“I get movement,” says a soldier. “Hold position! Something is coming. We got movement 200 meters. Get ready.” Huge animals run out of the forest towards the soldiers and engage them in battle.
“Jake, Eywa heard you,” says Neytiri. More banshees sweep through the sky and attack the planes. “Eywa has heard you,” yells Neytiri.
The viperwolves of Pandora run through the forest and attack the soldiers. The thanator approaches Neytiri and bows down before her, then runs to attack the soldiers.
[Desperation moment: The Na’vi are losing the war…all is lost…then the beasts of Pandora activated by Eywa engage in the battle and turn it around. Like in Star Wars, Han Solo returns to the last battle after the audience was lead to believe that he had left Luke and the rebels.]
The bomber proceeds. Mo'at, at the base of the Tree of Souls, looks up to see the bomber flying above her. Jake jumps on the bomber and throws grenades into the engine. They explode, which causes the bomber to tilt and the pallets of explosives to slide back into the plane. They explode inside the plane, causing it to crash into the mountain.
Jake next attacks Quaritch’s plane. Quaritch sees him and quickly turns the steering, causing the plane to swerve in the sky. Jake hangs onto the plane as it flies through the sky. He throws a rocket into the propellers just as Quaritch shoots at him. The wing explodes. Jake falls towards the forest, and navigates through the large leaves and vines to break his fall.
Quaritch, with sleeve on fire, jumps into an armor suit, and jumps out of the plane towards the ground as his plane explodes. Quaritch lands on the ground as the flaming debris from his plane falls around him.
Neytiri rides the thanator through the jungle. Quaritch in his mechanized armor suit stomps through the jungle. He approaches the trailer in which Jake’s human body is sleeping. Quaritch is about to fire on the trailer when, in his rear view mirror, he sees Neytiri riding the thanator towards him. The thanator attacks. They fight until Quaritch kills the thanator with his large steel blade. Neytiri is trapped under its dead body.
[As in classic Hollywood structure, the final climax scene has to be a one-on-one battle between the protagonist and the antagonist: Jake versus the Colonel with Neytiri caught in the middle!]
Quaritch is about to stab Neytiri when Jake jumps to the ground behind him. “It’s all over,” says Jake. “Nothing’s over while I’m breathing,” says Quaritch. “I kinda hoped you’d say that,” says Jake. They engage in a sword fight.
“Hey Sully, how does it feel to betray your own race?” asks Quaritch. Sully snarls at him. “You think you’re one of them? Time to wake up.” Quaritch turns towards the trailer holding Sully’s body. He breaks through the window and smashes a canister he thinks is holding Sully’s body, but it is empty. Sully jumps on the mechanized armor and fights Quaritch. He stabs at him but misses. Quaritch throws him to the ground. Sully loses his breath because the trailer window has been broken. He starts to suffocate. Quaritch grabs him by the hair and lifts him off the ground. Neytiri struggles to free herself from under the body of the dead thanator. Quaritch grabs the knife as Neytiri finally frees herself. She picks up her bow and arrow and shoots Quaritch as he is about to stab Sully. Her arrow hits him in the heart. He drops Sully to the ground. She shoots another arrow into him. Quaritch, in his mechanized armor, falls to the ground dead, as Neytiri protectively crouches over Jake’s body.
[Neytiri is the “alpha female” Na’vi warrior who saves the protagonist and defeats the villain in the climax scene.]
Jake crawls out of his link unit grasping for air. He reaches up for an oxygen mask, but cannot reach it and falls to the floor. Neytiri jumps into the trailer and places the oxygen mask on his face. This revives him. Jake lives! “I see you,” he says. “I see you,” she replies.
[Jake cannot triumphant by himself. He needs his partner to prevail. Neytiri saves Jake’s life by getting him the oxygen mask. Audience believes that Jake has died. They become emotionally depressed, but then they are joyous when they see he has returned from the dead (like in the movie E.T.).]
FINAL RESOLUTION SCENES
One resolves what happens to the RDA mercenaries and the others for the final transformation of Jake into a Na’vi.
HELL’S GATE - MILITARY COMPLEX
The human survivors marched towards a transport plane which will take them off Pandora. “Only a few were chosen to stay,” narrates Jake. Norm and Max watch Parker and the other humans march away. “The time of great sorrow was ending. Toruk was no longer needed.” Toruk flies away towards the setting sun.
