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JAKE:

(taking that in)

Does Augustine know about this?

SELFRIDGE:

Yeah, she does, and she's on the next

ship back if she tries to cock-block me

on it.

JAKE:

So -- who talks them into moving?

QUARITCH:

(TURNING)

Guess.

JAKE:

What if they won't go?

QUARITCH:

(ICY)

I'm betting they will.

SELFRIDGE:

Killing the indigenous looks bad, but

there's one thing shareholders hate more

than bad press -- and that's a bad

quarterly statement. Find me a carrot to

get them to move, or it's going to have

to be all stick.

Jake is shaken by the enormity of this new responsibility.

QUARITCH:

You got three months. That's when the

dozers get there.

JAKE:

I'm on it.

CUT TO:

53.

INT. BIO LAB - MORNING

JAKE pumps his chair across the lab, flanked by GRACE and

NORM. Grace holds STEREO STILL PICTURES in front of him, one

at a time -- images of clan members she has shot over the

years -- a kind of flash card drill.

JAKE:

Tsu'tey.

(next photo)

Mo'at.

(next photo)

Eytukan.

GRACE:

He's the clan leader --

(indicating Mo'at)

-- but she's the spiritual leader. Like

a shaman.

INT. LINK ROOM

The dialogue is continuous as they enter.

JAKE:

Got it. So who's this Eywa?

NORM:

Who's Eywa? Oh, only their deity. The

Great Mother. The goddess made up of all

living things. You'd know that if you

had any training whatsoever.

He hauls himself from wheelchair to Link.

JAKE:

Who's got a date with the chief's

daughter?

GRACE:

Knock it off. Jesus, it's like

kindergarten around here.

As Jake settles into the soft embrace of the link, Grace

inputs commands at the control station.

GRACE:

Neytiri was my best student. She and her

sister Silwanin. Just amazing girls.

JAKE:

I didn't meet the sister.

54.

GRACE:

(QUIETLY)

No, she's dead.

(turning to him)

Okay, let's go -- village life starts

early.

MAX:

Link is ready.

Grace lowers the bio-sensor array over Jake's chest.

GRACE:

Don't do anything unusually stupid.

She closes the clamshell and we --

INT. HOMETREE/ THIRD LEVEL - DAY

CU JAKE'S AVATAR, blinking awake, staring up at --

HOMETREE, like a gothic cathedral overhead. Sunlight streams

down through gaps in the towering vault.

CUT TO:

INT. COMMONS - DAY

JAKE walks among the villagers, who go about their daily

tasks.

-- young girls sit together, weaving and SINGING. They look

up as he passes, then go back to work.

--two men clean the fish they've caught.

-- a young mother pounds seeds into meal, while nursing an

infant.

--children chase each other and climb like monkeys. One bold

LITTLE GIRL runs up to Jake, stops -- staring -- then shrieks

with laughter as she runs back to her playmates.

GRINNING, Jake turns to see NEYTIRI cantering toward him on a

DIREHORSE. She leads a second horse, an old sway-backed

MARE. His grin drops.

EXT. RIVER NEAR HOMETREE - DAY

JAKE nervously grips the surcingle of the mare. Neytiri holds

its nose-ring while Jake clumsily mounts.

Jake bends one of its ANTENNAE down to the tip of his queue.

He hesitantly touches them together and --

55.

TIGHT SHOT -- the tendrils INTERWEAVE.

Jake's PUPILS DILATE and his mouth drops open. The horse's

eyes also go wide and it HONKS nervously. Neytiri touches her

fingertips to the neural interface.

NEYTIRI:

This is shahaylu -- the bond. Feel her

heartbeat, her breath. Feel her strong

legs.

Jake closes his eyes, nodding. One with the horse.

TSU'TEY and another young hunter come out of the forest

leading TWO DIREHORSES. The magnificent animals drink from

the edge of the pool. Tsu'tey watches Jake's riding lesson

with disdain.

NEYTIRI:

You may tell her what to do --

(she touches her head)

-- inside. For now, say where to go.

JAKE:

Forward.

The horse LAUNCHES into a GALLOP. Jake flops around, with no

idea how to sit the animal, and is promptly THROWN OFF. He

lands painfully in the mud.

He gets up, brushing mud off knees and ass, as Neytiri leads

the horse back to him.

NEYTIRI:

Again.

SERIES OF JUMP CUTS -- Jake falls off the horse in various

ways, seemingly landing harder each time.

ON JAKE, face down in the mud of the riverbank. He painfully

rises to hands and knees. Which is when he sees --

TSU'TEY and another HUNTER thundering across the shallow

river on their direhorses. Spray blasts up from their

hooves.

Jake stands, covered in mud, as Tsu'tey stops his horse next

to him, looking down with disdain.

TSU'TEY

You should go away.

56.

JAKE:

(to Neytiri)

I knew this guy could speak English.

Tsu'tey turns to Neytiri, who is leading the old mare back.

TSU'TEY

(SUBTITLED)

This alien will learn nothing. A rock

Sees more.

She sighs in agreement. Tsu'tey and the other hunter wheel

their horses around and THUNDER OFF into the woods.

NEYTIRI gestures to Jake's horse.

NEYTIRI:

Again.

CUT TO:

OPS CENTER - NIGHT

Grouped around a table are JAKE, COLONEL QUARITCH, SELFRIDGE

and few ENGINEERS and OFFICERS. Jake is talking them through

plans he's made of Hometree's inner structure.

JAKE:

You've got outer columns, then a

secondary ring here, and an inner ring.

Then a core structure, it's like a

spiral, that's how they move up and down.

QUARITCH:

I'm going to need accurate scans of all

these columns.

JAKE:

Roger that.

ANGLE ON MAX, at the stairwell. He's been watching Jake

talking rapidly to Quaritch, but can't hear him. Frowning,

he backs away, down the stairs.

CUT TO:

INT. BIO LAB - DAY

JAKE, GRACE and NORM are packing science gear and supplies.

GRACE:

I'm not about to let Quaritch and

Selfridge micro-manage this thing.

(she looks pointedly at Jake)

We're going up into the mountains.

(MORE)

57.

GRACE (cont'd)

There's a mobile link up at Site 26 that

we can work out of.

NORM:

The Hallelujah Mountains?

GRACE:

That's right.

NORM:

Yesssss!

(off Jake's look)

The legendary Floating Mountains of

Pandora? Heard of them?

CUT TO:

EXT. RAINFOREST - AERIAL - DAY

A SAMSON THUNDERS over the rainforest, climbing into the mist-

shrouded mountains.

In the SEALED COCKPIT, Norm is up front, sitting left seat so

Trudy can talk him through the flight controls. Jake and

Grace are behind them, in the jump-seats.

Grace and Norm's UNCONSCIOUS AVATARS ride in the open back

compartment.

TRUDY:

It only takes tiny inputs. Here, put

your hand on the cyclic --

She points to the stick between her knees. Norm hesitantly

reaches over and rests his hand on hers.

TRUDY:

Feel how small the moves are? You barely

have to think it, and the aircraft

reacts.

ON NORM -- reacting to tiny inputs from the hot lady-pilot.

THE SAMSON is dwarfed by enormous ARCHES OF ROCK.

GRACE:

See these magnetic formations. We're

getting close.

TRUDY:

Yeah we are. Look at my instruments.

On the dash, many of the displays are fritzing out.

58.

GRACE:

Yup. We're in the flux vortex.

AHEAD, a cloud bank parts, revealing --

THE HALLELUJAH MOUNTAINS. Right in front of them.

NORM:

Oh. My. God.

Jake leans forward between the seatbacks for a good look out

the front canopy.

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