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archerygun · 3 months

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Welcome to Hell (my most recent rewrite of the blue people Avatar movie).

DISCLAIMER. No hate to anyone that likes these movies, also, I haven’t seen the second movie. Maybe they get better. But this movie and its absolute lack of characters (except Trudy Chacon she is an icon and will not be forgotten) has haunted me for three years. This IS an exorcism. Double disclaimer, I have NOT bothered researching Avatar lore so bear that in mind. There’s only so long I can think about this movie without going insane.

So, the very, very first thing that got me about this movie is how quickly they move on from the whole “Your twin’s dead, we’re gonna put you into his body.” thing like what the actual fuck. Jake’s twin is called Tom (Tommy) Sully, he was a scientist working on the project and he was killed by a thief attempting to take his wallet, if you needed a refresher. I’ve been calling him Tim for the past three years so don’t worry about forgetting him.

My setup starts similarly to the movie: Tom’s dead, and his alien body has gone missing. It will take years to create a new body with the genetic traits of a completely new person, which will be incredibly expensive and time-consuming. However, there’s a loophole. He has a twin! Jake! The setup is basically the same, Jake is promised the healthcare to get his legs back in return for joining the program.

Sidenote: I’m imagining in this interpretation one of Jake’s deciding factors for joining the marines was to be able to pay for Tom to get further education, as well as to cover the costs of living for their family. Their father had serious medical issues from his time in the military and their mother died serving when the twins were fairly young. Jake was always the one taking care of everyone as well as the sportier one who never did super well in school and he knew Tom would never survive the military. He joined so Tom could get higher education and go into a science job instead, as well as to pay for his dad’s healthcare. I imagine soldiers in this universe are ready to kill from the time they are very young, because they’ve been raised in a society where the narrative and reality is always “There’s not enough for everyone.” (because of heavy corruption, this is not true, but yay wealth inequality). They know it’s kill or be killed. They are shown that the path to a safe decent life has to be carved out in blood.

Grace and Norman are initially more interested in forming diplomatic connections with the Na’vi so they can mine unobtanium - they are disliked by the army at large and at first by Jake because the soldiers view them as having cushy lives and never having to work (kill/die) for anything - because the alternative is the company invading and destroying everything. They think by getting the Na’vi to cooperate with the company, they can work things out (the higher-ups at the company privately agree that the Na’vi will have to be ‘relocated’, sure we can all guess what that means).

Jake slowly becomes friends with Grace and Norman. He doesn’t understand science and in fact he’s barely literate, but he really likes listening to them talk and hearing their enthusiasm. It reminds him of his twin. He explains what life is like for a soldier to them, how they know the army views them as cannon fodder but fight anyway because it’s the only way to make any upward progress in life. It helps them understand a little better why the soldiers dislike them so intensely.

Anyway, while Grace and Norman focus on their mission, Jake becomes a little obsessed with finding Tom’s avatar body so he can bury it; in this version Tom’s death was militarily classified and cannot be spoken about so Jake is desperate for some sort of connection with his dead twin.

So, you’re media literate, you’ve probably guessed where this is going. That’s right, Tom’s alive! But he’s stuck in avatar form because his human body is very much dead as fuck. And the company will super want him dead 2.0 if they find out because he has vital information that they don’t want the Na’vi getting their hands on.

Speaking of the Na’vi, they aren’t paying attention to the humans right now because they’re in the middle of a political crisis. Instead of being engaged, Tsu’tey and Neytiri are fighting for leadership of the Na’vi. Neytiri and her friends have taken in Tom after finding him alone and scared in the forest and Tsu’tey is using it to his political advantage to try and discredit her. (Which is kind of fair, they don’t have any way of knowing he’s not a spy).

(Also I am removing the whole ‘chosen one’ thing that was a little weird and awkward and made me feel a bit iffy. Maybe the ‘chosen one’ is Neytiri or something. Maybe there isn’t one. But I’m gonna make Jake EARN their respect and friendship the hard(er) way).