BIOLAB
Jake records his last video log. He wheels through the empty canisters of the Biolab. “Whatever happens tonight, I will not be coming back to this place,” says Jake.
RDA LOG ENTRY 98
“I guess I better go. I don’t want to be late for my own party. It’s my birthday after all. This is Jake Sully signing off.”
TREE OF SOULS AT NIGHT
White pink lights bathe the Tree of Souls. The network of inter-linked swaying Na’vi surround the tree. Mo'at orchestrates the ritual as Neytiri leans over the bodies of Jake and his avatar. She takes the oxygen mask off Jake’s face. Woodsprites float over Jake and his avatar.
[The Director creates suspense about the transmigration of Jake into his Avatar by showing the failure of Grace’s efforts earlier in the movie. Grace died and was not reborn. The process can fail. Will it fail for Jake too? This creates suspense in the audience.]
Camera moves in for a close-up on the face of Jake’s avatar. His eye lids open revealing the conscious yellow eyes. The transmigration of consciousness has been successful. Jake Sully has been reborn as his avatar.
FADE OUT: ‘AVATAR’ in a green font fills the screen.
Story DesignResearch Resources
Written By
www.WGA.org
The Writers Store
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Box-Office Mojo
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Hollywood Reporter
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Variety Magazine
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Vanity Fair Magazine
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Deadline Hollywood
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Entertainment Weekly
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Internet Movie Database
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Directors Guild of America
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Producers Guild of America
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The American Film Institute
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The Megahit Movies
www.TheMegahitMovies.com
AUDIENCE EMPATHY and IDENTIFICATION
Aristotle. Poetics of Aristotle. Univ of North Carolina Press, 1987.
Bordwell, David and Kristin Thompson. Film History: An Introduction. McGraw Hill, 2009.
Burr, Ty. Gods Like Us: On Movie Stardom and Modern Fame. Anchor, 2013.
Cook, David. A History of Narrative Film. W.W. Norton, 2003.
Gaut, Berys. A Philosophy of Cinematic Art. Cambridge University Press, 2010.
Gomery, Douglas and Clara Pafort-Overduin. Movie History: A Survey. Routlege, 2011.
Hood, Ann. Creating Character Emotions. Story Press, 1998.
Ortony, Andrew, Gerald L. Clore, and Allan Collins. The Cognitive Structure of Emotions. Cambridge University Press, 1988.
Plantinga, Carl. Moving Viewers : American Film and the Spectator's Experience. University of California Press, 2009.
Plantinga, Carl and Greg Smith. Passionate Views: Film, Cognition, and Emotion. The John Hopkins University Press, 1999.
Stefanik, Richard Michaels. Structures of Fantasy. MES Press, 1992.
Stefanik, Richard Michaels. The Megahit Movies. RMS Press, 2001.
Thompson-Jones, Katherine. Aesthetics & Film. Continuum, 2008.
Thomson, David. The Big Screen: The Story of the Movies. Farrar, Straus
and Giroux, 2012.
Richard Michaels Stefanik
Richard Michaels Stefanik is the author of Structures of Fantasy, a screenwriting book that analyzes the dramatic
and comic elements found in popular movies. He was an American Film Institute (AFI) Screenwriting Fellow.
The Structures of Fantasy book is recommended in the American Film Institute Desk Reference. A revised and expanded edition of this book has been published as The Megahit Movies. The French translation of this book was published in Paris by Editions Dixit as "Les Clés Des Plus Grands Succes Cinematographiques."
Richard lectured about story structures in Hollywood Popular Movies at the UCLA Extension Screenwriting Program and at Sony Studios, Universal Studios, Paramount Studios, and Warner Bros. He also gave seminars on story design at the Great American PitchFest and Creative Screenwriting Expos
Richard worked at several Hollywood studios, including Paramount Pictures and Walt Disney Productions. He published four novels through RMS Productions Company: Elixir, Monte Carlo, Entanglements, Once in a Blue Moon.
Richard is also the creator of the Morpheus Phoenix Sci-Fi Fantasy transmedia franchise on Facebook and Google+.
Richard received M.A. degrees in Philosophy from
UC Berkeley and Georgetown University, and studied
Logic and Philosophy at Oxford University.
Richard Michaels Stefanik
RMS Productions Company
www.TheMegahitMovies.com
[email protected]
Story Design Page 20