"AVATAR" (2009)

AVATAR

written by James Cameron

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. COPYRIGHT ©2007 TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION. NO PORTION OF THIS SCRIPT MAY BE PERFORMED, PUBLISHED, REPRODUCED, SOLD, OR DISTRIBUTED BY ANY MEANS, OR QUOTED OR PUBLISHED IN ANY MEDIUM, INCLUDING ANY WEB SITE, WITHOUT THE PRIOR WRITTEN CONSENT OF TWENTIETH CENTURY FOX FILM CORPORATION.

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...

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.

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.

The room is a tiny CUBICLE, prison cell meets 747 bathroom. Narrow cot, wall-screen droning away in the B.G. --

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 struggles with his pants a long time.

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’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.

TIGHT ON JAKE’S HAND as he starts pushing the wheel of his chair.

TRACKING WITH HIM as he rolls forward.

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...

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.

He collapses onto his back, panting.

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 --

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

PUSHING IN ON JAKE as he watches, bathed in orange light.

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 --

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 --

JAKE’S POV -- ATECH 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.

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.

FOLLOWING JAKE as he pushes away from his capsule, gliding to the LOCKERS across the aisle, his paralyzed legs not an impediment in weightlessness.

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 calledPOLYPHEMUS, 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 calledPANDORA. The ship dwindles to a speck against the BLUE MOON.

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--

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 --

HELL’S GATEis 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.

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.

The CREW CHIEF stomps down the aisle yelling --

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.

The crew chief stops by Jake long enough to bark --

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.

THE CARGO RAMP OPENS with a hydraulic whine.

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 andPRIVATE FIKE. Sec-Ops is the colony’s private security force.These guys are laid back, hardened, and haggard.

THEIR POV -- Jake rolls down the ramp.

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-6AMPSUITS -- 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 astate of siege.

WAINFLEET and Fike give Jake and his chair the hairy eyeball as he approaches.

As Jake rolls past, SOMETHING SWOOPS down behind him and --

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.

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.

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.

JAKE ROLLS IN, watching from the back.

COLONEL QUARITCH raises his hand and points out the window, toward the dark treeline.

The room gets very quiet.

PAN ACROSS the solid faces of miners, Cat-machine drivers, engineers, geologists, as they take that in.

PUSH IN ON JAKE, watching as the briefing continues.

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 offers his hand and Jake shakes it.

Jake pumps the wheels of his chair, rolling on.Norm walks with him.

JAKE AND NORM enter theBIO-LAB -- a large lab complex with many adjoining rooms.

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 --

THEAMNIO TANK. There is a FIGURE floating lanquidly inside, which looks like a man. A very large, veryblue, 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.

THE FIGURE’S sleeping face turns toward us, and the features are -- despite feline ears and a long feral snout -- definitely JAKE’S.

ON JAKE, mesmerized as he stares into the tank.

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.

WIDER, showing Norm working nearby with Max.

He leads Jake and Norm through the short corridor to the --

TheLINK ROOM contains a dozen PSIONIC LINK UNITS, which look like coffins crossed with MRI scanners.

DR. GRACE AUGUSTINEsits up in her link, stretching and cracking her neck after a long session.She’s fifty, with a strong face and fiercely intelligent eyes.

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.

Grace nods approvingly, taking a drag on her cigarette.

Jake waits while they ignore him, chattering in fluent Na’vi.

Grace wheels on Max.

She shoves past Jake.

But she’s already out the door and clomping down the corridor. Max turns to Jake with a pained look.

It looks like an air-traffic control tower, with lots of screens and bay windows showing the whole complex.

ADMINISTRATOR PARKER SELFRIDGEtakes 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.

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.

As Selfridge saunters over to retrieve the ball --

Selfridge crosses to his office, behind a glass wall nearby. Grace follows.

On Selfridge’s desk is a magnetic base, and hovering in mid- air, in the invisible field, is a lump of METALLIC ROCK. PureUNOBTANIUM. He grabs it and holds it up between thumb and forefinger, in front of Grace’s eyes.

He places it back in the magnetic field.

NEXT MORNING, GRACE, NORM and JAKE approach their link units.

Jake glances through a PRESSURE WINDOW.In an adjoining chamber (theAMBIENT 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 looks pointedly at Jake.

Grace opens the hood of Jake’s link unit. Jake starts hauling himself across from his wheelchair. She reaches to help him but --

Grace steps back, hands raised. He drags himself into the unit.

He meets her eyes with a defiant glare.

Grace watches him laboriously pull his inert legs into the link chair by hand.

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 --

But the SLAMMING HOOD muffles the rest.

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 watches a display showing the avatar’s nervous system aligning with Jake’s -- two ghostly networks of light merging.

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.

ECUJAKE’S AVATAR -- two very intense eyes FILL FRAME, the pupils contracting. Golden irises pulse with life.

Blinking, Jake slowly sits up on the gurney.He looks down at his AVATAR BODY, touching his chest with one hand.

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.

But Jake takes a step, then another.The wires to the bio- monitors pull taut, and he yanks them off his chest.

But Jake pushes past the protesting med techs, toward the door and --

Jake emerges, blinking in the morning sun.He finds himself in theAVATAR 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.

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.

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.

She throws him a piece of Pandoran fruit, which he catches.

Jake bites into the fruit, the juice running down his chin.

Jake turns to see NORM’S AVATAR posing like a bodybuilder -- chest shot, back shot, bi’s.

A WIDE SHOT of the terraced crater of the UNOBTANIUM MINE. A quiet beat, then --

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.

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 operatedDOZERS three stories tall rip into the tree-line.

One of the dozers has rotatingSLASH-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.

ABANSHEE -- 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 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 intricateTOTEM 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.

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.

GRACE switches off the overheads.

Jake sits in the twilight, listening to the SCREECHES and HOOTS from the forest. Finally he lies down, CLOSING HIS EYES and --

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.

JAKE struggles with the dead weight of his legs as he hauls himself out of the unit.

CUT TO

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 --

PILOTTRUDY CHACON approaching, dressed in her flight suit. She’s a rock-hard former Marine with thousands of flight hours out in the badlands.

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.

JAKE AND TRUDY enter the ARMOR BAY, passing TILT-ROTORS under repair. There are the heavily armed SCORPIONS as well as severalSA-2 SAMSON work-horses outfitted with door guns and rocket pods.

She extends her fist and he taps it with his.

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.

At the end of the row is a makeshift GYM area.QUARITCH is bench-pressing massive plates.

Quaritch racks the bar and sits up, sweating but not winded.

Quaritch chuckles appreciatively, claps him on the shoulder. The CHIEF MECHANIC yells from the nearest AMPSUIT --

Quaritch crosses to the ‘suit, with Jake following.

He points to his scarred face.

He looks out, as if he can see through the wall to the tree- line.

Quaritch climbs the ‘suit and reaches into the cockpit, throwing some switches. The ‘suit’s gas-turbine spools up with a rising WHINE.

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 --

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.

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!

GRACE is on the move, gulping coffee, in a hurry to get their FIRST SORTIE started. She hands a clipboard to MAX.

Max nods and jogs ahead toward the LINK ROOM. JAKE and NORM fall in with Grace as they enter the CONNECTING CORRIDOR.

She stops, turning to drill him with a look.

She turns and enters the LINK ROOM.

Grace crosses to the controls of Jake’s LINK UNIT. As the others catch up --

Jake hauls himself across from wheelchair to link.

Jake lies back, lowering the sensor array over his body.

She closes his clamshell, HARD, and we --

FLYING over a carpet of rainforest, past sheer cliffs and cloud-wreathed mesas. TRUDY’S SAMSONTILT-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.

TRUDY flies from a pressurized cockpit. She banks to follow a shallow river.

Norm grins and points, excitedly. Jake looks in time to see-- A herd ofSTURMBEEST -- massive six-legged creatures reminiscent of buffalo -- thundering across the river.

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.

Jake grins into the airstream.

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.

Jake pulls the massive door gun off its pintle mount and hefts it like an assault rifle.

He and Wainfleet leap out to secure the LZ, scanning the tree- line warily, weapons aimed.

Grace jogs forward to the cockpit, motioning Trudy to shut down. Trudy kills the Samson’s TURBINES.

Grace, towering over Wainfleet, motions him to hang back.

Jake takes point as they enter the jungle.

The forest engulfs JAKE, GRACE and NORM in cyan gloom. The shadows are alive with the CHITTERING sounds of unseen alien wildlife.

TRACKING WITH JAKE as he moves through the foliage, hyper- alert -- looking around like a tourist in Hell.A monkey-like PROLEMURISleaping from limb to limb overhead, flashing through the sunlight streaming down in shafts.

A PLANT with swaying tendrils which reach toward Jake as he passes.

This forest is more alive than any on Earth, with plants that react and move like animals. Jake white-knuckles his rifle as if every shadow conceals razor-fanged death.

She pushes ahead of him on the trail, forcing him to lower his muzzle as he follows her. Grace moves nimbly on the path, seemingly unconcerned.

WIDE SHOT as the party moves between the huge trees, tiny as ants. The trail has gotten steeper, the going tougher.

They enter a clearing with an OVERGROWN BUILDING made of timbers cut from the local trees, with a thatch roof.It is covered with vines as the jungle reclaims it.

Norm gulps. Jake looks behind him as they approach the school, feeling unseen eyes.

TRACKING WITH JAKE’S BOOTS as he steps among dried leaves and a few moldering CHILDREN’S BOOKS. Floorboards CREAK.

WIDER as Jake explores the room. Grace and Norm are selecting INSTRUMENTS from storage cases on a wooden table.

Jake looks up at a RUSTLING among the dark rafters. Roosting STINGBATS eye him warily, fluttering their wings.

Grace picks up a moldering copy of “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss from the floor and puts it back on a shelf.

Jake sees something, and approaches the blackboard -- reaches out to touch a pattern of holes blasted into the slate. Unmistakably BULLET HOLES.

She turns away. Jake watches her as he jams equipment into his pack.

CLOSE ON Grace’s blue hand gently brushing away soil, exposing a tangle of ROOT TENDRILS.

WIDER -- GRACE and NORM crouch among enormous octopoidal roots. She takes a tiny sample using a needle-like probe. Norm uses a digital DEVICE to scan the roots.

JAKE, bored, scouts ahead a few meters.

He comes to a GLADE filled with shoulder-high SPIRAL PLANTS calledHELICORADIANS.

He BRUSHES one and SHTOONK! -- it SUCKS DOWN into a tube in the ground so quickly it seems to simply vanish.

Curious, Jake touches another -- SHTOONK! And another -- like popping balloons after a party. SHTOONK! SHTOONK! SHTOONK!

A chain reaction begins and the whole colony pulls down into the ground, REVEALING --

A HAMMERHEAD TITANOTHERE. Like a six-legged rhinoceros, but twice that size. Its massive, low-slung head has projections of bone giving it the look of a hammerhead shark.

Its baleful eyes lock onto him. Jake raises his rifle.

Grace, alerted by the creature’s SNORTS, runs to where she can see the tableau. She presses her THROAT MIKE.

The bull HAMMERHEAD bellows and lowers its 3 meter wide sledgehammer of a skull.

Jake starts to back away. The hammerhead bellows again, pawing the earth.

The hammerhead SLASHES its head sideways, splintering saplings. It bellows again, lowers its head and CHARGES --

Jake SCREAMS at the top of his lungs, spreads his arms wide and runs straight at the thing.

It STOPS abruptly, with an oversized BLEAT.

ON JAKE -- amazed the gambit worked.

SOMETHING rises up behind him out of focus --

ATHANATOR. The most awesome land predator the universe has ever conceived This thing could eat a T-rex and have the Alien for desert.

It is a black six-limbed panther from Hell, with an armored head and massive distensible jaws.

JAKE, unaware of the advancing thanator, is still bracing the hammerhead --

The bull wheels around, TRUMPETING in fear, and CRASHES away through splintering undergrowth.

A guttural SNARL behind him. Jake spins in time to see --

THREE TONS of rippling thanator LAUNCH over him, landing between him and the hammerhead. The ground shakes.

The thanator emits an earsplitting ROAR, enraged that the hammerhead got away. It twists on itself, turning to face Jake, and bares its fangs with a lethal HISS.

Jake BOLTS as --

The thanator LEAPS after him and --

Jake launches himself between two large trunks, forcing the beast to claw its way around to the side while --

Jake scrambles up -- around -- over a tangle of roots and --

SK-RASH!! CLAWS SLASH the air behind him, EXPLODING bark off a trunk as --

JAKE wills himself forward in a frenzy. With rippling muscle the beast is airborne again, blacking out the sun but --

JAKE dives under a massive root system, and --

CRASH! Kindling rains around him as the beast tears into the root-trunks above him. Claws SLASH down next to him as he rolls and crawls --

Glistening jaws SMASH and SNAP against the barrier trunks, sending chunks of wood flying. It’s spittle sprays across Jake, jaws inches away as --

He rolls onto his back, and FIRES his AR point blank but the rifle is SNATCHED out of his hands. The beast SCREECHES an ungodly WAIL of pain and rage and -- RIPS the ENTIRE TRUNK away. Jake scrambles to escape but --

GLISTENING JAWS lunge downward, SNAP SHUT and --

The creature rips Jake out of the tree, shaking him like a junkyard dog with a rabbit, only --

It has him by the BACKPACK, so Jake unlatches it and --

He FLIES FREE as the thanator crushes the pack with its teeth. Giving Jake a moment to sprint away, but --

With a hideous BELLOW the thanator crashes after him, splintering trees.

JAKE RUNS in a blur, dodging between trunks as a glistening black tornado shreds the forest behind him and --

He sees WATER ahead and DIVES OUTWARD with all his might --

The thanator’s jaws SNAP SHUT inches behind him as he flies out into open space and --

JAKE SPLASHES down into a swiftly moving river.

The thanator LEAPS DOWN AFTER HIM, pursuing from rock to rock, its claws swiping like a grizzly fishing for salmon.

Jake ducks under as -- FWHOOSH! -- black claws SLASH past his face amid turbulent bubbles.

A WATERFALL ahead. Jake is swept over the falls, with the thanator SWIPING at him from a rock, just MISSING and --

Jake disappears down the throat of the thundering cataract.

The water boils below the cataract. Jake’s head bursts through the surface, and he gasps for breath.

He is carried along by the current, but manages to grab a limb on a fallen tree. He weakly pulls himself up, and just lies there gasping on the trunk.

Above him, on the cliff, the THANATOR BELLOWS, a roar which echoes across the jungle.

JAKE, wet and bruised, crouches under a screen of giant leaves. He hacks manically at the end of a cut sapling with his knife, forming a crude but sharp tip.

TRACKING with Jake as he walks through the forest like it’s a minefield, carrying his SPEAR white-knuckled. He is freaked and hyper-alert.

The trees here are a hundred meters high, blocking out the sky. A few pencil beams of sunlight filter down into the cyan gloom.

POVFROM ABOVE -- looking down through leaves we watch Jake move warily through the forest.

ECU -- TWO GOLDEN EYES, bright in the shadows.

DOWNANGLE as Jake passes under a tree limb.Invisible to him, draped on the limb like a leopard, is a striking NA’VI GIRL. She watches, only her eyes moving.

She is lithe as a cat, with a long neck, muscular shoulders, and nubile breasts. And she is devastatingly beautiful -- for a girl with a tail. In human age she would be 18. Her name isNEYTIRI(nay-Tee-ree).

Jake passes less than 2 meters beneath her, oblivious.

