Monday, May 3, 2010

Sequel idea for Avatar?

Blame this guy:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w-LcCHYuFMI

I like his idea for Avatar 2, but I also want to see how this one flies.

Despite the evacuation of most of the RDA personnel at the end of the first movie, one of those trailer camp things like the alternate Avatar site in the first one didn't get the memo--communications breakdown. In that camp is a complete of around 150 marine security forces, botanists, mining engineers, interns, etc. They're led by one Major Tryptich, a remarkably impassive man who regularly told Colonel Quatrich that he was being a moron--which is why he's commanding an outpost in the sticks.

At any rate, the message only gets through to this outpost that they should have made trails when they see the shuttles lifting off. At the same time, the outpost is also discovered by a small Na'Vi scouting party. And while they're driven off, the Major knows that its only a matter of time before the rest of the Na'Vi forces, still gloating over their victory over the main human forces, comes to destroy them--they are, after all, tampering with the moon, trespassing, etc.

Preparations and fortifications are made, attempting to layer the camp with defenses made of boxes of equipment and half-rusted unserviced vehicles, with a command post/"final redoubt" in the trailer set attempting to make contact with the shuttles while they can still turn around and retrieve them. The Major and his men, along with some of the students, make explicit connections to other defenses and last stands in human history--Thermopylae, Alamo, Rorke's Drift, Chosin Reservoir.... Meanwhile, the Na'Vi, still led by Sully and Neytiri, receive word of this final human resistance and naturally move to clear them out before they hurt Eywa any more.

Up to this point, the movie has been shot in Duo-vision; the humans and their plight on the left side of the screen and left speaker, the mediations and speeches of the Na'Vi on the right. Before the battle, each side takes a moment to yell a little speech at each other--Sully asserting that the alien invader should leave, Tryptich saying that "if you want to drive us off this moon, you will have to drive us into this moon." As battle is joined, the screens come together and we see the horrific carnage of this fight--a Na'Vi and marine dead together, their blade and bayonet in each other's respective side; the horrific casualties of the Na'Vi and nature's reinforcements attempting to attack a fortified position; the desperate shifting of men, plugging of defensive holes and stalling actions while the fire withdraws as the humans take casualties. Finally they're pushed back into the trailers, where they recieve depressing news--the last shuttles have passed the point of no return and are no longer in position to retrieve them. Their last hope gone, the Major hands firearms to everybody, even the interns, for one last blaze of resistance.

After a few tense moments where the only sound is heavy breathing, the occasional sob, and the giant creatures of Pandora hammering the door like a battering ram, the Na'Vi eventually penetrate into the trailers and kill everybody. (If possible, this should be filmed from the first person perspective of one of the humans.) As they celebrate their victory, one accidentally activates a pre-recorded message, similar to that Sully used to track his "observations" of Na'Vi life.
It shows the Major, surrounded by both civilian and military personnel sending off their last wishes, wills, hopes and testaments. He rarely focuses on the camera, instead lolling his head around him at the others and playing with a small glass of alcohol at his hand; his demeanor is one of stoic contemplation, as if he's giving a philosophy talk and not his last little diary entry to the camera. His final speech, concluding the movie, is something like this:

"Major Travis Tryptich, (unit stuff here), making...what I hope isn't but probably will be...my last report. The people around me are just...it's just...the crying, the sobbing...they know they're going to die, and they're sending out some last desperate proof of existence, to their friends, to their family, to the stars.... I...have no family...or at least none in any position to hear this...and the stars don't have ears...so I guess this is for the mic...and the whiskey.... We've...set up a small evacuation beacon from salvaged equipment here...hoping one of the shuttles that took off a few hours ago is still in retrival range...this stuff wasn't designed to signal ships out of atmosphere, but hey, these guys are smart....

We've just recieved the signal from exterior trip sensors...those god-damn...Na'Vi...are coming. They're coming in massive massive numbers...probably hope to shove us off the moon...or at least six feet into the dirt.... No...they probably won't even give us that...bastards figure we're all like that god-damn Quatrich...well, Durnford got himself killed, let's hope Chard can actually pull this off [a reference to Rorke's Drift]. We've got all manner of salvage and crap set up in full embankments surrounding the camp...three lines, not counting the reinforced trailers...honestly we're just playing for time, hoping those shuttles will turn around and grab us before we're all wiped out.

The only thing I hope for now...is that this recording will live past me...long, looong past me...thousands, millions of years, though I know that's unlikely. And to those who would read this in the thousands and millions of years hence...I hope you can understand me...understand this.... For all his...talk of Eywa or Eya or whatever...for all his cat-like face...his blue skin...his war paint...his height...his lusty living...his apparent utopian simplicity...know this. The Na'Vi...the native person...deep down...is as human as I am...and if you don't know what that means...it means he's subject to all the flaws and foibles that I am subject to...a jealousy towards others higher than him he believes are incompetent...a certain choler and sanguine flowing in the veins...an anger...a hatred...they know these things...don't let them make you think otherwise...

[An alarm rings and a klaxon blares--the Na'Vi are now within striking distance of the camp. The people around him begin scrambling.]

I guess that's that then. [He downs the whiskey, coloring up somewhat.] Time to see if I can actually command, hold the line, succeed where that bloodthirsty imbecile of a Colonel failed. Good bye and good night...I hope not forever..." [He turns the camera off. Credits.]

No comments:

Post a Comment