Summary
In his video log, Jake talks about the fact that Neytiri is "always going on about the flow of energy, the spirits of animals." We see Jake following Neytiri as she leaps over branches in dangerous and impressive ways. Jake can hardly believe how adventurous she is, as he falls down onto the forest floor. In voiceover, Jake tells us that he talks Mo'at into letting Grace start a school in the village.
Neytiri teaches Jake that the Na'vi live in harmony with the forest, and that they have to borrow energy from the forest, and then give it back eventually. They swim and enjoy the forest together, growing closer, and building an unspoken romantic bond. After hunting an animal and killing it, Jake says a prayer over its body.
After seeing Jake kill an animal and say a prayer over its body, Neytiri decides that Jake is ready to claim his own ikran. They go to the ikran's nest with Tsu'tey and several other Na'vi warriors who are training. The nesting area is in the Hallelujah Mountains, and getting there requires a treacherous journey. When they arrive, Tsu'tey decides that Jake will go first, and he climbs around the corner of a steep ledge. Neytiri reminds him that he must follow what he feels and choose an ikran quickly. "How will I know if he chooses me?" Jake asks, to which Neytiri replies, "He will try to kill you."
In a matter of moments, and after some struggle, Jake is able to successfully bond with an ikran and join his tendrils with those of the creature. "First flight seals the bond," Neytiri tells him, as Jake flies through the mountains, with some difficulty at first. Eventually, he gains control of the ikran and they glide through the air. Tsu'tey and the others, in spite of their skepticism about Jake, must admit that he is worthy of their respect. As he rides his ikran, he feels connected to his Na'vi companions, and they fly to the Tree of Souls. The Tree of Souls is a special place for the Na'vi, their most sacred place. The scene shifts to Jake in the lab with Grace, who says that there is something very unusual taking place biologically at the tree, but that outsiders are strictly forbidden.
The scene shifts back to Neytiri and Jake's journey as they fly on their ikrans. At one point, they run into a giant banshee called a "toruk" that stalks them and wants to kill them. A chase ensues and Neytiri and Jake eventually manage to escape. Later, at Hometree, Neytiri refers to the banshee as "last shadow," suggesting that the banshee's shadow is always the last thing its victim sees before death. She presents Jake with the skeleton of a toruk and tells him that her grandfather's grandfather was the last to ride one, which united all of the Na'vi tribes. She discusses the fact that this kind of uniting act has not been done since, and that they are still in search of a "Rider of the Last Shadow."
Jake wakes up in the human world permanently changed by his experience. After learning the ways of the Na'vi, he begins to feel like he prefers his experience as an avatar to his waking life. In a video log, he says, "I can't believe it's only been three months. I can barely remember my old life. I don't know who I am anymore."
Jakes goes to meet with Quaritch, who tells him that he is done with his mission and has to return to earth. Not only that, but he will be getting a procedure to heal his spine and walk again. Jake does not want to return, however, and assures Quaritch that he is just about to be initiated into the Na'vi tribe. "I gotta finish this," Jake says, telling the colonel that he is about to go through a ceremony that will make him a Na'vi. Once he is a member of the tribe, he will be able to sway the people more in order to get them to move, so that the military can move in and extract the unobtanium. Quaritch agrees, reluctantly.
Back with the Na'vi, Jake goes to a ceremony where he is inducted into the tribe. At the ceremony, Jake learns that everyone is born twice, and "the second time is when you earn your place among The People forever." Neytiri takes him to a special place to bond with the Tree of Voices. They hold the long branches of the tree, luminescent and neon, and listen to the voices. Neytiri tells him to make a bow with the wood of the Hometree and to choose a woman. She lists various women in the tribe, but he tells her that he's already chosen her, and she tells him that she returns his feelings. They kiss and fall asleep under the tree. "We are mated for life," she tells him.
The next day, Neytiri wakes up to the sound of trees falling down, being bulldozed by military machinery. She tries to wake Jake up, but he is in the lab, eating in the human world. He will not wake up and she pulls him away from the falling trees. Eventually, he goes into the pod, and awakens into the chaos of the deforestation. He stands and yells at the bulldozers to stop. In the control center, Selfridge tells the bulldozers to keep going, and that Jake will move. The bulldozer keeps moving forward, and Jake climbs on top of it, and destroys the cameras. As military personnel begin shooting at him with machine guns, he runs away with Neytiri. She cries as she watches the forest get destroyed.
In the control center, Quaritch watches the footage with Selfridge and they determine that the Na'vi who destroyed the camera was Jake.
Meanwhile, the Na'vi tribe is ready for war with the invaders. Grace advises them that war will only make it worse, but Tsu'tey is determined to start a war. Tsu'tey and Jake get in a fight and Neytiri admits to the tribe that she and Jake are mated. Jake and Tsu'tey each take out blades and begin to fight, with Jake insisting that he is not the enemy. Jake offers to talk to the military representatives.
In the middle of an impassioned speech, Quaritch breaks into the lab and unlinks Grace and Jake from their avatars. When Jake's avatar collapses, Tsu'tey calls him a demon and goes to cut his throat, but Neytiri prevents him. When Jake awakens in the lab, Quaritch says, "you crossed the line," punches him in the face, and has him taken out of the lab.
Analysis
At the core of the Na'vi culture is an ethic of interdependence with nature, an ethic that contrasts with the coercive and forceful mission of the military. Neytiri teaches Jake both ethical and spiritual lessons about living in cooperation with the forest, the fact that there is an intrinsic connection between the forest and its inhabitants, and that beings are simply borrowing energy from the forest that must one day be given back. In the Na'vi belief system, the forest is an entity which demands the highest respect, rather than something to be pillaged.
Jake undergoes a transformation in this section of the film when he manages to internalize some of these lessons, and manages to bond with his own ikran. Jake came into the Na'vi culture with a very limited sense of spiritual connection to nature and next to no curiosity about their ways. In the course of a short period, he becomes fully integrated into their way of being, even suggesting that he was "born to do this" while riding his ikran. There seems to be something spiritually ordained about his integration into the Na'vi world.
Jake's sense of belonging becomes so strong that he comes to prefer his life on Pandora to his waking life in the lab. As an avatar, he feels in touch with his body, the world around him, and a sense of belonging in the tribe. In his waking life, he is just a pawn for capitalistic enterprise, and feels caught between the demands of the lab and the demands of the military. This creates a major conflict for Jake, as he struggles to integrate not only his two departments, but his two experiences.
Further strengthening Jake's connection to the Na'vi world is the romantic relationship he begins with Neytiri. Their connection is sparked upon their first meeting, and grows as they become more acquainted, and she shows him more about the Na'vi way of life. They become intimate, and feel a strong connection to one another, a connection that finally becomes acknowledged and shared at the Tree of Voices. Jake's connection to Neytiri makes him feel that much more connected to the Na'vi as a people and makes his connection to the human world that much more tenuous.
The visual effects continue to be awe-inspiring throughout the film, with beautiful locations and impressive effects rounding out a fully-fledged futuristic world on Pandora. The animation for the Na'vi warriors are at once uncanny and recognizable; facial expressions pass across their faces like humans, all while they are riding on the backs of dragon-like steeds. Cameron and his designers masterfully realize a world that is both familiar and primordial, that is accessible to the contemporary audience but also entirely unique.