NEYTIRI rises soundlessly. In one fluid, sinuous movement she NOCKS an arrow to her BOW and DRAWS, aiming RIGHT AT JAKE. Utterly silent.

Below her Jake is totally unaware of the arrow aimed at his THROAT.

ON NEYTIRI as she follows him with the bow, muscles tensing for the shot --

-- and SOMETHING drifts down in front of her, F.G.She hesitates.

RACK FOCUS to the tip of the arrow -- where a single WOODSPRITEfloats down to land on the arrow-head.Like a dandelion seed, but larger, the WOODSPRITE waves its silky CILIA, feather light, as it balances on the deadly point.It glows faintly in the dark shadows.

NEYTIRI frowns, puzzled, and LOWERS her bow slowly.The woodsprite WHIRLS away into the gloom.

GRACE and NORM peer down into the shadowed forest as TRUDY banks in a search pattern.

Grace looks to the west. The sun setting behind alien trees.

Grace stares into the dark forest as the Samson banks hard, thundering away toward the setting sun.

LONG LENS-- POLYPHEMUS. The giant planet rises behind the black trees.

Jake’s got a new problem. He sees shapes moving with liquid grace in the NIGHT shadows behind him. He is being stalked by a pack ofVIPERWOLVES.

Jake catches only glimpses -- a glint of eyes, a slinking black movement -- then nothing. Darkness.

TIME CUT -- TIGHT ON Jake’s hands as he knots his T-shirt around the butt end of the spear.

ANGLE ON THICK SAP trickling down a tree-trunk.Jake jams the makeshift torch into the sap, soaking the shirt with it.

A WATERPROOF MATCH from his survival kit lights the torch.

The torch creates a pool of light surrounded by pulsing, leaping shadows. Jake turns warily as he moves along the trail.

Behind him are several pairs of reflective green EYES. Another pair flanking him beside the trail.Black-on-black SHAPES which seem to flow like liquid.

He looks up -- sees one cross a limb overhead.Another on his opposite flank.

Then a hideous sound, like a hyena's psychotic LAUGH.

The VIPERWOLVES can run like a dog and climb like a monkey. They are hunting Jake from the ground and the trees.

JAKE RUNS by torch-light, on the edge of panic.He reaches a steep banked stream and -- without thinking -- runs across it on a horizontal trunk --

-- and STOPS DEAD on the other side.The torch illuminates GREEN EYES cutting ahead of him across the trail.The viperwolves have him encircled.

The psychotic BARKS become more intense as they signal each other, getting excited. ONE MAKES A RUN at him, angling on his legs from behind but --

JAKE WHIRLS, jamming the torch in its face.It yips and goes past, but ANOTHER moves in --

He jabs it with the business end of the spear and it SNARLS, retreating, baring its fangs.

Now half a dozen are circling him in the open, and he sees what he’s up against. The VIPERWOLVES are six-limbed with shiny chitinous skin, their paws leathery BLACK HANDS. Intelligent eyes. Glistening black teeth in dead white gums.

Jake realizes that he is making his final stand.He whirls the torch in an arc, keeping them at bay --

And feels a rush of adrenaline. It goes through him like a lightning bolt and the fear is gone.

With snarls and a blur of motion THEY ATTACK.

Jake CRACKS the spear down on one, then SPINS as --

ANOTHER LEAPS at him and he plants the spear in it, striking true, but --

Its momentum wrenches it from his hands, and the torch goes flying. Left in semi-darkness, Jake draws his KNIFE as--

A WOLF LUNGES, sinking its teeth into his arm. He YELLS in pain and fury, SLASHING with the knife which --

CUTS deep into the beast’s shoulder and it lets go.

JAKE SPRINTS, trying to escape, but a snarling viperwolf leaps, GRABBING him by the ankle with its fore-hand.Jake tears away, sprawling, SCRAMBLING to get up as --

THREE WOLVES charge at once. The nearest LEAPS at his throat just as --

THUNK!! -- an ARROW appears in its chest.

The wolf lands on him, already a dead weight.He pushes it off in time to see --

A BLUE AMAZON emerge from the trees, nock another arrow, draw and FIRE in one fluid motion. AN UNEARTHLY YOWL as another wolf falls.

NEYTIRI LEAPS right over Jake, and CRACKS her bow down on the skull of a circling wolf.

ANOTHER SPRINGS at her and she drops under its weight, but rolls, coming up on top of it with a knife in her hand.

Her knife FLASHES down, buried to the hilt in its chest.

SNARLING, a wounded wolf attacks Jake, and he KICKS it away, but --

It SPINS and leaps back onto him, and Jake barely catches its throat in time to keep the SNAPPING JAWS away from his face.

MEANWHILE Neytiri swings her bow in a big arc, CRACKING IT across the heads and shoulders of two remaining wolves.

The wolves slink and circle, yelping as the bow whistles past them. Finally they break and run, with Neytiri chasing and--

They bound away through the foliage as she SHOUTS after them--

Jake has his adversary pinned and is choking it with all his weight. Finally it stops thrashing. Panting, he releases it and looks up at --

NEYTIRI. Her tail LASHES as she scans the forest, listening to the fading YELPS of the wolves. Satisfied the attack is over, she turns.

She regards him coldly for a second, then walks past him. Neytiri picks up the torch and extinguishes it in a stream.

Jake blinks around at the darkness -- realizing he can still see. In fact, with the blinding torchlight gone,the forest is transformed.

The jungle has come alive with BIOLUMINESCENCE -- spots and patterns, ghosts and galaxies of blue-green light.

Jake scrambles to recover his spear.Neytiri kneels beside --

A DYING WOLF. It’s CRIES are pitiful. It paws the air, trying to raise its head. She pulls her KNIFE from its chest.

She cuts its throat, ending the pitiful cries. She touches its head gently, regarding it with sadness.

Neytiri wipes the knife and returns it to the sheath at her waist. She crosses to another slain wolf and kneels, pulling the arrow from its heart.

Neytiri ignores him, assuming a prayer posture over the dead animal.

She rises and walks away without looking at Jake.

He crashes through some plants, catching up to her.

He makes the mistake of grasping her shoulder and --

WHACK! She WALLOPS him upside the head with her bow in a fierce backhand swing, laying him out flat.

He looks up to see a FURY standing over him. A Fury who speaks English -- accented, halting, angry English.

She gestures at the bodies of the viperwolves.

She silences him with the tip of her bow at his throat.

Jake gets up, slowly, facing her.

CU Neytiri -- looking away. Finally, reluctantly, her eyes MEET HIS for the first time -- a riveting gaze with those big gold orbs.

She leans closer --

She turns away, stalking off, but Jake goes after her.

TRACKING WITH Neytiri as she climbs nimbly along a huge ROOT.

WIDER as she trots with perfect balance along the root, which forms an elevated walkway.

Jake runs to catch up, realizing suddenly that he is far above the forest floor. Throughout the following they move through a GLOWING PHANTASMAGORICAL FOREST.

She leaps to another elevated root. Jake follows, surprised that he made it.

He runs to catch up with her easy jogging pace.

She stops and he almost runs into her.

Then she turns and trots on.

They run across the elevated root of an enormous tree -- a horizontal trunk big as an oak.

WIDE SHOT as they cross a DEEP GORGE.A waterfall shimmers silver in the Polyphemus-light. Vines hang down a hundred feet into the gorge, and among them swoop stingbats and other night flyers.

Jake looks down, suddenly aware of the height.

A vine catches his spear and spins him off balance.He drops the spear and almost falls off the root.

Neytiri catches him with one hand, gripping his bicep. He watches the spear cartwheel down to splash in the river.

She pulls him upright. Shouts at him in English and Na’vi.

DOWN ANGLE FROM FAR ABOVE -- several WOODSPRITES float down through the trees. FOLLOW THEM as they descend silently toward Jake and Neytiri.

NEYTIRI, sensing a presence, looks up to see --

The WOODSPRITES, PULSING with purpose, float right towards Jake. They dance gently around his shoulders and head.

More woodsprites gather around him. Several ALIGHT on him.

Jake holds still, knowing he should be afraid -- but somehow he’s not. He spreads his arms. More sprites come, landing all over his arms, hands, body.

CU NEYTIRI -- reacting with a mixture of wonder and dread.

Jake -- now a pulsing, glowing, fluttering MASS OF LIGHT -- moves one hand slowly, not wanting to break the spell.He studies one of the sprites dancing on his palm until --

-- WHOOSSHH! the woodsprites whirl up and away, scattering into the darkness.

Neytiri seems shaken. She seizes his hand and pulls him after her.

TRACKING WITH JAKE as he gazes about him in growing wonder. He touches leaves as he passes, watching the bioluminescence shiver through them.

Jake looks down as -- they cross a bed of purple MOSS which reacts to the pressure of their footsteps. Rings of green light, like ripples on a pond, expand outward from each footfall. Exploding rings of light where his feet touch down. Dream-like, surreal beauty.

WIDE ON THEM as they run over a large root, across a mirror- like POOL at the base of a WATERFALL.

Jake follows Neytiri, running along a raised root-trunk.

JAKE hears WHOOSH-WHOOSH and snaps a look as aBOLO flies at him, spinning end for end and --

SHWHAP!! -- tangles around his legs. He topples off the root and crashes into the foliage below.

JAKE untangles himself, getting up to run just as --

SEVERAL NA’VI RIDERS thunder toward him. They are riding DIREHORSES -- six-legged, armor-skinned alien Clydesdales.

We see that the riders’ QUEUES are connected to the horses’ long moth-like antennae -- a neural-link with which they can command the horse, leaving hands free for weapons.

The riders aim bows and spears at Jake as they approach. Jake turns to bolt, but --

NA’VI HUNTERS melt out of the shadows, weapons aimed -- blocking his retreat.

Neytiri drops to the ground next to Jake and confronts the LEAD RIDER. She shouts sharply in Na’vi --

TSU’TEY(tsu-Tay)is young and powerfully built, with sculpted features and a proud jawline, piercing eyes. Tsu'tey swings off his mount with fluid grace.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) These demons are forbidden here. I will kill this one as a lesson to the others!

Tsu’tey draws his bow but Neytiri leaps between him and Jake, confronting him warrior to warrior.

Tsu’tey clenches his jaw with frustration -- frustration with her as much as the situation. He turns and angrily remounts his direhorse, barking a command to the HUNTERS.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) Bring him.

They grab Jake and haul him to his feet.Encircled by spears and bows, he is shoved forward along the trail, as Tsu’tey and the others ride ahead.

JAKE is hauled roughly toward Neytiri’s village, which is sheltered inside one of the GREAT TREES.HOMETREE is 250 meters tall, with a trunk four times the diameter of the largest Sequoia, and a base of massive mangrove-pillars.

TSU’TEY rides inside the columns at the base of Hometree, shouting an ululating WARNING.

Jake is force-marched through the pillars into --

An open CENTRAL AREA. The villagers gather to see the arriving hunt party. We see the people of the tribe -- mothers with babies, old women, young hunters.

They gawk at the alien, expressions ranging from curiosity to outright hostility. The huge eyes of the children follow him.

Jake is amazed at the size of HOMETREE inside.By the light of the COOK-FIRES he can see up into a vast cylindrical gallery -- a living cathedral.

Clear membranes -- sturmbeest bladders -- filled with fluttering bio-luminescent insects, act as area lighting.

The central space is dominated by the SKULL of some enormous creature, mounted with much embellishment on a TOTEM. Standing in front of this, awaiting their approach, is --

Neytiri addresses Eytukan in Na’vi.

He glowers at her as he responds, pointing at Jake.

Neytiri stands her ground, answering in a respectful but not submissive tone.

Jake steps forward, offering his hand, and the hunters JUMP to restrain him, shouting. But they all FREEZE as --

A commanding FEMALE VOICE echoes through the chamber.

MO’AT (Na’vi) Step back!

Everybody looks up.

MO’AT(MOH-aht) stands on the second level, looking down. She is a severe woman in her 50’s. Her bearing is haughty, her expression friendly as a hanging-judge. Her outfit is elaborate, denoting her rank as CLAN MATRIARCH.

MO’AT (subtitled) I will look at this alien.

There is an expectant hush as Mo'at descends the helical core of Hometree, a kind of natural spiral staircase.

Neytiri kneels before her like an acolyte as Mo’at passes.

The villagers stare silently as the Matriarch circles slowly around Jake, examining his tail and the end of his queue.

MO’AT (thick accent) What are you called?

She produces a long THORN between her fingertips. With a flourish she strikes his chest.

Jake flinches. RED BLOOD wells up and Mo'at rubs some between her fingertips. She tastes it.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) A warrior! I could kill him easily!

MO’AT (to Neytiri, subtitled) Daughter. You will teach him our way, to speak and walk as we do.

NEYTIRI looks shocked, then angry.

MO’AT (subtitled) It is decided!

Neytiri subsides, turning to glare at Jake.

She turns to Neytiri, her expression stern --

Neytiri nods, accepting, but she’s not a happy camper.She grabs Jake’s arm and pulls him roughly away.

LATER, Neytiri leads Jake up the spiral to the SECOND LEVEL. He now wears only a ratty LOINCLOTH.His wounds are bound with plant-fiber bandages.

THE ENTIRE CLAN is squatting at dinner in a huge circle. They stop talking and turn to gaze at Jake as he enters the circle.

Neytiri crosses the circle to the cook pit and returns with several large leaves heaped with food.She kneels next to Jake, placing the food in front of him almost DEFIANTLY.

Jake knows she’s baiting him. He smiles in response.

ACROSS THE CIRCLE, Tsu’tey, Mo'at and Eytukan sit together, glancing up occasionally from their food to the stranger.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) These aliens try to look like people, but they can’t.

NEYTIRI motions for Jake to take portions from the serving leaves onto his own leaf.

MO’AT, watching Jake and Neytiri, leans over to Eytukan.

Jake munches on a white shrimp-like thing.

Jake blanches. She heaps some more onto his leaf -- a CHALLENGE -- and Jake meets her eyes, takes a handful, and starts munching enthusiastically.

CU TSU’TEY, warily eyeing Jake --

TSU’TEY (subtitled) I say she will kill him.

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 hammock, people rustling in the darkness around him. Neytiri is nearby, curled up like a little girl. She stares at him for a moment, then closes her eyes.

Jake watches the glowing bugs fluttering inside a night- light, a pulse of life energy. A strange peace spreads through him. He closes his eyes and --

GRACE is over JAKE in the Link, SLAPPING him, as Max and NORM hover.

He looks around, blinking. Reality crashing in.

BREAKFAST the next day. The other drivers lean forward, hanging on Grace’s re-telling of the tale.

Some of the other scientists clap Jake on the shoulders in congratulation.

NORM chomps his bacon, fuming.

JAKE has reported to SELFRIDGE and QUARITCH.Quaritch turns from gazing out at the wall of forest, displaying a feral grin.

Selfridge turns to a large 3D GRAPHIC DISPLAY, pointing.A road runs from Hell’s Gate to a proposed new mine miles away.

Jake is shaken by the enormity of this new responsibility.

JAKE pumps his chair across the lab, flanked by GRACE and NORM. Grace holds STEREO STILL PICTURES in front of him, one at a time -- images of clan members she has shot over the years -- a kind of flash card drill.

The dialogue is continuous as they enter.

He hauls himself from wheelchair to Link.

As Jake settles into the soft embrace of the link,Grace inputs commands at the control station.

Grace lowers the bio-sensor array over Jake’s chest.