And here’s some central conflict for you. Tom is a scientist. He’s interested in making connection, trying to stop war from breaking out and preserving the safety of the Na’vi even if some of them super want him dead. Jake just wants his legs back and to make sure his brother’s alright. He doesn’t really give a shit if the Na’vi get genocide as long as Tom’s okay.

So you can have the good old

“Jake, there are more important things in life than your legs.”

“Maybe I’d still HAVE my fucking legs if you weren’t so pathetic!”

Cue sad music.

I want to explore Jake and Tom’s dynamic. Tom being more idealistic and wanting to help people because that was the example his brother unknowingly set for him growing up. Jake being more pessimistic and disaffected because he’s been trained for years to shoot and not think about the people on the other side of the gun. This man has for sure killed people, and the only way he could cope with his actions without breaking completely was to become a mindless killing machine essentially. So they’re gonna have to deprogram that out of him. Jake being selfishly motivated without realising he’d unintentionally brought about his brother’s selflessness. Tom dealing with the weight of Jake probably having some form of PTSD. Jake being overprotective and Ready To Fight at a moment’s notice for Tom.

Grace and Norman are also more likely to now fully side with the Na’vi against the company because Tom’s their close friend and his safety depends on it. Jake’s basically just some stranger to them. Also, I think it’d be really funny if Tom tries really hard to impress the Na’vi with his knowledge of their culture that he’s been studying for ages and it does not work in the slightest, but Jake’s already made like 5 friends by being a dumbass.

“I can recite your entire history :))))”

“?????”

Meanwhile:

“Bet I’m faster than you.”

“Bet you’re not.”

Jumps off of cliff.

Jake was definitely the sporty twin before his legs got deleted. If I included romance between Jake and Neytiri, I think powerful political leader and her sportsball 2 braincells trophy husband is an excellent dynamic.

“……….I’m fucking the future chief.”

“JAKE WE LEFT YOU ALONE FOR TWO MINUTES.”

And my ideal ending would be one in which Jake has to give up his avatar body to save the Na’vi and his other friends. Instead, they cut ties with the rest of humanity and integrate human innovation with Na’vi knowledge to create a successful human society in cohabitation with the Na’vi. Jake engineers a souped up wheelchair that lets him move around way easier and becomes the leader of the new settlement. Sure, it’s a horrible planet to set up a society on. But so is every other planet because human society in this universe is majorly fucked up. They have no money from the company or government or anything, they’re starting basically from scratch with what the mining company left behind. A lot of soldiers stay behind, too, because Jake doesn’t demand that they lay down their lives for him just to be able to feed themselves.

Jake and Neytiri can’t be a proper couple because he’s permanently human now, his avatar body is dead as fuck. (I think him and Tom could probably switch bodies if need be but they would absolutely prefer not to because they’re siblings and they find it gross and weird). But they see each other frequently as leaders of their respective settlements, they live apart but in harmony with each other. The Na’vi interact with the humans, but their different biology and stuff means while the two live close together in a joint society, they have to be somewhat separate from each other.

Because movie Jake doesn’t really go through a story arc. He gets everything he wanted at the start of the movie and all he had to do was fight people he already hated. Idk man. He didn’t really struggle for anything. He was such a non-character.

Anyway, that was long. I’ll definitely post more about this sort of rambly rewrite pitch because I have a lot of thoughts, but that’s it for now. If you have any feedback, anything to add, or any criticism, feel free to add it. This isn’t meant to be me saying you can’t enjoy Avatar or anything. I just personally have a hate obsession about it and cannot be normal. I won’t fault or judge you for liking it.

#avatar movie #james cameron avatar #avatar #jake sully #tom sully #norm spellman #dr grace augustine #movie rewrite #rewriting #trudy chacon is perfect no notes #i love her #my family just called her maverick because her name wasn’t really brought up much #she was great #neytiri #tsu’tey

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