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Avatar: The Way of Water's Biggest Unanswered Questions - Video học tiếng Anh
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Avatar: The Way of Water's Biggest Unanswered Questions
Avatar: The Way of Water's Biggest Unanswered Questions
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0:00
Is Kiri one with Eywa? Will the tulkun abandon their pacifist ways? Is there a future for Spider
0:06
and Quaritch? There is still so much story to tell at the end of "Avatar: The Way of Water."
0:12
Perhaps the biggest question in all of "Avatar: The Way of Water" is the one posed in the opening
0:17
narration: Who is Kiri’s father? Jake Sully tells us that after the death of Dr. Grace Augustine in
0:23
the first film, they discovered a child growing in the body of her comatose avatar. That child,
0:28
Kiri, is adopted by the Sullys upon her birth, but her actual origin remains a huge mystery.
0:34
Throughout the film, numerous characters, including Kiri herself,
0:38
speculate as to who her father might be. There are so few compelling answers that even Norm is
0:43
mentioned as a possible candidate. In reality, no one has any idea who the father could be.
0:48
Given that Kiri has strange and powerful abilities and feels so close to the natural world of Pandora
0:54
that she can "hear Eywa’s heartbeat," it’s possible that the whole father question is
0:58
a giant red herring. When Grace died, the Na’vi were trying to move her soul permanently out of
1:04
her dying human body and into her avatar. The process failed, but before she passed,
1:09
Grace told Jake that Eywa was real. Sometime afterward, the pregnancy was discovered.
1:14
Could Kiri be a creation of Eywa herself, the all-seeing goddess of Pandora? It’s
1:19
very possible. While Grace’s soul was too weak to survive a transfer into her Avatar, perhaps
1:25
Eywa was able to put a child in her instead. That would explain the unknown father, Kiri’s powers,
1:30
and why Sigourney Weaver plays both her and Grace. For now, though, we’ll just have to wait and see.
1:36
"Dad, I know you think I'm crazy,
1:43
but I feel her."
1:45
One of the most interesting new characters in "Avatar: The Way of Water" is Spider. He was
1:49
a human baby left behind on Pandora when the RDA was sent home. And as we’re told
1:54
multiple times throughout the movie, you can’t put a baby in cryosleep. While there are a few
1:59
other humans around for Spider’s upbringing, he prefers the company of the Na’vi. Like Kiri,
2:04
he becomes a member of the Sully family. He tries to fit in the best he can by adopting
2:09
the dress and customs of the Omaticaya. At times, he even paints himself blue.
2:13
Perhaps the most interesting thing about Spider, however, is that he’s the son of
2:18
the villainous Colonel Quaritch. This causes a good deal of drama when Spider is captured
2:22
by Quaritch and his cronies, but we never learn about his mother. Since Spider was just a baby
2:27
when the humans were sent back to Earth, he would have been born on Pandora shortly before
2:31
the events of the original film. That means that his mother would have been part of the RDA crew.
2:36
So where is she? Was she sent back to Earth with the rest of the RDA? And what was the nature of
2:42
her relationship with Quaritch? For now, at least, those questions remain unanswered.
2:47
At the start of "Avatar: The Way of Water," the Sullys are still living with the Omaticaya in
2:52
the forest. Neytiri has stepped up into her late father’s role as the clan’s protector, and her
2:57
mother Mo’at remains their spiritual leader. The community is torn asunder, however, when Quaritch
3:02
returns with a squad of avatar hitmen, all of whom have been sent to wipe the Sullys out.
3:07
We don’t get to spend that long with the Omaticaya before Jake and his family leave
3:11
to join the Metkayina. And after their departure, we never go back. This leaves the fate of the clan
3:17
completely uncertain, though there are some clues as to what might be going on back in the forest.
3:22
We’re told early on that the clan’s mountain hideaway is inaccessible to ordinary humans.
3:26
Quaritch can sneak in because he’s in an avatar, so with him and his squad hunting Jake, the
3:32
Omaticaya should be pretty safe. This theory is further supported by Norm’s
3:36
visit later in the film. Since he’s still stationed with the Omaticaya in the forest,
3:40
you’d think he’d mention if anything truly terrible were happening.
3:43
Of course, the main RDA force is still on the Omaticaya’s doorstep. General Ardmore is prepping
3:49
for full colonization of the planet, and the hunt for unobtainium is presumably still active. With
3:54
all that brewing and Hometree already destroyed, the Omaticaya may not be so safe for much longer.
4:00
Spider gets captured by the RDA pretty early on in "Avatar 2." He spends the majority of
4:05
the film in their captivity, primarily as a part of his father’s hunting party.