She closes the clamshell and we --

CU JAKE’S AVATAR, blinking awake, staring up at --

HOMETREE, like a gothic cathedral overhead.Sunlight streams down through gaps in the towering vault.

JAKE walks among the villagers, who go about their daily tasks.

-- young girls sit together, weaving and SINGING.They look up as he passes, then go back to work.

--two men clean the fish they’ve caught.

-- a young mother pounds seeds into meal, while nursing an infant.

--children chase each other and climb like monkeys.One bold LITTLE GIRL runs up to Jake, stops -- staring -- then shrieks with laughter as she runs back to her playmates.

GRINNING, Jake turns to see NEYTIRI cantering toward him on a DIREHORSE. She leads a second horse, an old sway-backed MARE. His grin drops.

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 --

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.

Jake closes his eyes, nodding. 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.

The horse LAUNCHES into a GALLOP. Jake flops around, with no idea how to sit the animal, and is promptly THROWN OFF. He lands painfully in the mud.

He gets up, brushing mud off knees and ass, as Neytiri leads the horse back to him.

SERIES OF JUMP CUTS -- Jake falls off the horse in various ways, seemingly landing harder each time.

ON JAKE, face 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 stands, covered in mud, as Tsu’tey stops his horse next to him, looking down with disdain.

TSU’TEY You should go away.

Tsu’tey turns to Neytiri, who 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.

OPS CENTER - NIGHT

Grouped around a table are JAKE, COLONEL QUARITCH, SELFRIDGE and few ENGINEERS and OFFICERS. Jake is talking them through plans he’s made of Hometree’s inner structure.

ANGLE ON MAX, at the stairwell. He’s been watching Jake talking rapidly to Quaritch, but can’t hear him.Frowning, he backs away, down the stairs.

JAKE, GRACE and NORM are packing science gear and supplies.

A SAMSON THUNDERS over the rainforest, climbing into the mist- shrouded mountains.

In the SEALED COCKPIT, Norm is up front, sitting left seat so Trudy can talk him through the flight controls. Jake and Grace are behind them, in the jump-seats.

Grace and Norm’s UNCONSCIOUS AVATARS ride in the open back compartment.

She points to the stick between her knees. Norm hesitantly reaches over and rests his hand on hers.

ON NORM -- reacting to tiny inputs from the hot lady-pilot.

THE SAMSON is dwarfed by enormous ARCHES OF ROCK.

On the dash, many of the displays are fritzing out.

AHEAD, a cloud bank parts, revealing --

THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS. Right in front of them.

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 JAKE, staring in amazement. It is both awe-inspiring and disturbing.

Trudy turns, grinning at Jake.

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.

A remote RESEARCH STATION -- TWO SHACKSand a few clusters of instruments perched on a promontory near the Hallelujah Mountains. The shacks are AIRLIFT MODULES the size of buses.

THE SAMSON LANDS, beating the grass with its rotor-wash. The humans hop out, wearing MASKS.

They move toward the Shack, taking in the spectacular panorama.

NORM and TRUDY assist JAKE with his chair as they cycle in through the AIRLOCK. GRACE is already inside, starting the GENNY. She turns on the lights and equipment.

There are 4 bunks, a clutter of science gear, and -- through a short connecting corridor -- THREE LINK UNITS in the second module.

As Grace powers up the Link equipment, Jake 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.

Norm glares at Jake as he passes.

Norm turns to Grace, his frustration boiling over.

He glowers at Jake.

He stalks off.

She points to Jake’s link.

LOOKING DOWN the central shaft of Hometree, 80 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 section, arriving out of breath beside her. She leads him OUTSIDE, onto --

A large branch. Through gaps in the foliage Jake can see other Great Trees scattered across the landscape, like 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 them, emerging into a shaft of sunlight.

A hugeMOUNTAIN BANSHEE. Much larger than the forest banshees, this thing is taller than a Na’vi with a 10 meter wingspan. A leathery FWHOOP, like the crack of sails, as it alights on the branch right in front of her.

Neytiri feeds it a large scrap of meat, which it SNATCHES and gulps down. She murmurs to it and strokes its NECK.

It lets out a signature SHRIEK, and 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 neural connection is made.

She climbs smoothly onto the animal’s back.

The BANSHEE shivers with anticipation.

Jake ducks as the great wings EXPLODE OPEN and the banshee DROPS off the branch. It swoops down across the forest canopy, banks hard, lets out a CRY and beats its wings in a power climb.

Completing the bank, Neytiri directs the banshee into a close SWOOPING FLYBY, and Jake instinctively ducks.

ON NEYTIRI -- flying in perfect fusion with her winged mount, the rainforest rolling beneath her.

STEREO VIDEO-LOG IMAGE -- Jake has just switched on the camera. He looks tired.

GRACE, behind him, looks up from her MICROSCOPE, scowling.

THIS THROWS US INTO A TEACHING MONTAGE:

JAKE AND NEYTIRI kneel together inside Hometree. Neytiri touches her lips with her fingertips.

She touches her nose, her ears, her eyes in quick sequence.

NEYTIRI stands next to him, correcting his position as he draws a longbow.

BARKING commands, she SMACKS him on the shoulder, then the elbow, repositioning him roughly.

HUMAN JAKE emerges from the LINK to see --

TRUDY and NORM caught IN THE ACT on Norm’s bunk. Norm blushes and Trudy waves, pulling the blanket over their heads.

NORM works with JAKE at the small table in the SHACK kitchen.

Norm comically exaggerates the pronunciation.

Norm makes Jake repeat the word, getting more frustrated.

TRACKING WITH JAKE’S FEET as he runs over rocks, leaping onto a thick root, running on across the rough bark.

Neytiri leads him along a massive root, and soon they are running 30 meters above the ground.

He sprints with her through the trees, trying to keep up. She CLIMBS and LEAPS with the ease of a spider monkey.

Neytiri LEAPS off into space, falling, falling until --

She catches an enormous palm leaf and, gripping it, allows its DROOP to slow her fall. She lets go, plummeting, and catches another.

JAKE FOLLOWS in a leap of faith. THE CAMERA PLUNGES with him, from leaf to leaf, down and down in a dizzying kinetic rush.

He drops down from the last leaf, landing next to her on a game trail. He is exhilarated to still be alive.

Neytiri is surprised -- that he followed.That he lived.

TIGHT ON HUMAN JAKE, in the shack. Thinking as he looks at the pictures of Grace with the laughing kids at the school.

IN THE COMMONS -- AVATAR NORM formally greets MO’AT.The Matriarch looks on as GRACE kneels to hug children she knows. Grace’s eyes sparkle as she chats with them in Na’vi.

Grace looks up to see Neytiri approaching.It is an awkward moment between them. Grace makes the formal gesture of greeting.

ANOTHER DAY -- NEYTIRI kneels on a game trail, pointing out the tracks in the mud to Jake. She touches the edges of the plants around her, and sniffs the air.

JAKE AND NEYTIRI watch through a screen of leaves as --

A HERD of huge, armoredSTURMBEEST walks through the shallows of a lake. In the middle of the herd, the babies are sheltered from predators among their parents' legs.

One of the BULLS trumpets, and a flock of TETRAPTERONS takes flight, an explosion of purple wings.

Jake stares at the strange and wild alien tableau.

ANOTHER PLACE -- NEYTIRI STANDS utterly still, except for her ears, which move with a life of their own.Her eyes are closed. She speaks very softly to Jake --

Jake and Neytiri creep quietly, stalking a large male HEXAPEDE-- a six legged deer-like creature.

Jake expertly nocks an arrow and draws his bow as Neytiri watches. He takes a bead on the hexapede -- tracks it for a beat with the drawn bow, then RELAXES his arm.Zen archery.

OMIITED

NEYTIRI and JAKE crawl through the undergrowth.She points and he parts some leaves to see --

A MOTHER VIPERWOLF bringing meat to her cubs, which frisk around her legs. She licks their faces.

VIDEO-LOG IMAGE -- HUMAN JAKE talks into the lens.He’s changing -- un-shaven, cheeks hollow.Pale.

Visible behind him, Grace is hunched over her samples.

NEYTIRI AND JAKE move through the NIGHT FOREST, surrounded by galaxies of shimmering bioluminescence.They move gracefully, soundlessly -- two forest spirits.

CU JAKE -- the pupils of his cat eyes dilated. The night forest floods his brain with its million bio-sources.

NIGHT SHOT, from overhead -- Jake and Neytiri bow-fishing from a dugout canoe over huge glowingANEMONESat the bottom of a pool.

A large fish swims silhouetted against the pastel glow.ZAP! Jake drills it. He holds up the fish, triumphantly.

ANOTHER DAY -- Neytiri stands close behind Jake, adjusting his position as he draws his bow. Only now her hands are GENTLE as they move on his arms, his shoulders.

Aware of her touch, Jake’s focus is broken.Their eyes meet, and she pulls away quickly.

NIGHT -- they enter a CLEARING filled with chest-high ferns. Neytiri signals him to move slowly. They approach a creature on one of the ferns. An ugly, stick-like LIZARD-THING perched on a frond. As he approaches --

SNAP! A long spine whips in a circle, unfurling a bioluminescent membrane -- a disk a meter across, opening like a Chinese fan. It FLIES OFF, a living Frisbee.

THEFAN LIZARD FLOATS across the clearing.

Neytiri plunges among the ferns with a SHARP CRY.An EXPLOSION OF COLOR as dozens of FAN LIZARDS take flight.

Grinning widely, she hops around like a little girl, until they are all flying. And for the first time, she is unguarded and joyful, totally herself with him.

INSIDE THE LINK -- Jake’s eyes open in the darkness.He doesn’t know where he is. He weakly pushes open the lid, blinking at the light.

TIGHT ON AVATAR JAKE silently drawing his bow, his eyes focused in intense concentration. A beat -- the arrow flies.

JAKE PULLS the arrow from the twitching body of a hexapede. He dispatches it with his knife.

He speaks haltingly, but with feeling, in Na’vi.

NEYTIRI watches with approval.

Lying in the link, Jake looks exhausted, pale, thin.Norm helps Grace get him to his chair.

She hands him a microwaved burrito. He looks at the now alien food. Bites into it without enthusiasm.

Jake takes the cigarette out of her mouth and stubs it out.

GRACE walks past Jake, starts making herself coffee.

Jake scans the pictures tacked up around Grace’s workstation.

GRACE looks up from making coffee. Her eyes track across the pictures of the laughing children. Finally --

GRACE sips her coffee, grimaces at the taste.

GRACE’S voice stays oddly CALM as he tells this terrible story, while getting MILK out of the refrigerator.

MACRO as she pours the milk -- her hand is SHAKING.

Jake realizes that Grace is on the verge of tears and desperately trying to hide it.

GRACE sits down at the table, looks intently at Jake.

GRACE looks at him with real PAIN in her eyes.

TSU’TEY leads three direhorse riders up the trail -- two TEENAGE HUNTERS and JAKE, who’s riding well enough to keep up. The horses’ hooves CLOP right next to a sheer drop into a misty canyon.

TSU’TEY signals a stop.

UP-SLOPE AHEAD is an astounding formation.Thick vine-like trees have trapped large FLOATING BOULDERS of UNOBTANIUM in their gnarled grip.

A hundred meters above them more boulders are WOVEN into the twisted vine-trunks. This is some sort of freak natural occurrence -- like the mythical beanstalk, going up into the clouds.

There is a THUNDERING ROAR, like an artillery barrage, and the ground SHAKES. Jake looks around at --

One of the FLOATING MOUNTAINS grinding against the flank of a nearby mesa. A huge rockfall is set loose. The mountain is drifting toward them, filling half the sky.

The Hunters dismount.

JAKE looks up at the beanstalk going into the clouds. He turns to Tsu’tey, who is checking the young hunters’ gear.

Jake leaps to catch up as Tsu’tey and the hunters swarm up the base of the beanstalk.

200 METERS up the BEANSTALK, the hunters nimbly climb along the vine-trunks. They clamber over one of the unobtanium BOULDERS which is lifting this incredible tree.

JAKE looks down -- the massive trunk dwindles to the size of a licorice stick. A chunk breaks off a boulder as he climbs over it -- it floatsupward.

They reach the upper branches of the beanstalk. Above them, the craggy underbelly of MONS Veritatis looms.Spray from one of the waterfalls hits them.

Some of the HANGING VINES are brushing over the upper branches of the beanstalk with a crackling hiss.

One by one the hunters grab onto vines as they pass.

Jake shrugs and leaps to a passing vine, his feet dangling over nothingness. They climb toward the floating islands above.

TINY FIGURES cross a causeway of vines connecting a small island of unobtanium to the main mass of Mons Veritatis.

WIDE SHOT looking down a rock face bigger than Half Dome -- the sheer side of Mons Veritatis.

Banshees circle next to the cliffs, flashing in shafts of sunlight. Waterfalls dissolve into nothingness below.

A waterfall THUNDERS down into the void like a faucet of the gods. Jake looks down the sheer cliff at the world far below -- a view from Olympus.

A SHRIEK and the THWAP THWAP of leathery wings -- NEYTIRI’S BANSHEE swoops in to perch at the edge of the grotto.She dismounts and, like a falconer, covers its eyes with a woven HOOD. It waits, docile, as --

She joins Jake and the hunter party. Tsu’tey leads them through the cave until they emerge onto a CLIFF FACE.And Jake sees --

The BANSHEE ROOKERY. HUNDREDS of banshees huddle on rock out- croppings as far as the eye can see. They cling to the walls with the fore-claws on their wings, or perch on ledges.

TSU’TEY Jakesully will go first.

Tsu’tey smirks at Jake, a challenge in his eyes. The two teenage Hunters are scared but trying to act tough.

Tsu’tey scowls when Neytiri leads Jake out onto the ledge.

Out of sight of Tsu’tey, Neytiri takes his hand and squeezes it. Jake feels a rush of emotion, but she breaks away like it didn’t happen. He is on his own, on the ledge with --

The BANSHEES. They eye him as he approaches. Several SHRIEK and take flight. Others flap their wings and yawn, showing rows of fangs, in a threat display.

Jake unrolls a weighted leather strap, like a one-ended BOLO.

A LARGE MALE spreads enormous wings, SHRIEKS, and glares straight at him.

Jake looks directly into its eyes -- and strides toward it.

The challenged banshee HISSES and leaps at him, jaws wide as--

Jake times the lunge, swinging the bolo, feinting and then slipping aside as the banshee’s jaws miss him, SNAPPING SHUT.

Jake WHAPS the bolo across its snout.The weighted thong whips twice around its long jaws, tying them shut.A MUFFLED SCREAM and it SLASHES at his stomach with razor talons but --

Jake is already leaping, over the talons and tackling the banshee around the neck. It topples on its side, and he SWARMS IT -- arms around its thrashing head.

Jake grabs its whip-like antenna and brings it toward his queue but --

The bony head SLAMS sideways, and BAM! -- clocks him right in the face, almost knocking him out and --

IT WRITHES, flinging him to the ground.He slides on the rock and almost goes over the edge as --

NEYTIRI gasps. Tsu’tey laughs and yells mockingly.

The bolo is coming loose as the creature shakes its head, way pissed off now, but --

Jake scrambles up and leaps straight at it.Claws rake his leg but he gets his arms around its head and CLAMPS DOWN HARD. They flop to the ground and he scrambles on top, pinning it and --

Grabs its whipping antenna, locks it under his arm, and jams the end of his queue into it. They FUSE together and --

The banshee stops struggling. It lies there panting. They are locked together, literally eye to eye.

