Small Details You Missed In The Trailer For Avatar: The Way Of Water
We got our first peak at "Avatar: The Way of Water" back in March, as the teaser for the film accompanied the release of "Top Gun: Maverick." Now, the first official trailer has dropped, giving us almost an extra minute of footage of the highly-anticipated film. James Cameron's second go into the world of Pandora is as enchanting as the first, and the sequel looks as breathtaking as the original. The trailer is full of dialogue — the teaser only had a short line from Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) — and it's setting up all-out war on the blue planet.
Shining in the first official trailer is Kiri, the daughter of Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), voiced by Sigourney Weaver. Kiri looks to be an integral part of "The Way of Water," as do the Metkayina clan, the oceanic inhabitants of Pandora who live among its reefs. There is so much to digest in this lengthy trailer, so we've broken down some of the most important moments you might have missed.
Callbacks to the original Avatar
Fans of the original "Avatar" likely found a few callbacks to the 2012 film in the trailer for "The Way of Water." One of the nods comes when we first see Neytiri stalking something from behind greenery. The shot on her face is the same as "Avatar" when she sneaks up on a lost Jake in the forest. How she pulls back on her bow is almost identical to the first film, but she pulls back in "The Way of Water" trailer to accommodate her baby bump. In the original, she lets up on her bow as a woodsprite lands on her arrow, letting her know not to kill Jake.
Toward the end of the trailer, as a blaze overtakes the horizon behind them, Jake tells Neytiri she needs to be strong. As the two lock eyes, he says, "Strong heart." Fans will remember in "Avatar," Neytiri tells Jake he has a strong heart, and that's why she didn't kill him when she first came upon him.
We also see Tsireya (Bailey Bass) tell Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), "I see you," something we heard Neytiri tell Jake in the original film. This is a line the people of Pandora use when they understand someone and connect, to explain that they see into them and their spirit. Norm (Joel David Moore) has to explain its deeper meaning to Jake, and it seems like Tsireya might have found her someone in "The Way of Water."
An underwater Tree of Souls
As once said by a musically talented crab, "everything's better, down where it's wetter, take it from tree." Okay, so that might not be the exact quote, but given what's teased in the new trailer, a pivotal plant from the first "Avatar" film may be what Jake and company are after in Cameron's aqua-oriented sequel. It's also could be the massive McGuffin that could see the Na'vi natives and unwanted Earthlings going toe-to-toe yet again in explosive CGI fashion.
Besides plenty of sea-life splashing and crashing all over the place, the mention of Kiri feeling a heartbeat could be in relation to a new Tree of Souls that is growing beneath the waves. Given her potential connection to Augustine (Sigourney Weaver's previous role in "Avatar"), who was last seen being absorbed by the Tree of Souls, might she be drawn to another growing elsewhere, which puts her and her family on the path to unite with the Metkayina clan? Given Kiri's display of connecting with an unseen force, it would certainly suggest so. Maybe we should let it grow and see what happens.
Who is 'her' Kiri is referring to?
Following its announcement, fans were picking their untethered human brains as to how Sigourney Weaver would return to the world of Avatar, given that her character Grace Augustine (spoilers) died tragically in the last film. Now we get a good look and listen to the young Na'vi she's playing, and it's safe to say that her connection to Weaver's dead scientist will be present more than just in her performance — we think.
Kiri's origins have still yet to be revealed, but it's confirmed that she was born following the events of the first film, and like Jake's Avatar, she has five fingers instead of the local three. In the trailer, she explains she can feel a heartbeat to her father. "I hear her heartbeat. She's so close." When Jake asks what it sounds like, she replies, "Mighty." There's a chance that Kiri could be referring to Augustine, or perhaps even Neytiri, who could go missing during the film. Another option is that Kiri might be referring to Eywa, the All-Mother that the Na'vi believes connects all living things. Might Kiri be the next Tsahik, the conduit between Eywa and her followers, like Neytiri's mother, Mo'at, did before her?
Neytiri is hunting for two
We always knew that Zoe Saldana's heroic warrior princess was tougher than most, but our latest look at her in the all-new trailer proves that even when she's carrying a child, she's not one to mess with. The glimpse at the mother-to-be also confirms just about when we're going to be returning to Pandora and that our stay there will be far longer than before.
Of the five children Neytiri and Jake parent, three of them are theirs biologically, while Kiri and Spider are adopted. This suggests we will be popping back to Pandora before the birth of sons Neteyam and Lo'ak or their youngest daughter, Tuktirey. From here, expect a flash forward through time judging by what looks to be a toddler Na'vi beside a whale and when space invaders from Earth again return to cause trouble.
James Cameron sinks another ship
Though he's arguably never flat-out repeated himself in any of his movies, there are certain themes and some pretty distinct imagery that James Cameron has been compelled to re-visit throughout his career. Some of those themes (i.e. man battling technology, technology battling the natural world, etc.) are well on display in the "Avatar" universe. Ditto for some of that repeated imagery. And the "Avatar: The Way of Water" trailer indeed features a couple of watery scenes that echo a pair of Cameron's best-loved films, 1989's "The Abyss" and 1997's "Titanic."
As signaled by the sequel's title, water will feature heavily in the new "Avatar" flick. And as any Cameron fan knows, when there's water around, the filmmaker is more likely than not to: 1) try to sink some seafaring vessel and 2) trap his main characters inside it as the vessel floods with water. We indeed get two distinct shots of a sinking, water-flooding ship in "The Way of Water" trailer. You'd better believe Neytiri and Jake are somehow trapped inside as that happens. And both shots are eerily similar to scenes from "The Abyss" and "Titanic."
There's nothing inherently wrong with that, of course, because nobody does sinking ships like James Cameron. Frankly, we're more than happy to watch the master work his watery magic once again.
Quaritch reborn
We've known for quite some time that O.G. "Avatar" big bad Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) would be back to torment the Na'vi and Pandora at large in the sequel. As Quaritch met a violent and arguably well-earned end in the first movie, the initial question was how has he returned? The answer is that he's managed to transfer his consciousness into his very own Na'vi avatar. So hooray for science, right?
Anyway, we got our first glimpse of big, bad Quaritch in the "Avatar: The Way of Water" teaser a while back, and we get a couple of decent looks at the relentless soldier in the new trailer as well. The first tease finds his big, now un-scarred head emerging from underwater as a fire rages in the background. This seems a clear nod to a near identical scene featuring Martin Sheen in 1976's "Apocalypse Now," and it may well signal that Quaritch is obsessively hunting Jake Sully the way Sheen's Willard hunted Col. Walter Kurtz (Marlon Brando).
The second shot of Quaritch is even more ominous and finds the old soldier revisiting his old Tree of Souls stomping ground and presumably finding his own human skull in its shadow. In a show of how much stronger he's become since his death, Quaritch ponders the skull all Hamlet-like before crushing it with one hand. And yes, he's clearly out to crush a lot more before he's done.