4:09
While he clearly despises his captors and rejoins the Sullys as soon as possible,
4:13
Spider also seems oddly helpful to the humans at times. In particular, he guides them to
4:18
the hidden home of the mountain banshees, allowing Quaritch’s squad to acquire mounts.
4:23
Why would Spider help his sworn enemies in this way? It’s possible that the humans
4:27
already knew about the banshee nest from Jake’s spying in the first film. Also,
4:31
Spider’s only alternative seems to be an absolutely brutal form of brain-scanning torture,
4:36
which looks like it might have killed him if he’d been subjected to much more. He does
4:41
resist helping the recoms on the reefs when they start burning Na’vi villages,
4:44
so the best explanation is simply that the poor kid doesn’t have any other choice.
4:48
However, things aren’t quite so simple. When Quaritch successfully claims his banshee,
4:53
Spider looks excited. He smiles at the sight of his father soaring through the sky. Simply put,
4:59
this makes no sense. Spider has always wanted to be a Na’vi,
5:03
and he completely despises his father. So why isn’t he enraged to see Quaritch successfully
5:08
bond with a mount? This should be a moment of outrage, of indignation that the villain of
5:13
the story gets to do something spectacular that Spider can never have. Unfortunately,
5:18
we don’t get enough reflection on this moment to fully understand what’s going on.
5:22
It’s no secret that Kiri is different than the other Na’vi on Pandora. She has an
5:27
uncanny ability to influence whatever natural forces are around her. Fish,
5:31
grass, trees, birds, all these and more seem to bend to her will. It’s
5:36
as if the very energy of Pandora flows through her into everything around her.
5:40
This makes it even more curious when, after bonding with the Metkayina’s
5:44
underwater spirit tree, Kiri has a massive seizure. During the bond,
5:48
she has a vision of her mother and asks her questions about her father. But just
5:52
as Grace is about to answer, she’s yanked away, and Kiri’s body starts to convulse.
5:57
Norm claims that the seizure is the result of epilepsy and that the tree triggered
6:02
hallucinations via electrical impulses in Kiri’s brain. But this is Pandora,
6:06
and nothing is ever that simple. The spirit tree is supposed to be a strong link to Eywa,
6:11
so maybe it’s that connection that causes the seizure. Kiri seems to be a conduit for the
6:16
power of the planet, so linking with it in such a strong way may have overloaded her.
6:21
Throughout the original "Avatar" and its sequel,
6:23
we only get hints at what life is like on Earth. From what is revealed, though,
6:27
it doesn’t sound good. Jake says in the first film that there’s "no green" left on his homeworld,
6:31
and General Ardmore says that the Earth is dying. The plans for a colonized Pandora show how extreme
6:37
things must be on Earth, with humanity soon intending to leave the planet for good. However,
6:42
we still haven’t gotten a real look at what things are like back home.
6:44
Supplemental sources like the mobile game "Avatar: Pandora Rising" and the official companion book
6:50
"Avatar: An Activist Survival Guide" offer a few more details. Corporate dominance,
6:55
environmental devastation, and constant warfare have effectively decimated Earth’s natural
7:00
ecosystem by the time the films take place. We also know from a handful of lines that classism
7:06
is rampant. The super-rich can afford miraculous surgeries and eternal youth with enough money,
7:11
while the masses are left to fight for survival on the planet’s desolate husk.
7:15
Going back to Earth seems counterintuitive to what the "Avatar" movies excel at,
7:19
which is showing gorgeous alien locales and exotic animals. Still,
7:23
a trip home and a closer look at Earth seem inevitable as the story moves forward.
7:28
When Quaritch returns to Pandora at the beginning of "Avatar: The Way of Water," he’s quickly
7:33
brought up to speed by General Ardmore. She informs him that the RDA’s main objective now
7:38
is no longer the mining of unobtainium, but the preparation of Pandora for full
7:42
human colonization. With the Earth rapidly dying, Pandora looks to be the best chance humanity has
7:48
for a new home. Of course, that also means ripping the planet away from its rightful inhabitants,
7:52
decimating its natural landscape, and being completely vile in basically every way.
7:58
"The humans are returning. They're hunting us."
8:01
The odd thing is that, later in the film, we see another,
8:04
very different part of the RDA’s operations, the hunting of the Tulkun. The hyper-intelligent
8:09
whale-like creatures are valuable for the fluid extracted from their brains,
8:13
which is said to "stop human aging" completely. Like unobtainium, it’s a valuable resource,
8:18
but not one that would likely benefit the majority of humans on Earth.