ECU BANSHEE -- the pupil like a deep black well.

Jake relaxes his grip and slowly, warily, slides his leg over the creature’s back.

Neytiri runs to him.

Jake sits astride the creature, feeling its power.He grips a hank of the beast’s main, and --

THWAP! THWAP! The banshee is off like a shot. Jake SCREAMS as they PLUMMET off the cliff -- the banshee WAILS and --

They fall together, spiralling out of control, and he is almost tossed lose. The thing is SQUAWKING and SHRIEKING so much he can't think.

It does.

It levels out. Jake cocks his head, only thinking “bank left” and the animal complies. He settles the banshee into an easy loping beat of its huge wings, while he catches his breath.

NEYTIRI’S BANSHEE falls into formation with him. She signals “follow me” and DIVES.

Jake guides his banshee clumsily after her. Neytiri’s banshee moves with precise movements of its wingtips, while Jake’s wobbles and dips, almost falling out of the sky.

THE CAMERA SWOOPS after them as Neytiri leads an arcing DIVE around the flank of Mons Veritatis. The scenery is stunning. They pass waterfalls and swoop between hanging vines.

Neytiri leads Jake in a sharp bank, skimming close to the cliffs. They punch through streamers of cloud and emerge into sunlight.

Jake is getting the hang of it. He jinks left, then right, then dives, tucking himself tight against the animal’s back. He’s reckless, fearless. Half in control and LOVING IT.

Neytiri dives next to him as he lets out a long WHOOP of joy.

FLIGHT MONTAGE:

NEYTIRI squats with Jake, using her hands to explain flight principles like one fighter pilot to another.

LOOKING DOWN a sheer cliff. SWOOOSH! Jake and Neytiri dive their mounts STRAIGHT DOWN PAST CAMERA, pulling out and soaring into a series of aerobatic turns.

THEY FLY in close formation with TSU’TEY and the young HUNTERS, 5 banshees flashing through scarves of mist.

ANOTHER DAY. Jake dives, playing hide and seek with Neytiri among the clouds. They are wild and free in a wild world. She grins and banks hard, diving --catch me if you can.He DIVES after her.

IN THE GROTTO, by firelight, JAKE’S BANSHEE snaps at a piece of meat which he playfully pulls back.He’s teaching it to take the food more slowly. He strokes its long head.

TSU’TEY is nearby with the young hunters.He eyes Jake with frustrated hostility.

ANOTHER DAY -- Jake and Neytiri fly abreast, soaring easily. She points and Jake sees --

A BIZARRE GEOLOGICAL FORMATION. Arches of magnetic rock form rainbows of stone above a deep CALDERA.In the center of the caldera is a single, enormous WILLOW TREE, gnarled and ancient. This, we will be told, isTHE WELL OF SOULS.

JAKE flies with Neytiri along a forested ridge. She is teaching him to hunt from his banshee.They carry their bows at the ready, scanning below them for prey.

A HUGE SHADOW covers him and Neytiri SHOUTS a warning.Jake looks up to see --

A LEONOPTERYX in a delta-dive, whistling straight at him.

Like a banshee, only several times larger, it is the king predator of the air: theGREAT LEONOPTERYX. Striped scarlet, yellow and black, with a midnight blue crested head -- it is both gorgeous and terrifying.

The hunter has become the prey. JAKE snap-rolls and dives toward the forest canopy. He plummets into the gloom as --

K-CRASH -- the leonopteryx tears through foliage, following him down, both diving like missiles and --

JAKE yanks into a hair-pin bank, right through a gap between two huge branches --

Forcing the leonopteryx to brake with a loud FWOOSH of wings. It banks away with a frustrated SHRIEK.Two flaps of its mighty wings and it is gone, back above the canopy.

CLOSE ON THE LEONOPTERYX, as its fanged mouth opens in a bloodcurdling SCREECH which echoes among the mountains.The lord of its domain.

ON JAKE, shaken. Neytiri flies up, her expression the Na’vi equivalent ofOh my God. A beat -- they both crack up.

Jake ponders images Grace has called up at her workstation-- science graphics of the Leonopteryx.Trudy and Norm are crowded around as well.

Trudy makes a clicking motion with her thumb.

TIME CUT -- Grace is scanning through images and Jake stops her on one -- a 3D aerial shot of the strange arched formation.

She moves the virtual camera, and we seem to fly around the Well of Souls, catching only a glimpse of the interior.

TIME CUT -- Jake looks through the pressure window at HUMAN GRACE and NORM outside. Wearing masks, they are taking readings from some time-series experiments Grace has set up.

As TRUDY watches, JAKE works fast to download Grace’s images of the Well of Souls onto a memory chip.

Jake pulls the chip, then hesitates. Torn by what he is doing.

He hands her the chip and she slips it into a pocket of her flight-suit just as Grace and Norm enter from the airlock.

JAKE STARES up at the TOTEM SKULL, which we now recognize as that of a GREAT LEONOPTERYX. NEYTIRI watches as he reaches up to touch the tall indigo crest.

Neytiri takes his hand, because that’s what the Na’vi do when they’re telling you something important.

PUSH IN SLOWLY on the skull totem, then --

JAKE, NEYTIRI and other FLYING HUNTERS swoop low above a HERD OF STURMBEEST -- a rapids of thundering muscle. Dust rises from this living river like steam from a python's back.

TRACKING WITH the herd. A HUNTER appears in FG, astride a direhorse at full gallop. The sight is breathtaking. He hurls a 3 meter spear and one of the sturmbeest CRASHES down, flipping twice from momentum.

JAKE ROLLS IN like a fighter jet, his banshee screaming. He draws and fires his bow. The arrow strikes true, in the plexus between the armored shoulders and --

THE BEAST crashes to the ground. Skids to a stop in a cloud of dust.

NEYTIRI swoops in next to Jake, arms raised and grinning wolfishly.

CU TSU’TEY, banking around Jake’s kill.Jake looks up, and Tsu’tey SALUTES in grudging admiration.

The central space is lit by a BONFIRE, around which the HUNT FESTIVAL is in full swing. Wild dancing. People gnawing on massive sturmbeest ribs. A bowl of some kava-like intoxicant is passed around.

NEYTIRI dances in a flowing costume as the BANSHEE SPIRIT. NORM is dancing seductively with his own tail.

JAKE, surrounded by young hunters, acts out the leonopteryx attack with his hands. The leaping fire-light plays across the eye sockets of theTORUK SKULL, bringing it to life. It seems to watch Jake.

TSU’TEY squats next to Jake, the usual scowl on his face.

Jake braces himself -- and Tsu’tey holds up the KAVA BOWL, offering it to him. A challenge or an olive branch?

Jake takes a long, hearty drink as some of the young hunters hoot and clap hands in a fast rhythm.

Jake offers the bowl back to Tsu’tey.They lock eyes. Tsu’tey drinks.

LATER -- AN EMPTY BOWL drops, landing on a pile of empty bowls near the fire.

WIDER ON JAKE and TSU’TEY, sitting amid the rowdy hunters. Tsu’tey looks a little blearily at Jake. Finally, he GRINS.

TSU’TEY I thought -- enough drink -- you would not be so ugly.

Tsu’tey looks deep into the fire.

TSU’TEY Your warriors -- hide inside machines -- fight from far away. (he looks at Jake) I did not think a sky person could be brave.

Before Jake can answer, NEYTIRI’S lithe shape runs through the circle of silhouetted dancers toward them.She takes Jake by the hand and pulls him up --

TSU’TEY watches as she leads him away, his face darkening -- the moment of connection to Jake lost to anger.

The hunters WHOOP and CHEER as Jake joins the circle of dancers.

Jake takes Grace’s hand and pulls her up, protesting.

JAKE lets the DRUMS and CHANTING flow through him.He lets himself go, dancing from the inside, channeling the primal energy.

GRACE is rocking out, grinning. We see the young girl, so repressed, who lives within her.

Jake and Neytiri flow amongst the dancers, but they are looking only at each other.

A couple of the young girls watching from outside the circle are giggling and talking about them.Mo'at and EYTUKAN follow their look, seeing the obvious connection.

MO’AT (subtitled) We cannot let this seed grow. Her path is with Tsu’tey.

ON JAKE, dancing with abandon to the primal beat, eyes locked with Neytiri.

WIDE VISTA -- mist blowing through the treetops as the morning sun burns it away. A spectacular panorama of a vast, primeval land.

UP ANGLE TRACKING among the trees, the sunlight shafting down like light in a cathedral.

HIGH IN THE BRANCHES of a tree, Jake watches as Neytiri gently bends a large pitcher-like flower toward her, sipping nectar which is sweet and thick as honey.An incredibly sensuous image.

MACRO SHOT of a purple flower, beaded with raindrops.A blue hand picks the flower.

LOOKING DOWN into a hole dug among tree roots.The body of an old Omaticaya WOMAN lies curled there like an unborn baby in the womb of the earth. The purple flower is gently placed on her body, joining flowers, totems and beads.

Mo'at recites a prayer as Neytiri, acting as acolyte, places a WOODSPRITE, a seed of the Great Tree, on the body.

Earth is poured over the LENS and we CUT TO --

JAKE WAKING UP in the Link. DARK as a coffin. He pushes the lid off, letting in light, and lies there.He looks pale and haggard, with a scraggly beard.

JAKE SITS in front of the video log camera, late at night. It is many log entries later. He has lost a lot of weight. He looks like a junkie watching a test pattern.

Under a sky of thunderheads, the forest is a dark wall beyond the fence. SELFRIDGE, wearing an exopack, TEES UP while GRACE and JAKE approach from the direction of the Ops Center.

Selfridge swings his DRIVER with good form.

THE BALL drops into the mud just past a marker which reads 220. A TROOPER walks over to retrieve it.

It starts to rain. Selfridge calmly pulls an umbrella from his golf bag and snaps it open.

He leaves them standing there to get drenched.

A break table, under a harsh overhead light. Quaritch pulls up a chair, turns it around, and sits astride it facing Jake. He studies Jake’s pale, sunken face. The scraggly beard.

Jake can’t meet his eyes.

Jake eyes flare with alarm.

Jake feels hollow inside, knowing what he’s done.

Jake ponders this.Isn’t this what he was doing all this for?

It’s hard for him to even form these words --

Strange horizontal LIGHTNING branches through the floating mountains, twisted by the magnetic fields. The sky is black and heavy with clouds.

Jake is gulping black coffee like a tequila shot, looking pretty STRUNG OUT. GRACE is smoking furiously.

Jake pushes past her toward the corridor --

Jake breaks free and wheels away, down 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.

She puts her hands on his shoulders.

Norm looks up, startled at the VEHEMENCE in GRACE’ voice.

During this, Jake pulls himself from his wheelchair, levering himself into the Link, hauling his useless legs inside.

Jake stops, pinioned by the truth. He seems suddenly very lost.

Norm is in shock. But Grace is eerily calm.

Grace nods. She’s been on his journey every step of the way.

Jake looks hopelessly at the two of them. In his own perfect Hell.

Grace sees he is on the verge of tears. Lost and alone, between worlds.

Grace stops him as he tries to close the lid.

Grace closes the lid. It feels like closing a coffin. She watches his psionic patterns aligning to his avatar, somewhere out in the night.

JAKE SITS, eyes closed, as Neytiri and another young hunter paint his face and body in preparation foruniltaron-- the Dream Hunt.

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 follow, but is barred by a hunter.

BELOW, seemingly in the womb of the earth, Jake 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. Jake, squatting, washes 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 purpleWORM, and draws it out of the wood.

MO’AT places the worm on Jake’s out-stretched TONGUE. It twists on itself, lighting his mouth before he closes it. She indicates he should chew. He does.

MACRO -- AN EARTHEN JAR is opened. EYTUKAN removes a writhing blackARACHNOID, the 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 back, leaving Jake alone in the circle.

Neytiri watches intently, joining in the low chant.

SLOW DOLLY IN on Jake. His eyes OPEN. He looks around at the faces -- they seem to TRANSFORM, becoming threatening.

Jake looks down at the palms of his hands.

JAKE’S POV -- his hands recede, his whole body, the ground and --

INSTANTLY the circle of Na’vi recedes, as if to a distant horizon, leaving vast ground in between.SPACE is utterly distorted, and SOUND as well -- echoing, THUNDEROUS.

ECU JAKE -- pupils DILATED black. He looks around and --

The onlookers are gone, replaced 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 tendrils, legs becoming roots which spread outward across the ground, a thousand glowing dendrites which connect to the roots of the trees and --

CUT TO REALITY -- Jake is on his hands and knees, PUKING in the dirt. He contorts, crying 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 him, the unmistakable X silhouette of a diving LEONOPTERYX. The LAST SHADOW.

CAMERA SCREAMS down on him as the shadow grows larger -- WE RUSH into his face, into the blackness of his pupil which FILLS THE UNIVERSE and --

REAL JAKE writhes in the dirt, his back arched as his muscles seize. He foams and thrashes, his eyes rolled back in his head, while inside --

TIME ITSELF HAS ACCELERATED -- clouds scream around the mountain tops, mist boils through the forest. He feels the wind of time blowing through him as --

REAL JAKE claws the ground, moaning, staring blindly while --

INSIDE, IN 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 below, rippling over the devastated ground. AVATAR JAKE looks down at the shadow. Realizes HE is casting it, and we RUSH IN to his PUPIL and --

PULL BACK from the eye of a GREAT LEONOPTERYX, flying lordly and terrible over the land. It lets out an almighty SHRIEK which seems to echo to eternity and --

SLAM CUT to Jake, on his back, GASPING -- back in his body. He weakly rolls up to one elbow and looks around the room.

Neytiri’s face is flooded with relief.The faces of the clan elders look at Jake expectantly.

Jake looks from Eytukan to Mo'at, Tsu’tey and the elders.How can he tell them what he has seen?

Mo’at puts her splayed fingers against his face, seeming to peer into his troubled soul.

She steps back, and Eytukan motions for Jake to stand. He gets up, weakly.

OUTSIDE THE ENCLOSURE -- Eytukan emerges with Jake and the others. The entire clan is gathered, waiting to hear what has happened. Jake looks up at the Leonopteryx Skull Totem, which seems to stare down at him.

GRACE watches, her eyes brimming. Proud. Relieved. Amazed.

Eytukan places both hands on Jake’s chest and holds them there.

All the members of the clan press forward, crowding around and putting their hands on Jake’s shoulders, back, chest -- hands upon hands, until he is connected to everyone.

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 rock, slicing into a mirror of water. Jake follows her and --

UNDERWATER, they 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 together, fingers twining, as they float weightlessly, as if between worlds.

Laughing, they run together into a stand of WILLOWS.Their trunks are as gnarled as bonsai. Long faintly glowing tendrils hang straight down in pastel curtains.

Underfoot, a bed of moss glows faintly.It REACTS to their footsteps with expanding rings of light.

It is an exquisitely beautiful spot.

The willows stir, responding to their presence. She holds up her hands, letting the TENDRILS caress her.

Jake puts out his hands and the tendrils play over his fingers, his palms, his forearms. His eyes go wide. We hear the WHISPERING of ancient Na’vi VOICES.

A few WOODSPRITES circle around them, some alighting on their shoulders and arms.

They stand, very close together now. Her eyes are intense, almost luminous. He feels drawn into them.

But she pulls back a little.

The Amazon warrior trying so hard to sound casual. Jake suppresses a smile.

Jake puts his fingers on her lips to stop her.

