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The Avatar film franchise, spearheaded by James Cameron, has been a box office juggernaut and critical darling since the release of the original Avatar in 2009. The films have been well-known for pushing the boundaries of visual effects, using groundbreaking cinematic 3D effects. With Avatar: Fire and Ash running in theatres now, here’s everything you need to know about the first two films before seeing the third one.
The First Avatar Follows The Story Of Jake Sully
Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) is the lead character of the 2009 Avatar. Jake is a paraplegic former US Marine who the RDA Corporation employs to explore a distant planet called Pandora. Pandora is already home to a race of sapient people known as the Na’vi. However, the air is not breathable for humans, prompting the RDA scientists to develop the Avatar program, in which human consciousness is transferred into a Na’vi body.
Jake enlists in the Avatar program to negotiate with the native population so that they can stop obstructing the RDA Corporation’s efforts to mine Pandora for Unobtainium. However, he slowly finds himself more and more enamored with Na’vi culture, and eventually falls in love with Na’vi clan member Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana).
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Unfortunately, negotiations between the Na’vi and the RDA Corporation eventually fall through because of Jake admitting that the Na’vi have no intention of giving up their land. Therefore, the RDA security chief, Col. Miles Quattrich (played by Stephen Lang), decides to subjugate the Na’vi by force and launch a brutal military campaign. Both Jake Sully and the RDA science team are disgusted by Quattrich’s actions, which culminate in them deserting the company and siding with the Na’vi in pushing Quattrich’s soldiers off the planet.
The Na’vi eventually succeed in repelling Quattrich and his forces, and Jake and Neytiri eventually face Quattrich and kill him. The RDA Corporation is driven away from Pandora, and the film ends with Jake forsaking his humanity and adopting a Na’vi body permanently.
The Second Avatar Sees Jake Sully Start A Family
Avatar: The Way of Water takes place sixteen years after the ending of the first film. During this time, Jake Sully has fully assimilated into the Na’vi, becoming the chief of the Omatikaya clan and starting a family with Neytiri.
The two now have two sons named Neteyam and Lo’ak, a daughter named Tuktirei “Tutk”, and an adopted daughter named Kiri, who was born from the since-deceased Avatar of former RDA science team lead Grace Augustine. Jake and Neytri are also the caretakers for Miles “Spider” Socorro, the son of Col. Miles Quattrich, who was left behind after the RDA departed Pandora.
However, the RDA returns to Pandora to avenge its prior defeat and colonize it outright to ensure a new reign of human supremacy. This ambitious new undertaking is spearheaded by General Frances Ardmore (played by Edie Falco), who is utilizing Recombinants (which are Na’vi bodies imbued with the genetic material and memories of RDA soldiers killed during the first film’s battle) to achieve her purpose.
One such Recombinant is none other than Miles Quattrich himself. Having essentially been resurrected, Quattrich seeks to avenge his prior failure against Jake. He leads a counterinsurgency operation that results in him capturing Jake and Neytri’s children. While the couple manages to free their children, Spider ends up getting captured in the process, and Quattrich recognizes him as his son.
After Ardmore’s brutal attempts at interrogating Spider fail, Quattrich convinces her to let him take the lead and exploits his familial connection to Spider to get him to open up. Meanwhile, Jake and Neytri take their family into hiding and flee to Pandora’s eastern sea, where they seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina tribe.
The Metkayina live in harmony with the ocean and its inhabitants, the Tukluns, who are intelligent whale-like creatures that have been dealing with poaching from humans ever since the RDA’s initial colonization efforts. One such Tuklun, named Payakan, befriends Lo’ak, and it’s revealed that Payakan is actually an outcast because his mother died at the hands of human whale-hunters. He killed them in retaliation, violating his people’s pacifist ways.
Quattrich eventually tracks down the archipelago where the Metkayina are located and takes command of a whaling vessel to find Jake and his family. He ultimately draws Jake out by setting the nearby villages on fire. He nearly succeeds in forcing his surrender before Payakan launches a surprise attack, which escalates into a full-scale battle that leaves Jake’s son, Neteyam, dead. Quattrich tries to salvage the situation by holding Kiri hostage, only for Neyetri to hold his son, Spider, hostage in turn.
The final battle occurs on the sinking whaling vessel, where Jake strangles Quattrich unconscious and escapes. While Spider eventually saves his father’s life, he reveals that his true home is with the Na’vi and that he doesn’t want anything to do with his father anymore.
The film ends with Neteyam’s funeral, following which the Metkayina tribe reassures Jake and Neyitri that they will always be welcome among them.
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