8:22
The RDA is pretty clearly two-faced, claiming to be fighting for the survival of the species
8:27
while using its immense resources to further enrich Earth’s elite. Their
8:31
duplicitous nature begs the question, who would actually get to come to Pandora if
8:36
it were colonized? The masses? Or just the rich, propped up by their hoarded wealth
8:40
and a healthy number of Na’vi slaves? Ardmore only has a small role in "The Way of Water,"
8:44
but she’ll likely be much more important and villainous in the following films.
8:49
One of the main storylines in "Avatar: The Way of Water" is the adorable friendship between Lo’ak,
8:54
Jake and Neytiri’s second son, and Payakan, an outcast Tulkun who saves his life. The tulkun
9:00
has been ostracized by the rest of his kind for rejecting their strict policy of pacifism.
9:06
Specifically, he led an attack on an RDA ship after his mother was killed by humans,
9:10
leading to the deaths of many other Tulkun and Metkayina Na’vi.
9:14
It’s a tragic story, but the timeline of it is pretty confusing. Humans only returned
9:19
to Pandora a year before the events of the film, and as far as we know,
9:23
the RDA’s operations during the first film had nothing to do with the sea. That means
9:28
that it would have only been a year ago at most that Payakan’s mother was killed,
9:31
but that doesn’t really make sense. We see that the Tulkun hunters target mothers with
9:35
young calves because they won’t abandon their kids. While never explicitly confirmed, it’s
9:40
implied that that’s what happened to Payakan’s mother. And yet, he’s a full-grown adult.
9:45
Maybe he was already fully grown when his mother was killed,
9:48
but that also creates some weird discrepancies. The Metkayina talk about him like he’s a legend,
9:53
someone they grew up hearing stories about. So was Tulkun hunting a thing during the
9:58
original "Avatar?" Is there something else going on here? Or is this just a plot hole?
10:03
After a long battle with Jake Sully at the end of "Avatar: The Way of Water," Quaritch
10:08
is strangled out and left to drown. Of course, the unkillable man makes it out once again,
10:12
this time saved reluctantly by his son. Spider doesn’t seek his father out. He’s looking for
10:18
the other Sullys when he comes upon Quaritch’s comatose body. Despite his hatred for the man, he
10:23
grabs him and carries him to the surface, allowing him to fly to safety on the back of his banshee.
10:28
Why does Spider do this? Well, there are a couple of explanations. Just moments prior,
10:33
he was under Neytiri’s knife, who threatened to kill him if Quaritch didn’t release Tuk. In a
10:38
surprising twist of fate, the villain agrees, showing that he does care for his son despite
10:43
his claims to the contrary. In addition to this recent display of affection, Spider
10:47
probably just doesn’t want to be responsible for his father’s death. Leaving him to drown
10:52
would basically be killing him, and killing your father is a big ask, even if you loathe his guts.
10:58
Spider hisses at Quaritch when he’s invited to flee with him,
11:01
choosing instead to rejoin the Sullys. However,
11:04
he doesn’t tell them what he’s done. Will Quaritch continue to torment the family,
11:08
putting blood on Spider’s hands? Or will this experience cause him to rethink his heinous ways?
11:13
Quaritch is about as cartoonish as a movie villain can possibly get. Stephen Lang is masterful as the
11:19
detestable baddie, spewing hateful monologues and cheesy one-liners in the same breath. And yet,
11:25
despite how over-the-top hateable the character is, there are hints that he could redeem himself.
11:29
In his first real conversation with Spider, Quaritch apologizes for being a bad father,
11:34
something that doesn’t make sense given that he was killed when his
11:37
son was just a baby. This whole scene is a pretty obvious manipulation,
11:41
and he even drops the same line he used on Jake in the original film.
11:45
"You've got some heart, kid, showing up in this neighborhood."
11:47
Spider doesn’t buy it, but he chooses to go with Quaritch rather than be subjected
11:52
to more of the RDA’s torture. However, by the end of the movie,
11:55
there’s at least a shred of begrudging loyalty between the two of them.
11:58
Calling it love might be a step too far, but there’s something there. Maybe Spider’s hatred
12:03
of him will be the fuel that makes Quaritch reflect on his past actions. Given all the
12:07
evil he’s done, though, full redemption would be a tall task. At the end of "The
12:11
Way of Water," Quaritch says that he and Spider "aren’t even the same species,"
12:15
and that line has more meaning than it may seem. Though he’s the one in a Na’vi body,
12:20
he clearly thinks of himself as human and his son as something else. Nonetheless,
12:24
he surprises himself and everyone else by actually begging for Spider’s life.
