at least one paragraph per question as an answer.
Avatar has become, at the time of this writing, the highest grossing film ever, beating the record of Titanic-which, by the way, was also created by director James Cameron.
Part of its success was without a doubt a whole new world of 3-D animated cinematography, but the solid story had a tremendous audience appeal of its own. However, as some reviewers remarked, the plot was hardly new-since it was essentially the same as Disney's Pocahontas, and Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves: a young man encounters a woman from an entirely different culture, and slowly adjusts to the values of her culture, discarding/modifying those of his own. Be that as it may, Avatar, with or without predecessors, deals in an entertaining way with fundamental cultural differences, and it is possible to detect basic versions of ethical relativism, hard universalism and soft universalism, and even a certain cynical version of moral nihilism weaving in and out of the plot line. We're in the twenty-second century, on an earth-like planet, Pandora, in the process of being colonized by humans. Young Marine veteran Jake Sully, disabled in a recent war, receives a surprising job offer: a very special job only he is suited for, and the reward at the end will be a new pair of legs-something he would otherwise never be able to afford. The officer in command, Colonel Quaritch, makes it clear that Jake will be working with scientists, but will in fact be reporting to him and be under the colonel's direct command. Jake is flattered and upbeat-he has every intention of doing a good job for the Corps. The reason why he is so well suited for the job is, sadly, that his twin brother, a scientist, just died, putting his research program in jeopardy, because he was supposed to be part of the liaison team between the humans and another culture on Pandora, the
Na'vi; for that purpose a new technology has been invented, that of the avatar: a body grown in the lab, specifically tailored to the researcher, of similar looks and stature as the native population on Pandora: tall and blue, with a long tail. In the avatar body the scientist is able to breathe the air, which is poisonous to humans, and through a mind link machine, he or she will move around naturally interact with the natives, while the real human body lies in suspension in the lab.
Since Jake's brother was his twin, their physical qualifications will be similar, and
Jake can take his brother's place. However, his brother was a scientist, and Jake is a soldier. He will be coming to the research program with a completely different mind-set, and the other scientists are skeptical, especially chief researcher Dr. Grace Augustine, who reassigns him as a bodyguard for their avatar excursions into Pandora's world, teeming with ferocious animals. After being transported to Pandora, Jake is ecstatic to be in his new blue body, because now he has regained the use of his legs. But during the very first excursion with Dr. Augustine and the other scientists in their avatar bodies, an animal chases Jake through the jungle into a waterfall. He escapes but has lost his way and only manages to survive the early part of the night through his Marine training-until he is hopelessly outnumbered by things that want to eat him. But someone intervenes, and saves his life by killing some of the animals, a young woman of the Na'vi people. To
Jake's surprise she feels sad that she had to take lives. She has nothing but contempt for him, until a strange phenomenon happens: little creatures of light land on him. He tries to brush them away, but she (speaking English, because there has been contact between the cultures for a while) explains that if the little luminous beings accept him, there must be something special about him, because these little beings are deeply connected with the entire spiritual force of the forest and the planet. He doesn't understand, but will happily follow her home, to what turns out to be the central area of the forest, the Hometree, a gigantic tree that is home to her entire tribe. He meets the tribe, including her father the chief, and her mother the medicine woman/priestess, and ends up becoming accepted as a liaison between the tribe and the humans, provided he learns their ways and their language, with the young woman Neytiri as his teacher. Seeing it as a great opportunity to fulfill his mission for the Marines, Jake accepts.
Whenever his avatar body sleeps, he is physically back in the lab at the station, reporting in. Over the months where he is getting deeper and deeper into the culture, learning how to master their riding animals and, the big step toward acceptance, their flying creatures the ikrans, his reports are increasingly enthusiastic. Jake is beginning to "get" the culture. But the colonel is becoming skeptical, since the entire purpose for the military is not to make friends with the Na'vi as such, but to gain access to the rare mineral "unobtanium," which lies under their sacred grove and the Tree of Souls. The colonel is afraid that Jake is losing his focus and is essentially becoming a traitor. He has no interest in the values of the Na'vi, but sees them as mainly an obstacle that needs to be overcome, by hook or by crook. As Jake is immersing himself deeper into the Na'vi culture, becoming the chosen mate of Neytiri and mastering not only their language but also bonding with an ikran of his own and flying with the tribe, acquiring a respect for the spirit of the planet, the colonel is working on an alternative plan: devastating the environment, burning the Na'vi out of their Hometree, and proceeding to tear up the jungle of the sacred grove to gain access to the mineral. Dr. Augustine suspects that a plot is afoot and removes the science team to the fabled floating mountains area, believing that common ground can be found between the humans and the Na'vi. And now the disaster happens: The general and his team will wait no longer, and proceed to bomb and devastate the Hometree, killing many Na'vi and making the rest homeless. The call now goes out to other tribes to unite against the invaders, and Jake is regarded as a traitor in both groups. In the conflict that ensues, Jake must persuade the Na'vi that he is on their side, fighting for their planet. In order to do that, he will need to succeed in a near-impossible task: bonding with and flying the fabled giant ikran creature Mak Tao, and becoming one of the few masters of the Mak Tao, Taruk Mak Tao. You may be one of the millions worldwide who already know the answer. If not, watch the movie. And then you will also find answers to whether Pandora can be saved from exploitation, whether there is a future for Neytiri and Jake, and whether he will be able to live a life on Pandora in his blue avatar body, rather than as a paraplegic on a space station.
Study Questions
1. Is Jake a traitor to his own people? Why or why not? What does the film want us to conclude? Do you agree?
2. Is the underlying philosophy of the film mostly one of ethical relativism or soft universalism? Explain.
3. Identify the colonel's and his team's attitude and explain: Is it predominantly a hard universalist view, or one of moral nihilism?
4. Apply Rachels's set of three universal values to the Na'vi on Pandora: Do they take care of enough infants to keep the culture going? Do they have a rule against lying? Do they have a rule against murder? Can you think of some other value that the Na'vi and the human scientists share? Is it what Rachels calls "culture-neutral"?