She takes his hands and their fingers intertwine, moving gently over each other.

He puts his face close to hers. She rubs her cheek against his. He kisses her on the mouth. They explore each other.

Then she pulls back, eyes sparkling.

She pulls him down until they are kneeling, facing each other on the faintly glowing moss.

Neytiri takes the end of her queue and raises it.Jake does the same, with trembling anticipation.The tendrils at the ends move with a life of their own, straining to be joined.

MACRO SHOT -- The tendrils INTERTWINE with gentle undulations.

JAKE rocks with the direct contact between his nervous system and hers.The ultimate intimacy.

They come together into a kiss and sink down on the bed of moss, and ripples of light spread out around them.

THE WILLOWS sway, without wind, and the night is alive with pulsing energy as we DISSOLVE TO --

LATER. She is collapsed across his chest. Spent. He strokes her face tenderly.

She raises up, placing her fingertips to his chest --

Her eyes are luminous, honest, infinitely deep.

She lays her head down, against his chest, listening to his heartbeat.

He rouses up, making her look at him.

Jake considers this.

He lays his head down, and her arms enfold him, sheltering him as he sleeps.

Jake’s eyes open in the darkness. He just lies there, thinking. In his coffin. In another world.

DAWN BREAKS in the sacred glade. Shafts of orange morning light. Jake and Neytiri asleep in each others' arms. Maxfield Parrish painting. But then --

THE ROAR OF ENGINES. Neytiri awakens with a start.The SPLINTERING, CRACKLING of forest being crushed under enormous treads gets louder.

SHE WATCHES in growing horror as the BLADE of a bulldozer becomes a dark wall behind the sheltering ring of willows. She shakes Jake, shouting at him in Na’vi to wake up.

HUMAN JAKE is in a hurry to get back to the link.GRACE, still groggy, chases him with coffee and microwaved eggs.

She slams the lid shut before he can enter and sticks the plate under his nose.

He sighs heavily and starts wolfing the eggs.

Neytiri SCREAMS as --

The willows begin to fall before the blade, to be ground under the treads. AVATAR JAKE is directly in the path. She tries to lift him, but he is too heavy.She is screaming at him, frantically trying to wake him, as --

Jake adjusts himself in the link chair. He hands Grace the empty plate.

Jake pushes her hands away and pulls the lid down.

AVATAR JAKE wakes up to see --

NEYTIRI dragging him, screaming. He leaps up as --

THE DOZER pushes inexorably into the glade, splintering the trees, plowing the earth before it.

JAKE RUNS into the path of the bulldozer, waving his arms.

He positions himself where the camera-eyes of the robotic juggernaut will see him.

CLOSE ON MONITOR -- Jake shouts but there’s no sound feed.

WIDER as the TRACTOROPERATOR sees him and pulls back on the remote throttles. He yells to hisSUPERVISOR.

This attracts the attention of Selfridge, who comes over to the workstation.

ON THE SCREEN -- Jake, in his Omaticaya loincloth and ceremonial body paint, is unrecognizable.

TIGHT ON THROTTLES as the operator pushes them forward.

ON THE SCREEN Jake stumbles back, tripping, disappears below the blade for a second -- reappears, running to the side.

JAKE grabs a rock and LEAPS onto the dozer. He climbs quickly to the CAMERA MAST.

SMASH! The rock crashes into the lens of the camera. Jake beats the rock furiously against it, pounding it to junk.

CLOSE ON MONITOR -- as Jake’s demonic face is replaced by noise.

He pulls back on the throttles.

THE JUGGERNAUT grinds to a stop. But the ROAR of engines continues because --

MORE DOZERS and TRACTORS advance nearby, crushing the forest before them. Trees are slashed down by the PLASMA CUTTERS. Terrified animals flee before the onslaught.

POWERSUITS and TROOPERS stride through the ravaged forest, blasting anything that moves. A trooper sees Jake on the dozer. He rips off a BURST and --

Rounds CLANG into metal as Jake dives off the machine.He grabs Neytiri and they run into concealing foliage. From behind a screen of leaves, they watch as --

THE DOZERS advance, obliterating the sacred site, leaving only mud and wood splinters in their path.

CU NEYTIRI, stunned by the nightmarish, unfathomable wrongnessof it. She sobs as the willows die.

MINUTES LATER, the operator is playing back the CAMERA’S FEED for Quaritch and the others.

ON MONITOR -- the image expands, until Jake’s face is clear, frozen in an animal snarl.

PUSH IN ON QUARITCH as his jaw clenches in cold fury.

He turns and strides toward the door, shouting to his WATCH COMMANDER as he passes.

A RAIDING PARTY of hunters, their bodies painted, raise weapons overhead. AVATAR GRACE watches with growing alarm.

Tsu’tey steps forward, face full of hate, raising a war cry among the hunters.

TSU’TEY You do not speak here!

JAKE and NEYTIRI cross the commons toward them. Jake feels all eyes turn toward him. He takes her arm, stopping her.

He sees TSU’TEY striding toward them, his face a mask of fury.

TSU’TEY You!

Tsu’tey walks right up and SLAMS Jake in the chest with both hands. It is so unexpected, that Jake topples on his ass.

TSU’TEY You mated with this woman?!

Jake stands. He reaches out for Neytiri. She goes to him, clutching his hand.

Tsu’tey turns to Mo'at and Eytukan, his face anguished.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) Neytiri was promised to me! Everything is changing. Everything is being destroyed!

Tsu’tey points at Jake, his pain shifting to rage.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) These aliens kill everything they touch, like poison.

Neytiri looks at her mother -- sees the grief in her eyes.

Tsu’tey draws his knife and --

TSU’TEY Yeeeeeaaa!

LUNGES AT JAKE, who’s ready this time -- he sidesteps, blocking the knife, and elbows Tsu’tey HARD in the face.

Tsu’tey reels back, nose bleeding. He starts forward on a second attack but --

Eytukan grabs his arm and spins him around.

Tsu’tey glares at Jake while sheathing his knife.

TSU’TEY I challenge you.

QUARITCH rides left seat as Trudy pilots through the mountains. She glances at him, then toggles the aircom.

But Quaritch SLAMS the switch, cutting her off.

Norm punches buttons on the comms console.

He looks helplessly at Jake and Grace’s link units -- no way to warn them.

TSU’TEY AND JAKE square off. Each holds a long, solid staff. The entire clan crowds around them in a circle.

TSU’TEY LEAPS at Jake with a sharp cry and Jake parries with his staff. The staves CLACK off each other as the two combatants LEAP, DUCK and STRIKE furiously.

Tsu’tey sweeps Jake off his feet with a roundhouse hit to the ankles, but --

Jake ROLLS out of it and catches Tsu’tey in the belly with the blunt end.

TRUDY’S SAMSON lands. QUARITCH and a posse of troopers jump down and rush the Shack.

TSU’TEY wades in with a series of short, sharp blows.Jake swings with equal fury. Both fighting from the heart.

The staves whistle through the air, and CLACK together like gunshots. Jake presses hard, and Tsu’tey staggers back, stumbling as --

Jake lands a SOLID HIT, dropping him to his knees, just as --

THE INNER DOOR bangs open and QUARITCH stomps toward Grace’s Link controls.

Quaritch shoves him aside and SMACKS his fist down on the POWER switch. Grace’s unit goes dead and --

AVATAR GRACE’S eyes roll back and she keels over. NEYTIRI barely catches her before she hits the ground.

JAKE parries as Tsu’tey swings but then --

Jake's eyes go blank just as -- K-RACK! Tsu’tey puts one alongside his head. Jake sprawls, completely inert. Tsu’tey pokes him with his staff, then raises it and lets out a piercing VICTORY CRY.

JAKE SLAMS OPEN the Link, amped from the fight, furious --

Quaritch PUNCHES HIM HARD. Jake flops back, dazed. The troopers yank him out and ZIP-TIE his wrists.

TSU’TEY draws his KNIFE, and bends down, grabbing Jake by the hair.

TSU’TEY (subtitled) This is a demon in a false body. It should not live.

He puts his knife to Jake’s throat but --

NEYTIRI BLIND-SIDES him at full tilt. Tsu’tey sprawls, rolls, comes up to see --

Neytiri crouched like a lioness over Jake, her KNIFE and teeth bared, her ears flattened. She SNARLS with primal fury.

Tsu’tey stands panting. He pushes through the crowd and walks away, calling for his hunters.

TIGHT ON MONITOR -- showing JAKE’S AVATAR FACE on the dozer camera, as he pounds a rock into the lens.The shot FREEZES on Jake’s ANIMAL SNARL.

WIDER -- HUMAN JAKE sits, bruised and bleeding, watching himself on the monitor. GRACE and NORM stand nearby, rubbing their wrists where the zip-ties bit in.SELFRIDGE and QUARITCH watch with disdain.

Jake meets his gaze with a defiant glare.

Grace is momentarily stunned by Quaritch’s fury.But she meets it with her own intensity, not backing down an inch.

Jake nods to Grace to continue.

Grace’s nerve fails. A rush of conflicting emotions -- the need to act, todo something, colliding with her scientific rigor.

She turns to Parker, steeling herself.

Jake shares a look of alarm with Grace as Quaritch selects a NEW CLIP on the main monitor --

TIGHT ON MONITOR -- VIDEO-LOG IMAGE of Jake, looking haggard and borderline deranged, rambling in a late-night monologue.

JAKE watches with a growing dread as his words condemn the people he has grown to love.

Quaritch FREEZES the recording.

ON JAKE, GRACE AND NORM, speechless.

A WALL OF FIRE. Silhouettes of direhorse riders cross in SLOW MOTION, spears and bows held high.

MONITOR SCREEN IMAGE -- WAINFLEET pans a camera across the smoldering hulks of BURNED DOZERS. The toppled remains of a charred ampsuit. Dead troopers bristling with arrows.

Quaritch and Selfridge look on grimly.

Selfridge is stares soberly as Quaritch outlines the plan.

Selfridge sighs and rubs his face.

MAX and the lab staff are glumly packing files and equipment, under the watchful eye of armed SEC-OPS TROOPERS.JAKE, GRACE, NORM stare bleakly at each other.

TRUDY RUNS into the lab, breathless. She’s wearing full flight gear and carrying her helmet.

Jake pumps furiously toward the door, Grace following.

SELFRIDGE surveys the airfield, where crews swarm over the gunships, loading ordnance. He turns as JAKE and GRACE charge toward him.

ON SELFRIDGE, considering this.

SELFRIDGE and an escort of armed TROOPERS accompany Jake and Grace to the links. The two enter their units, as NORM and MAX prep the system.

Jake lowers the upper clamshell. Norm starts the sequence.

The entire clan is gathered, with Eytukan and Mo'at presiding. Jake looks around, feeling the gaze of the People upon him. He steels himself, and speaks in clear Na’vi --

A murmur of fear and anger goes through the crowd.

He is unable to meet her eyes.

Neytiri can barely breathe. She is shaking with the enormity of it, her voice cracking with rage and pain --

TSU’TEY yells to his HUNTERS --

They grab Jake, who doesn’t resist. Others seize Grace. Both are driven to their knees, and their arms bound.

SCORPION GUNSHIPS darken the sky as they come over the tops of the trees. At the head of the formation is one much larger ship, a monster 150 feet long -- the GENERAL DYNAMICS C-21DRAGON GUNSHIP.

Quaritch, next to the pilot of the Dragon, surveys the world below like Napoleon astride his horse.

JAKE and GRACE are lashed to posts at the front entrance to Hometree. The People look up as --

THE DRAGON and its escort of GUNSHIPS arrive over the trees. The DOWN-BLAST from their rotors creates a maelstrom of flying leaves and debris.

IN THE DRAGON COCKPIT Quaritch watches a targeting screen -- a telescopic image of Jake and Grace tied to posts.

TSU’TEY and another HUNTER hold knives to the throats of the two avatars, glaring defiantly at the gunships.

JAKE YELLS to Neytiri, Tsu’tey, the others gathered nearby --

EYTUKAN scowls at Jake, then GRABS TSU’TEY and yells --

Tsu’tey grabs some hunters and runs up the roots of Hometree.

IN THE COCKPIT Quaritch grows impatient.

On the Dragon’s stub-wings the 40mm ROCKET LAUNCHERS open up with a BARRAGE of leaping fire which FLASHES down and --

K-WHOOM!K-WHOOM!K-WHOOM! -- the inside of Hometree ERUPTS with multiple EXPLOSIONS of TEARGAS.

THE GAS rolls across the confused villagers. They begin to cough and gag.

Eytukan and the remaining HUNTERS bravely fire at the gunships with their longbows.

IN THE DRAGON’S COCKPIT, Quaritch laughs as arrows CLINK against the armored windows.

AMID CLOUDS of teargas, the Omaticaya run, stumble, collapse.

The villagers pour out of Hometree. Everyone is yelling. Piercing SCREAMS in the boiling gas.

JAKE, eyes streaming, struggles with his bindings.

KA-WHOOM! An INCENDIARY ROUND explodes inside the Commons. FLAMES ROAR through the base of Hometree.

INSIDE HOMETREE it is a burning smoky HELL.Flames roar up the inside like a chimney. STRAGGLERS scramble outside, coughing and dragging wounded with them.

High up in the trunk, TSU’TEY and his hunters leap rapidly from spoke to spoke, climbing barely ahead of the fireball.

OUTSIDE the fire is driven by the rotor-wash toward JAKE and GRACE who are still bound tightly to the posts.

Out of the smoke, MO’AT appears in front of Jake.She raises a KNIFE and --

SLASHES DOWNWARD. Jake looks down, surprised, to see his bonds falling away. He meets her eyes, which are filled with horror, but also something else. Call itfaith.

MO’AT You are one of us. Help us!

Jake takes the knife and cuts Grace free.

As Grace realizes what he means, he grabs her and they RUN. Around them the Omaticaya flee in horror and confusion.

IN THE COCKPIT, Quaritch watches as the Omaticaya stream away from the Great Tree, running along roots and branches.

IN TRUDY’S SAMSON -- she hears the other pilots acknowledging Quaritch’s order.

She takes her finger OFF the fire-control and pulls her aircraft out of formation.

PUSHING IN ON QUARITCH, the Hometree reflecting in his glasses.

MISSILES stream down from the DRAGON and the other gunships and --

The base of Hometree VANISHES in a chain of HIGH-EXPLOSIVE BLASTS. The massive PILLARS fragment into matchsticks, and --

The Omaticaya watch in horror as --

HOMETREE GROANS and starts to MOVE.

In a cacophony of cracking, splintering roots, the mighty tree TOPPLES with agonizing slowness.

AT THE BANSHEE EYRIE, TSU’TEY and the other hunters spur their mounts into flight. They swoop among the branches as the tree, the one fixed thing in their lives, MOVES.

It CRASHES DOWN through the forest canopy, crushing the lesser trees in its path, FALLING PONDEROUSLY.

HOMETREE hits the ground like the end of the world, raising a great cloud of dust and pulverized debris.

IN THE DRAGON cockpit, Quaritch surveys the destruction.

INCENDIARIES launch from the gunships, EXPLODING into gouts of FIRE in the debris of Hometree.

THE GUNSHIPS fan the flames through the trees like a fire- storm. The Omaticaya retreat as a WALL OF FIRE advances.

JAKE SEARCHES for Neytiri amid swirling smoke and sparks.

GRACE is gathering crying CHILDREN, and herding them away from the fire-storm.