12:29
When Payakan leaps out of the water to attack the RDA ship at the end of "Avatar 2," you might think
12:34
that the rest of the Tulkun are close behind them. Sure, they despise violence and killing,
12:39
but they’ll make an exception to defend their home, right? Not exactly. Fortunately,
12:44
one Tulkun proves to be enough, because Payakan’s brethren never surface during
12:48
the final battle. Whether or not they’ll change their ways remains to be seen.
12:52
To be clear, there can absolutely be a role for nonviolent resistors in
12:56
instances of oppression. But when the very survival of your species is on the line,
13:00
that role can be hard to find. Humanity isn’t going to stop their conquest with a
13:04
few whales and a little bit of forest. They’re coming for the whole planet. And when they do,
13:09
a whole herd of Tulkun could be a valuable weapon in the fight for freedom.
13:13
Maybe Payakan can convince his community to break their rules just this once. At
13:18
the very least, it would be nice to see him readmitted into their ranks.
13:21
The first "Avatar" doesn’t provide a lot of details about how the Tree of Souls works,
13:26
but "The Way of Water" gives us some interesting new clues through the
13:29
Metkayina’s underwater spirit tree. We see multiple characters bond with the tree and
13:34
have curious visions. However, it’s still not entirely clear what they’re seeing.
13:38
When Kiri bonds with the tree, she sees her mother working in a lab. The two have
13:42
a conversation that’s quickly cut off after Kiri starts asking questions. Grace appears
13:47
to be yanked away from her, and Kiri starts convulsing from a seizure in the real world.
13:52
Later, at the end of the movie, Jake and Neytiri bond with the tree and see their
13:56
son Neteyam. This vision is different from Kiri’s because it appears to be a memory,
14:01
an echo of a moment at the start of the film that shows Jake training Neteyam how to fish.
14:06
Because Kiri never met her mother, her vision couldn’t possibly be a memory.
14:10
So what’s happening here? Are Jake and Neytiri actually communing with
14:14
their son’s spirit? Is Grace’s soul still alive in Eywa as a result of
14:18
how she died? The spiritual aspects of Pandora may never be fully explained,
14:22
which isn’t a bad thing. But in this case, it would be great to learn a little bit more.
14:27
The Na’vi rid their planet of humans at the end of the original "Avatar," but things
14:31
aren’t so simple in the sequel. The big action climax sees the RDA’s whaling ship destroyed,
14:36
but humanity’s operations back in the forest are presumably still going strong. So what’s
14:42
next for the RDA, and how will they respond to the battle on the reefs?
14:45
If General Ardmore is to be believed, more human forces are coming. She says that she’s been sent
14:51
to "tame this frontier," gesturing to Pandora at large. It’s to be the new home for humanity
14:57
if the RDA get their way, which would surely doom the planet. With the very survival of the species
15:02
apparently at stake, we’ve likely only seen a fraction of the military might that’s coming.
15:07
The Na’vi will have a big fight on their hands if the colonization efforts continue to gain steam.
15:12
How that fight takes shape, however, remains to be seen. Could humanity create a whole army of
15:17
avatar soldiers to adapt to Pandora’s environment? It seems likely. Could they start plundering the
15:23
spiritual energy of the planet in addition to its other natural resources? Also a possibility. The
15:29
future looks grim for the Na’vi, but with a united front, they still have a chance.
15:34
Though he’s a trained soldier, Jake Sully is running scared for most of "Avatar:
15:38
The Way of Water." When he realizes how great the danger to his children is,
15:42
he completely abandons his crusade against the RDA and dedicates all his energy to keeping his
15:48
family safe. Throughout the film, we see Jake humble himself to the Metkayina, Quaritch,
15:52
and others to protect his own. But by the end, he realizes that isn’t going to cut it anymore.
15:57
Jake says in the film’s closing narration, "I can’t save my family by running". This suggests
16:03
that he’s accepted Tonowari’s invitation to stay with the Metkayina, rather than flee again. The
16:09
death of Neteyam has changed Jake’s perspective, and he now knows that fighting back is the only
16:13
way to earn peace. However, he doesn’t give us many real clues about his next move.
16:18
"Let's get it done."
16:19
Staying with the Metkayina could have some benefits for sure, but so could moving on to
16:24
yet another Na’vi clan. If the RDA is to be fully defeated, Pandora needs to be united. Staying on
16:30
the move also isn't a bad idea, and it isn’t the same as running away. Whatever happens, the Sullys
16:36
have their work cut out for them, but they seem more than up to the task after "The Way of Water."
