Avatar Page #20

Jake meets his gaze with a defiant glare.

GRACE:

Parker, listen, there may still be time

to --

QUARITCH:

Shut your f***ing hole!

Grace is momentarily stunned by Quaritch's fury. But she

meets it with her own intensity, not backing down an inch.

100.

GRACE:

Or what, Ranger Rick? You gonna shoot

me?

(to Selfridge)

You need to muzzle your dog!

SELFRIDGE:

Can we just take this down a couple

notches, please.

JAKE:

(to Quaritch)

You say you want to keep your people

alive. Start by listening to her.

Jake nods to Grace to continue.

GRACE:

(to Selfridge)

This is bad, Parker. Those trees were

sacred to the Omaticaya in a way you

can't imagine.

SELFRIDGE:

You know what? You throw a stick in the

air around here it falls on some sacred

fern.

GRACE:

I'm not talking about pagan voodoo here --

I'm talking about something real and

measurable in the biology of the forest.

SELFRIDGE:

(FRUSTRATED)

Which is what exactly?

Grace's nerve fails. A rush of conflicting emotions -- the

need to act, to do something, colliding with her scientific

rigor.

GRACE:

(to Jake)

I can't do this. How am I supposed to

reduce years of work to a sound bite for

the illiterate?

JAKE:

Just tell him what you know in your

heart.

She turns to Parker, steeling herself.

101.

GRACE:

Alright, look -- I don't have the answers

yet, I'm just now starting to even frame

the questions. What we think we know --

is that there's some kind of

electrochemical communication between the

roots of the trees. Like the synapses

between neurons. Each tree has ten to the

fourth connections to the trees around

it, and there are ten to the twelfth

trees on Pandora --

SELFRIDGE:

That's a lot I'm guessing.

GRACE:

That's more connections than the human

brain. You get it? It's a network -- a

global network. And the Na'vi can access

it -- they can upload and download data --

memories -- at sites like the one you

destroyed.

SELFRIDGE:

What the hell have you people been

smoking out there? They're just.

Goddamn. Trees.

GRACE:

You need to wake up, Parker. The wealth

of this world isn't in the ground -- it's

all around us. The Na'vi know that, and

they're fighting to defend it. If you

want to share this world with them, you

need to understand them.

QUARITCH:

We understand them just fine. Thanks to

Jake here.

Jake shares a look of alarm with Grace as Quaritch selects a

NEW CLIP on the main monitor --

TIGHT ON MONITOR -- VIDEO-LOG IMAGE of Jake, looking haggard

and borderline deranged, rambling in a late-night monologue.

JAKE (RECORDED)

They're not going to give up their home --

they're not gonna make a deal. For what?

Lite beer and shopping channel? There's

nothing we have that they want. We're a

horror to them. We're the monsters from

space.

102.

JAKE watches with a growing dread as his words condemn the

people he has grown to love.

JAKE (RECORDED)

They're never going to leave Hometree.

Quaritch FREEZES the recording.

QUARITCH:

Since a deal can't be made -- it gets

real simple.

(to Jake, icily)

So thanks. I'm getting all emotional. I

might just give you a big wet kiss.

GRACE:

Parker, we have to talk, like rational

people.

SELFRIDGE:

Well, I'd cherish that, but unfortunately

you're out of here on the next shuttle.

All of you. I'm shutting down the Avatar

Program, effective now.

ON JAKE, GRACE AND NORM, speechless.

SLOW DISSOLVE TO:

A WALL OF FIRE. Silhouettes of direhorse riders cross in SLOW

MOTION, spears and bows held high.

INT. OPS CENTER - MORNING

MONITOR SCREEN IMAGE -- WAINFLEET pans a camera across the

smoldering hulks of BURNED DOZERS. The toppled remains of a

charred ampsuit. Dead troopers bristling with arrows.

WAINFLEET:

They hit with banshees first. Set the

ampsuit on fire. Driver's toast.

Quaritch and Selfridge look on grimly.

QUARITCH:

The rest of the squad?

WAINFLEET:

Six bodies -- that's all of `em. And the

equipment is totalled.

SELFRIDGE:

Christ.

103.

INT. SELFRIDGE'S OFFICE - DAY

Selfridge is stares soberly as Quaritch outlines the plan.

QUARITCH:

I can do it with minimal casualties to

the indigenous. We'll clear them out

with gas first. It'll be humane. More or

less.

Selfridge sighs and rubs his face.

QUARITCH:

Hey, don't go limp on me now. This is

exactly the incident we needed.

SELFRIDGE:

Alright, let's pull the trigger.

CUT TO:

INT. BIO LAB

MAX and the lab staff are glumly packing files and equipment,

under the watchful eye of armed SEC-OPS TROOPERS. JAKE,

GRACE, NORM stare bleakly at each other.

GRACE:

They bulldozed a sacred site on purpose,

to trigger a response. They're

fabricating this war to get what they

want.

NORM:

I can't believe that.

JAKE:

Yup. That's how it's done. When people

are sitting on sh*t you want, you make

them your enemy. Then you're justified in

taking it.

TRUDY RUNS into the lab, breathless. She's wearing full

flight gear and carrying her helmet.

TRUDY:

Sec-ops is rolling the gunships. They're

gonna hit Hometree!

JAKE:

When?

TRUDY:

Now. We're spooling up now! I gotta go.

104.

GRACE:

My God.

Jake pumps furiously toward the door, Grace following.

INT. OPS CENTER - DAY

SELFRIDGE surveys the airfield, where crews swarm over the

gunships, loading ordnance. He turns as JAKE and GRACE

charge toward him.

GRACE:

Parker, wait. Stop! These are people

you're about to --

SELFRIDGE:

They're fly-bitten savages who live in a

tree! Look around -- I don't know about

you but I see a lot of trees. They can

move.

GRACE:

For God's sake, there are children in

there. Babies!

JAKE:

Look Selfridge, you don't want this kind

of blood on your hands. Let me try to

talk them out. They trust me.

ON SELFRIDGE, considering this.

CUT TO:

INT. LINK ROOM

SELFRIDGE and an escort of armed TROOPERS accompany Jake and

Grace to the links. The two enter their units, as NORM and

MAX prep the system.

SELFRIDGE:

You've got one hour. Unless you want

your girlfriend in there when the axe

comes down, you get them to evacuate. One

hour.

Jake lowers the upper clamshell. Norm starts the sequence.

CUT TO:

INT. COMMONS -DAY

The entire clan is gathered, with Eytukan and Mo'at

presiding. Jake looks around, feeling the gaze of the People

upon him. He steels himself, and speaks in clear Na'vi --

105.

JAKE:

(SUBTITLED)

Eytukan, I have something to say, to

everyone.

EYTUKAN:

(SUBTITLED)

Speak, Jakesully.

JAKE:

(SUBTITLED)

A great evil is upon us. The Sky People

are coming to destroy Hometree. They

will be here soon.

A murmur of fear and anger goes through the crowd.

JAKE:

(SUBTITLED)

You have to leave, or you will die.

MO'AT

Are you certain of this?

JAKE:

They sent me here to learn your ways. So

one day I could bring this message, and

you would believe it.

NEYTIRI:

What are you saying, Jake? You knew this

would happen?

He is unable to meet her eyes.

JAKE:

Yes.

(ANGUISHED)

At first it was just orders. Then

everything changed. I fell in love--

with the forest, with the Omaticaya

People --

(he looks at her)

-- with you. And by then, how could I

tell you?

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