NEYTIRI stumbles through the burning wreckage at the edge of the INFERNO. She sees --

EYTUKAN. A large shard of wood is driven through him like a spear. He recognizes her as she kneels over him.

In his last living moment he places his bow in her hands.

She collapses over him, her face crumpling in grief.

JAKE reels out of the smoke. Kneels next to her.

She shoves him away and stands, screaming at him as tears stream down her face.

Jake stumbles back as she slumps down by her father’s body. Sparks and smoke swirl around him. He watches as --

NETYIRI kneels, grieving. Slumped over, clutching her stomach. Keening like an animal.

SLOW MOTION -- Jake staggers lost and alone through the burning forest. Utterly shattered. Eyes vacant.

SELFRIDGE watches a video feed of the destruction on one of the monitors. Max and NORM stare in shock.

A TROOPER crosses to the console and grabs the handle of the MASTER BREAKER --

The strings are cut. Jake flops to the ground, limp.

Elsewhere in the smoky Hell, Grace slumps unconscious. The crying kids pull at her. Mo’at, leading a group of Omaticaya, comes upon the scene.

She grabs the kids and pulls them away, leaving Grace’s avatar helpless in the path of the flames.She hesitates, then --

MO’AT (subtitled) Bring her.

BLACKNESS. Then the top clamshell of Jake’s unit is yanked upward, and troopers grab him, zip-tie his wrists as we --

ON A HILLSIDE -- a grieving Neytiri stands with Mo'at and the Omaticaya refugees. Two hunters pull Grace’s avatar on a travois.

They watch as the flames burn like a funeral pyre below. A great pall of smoke darkens the landscape.

Jake, Grace, and Norm are in a common holding cell.They sit, staring in silence. Too wired to sleep, too emotionally drained to move.

AT THE DESK OUTSIDE, the lone TROOPER looks up as --

TRUDY approaches along the corridor, pushing a stainless steel trolley.

The guard bends to look into the hot cart and--

THE MUZZLE of Trudy’s pistol presses behind his ear.

She WHISTLES and MAX trots around the corner.

Trudy binds the guard with one of his own zip-ties as Max grabs his KEY CARD and runs to the cell.Swipes the card. The door is rolling open when --

ANOTHER TROOPER rounds the corner. Trudy takes him down with a sharp BLOW to the windpipe and a THAI KNEE to the ribs.

Meanwhile the first TROOPER is getting up, but Max CLOCKS him heartily with a coffee urn. He goes down and stays down.

Trudyplants a kiss on Norm as he runs out of the cell.

Jake wheels out, grabbing the sidearm from the fallen trooper as Trudy binds his wrists.

Jakefaces his motley group, chambering a round.

Trudy grins and taps his fist.

In the utility corridor under the base, Jake pumps the chair furiously, as the others jog. They reach an AIRLOCK and start donning EXOPACKS.

Trudy nods. She grabs Norm and enters the airlock. Jake turns to Max.

Max nods. Jake grips his hand tightly.

IN THE SAMSON, Norm is helping Trudy race through the preflight checks as the turbines spool up.A LIGHT hits them.

An armored TROOPER approaches, aiming his AR at them.

JAKE rolls up behind him, aiming his pistol.

The trooper turns, sees the gun.

The trooper hesitates.

He does. Norm jumps down and grabs the trooper’s rifle and side-arm, covering him, while Grace helps Jake from chair to the back bay of the chopper. She throws his chair in, and jumps in herself.

QUARITCH, watching a monitor, sees what’s happening down at the airfield. He slams his palm down on an ALARM BUTTON.

He draws his PISTOL. Strides toward the EMERGENCY DOOR. He undogs it.

HOLDING HIS BREATH Quaritch yanks the hatch open and strides onto the outer landing. Inside people scramble for MASKS.

THE SAMSON lifts off in a blast of rotor-wash just as --

QUARITCH OPENS FIRE and --

ROUNDS rake the ship. Trudy banks hard, using the bottom to shield them. Bullets WHACK into the ship as she climbs-out over the tree-line.

Jake’s fist pumps the air exultantly.

He looks over at Grace and freezes. She is looking down at a BLOODY HAND. She clutches her abdomen, covering the spreading stain. Looks at Jake, wide-eyed.

NORM’S AVATAR, with an AR slung over his shoulder, stands on the roof of the LINK MODULE. He gives a thumbs up signal. The lift cable goes taut and --

The shack LIFTS OFF THE GROUND.

Trudy’s Samson beats the grass of the mountain meadow, straining to lift the module on a long-line sling. The shack sways as Trudy banks across forested slopes and heads deeper into the HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS.

Outside the windows, clouds and cliffs pass by, lit by Polyphemus.

Jake is yanking stuff out of the Samson’s trauma bag, while Grace lies curled across two back seats, hugging her blood- soaked abdomen. She is pale and shocky.

Trudy is flying on visual only, by the light of Polyphemus. Her instruments are showing gibberish.

He gives Grace an ampule of morphine for the pain.

Jake grabs her shoulders.

Dawn light paints the massive ARCHES of magnetic rock above the Well of Souls.

Tiny as an insect, the SAMSON passes.

TheWELL OF SOULS is a deep caldera 100 meters across. It is ringed with enormous WILLOWS whose roots seem to pour down the sheer rock walls like candle wax.

AT THE BOTTOM, in a natural amphitheater, the Omaticaya refugees are clustered around a central rock outcropping which forms a kind of dais and altar.

Shafts of dawn light reach to the bottom of the grotto, lighting a single willow -- theMOTHER TREE. Ancient and gnarled, it grows in the center of the rock.

Its ROOTS spread down to the grotto floor, where they merge with the roots of the willows ringing the Well -- forming a braided mat resembling the surface of a brain.

Mo'at stands on the dais, leading them in a CHANT.

MO’AT (subtitled) Wise ancestors who live within Eywa, guide us. Give us a sign.

The shack descends from the sky like a gift from the gods. It bumps to the ground.

Grace lies, comatose, in her open link. Trudy gives Jake a look that says “not much time.” Jake feels Grace’s cold forehead, then crosses to his own link.

As Trudy helps him in, Norm rapidly preps the system.

Jake pulls the clamshell down and we --

CU JAKE’S AVATAR -- HIS EYES OPEN. He sits up.The forest is silent, shrouded in smoke that the sun can’t penetrate.The animals have fled. Ash blows on the wind.

DISSOLVE -- JAKE reaches the top of a rise.The forest beyond is utterly DEVASTATED. The trees burned and fallen. Small fires still flicker across a landscape in Hell.

JAKE stares. It is his vision, made real. He stumbles through the dark wasteland, sparks and ash swirling around him.

A SCREECH. Jake looks up as --

HIS BANSHEE -- bonded for life -- flaps down to a landing in front of him. He steps to it, and strokes its head. It nudges his chest like a horse.

OMIITED

THE GREAT LEONOPTERYX glides effortlessly along the ridge where Jake and Neytiri first encountered him.

It scans for prey below, its magnificent indigo-crested head cocking left, then right.

FROM ABOVE -- THE SMALL SHADOW of Jake’s banshee falls across the back of the mighty Toruk.

JAKE DIVES and WE RUSH DOWN toward the great beast and our own shadow then --

The Omaticaya people lift their voices in a SONG filled with tragic loss and yearning for deliverance.

CLOSE ON NEYTIRI, singing. A SHADOW CROSSES HER FACE.She looks up, and her eyes go wide as --

A TERRIBLE CRY echoes, turning all eyes skyward.AN ENORMOUS SHADOW covers the crowd as --

TORUK comes out of the sun, beating its huge wings to slow its descent. Its crimson and black wings, backlit by the sun, seem to glow from within.

The People CRY OUT in alarm and scatter as the dreaded beast alights in their midst. And that’s when they see --

JAKE, riding high on its shoulders, plugged-in to its antenna. It folds its wings and stands calmly amid the paralyzed Na’vi.

Toruk lowers its body. They stare in awe as Jake dismounts and strokes the magnificent animal’s flank.

NEYTIRI, TSU’TEY and MO’AT watch in stunned amazement as the legendaryRider of Last Shadow walks toward them.

Neytiri raises her arms.

ON THE FACES of the Omaticaya -- new hope dawning in their eyes. WHISPERS flow among them, the words REPEATED --

Jake walks through the crowd, straight to Neytiri at the foot of the dais. He looks into her enormous eyes, and the emotion between them is powerful and pure.

Neytiri’s eyes brim with tears.

Jake takes Neytiri’s hand and climbs the steps of the dais.

MO’AT steps back in awe as he approaches.He turns to Tsu’tey, who stares at him with fear and incomprehension. Jake plays to the rapt crowd as he says --

Tsu’tey struggles with his emotions. Finally --

TSU’TEY I will fly with you.

JAKE turns to the MATRIARCH.

TIME CUT -- AVATAR JAKE carries Grace’s HUMAN BODY, lightly in his arms like a child. Jake walks through the crowd to the dais, followed by NORM, who carries GRACE’S AVATAR.

Her eyes flutter open. She looks up wonderingly at the Mother Tree.

Mo'at directs them to lay both bodies among the roots on the altar-rock.

Mo’at touches Jake’s shoulder and he steps back.

MO’AT (quietly) The Great Mother may choose to save all that she is --

Mo’at’s hand indicates Grace’s AVATAR --

MO’AT -- in this body.

CU JAKE, realizing the enormity of what she’s saying.

MO’AT Possible, yes. She must pass through the Eye of Eywa -- and return. But Jakesully-- she is very weak.

Jake kneels next to Grace, taking her tiny human hand in his avatar hand.

Grace is barely conscious. She grips his hand.

Jake feels his throat close with emotion.

Grace’s eyes blaze with intensity though her voice is faint.

TIME CUT -- MO’AT stands in a kind of trance amongst the tendrils of the Mother Tree.

NEYTIRI and the other acolytes dance hypnotically. All the Omaticaya sway and chant to the rhythm of the drums.

MACRO SHOT -- fine, hairlike THREADS have emerged from the roots and are gently spreading over Grace’s HUMAN skin.

JAKE, still holding her hand, watches her body being fused to the root-floor by a thousand connections.

GRACE’S AVATAR is gently connected by the same questing ROOT- CILIA-- they entwine with the QUEUE and spread over the body.

The grotto is dark except for the spectral GLOW of the willows. The CHANT continues, hypnotically. MO’AT, on her knees beneath the Mother Tree, writhes her arms in the trance state. Her eyes are rolled back, showing only WHITE.

GRACE GASPS and her eyes SNAP OPEN. Her expression is AMAZED, as if seeing something so beautiful it can never be explained.

ON HER HAND -- GRIPPING Jake’s convulsively, as she tries to anchor herself to this world for a few more seconds --

Grace SHUDDERS, as pain shoots through her.BLOOD seeps through the silken white root-cilia growing across her abdomen. Drowning WHITE in shocking CRIMSON.

She exhales a last shuddering breath -- and goes STILL.

He sees the roots falling away from her human body.

JAKE TURNS hopefully toward her AVATAR -- but the roots are falling away from it as well. It sleeps -- VACANT.

MO’AT stops the chant. She crosses to Jake and kneels with him, touching his shoulder.

MO’AT Her wounds were too great, there was not enough time. She is with Eywa now.

NEYTIRI removes Grace’s mask and gently closes her eyes.

Jake stands slowly, barely holding it together.

NEYTIRI comes to him and he sees the despair and hope conflicting on her face --

-- and he raises his head. TURNS to face TSU’TEY and the CROWD.

Tsu’tey gestures assent, and they face the clan together.

JAKE SPEAKS, the pain of Grace’s death in the passion and fury of his voice. Tsu’tey TRANSLATES beside him.

TSU’TEY finishes with a bloodcurdling war-cry, and the entire CLAN responds, their shouts echoing across the forest.

JAKE takes Neytiri’s hand and runs to the leonopteryx.He vaults onto its back and pulls her up behind him.

THE HUNTERS run to their banshees, mounting quickly.Jake’s leonopteryx rises on mighty wings into the night sky.With a thunder of wings, the banshees take off after it.

LONG LENS -- POLYPHEMUS. Across its face, the banshees rise like a swarm of bats. Groups of riders peel off in different directions.

JAKE and NEYTIRI stand before the gathered members of ANOTHER CLAN. Jake speaks as she translates. We don’t hear the words.

TRACK ACROSS the faces of the clan, a sea of eyes in flickering fire-light.

VARIOUS ANGLES -- SLOW MOTION as riders vault onto their armored direhorses. Banshee riders raise spears and bows, spurring their mounts to leap skyward.

With a WHOOSH and the crack of mighty wings, JAKE RETURNS. Jake and Neytiri alight from his legendary mount.

Around them HUNDREDS OF BANSHEES are landing.A gathering of eagles.

FROM ABOVE we can see hundreds of Na’vi streaming down into the Well of Souls and many hundreds more camped in the forest above it.

DIREHORSE RIDERS are arriving along many trails.

BANSHEE RIDERS circle and swoop, darkening the sky above the grotto.

JAKE, standing next to the Leonopteryx, watches his army gathering.

It’s standing room only as all base personnel are crowded into the dining hall. A portable 3D GRAPHICS PROJECTOR has been set up, and the lights are down.QUARITCH stands in front of the display image -- a classic pre-mission briefing.

The display shows an overhead image of the Well of Souls.It looks like Woodstock in the jungle.

TRACKING ACROSS the grim faces of the miners and troopers. Fear transforming to hatred in their eyes.

TROOPERS issue automatic weapons and magazines to a long line of mine workers. The miners lock and load like the red- blooded redneck NRA supporters they are.

BLASTING TECHS are setting radio-detonated primer charges into two-ton stacks of EXPLOSIVE COMPOUND.The stacks are band-strapped together on pallets.

TRACKING WITH SELFRIDGE, staring around him in growing dismay as he walks through the full-scale mobilization.

He approaches Quaritch, who is barking orders amid a hive of activity around the ampsuits.

Quaritch ignores him, turning away to focus on ordnance loading.

Quaritch grabs him and PINS him against the side of an ampsuit.

Selfridge is paralyzed. Physical force --against him? Quaritch releases him and walks away.

Several troopers converge on Selfridge.

He pushes through them and they escort him toward the door.

HUMAN JAKE, NORM and TRUDY are gathered around the comms monitor, talking to MAX.

Jake takes that in.

Max signs off.

Jake looks like he’s about to collapse.He’s gaunt, eyes deeply shadowed, hands shaking.

He grabs a packet of freeze-dried crystals and pours them directly into his mouth, chewing them up.

TRACKING through the warrior camp above the Well of Souls. Hundreds of hunters from many clans prepare their weapons.

Hunters paint the wings of their banshees like war ponies. DIREHORSES are painted and ornamented with totemic streamers.

The Na’vi paint and pierce themselves. Dance.Bathe in the smoke of cleansing herbs -- RITUAL PURIFICATION. HUGE DRUMS are beaten. A dark primeval energy. They are psyching themselves up for battle.

TIME CUT -- Jake, Neytiri a group of banshee riders squat around an animal skin on which he has drawn the silhouette of a Scorpion gunship -- like a hunt totem.

Jake splats red dye at the centers of the circles symbolizing the rotors. The Na’vi absorb the lesson eagerly, like kids.

He sees TRUDY approaching and breaks off.Neytiri stays with the hunters, talking about what they’ve learned.

She taps his fist and walks away toward her SAMSON.

The cook-fires of the battle camp FLICKER like a constellation around the edge of the Well of Souls as --

JAKE slips down into the darkened, empty amphitheater.

