparin' tattoos. GRACE (not buying it) Yeah. Well, listen to me, Marine -- She stops, turning to drill him with a look. GRACE -- you're driving an avatar, now. That means you're in my world, got it? JAKE Got it. She turns and enters the LINK ROOM. INT. LINK ROOM Grace crosses to the controls of Jake's LINK UNIT. As the others catch up -- GRACE That son of a bitch has screwed up this program enough. All this -- (indicating link room) -- exists so we can go out there and build a bridge of trust to these people, who could teach us so much. But thanks to Quaritch and his thugs the Na'vi won't even talk to us anymore. JAKE Then how's this supposed to work? 27. GRACE We have a new face. (turning to Norm) You're fluent, you've studied the culture. You're non-threatening. The ones we know best -- the Omaticaya clan -- may give you a chance. Maybe you can get them back to the table before things go tits-up for good. NORM This is failing as a pep talk. Jake hauls himself across from wheelchair to link. JAKE How do we contact them? GRACE We don't. They contact us. If they see us taking our samples, treating the forest with respect -- (pointedly to Jake) Not trampling everything in sight -- they may reach out to us. JAKE Or they may skin us and make a drum. Jake lies back, lowering the sensor array over his body. GRACE Just keep your mouth shut and let Norm do the talking. She closes his clamshell, HARD, and we -- CUT TO: EXT. RAIN FOREST / AERIAL - DAY FLYING over a carpet of rainforest, past sheer cliffs and cloud-wreathed mesas. TRUDY'S SAMSON TILT-ROTOR chases its shadow across the treetops. Though big as a Blackhawk, it is tiny in the vast primeval landscape. ANGLE THROUGH the open side doors of the Samson. Trooper WAINFLEET, in exo-mask and body armor, leans on his door gun, scanning for aerial predators. In avatar form JAKE, GRACE and NORM watch the forest unrolling beneath them, the wind blasting their clothes. Jake mans the other door gun, his feet propped on the skids. 28. TRUDY flies from a pressurized cockpit. She banks to follow a shallow river. TRUDY (INTERCOM) Sturmbeest herd, one o'clock. Norm grins and points, excitedly. Jake looks in time to see-- A herd of STURMBEEST -- massive six-legged creatures reminiscent of buffalo -- thundering across the river. GRACE Looks like a bull, six cows and some juveniles. NORM The bull has the red on the dorsal armor? Grace nods approvingly. TIME CUT -- Hundreds of purple winged creatures take flight from a lake, startled by the Samson. They skim the water above their own reflections. TETRAPTERONS. TIME CUT -- the ground drops away as the Samson flies over a WATERFALL hundreds of feet high. Trudy banks hard, rolling in on the gorge below like it's a gun-run. Wainfleet WHOOPS while Norm looks like he's about to puke. WAINFLEET Yo Chacon! Get some! Jake grins into the airstream. CUT TO: EXT. CLEARING - DAY A small meadow among towering trees. The fern-like "grass" is beaten down in waves by the rotor-wash as the Samson settles to the ground. 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