He moves to the MOTHER TREE -- gnarled, ancient, MAJESTIC. The roots spread in all directions, like the center of the world.

Jake steps forward. The willow-like tendrils SWAY toward him, moving in a breeze that isn’t there.

He squats at the base of the tree.

He looks up into the tree. The hanging tendrils undulate softly. It’s easy to imagine a presence.

FROM UP IN THE TREE, looking down. WOODSPRITES float in silence, moving around aimlessly.

Neytiri approaches silently behind him, listening.

Jake senses Neytiri and turns.

She comes to him, intertwining her long fingers with his.

They lean in, foreheads touching, bodies pressed together. Holding each other -- in this, the last moment of peace.

TIGHT ON a turbine as it starts to turn. Its RISING WHINE carries over --

A SERIES OF RHYTHMIC CUTS:

MAGAZINES are slammed into automatic weapons. AMMO BELTS are fed into rotary cannons. MISSILES are attached to gunship stub-wings.

TIGHT ON BLUE HANDS sharpening wooden arrows.Stringing bows. Cinching direhorse harnesses.

TROOPERS DROP into ampsuit cockpits.PILOTS close gunship canopies. TROOPERS run up shuttle ramps.

LONG LENS STACK, tight and abstract on gunships as they rise in a swarm amid boiling turbine exhaust and blasting rotor wash.

WIDE SHOT -- TILTROTORS fill the sky. Deadly armored beetles.

The DRAGON leads the formation, flanked by SCORPIONS. Behind that is a wave of SAMSONS, and last, the two enormous VALKYRIE shuttles, packed with troops and ampsuits.

INSIDE THE DRAGON, Quaritch surveys his armada as they skim over the tree tops.

THEY SWEEP toward the Hallelujah mountains in a thundering wave.

SQUADRONS OF BANSHEES darken the sky in waves, led by a single GREAT LEONOPTERYX. Jake sits astride his mount, flanked by Neytiri and Tsu’tey on their banshees.

THE DRAGON DESCENDS on final approach to a large clearing -- the LZ. The Samsons flair and touch down, disgorging troops, while the gunships hover protectively.

THE VALKYRIES blast the ground with their powerful lift jets. They land. The ramps drop. Troopers pour out, weapons leveled, advancing in a cordon.

UP ANGLE as AMPSUITS descend from the Dragon on cables. Their massive feet smash down, and they march forward, leading the army into the forest.

LYLE WAINFLEET, walking point in his hydraulic suit, scans his cockpit screens. He sees movement on the FLIR display -- ghostly THERMAL SIGNATURES.

A chilling SOUND echoes through the forest -- the ululating WAR CRIES of untold Na’vi. The troopers, look around, spooked. They can’t tell where the sound is coming from.

Then they feel it -- the GROUND ITSELF SHAKING.They grip their weapons, bracing themselves as --

THREE HUNDRED NA’VI HORSEMEN charge through the forest at a full gallop, their hooves POUNDING the earth.It is an awesome sight.

NORM SPELLMAN rides with the Na’vi hunters, carrying an assault rifle.

THE NA’VI CHARGE thunders toward the human line.The hunters raise their bows as --

THE AMPSUITS raise their GAU-90’s.

ON THE THERMAL IMAGERS target-cursors track the ghost riders.

The entire line of troopers opens fire. TRACERS riddle the jungle, blasting foliage into confetti.

CHARGING DIREHORSES crash down, flipping over. Riders are flung off. The withering fire continues, and the ranks are decimated as --

RIDERS LAUNCH their arrows at a full gallop.A few hit their marks among the troopers. NORM FIRES his AR on full auto.

TWO CHARGING DIREHORSES have a heavy log slung between them like a battering ram. At a full gallop they hit an ampsuit, FLIPPING IT onto its back with a blown-out canopy.Victory is short lived as the two riders are cut down.

NORM’S HORSE is hit by tracer fire. He is flung off as the creature cartwheels. He hits hard, scrambling for cover as --

A WARRIOR HURLS his spear a moment before his horse is cut down. It SLAMS through an ampsuit’s canopy but --

THE MERCILESS FIRE continues. Horses rear and collapse. Riders pivot their mounts to flee and --

THE THERMAL SCREENS show the remaining ghost riders scattering.

LYLE signals and the line advances, firing sporadically at moving targets.

OVERHEAD, NA’VI HUNTERS stream through the trees, running along the branches.

As the troopers advance into bow range, the NA’VI open fire and --

TROOPERS SPROUT ARROWS in throat, legs, masks -- the targets Jake taught them, but --

THE FIRING LINE aims upward, tracking the THERMAL TARGETS. TRACERS rip through the foliage and --

NA’VI FALL while others retreat as bark and wood is blasted off the limbs beneath their feet.

NORM sprints frantically through the woods, shouting into his HANDSET --

SURVIVING NA’VI flee the horrific onslaught.It is a total rout.

IN THE DRAGON, Quaritch catches glimpses of the figures streaming through the forest below.

Led by the Dragon, the gunships FIRE streamers of 40mm ROCKETS ahead of them. The jungle EXPLODES with HE bursts. Circular SHOCK WAVES flash outward through the jungle --

STROBOSCOPIC GLIMPSES of terrified horses rearing, Na’vi leaping, as the jungle rocks with the concussive onslaught.

HUNTERS LOOK UP as a dark shape hovers overhead.The downblast of the VALKYRIE’S lift jets shreds the forest.

INSIDE THE SHUTTLE’S cargo bay, a row of DAISYCUTTERS are lined up. Troopers roll the first pallet down the ramp.

THE PALLET falls into the jungle below and --

BA-WHOOOOOM! -- an enormous high-explosive blast rips a huge hole in the forest. A white concussion wave flashes out across the ground for hundreds of meters in all directions.

AT GROUND LEVEL it is an apocalypse.Running Na’vi are blasted out of existence by fire and shock waves.

IN THE CARGO BAY the troopers WHOOP and high-five.

GROUND TROOPS ADVANCE, firing flamethrowers, AR’s and GAU- 90’s.

Quaritch’s fleet flies into the shadow of the Mountain of Truth.

Quaritch glances up to see --

A squadron of WINGED SHAPES, diving out of the morning glare like birds of prey.

CLOSE ON JAKE, rushing straight down, SCREAMING a war cry as he leads the charge and --

SCORES OF BANSHEES SLAM into the gunships and Samsons like falcons hitting fat turkeys. The air battle is joined.

JAKE’S GREAT LEONOPTERYX flairs into its signature crimson X shape just before --

K-WHAM!! -- it knocks a Scorpion tumbling.It coils around the gunship, slashing furiously as they spin together.JAKE can barely hang onto the gyrating creature.

The pilot of the Scorpion sees nothing but jaws slamming into his canopy. Jake releases the gunship and it careens into a CLIFF, tearing off one rotor -- then plummets into the trees. There is a satisfying FIREBALL.

SCORPIONS fall out of formation to pursue individual banshee riders, FIRING cannons and rockets.

JAKE BANKS as the cliff face next to himexplodes with cannon rounds. SCREAMING down on him is another Scorpion.

JAKE tucks and dives along the cliff, feeling the rounds splitting the air around him and --

The Scorpions bank after the furiously jinking banshees as they head for cover among the floating mountains, or dive down into the trees.

DOOR GUNNERS in a SAMSON are shooting down banshees like Messerschmidts from a B-17 as --

WE FOLLOW TSU’TEY’S BANSHEE in a full delta dive. He swoops in from its blind spot and --

THE GUNNERS SWIVEL too late as Tsu’tey flashes past them, SHOOTING ARROWS with deadly accuracy.

A SCORPION gunship dives after a banshee.It fires an air-to- air missile and the banshee vanishes in an EXPLOSION.

WIDE SHOT as thirty ships and hundreds of banshees wheel and dive, like the Battle of Britain. Banshees are hit by guns and missiles, falling out of the sky. The occasional trail of smoke and fire marks the demise of a tilt-rotor.

IN THE CENTER the Dragon is pouring out hellacious fire -- tracer rounds from multiple turrets and missiles from the stub-wing pods.

NEYTIRI BANKS hard as TRACERS flash past her. A Scorpion is right on her ass as --

SHE ROLLS inverted and dives under the edge of Mons Veritatis, then rolls out, zig-zagging through the dangling vines but --

THE GUNSHIP stays on her. It rips through the vines, and tracers FLASH toward us as --

SHE JINKS the banshee around a thundering waterfall but --

HER PURSUER explodes right through the curtain of water. It launches an air-to-air missile. NEYTIRI jinks hard, diving. The missile hits a rock outcropping, pummeling her with the shock wave.

THE GUNSHIP follows her through a narrow slit between Mons Veritatis and a smaller floating island.They run this slot rolled up on their sides and --

THE SCORPION GUNNER locks up Neytiri for a missile shot but --

A SHADOW crosses his canopy. Out of the sun comes a crimson demon, shrieking over the roar of the turbines, and --

K-WHAMMM!! The leonopteryx SLAMS the gunship, driving it downward in a dive. The leonopteryx lashes at it with claws and teeth as they fall together out of control.

Jake kicks the gunship loose and it falls like a brick, breaking its back on a rocky promontory and EXPLODING.

FLYING WITH A SAMSON as a SECOND SAMSON falls in beside it. This one has its pilot door off, and the PILOT is wearing a breathing mask. The door gunners wave at --

TRUDY, her expression grim behind her mask. She holds the cyclic stick between her knees while she RAKES the other ship with BURSTS from an AR in her lap.

The pilot slumps over and the craft tumbles out of control.

NEYTIRI JINKS her banshee hard, an enemy Samson right behind her. The pilot is a hotdog, following her down into the trees, under the canopy.

They slalom among the trunks at high speed. The gunners hang half out the doors, firing. Bark and leaves explode around Neytiri as she zig-zags through the jungle.

THE BANSHEE dives under a huge tree limb, and the pilot follows. He looks up at the last second, catching a glimpse of blue-skinned figures.

THE HUNTERS drop a net of woven vines behind Neytiri and --

The SAMSON hits it hard. The net fouls the ship, FLIPPING IT backwards. It crashes upside down to the forest floor. KABOOM!!

NEYTIRI’S BANSHEE is hit by GROUND-FIRE.It folds up like a broken kite, crashing down through branches and --

SHE SLAMS into the ground, stunned.

IN THE DRAGON Quaritch looks ahead, seeing the WELL OF SOULS. He taps the pilot and points --

IN THE CARGO BAY of Valkyrie One, the troopers ready their deadly loads.

CIRCLING ABOVE, Tsu’tey falls in beside Jake, who talks to him by AIRCOM HEADSET.

TSU’TEY nods. He signals, gathering other hunters, who fall in with him as he dives. Jake rolls in after them but --

A GUNSHIP drops in behind him and he is forced to evade as --

TSU’TEY LEADS the attack on the first shuttle.Hunters jink and weave through WITHERING FIRE from the escort ships.

GUNNERS with jerry-rigged gun mounts ride the broad backs of the shuttles, picking off banshees who get past the escort.

TSU’TEY is RAKED by a burst from the dorsal gunners. His mount crumples, plummeting with a dying scream and --

WE SPIRAL DOWN with him, the forest rushing up and --

A BLINDING BLIZZARD of green as he tears downward, catching at leaves and vines. He SLAMS to the ground, badly injured.

NEARBY, ampsuits and troopers advance across the forest floor, firing their cannons and flamethrowers.The GAU-90s rip the forest to shreds.

Norm, firing as he retreats, is HIT. He collapses, his avatar body mortally wounded as --

HYDRAULIC FEET approach, passing the bodies of direhorses and Na'vi hunters. Norm painfully tries to load another magazine, panting in fear and pain as --

AN AMPSUIT stomps up. Aims its cannon point blank. B-BLAM!

The top of Norm’s LINK bangs open. He reels out, collapsing onto the floor, clutching himself as if he can still feel the pain of death.

He sits, huddled, shivering -- crazed.

TSU’TEY lies gasping, mortally injured.He looks up, grimacing, as an ampsuit looms over him.

LYLE WAINFLEET reaches down and grabs Tsu’tey by his queue, lifting him painfully.

WAINFLEET cuts Tsu’tey's queue off near the base. TSU’TEY SCREAMS in agony, his nervous system exploding on overload. Grinning, Lyle holds up the queue -- Tsu’tey's only connection to the world-consciousness which is his life.

NEYTIRI -- bleeding, bruised -- staggers amid burning wreckage. AMPSUIT footsteps approach and she crouches behind a tree. Troopers are seconds from seeing her as --

NEYTIRI knocks an arrow to HER FATHER’S BOW, and readies herself for a last kamikaze shot when --

THE TROOPER on the far right of the firing line sees something on his screens.

The troopers become aware of the GROUND SHAKING. A slow building thunderous ROAR and --

AN AMPSUIT comes FLYING out of the trees, cartwheeling past them, and the SHAKING BUILDS --

Mo'at opens her eyes in sudden realization as --

The troopers pivot to face --

A WALL OF CHARGING HAMMERHEADS CRASHING out of the foliage in a shower of broken branches as --

THE TROOPERS open fire but -- the stampede drives over them like a wave. Tree-trunk feet shatter the ampsuit cockpits. Troopers are crushed or asphyxiated.

NEARBY the foot-soldiers see LIVING SHADOWS flow out of the gloom as --

VIPERWOLVES race among them with flashing jaws. The troopers FIRE wildly as they go down, hitting each other as much as their attackers.

The survivors break and run as more viperwolves bound out of the shadows.

JAKE BANKS, watching as HUNDREDS of rider-less WILD BANSHEES converge on Quaritch’s ships. They literally darken the sky.

The wild banshees wheel among the ships, ripping into them.

ON JAKE -- slowly getting it. EYWAis in the fight.

A GUNNER fires from the door of a Samson. There is a CRASH and the head of a BANSHEE lunges in the open door, jerking him out. Other banshees tear at the pilot’s windshield.

NEYTIRI watches in awe as the ground troops scatter in disarray. The viperwolves flash past her, ignoring her.

She senses something and turns slowly to see --

A THANATOR emerging from the smoke behind her. A glistening black demon. She stands paralyzed before its stygian gaze--

-- and the thanator lowers itself, until its head is just above the ground. It holds that position -- waiting.

Trembling, she approaches the waiting demon.

A smoky hell. Fires burn all around. The troopers are disorganized, falling back. Shooting at shadows. Panicked yelling fills the comm freq.

WAINFLEET and another AMPSUIT are charging together through the smoky gloom.

SOMETHING slams into the other ‘suit, tackling it OUT OF FRAME. Wainfleet whirls to see his squad-mate missing. He moves through a screen of foliage to reveal --

The AMPSUIT -- ripped open. Driver gone. Blood inside the cockpit. He WHIRLS at a sound in time to see --

A THANATOR LEAPING straight at him -- WAINFLEET raises his cannon but--

WHAM!! It’s on him, slamming him to the ground. The cannon goes flying. He’s face to face with its nightmare jaws, right outside his canopy--

On its back is NEYTIRI, and it’s a toss up which one looks more pissed off. The thanator rears back, muscles rippling as it poises to strike and --

K-KRAAACKK! Slams its teeth right through his canopy. Wainfleet’s SCREAM is brief.

Neytiri’s demon mount rears up and its triumphant ROAR echoes through the forest.

Max runs down the hall, leading the other scientists.He’s yelling into an AIRCOM HANDSET --

The door is hurled open and the SCIENTISTS charge in.

Science geeks barricade the door as AVATAR-DRIVERS scramble into their link units, pulling the clamshells down.

Max checks the door is secure from his side then runs down a connecting corridor.

HUMAN NORM emerges from the airlock, wearing breathing gear and carrying an AR. He stumbles, dazed, toward the battle.

JAKE SIGNALS and a formation of hunters rolls in, diving at the lead shuttle, which is already besieged by winged creatures.

THE CARGO RAMP is the scene of a pitched battle.Na’vi hunters hurl themselves off their mounts in waves, overwhelming the troopers.

HUNTERS are shot, falling out of the ship, as others fly in. They shoot arrows and spears from the end of the ramp, and troopers fall back deeper into the fuselage.

The panicked CREW CHIEF slams a switch and the ramp begins to close, a second before he is cut down by a spear.

JAKE’S LEONOPTERYX plummets at the shuttle from behind. He swoops down, flairs to reduce speed, rolls off his mount and lands, tumbling on the shuttle’s broad back as --

GUNNERS try to swing their guns toward him but he RAKES them with his AR, still running forward and --

JAKE PULLS two grenades from his battle harness, yanking the pins out with his teeth. He hurls them down the intakes of the VTOL turbofans as --

HIS LEONOPTERYX BANKS in a tight arc back toward him and --

HE SPRINTS ON as the grenades EXPLODE, shattering the turbines, which riddle the fuselage with shrapnel and --

JAKE LEAPS INTO SPACE, landing on the back of his mount and reconnecting. They flap away, gaining altitude as fire BLASTS out of the bottom of the shuttle.

ON THE FLIGHT DECK, the pilot feels the ship dropping.

The pilot and copilot slam the throttle levers forward and --

The FUSION ENGINES BLAZE, thrusting the shuttle forward.It still falls, its remaining lift fans screaming, until --

IT’S CLIPPING the tree tops when it gets enough translational lift to fly and --

THE PILOT PULLS back on the stick, lifting the nose.

BEHIND HIM, a surviving Na’vi hunter runs forward and --

THOONK! ARROWHEADS sprout from the pilots’ necks and chests.

THE SHUTTLE CLIMBS out of control, at full acceleration. It SLAMS into the underside of MONS Veritatis. It EXPLODES, and hundreds of tons of flaming debris drop back into the forest.

ON THE FLIGHT DECK of the other SHUTTLE, the pilots watch the wreckage falling.

FROM THE DRAGON COCKPIT Quaritch watches the shuttle bank away, with most of the remaining gunships following.

Quaritch draws his pistol.

He is over the edge-- no logic in his brain now.Only death.

Techs and troopers crowd around consoles, listening to all the yelling and confusion as they try to plot the disintegrating battle.

Regular troopers and volunteers FLEE through the jungle, scrambling to board SAMSONS as they touch down.

The pilot listens to comms from Hell’s Gate.

Quaritch’s jaw clenches.

Mo'at LOOKS UP as the DRAGON appears over the trees like the shadow of Death. Around her, the Na’vi mothers clutch their children to them. We see AKWEY’S BOY among them.

Quaritch sets the target cursor on the MOTHER TREE and what we recognize is the ghostly figure of Mo'at.

JAKE’S LEONOPTERYX drops toward the Dragon like a Mig 29.He pulls out, skimming over the ship. Uncoupling, he rolls backward off his mount and --

JAKE HITS, skidding, on the hull of the Dragon. He rolls to his feet, already running as --

QUARITCH sees the leonopteryx WHOOSH overhead and flap away with no rider. He snap-looks aft to see --

JAKE SPRINTING along the spine of the ship, yanking two grenades from his battle-harness, pulling the pins with his teeth, then --

QUARITCH’s hand shoots out and SLAMS the pilot’s CYCLIC STICK hard over. THE DRAGON lurches sideways, rolling sharply with a ROAR of protesting rotors and --

JAKE IS FLUNG off his feet. The grenades miss the TURBINE INTAKES. One bounces off the ship. The other lodges against a cowling and --

JAKE SLIDES OFF the ship, falling as -- K-BLAM! The grenade blows a two meter hole in the hull --

WHOOOSHH! Pandoran air swirls inside.

Quaritch leaps out of his seat, heading aft as --

JAKE GRABS the edge of a weapons pod, his feet dangling over open space.

HOLDING HIS BREATH, Quaritch blows a RESCUE HATCH and leans outside. Jake sees him aim his massive PISTOL.

K-WHAM! K-WHAM! Rounds clang next to Jake’s head. He LETS GO, plummeting into the trees --

Jake plunges through jungle canopy. He catches a HUGE LEAF, as Neytiri taught him -- it bends down, breaking his fall --

HE LETS GO, dropping again only to catch ANOTHER LEAF, and then another, and --

WE RUSH DOWN with him through this green blur.Jake drops to the ground in a feral crouch. Unhurt.

IN HER SAMSON Trudy Chacon is all business.

SHE BANKS hard, pulling g’s, coming around on the Dragon. She pours on the coal and the Samson leaps forward, straight at the WARSHIP.

QUARITCH, DRILLS a stream of tracers at her, tearing through her canopy, ripping chunks off her fuselage.

IN THE JUNGLE BELOW, Norm watches her kamikaze run --

TRUDY DIVES, raking through treetops and then, at the last instant, YANKS BACK on the stick and --

THE SAMSON leaps straight up and -- K-KRASH!! SHEARS OFF THE COCKPIT of the Dragon as --

QUARITCH THROWS HIMSELF aft along the aisle and --

TRUDY’S SAMSON disintegrates, the wreckage burning as it tumbles into the jungle.

MILES QUARITCH grips the bulkhead as he stares out the open front of the fuselage. Wind howls through wreckage where the pilot used to be. The forest rushes up to meet him and --

THE DRAGON CRASHES through splintering trees, IMPACTING in a lake with a WHITE BLAST of water.

Norm takes a few steps and drops to his knees.Imploded by grief.

ON THE PLOTTING DISPLAY as Quaritch’s TRANSPONDER ICON disappears.

Selfridge is stunned. Suddenly the ROAR of an ENGINE makes them all look up.

OUTSIDE THE WINDOW, MAX sits in the cab of an enormous SLASH- CUTTER. Max flips Selfridge the bird and pushes a lever forward --

Selfridge DIVES as --

K-RASHHHHH! The SPINNING TEETH of the SLASH-CUTTER tear through the window in a blast of glass and lethal air. Alarms go off. The technicians dive for cover in a blizzard of glass and shredded debris.

The slash-cutter head pulls back, and AVATARS SCRAMBLE through the gaping hole into the Ops Center --

The TROOPERS look up to see blue giants aiming weapons down at them. The battle is over in seconds. The avatars are holding the Ops Center.

Selfridge lies there gasping, in his emergency mask.In shock. How could this be happening?

THE DRAGON lies half submerged. Out of the water FG, a shape rises -- a AMPSUIT. Inside -- MILES QUARITCH, his face bloody, his eyes burning.

He slogs out of the water, covered with mud, then strides into the forest.

QUARITCH’S AMPSUIT THUDS relentlessly through the jungle.He sees something through the foliage ahead -- the SHACK.

INSIDE THE SHACK Jake is oblivious under the link.Through a window we see Quaritch's AMPSUIT step into the clearing.

QUARITCH levels his GAU-90 at the shack. His finger goes to the firing button--

WHAM!! A six-legged BLACK DEMON tackles him.

Quaritch pivots as he falls, FIRING the cannon.It misses Neytiri by inches. He grapples with the THANATOR as its razor claws SCREECH over his metal armor.

THE TITANS twist and struggle. QUARITCH UNLEASHES a long burst from the cannon. Rounds tear into the creature, which SHRIEKS but --

NEYTIRI wills it to SMASH the cannon hard against a rock, tearing it loose from the ‘suit’s hand but --

Quaritch SLAMS the thanator back against a tree-trunk, almost crushing Neytiri.

CLOSE ON one hydraulic hand, as it draws the ‘suit’s KNIFE and --

QUARITCH TWISTS violently, ramming the knife up under the thanator’s chest armor. The creature ROARS and Quaritch flips on top of it, stabbing.

QUARITCH STABS DOWN AGAIN. The thanator slumps, pinning Neytiri's legs under its great bulk.She is trapped.

Quaritch looks down at Neytiri. She glares back at him, panting, scared but defiant.

Quaritch turns, seeing Jake DROPPING from a tree limb. The ‘suit rises slowly, knife glinting in the morning sun.

QUARITCH SURGES forward. JAKE closes fast, snatching up the broken CANNON as --

Quaritch SLASHES DOWN with the knife and Jake parries, blocking it with the cannon. He CLOSES faster than the suit can move and --

K-CRACK! -- SLAMS the end of the cannon into the canopy, crazing it with a web of cracks as QUARITCH SLICES air with the huge knife. Jake ducks, coming up to meet the next slash and --

SMASHES the knife hand with the cannon once -- twice -- again -- in a furious attack -- knocking the knife flying.

QUARITCH catches him with the other arm, hurling him away. Jake rolls just before --

THUDDD! -- the massive foot stomps down where he just was. He scrambles up as Quaritch CHARGES and --

JAKE DUCKS another round-house, LEAPING forward to smash the canopy again -- then again -- until it is WHITE with cracks. Quaritch manages to GRAB the cannon barrel but --

INSIDE THE COCKPIT, he sees nothing but the sun on the shattered glass. HE HURLS the cannon blindly, but Jake ducks. The massive cylinder cartwheels toward the shack and --

FROM INSIDE we see it CRASH against pressure window, crazing it but not penetrating. Jake’s link sits just inside.

INSIDE THE COCKPIT, Quaritch yanks a yellow handle and --

P-FOOM! -- the canopy BLOWS OFF, flying through the air. Quaritch can see again. He dons his breathing mask.Bends to pick up his KNIFE.

NEARBY NEYTIRI struggles furiously, trying to get her legs free from underneath three tons of thanator.

QUARITCH, panting, glowers at Jake.

Then, inexplicably, he TURNS. Walks away.

FROM INSIDE the shack, we see him charge straight toward us and --

CRASH! -- he puts his hydraulic fist right through the window. He is reaching inside for the Link when --

JAKE HITS in a flying tackle with every ounce of force he has, knocking the ampsuit sideways and --

JAKE REACHES around the suit, grabbing Quaritch’s shoulder and, yanks him forward HARD, SMASHING his face into the edge of the cockpit but --

QUARITCH flings him off with a sweep of his arm, and Jake slams to the ground.

INSIDE THE LINK Jake is holding his breath as the toxic Pandoran air swirls in. GAS ALARMS SHRIEK.

NEYTIRI shoves with one free leg, desperately trying to pull her other leg out.

THE AMPSUIT charges, the knife flashing down and --

JAKE just manages to catch it in both hands, but the force of the attack drives him to his knees as --

QUARITCH pushes the knife down inexorably, until Jake is pinned against a rock, the blade now inches from his throat.

INSIDE THE LINK Jake is straining to stay conscious, to stay connected as --

THE KNIFE reaches his throat as --

THWAP! AN ARROW APPEARS in Quaritch’s chest.He looks up.

NEYTIRI STANDS -- a FURY released. A classic archer figure, she NOCKS another arrow. Then draws and releases smoothly.

TH-WHAP! The machine TOPPLES off Jake and lies still.

QUARITCH STARES at the two arrows in his chest.He touches the feathers of the ancient weapon, then -- with an ironic laugh -- he dies.

NEYTIRI runs up, another arrow nocked, bow drawn. Seeing Quaritch, she lowers her father’s bow.

JAKE sees her, then goes limp, his eyes rolling back, and --

HUMAN JAKE EXPLODES out of the Link, slamming to the floor where he gags for breath. With his last strength, he claws toward an emergency breathing mask -- across the room.

He scrambles toward it, on the edge of unconsciousness.

NEYTIRI VAULTS through the shattered window, landing in the debris like a cat. She GRABS the mask and flashes to Jake’s side -- puts the mask over his face and --

JAKE drags in breath after breath. He looks up at Neytiri, studying him as she holds him -- seeing his human body for the first time.

Jake touches her face, his pale human hand against the blue of her skin. There eyes meet across the glass of the mask -- together, separate. Worldless.

MO’AT tends to the mortally wounded TSU’TEY as AVATAR JAKE arrives with Neytiri. Mo’at has bound his wounds, but by her expression, it is clear he cannot be saved.

Jake kneels and Tsu’tey opens his eyes.Through a haze of pain, he recognizes Jake.

TSU’TEY (Na’vi) I See you, Jakesully.

TSU’TEY Are the people safe?

Tsu’tey weakly clutches his severed queue.

TSU’TEY I can never ride again, or bond with my woman -- or hear the voice ofEywa. I can not lead the People. You will lead them, Jakesully.

TSU’TEY It is decided. Now do the duty of Olo’eyctan. Set my spirit free.

TSU’TEY I am already dead.

TSU’TEY It is the way. And it is good. I will be remembered --

Tsu’tey’s voice is weak, but thick with emotion.

TSU’TEY -- I fought withToruk Macto, we were brothers -- and he was my last shadow.

TSU’TEY’S HAND clasps with Jake’s in a fierce grip. Jake draws his knife.

TSU’TEY’S POV -- Jake leans forward, blocking the sun. HIS SHADOW falls across Tsu’tey.

By his movement, we know that he has ended Tsu’tey’s pain. Jake’s eyes well with tears as he continues reciting the prayer for the dead, and his Na’vi words carry over as we --

Na’vi ride direhorses among the abandoned machines of Hell’s Gate.

Banshees roost on the roofs of the modules, and stingbats flutter about, unimpeded. The SENTRY GUNS are silent, and the GATES are open to the forest.

Max, Norm, and a few of the avatars hold AR’s as the personnel of Hell’s Gate file up the cargo ramp of the remaining shuttle. The evicted humans are sullen and angry, like POW’s.

JAKE and NEYTIRI stand together, watching the departure of the Sky People.

PARKER SELFRIDGE shuffles up the ramp.His eyes -- the eyes of a lost soul -- meet JAKE’S. He disappears into the ship.

ISV VENTURE STAR hangs suspended against the dark side of PANDORA. The ISV’s antimatter engines BLAZE to life and it accelerates out of orbit.

What remains IN FRAME is a virgin, primeval world.Spanning the black continents is a vast reticulated lace-work of BIOLUMINESCENCE -- a ghostly WEB connecting all of Pandora.

The sun’s rays shaft down through the layers of canopy.

NEYTIRI, obviously pregnant, is bow-fishing in the shallows. Children jump and squeal with laughter in the river.

VIDEO IMAGE -- Jake sits in a chair, talking straight TO CAMERA. He is thin, pale. He looks around the high tech room.

THE WILLOWS glow softly. The entire Omaticaya clan is gathered, seated in a prayer circle around the Mother Tree.

WIDE SHOT, moving in across the concentric rings of people, all plugged-in and softly chanting. MOVING toward the center, over the figure of Mo'at, to hover above --

NEYTIRI, kneeling beside two FIGURES on the dais --

JAKE and his AVATAR lie head to head.Human Jake is wearing an exomask. Both figures are still, hands folded, covered in translucent silken shrouds of ROOT-CILIA.

CAMERA CLOSES IN as Neytiri removes the mask from Jake's human face. She gently closes his dead eyes with her fingertips. Then bends and kisses him.

MOVE INTO CU on AVATAR JAKE as Neytiri’s hand comes into frame, stroking his cheek. TIGHTENING slowly to--

ECU JAKE’S EYES. Hold a beat, then --

They open.

CUT TO BLACK