Avatar Page #6

26.

INT. BIO LAB - DAY

GRACE is on the move, gulping coffee, in a hurry to get their

FIRST SORTIE started. She hands a clipboard to MAX.

GRACE:

Start calibrating. We're on the flight

line in ten minutes.

Max nods and jogs ahead toward the LINK ROOM. JAKE and NORM

fall in with Grace as they enter the CONNECTING CORRIDOR.

GRACE:

What did Atilla want?

JAKE:

Just Marines comparin' tattoos.

GRACE:

(not buying it)

Yeah. Well, listen to me, Marine --

She stops, turning to drill him with a look.

GRACE:

-- you're driving an avatar, now. That

means you're in my world, got it?

JAKE:

Got it.

She turns and enters the LINK ROOM.

INT. LINK ROOM

Grace crosses to the controls of Jake's LINK UNIT. As the

others catch up --

GRACE:

That son of a b*tch has screwed up this

program enough. All this --

(indicating link room)

-- exists so we can go out there and

build a bridge of trust to these people,

who could teach us so much. But thanks

to Quaritch and his thugs the Na'vi won't

even talk to us anymore.

JAKE:

Then how's this supposed to work?

27.

GRACE:

We have a new face.

(turning to Norm)

You're fluent, you've studied the

culture. You're non-threatening. The

ones we know best -- the Omaticaya clan --

may give you a chance. Maybe you can get

them back to the table before things go

tits-up for good.

NORM:

This is failing as a pep talk.

Jake hauls himself across from wheelchair to link.

JAKE:

How do we contact them?

GRACE:

We don't. They contact us. If they see

us taking our samples, treating the

forest with respect --

(pointedly to Jake)

Not trampling everything in sight --

they may reach out to us.

JAKE:

Or they may skin us and make a drum.

Jake lies back, lowering the sensor array over his body.

GRACE:

Just keep your mouth shut and let Norm do

the talking.

She closes his clamshell, HARD, and we --

CUT TO:

EXT. RAIN FOREST / AERIAL - DAY

FLYING over a carpet of rainforest, past sheer cliffs and

cloud-wreathed mesas. TRUDY'S SAMSON TILT-ROTOR chases its

shadow across the treetops. Though big as a Blackhawk, it is

tiny in the vast primeval landscape.

ANGLE THROUGH the open side doors of the Samson. Trooper

WAINFLEET, in exo-mask and body armor, leans on his door gun,

scanning for aerial predators.

In avatar form JAKE, GRACE and NORM watch the forest

unrolling beneath them, the wind blasting their clothes.

Jake mans the other door gun, his feet propped on the skids.

28.

TRUDY flies from a pressurized cockpit. She banks to follow a

shallow river.

TRUDY (INTERCOM)

Sturmbeest herd, one o'clock.

Norm grins and points, excitedly. Jake looks in time to see--

A herd of STURMBEEST -- massive six-legged creatures

reminiscent of buffalo -- thundering across the river.

GRACE:

Looks like a bull, six cows and some

juveniles.

NORM:

The bull has the red on the dorsal armor?

Grace nods approvingly.

TIME CUT -- Hundreds of purple winged creatures take flight

from a lake, startled by the Samson. They skim the water

above their own reflections. TETRAPTERONS.

TIME CUT -- the ground drops away as the Samson flies over a

WATERFALL hundreds of feet high. Trudy banks hard, rolling

in on the gorge below like it's a gun-run.

Wainfleet WHOOPS while Norm looks like he's about to puke.

WAINFLEET:

Yo Chacon! Get some!

Jake grins into the airstream.

CUT TO:

EXT. CLEARING - DAY

A small meadow among towering trees. The fern-like "grass"

is beaten down in waves by the rotor-wash as the Samson

settles to the ground.

Jake pulls the massive door gun off its pintle mount and

hefts it like an assault rifle.

He and Wainfleet leap out to secure the LZ, scanning the tree-

line warily, weapons aimed.

Grace jogs forward to the cockpit, motioning Trudy to shut

down. Trudy kills the Samson's TURBINES.

Grace, towering over Wainfleet, motions him to hang back.

29.

GRACE:

Stay with the ship.

(for Jake)

One idiot with a gun's enough.

WAINFLEET:

Whatever you say, Doc.

Jake takes point as they enter the jungle.

WAINFLEET:

(LAUGHING)

Ya'll have fun out there.

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY

The forest engulfs JAKE, GRACE and NORM in cyan gloom. The

shadows are alive with the CHITTERING sounds of unseen alien

wildlife.

TRACKING WITH JAKE as he moves through the foliage, hyper-

alert -- looking around like a tourist in Hell.A monkey-like

PROLEMURIS leaping from limb to limb overhead, flashing

through the sunlight streaming down in shafts.

A PLANT with swaying tendrils which reach toward Jake as he

passes.

This forest is more alive than any on Earth, with plants that

react and move like animals. Jake white-knuckles his rifle

as if every shadow conceals razor-fanged death.

GRACE:

Relax, Marine. You're making me nervous.

She pushes ahead of him on the trail, forcing him to lower

his muzzle as he follows her. Grace moves nimbly on the

path, seemingly unconcerned.

CUT TO:

EXT. FOREST/ GLEN

WIDE SHOT as the party moves between the huge trees, tiny as

ants. The trail has gotten steeper, the going tougher.

CUT TO:

EXT. SCHOOL RUINS - DAY

They enter a clearing with an OVERGROWN BUILDING made of

timbers cut from the local trees, with a thatch roof. It is

covered with vines as the jungle reclaims it.

30.

NORM:

How will they know we're here?

GRACE:

I'm sure they're watching us right now.

Norm gulps. Jake looks behind him as they approach the

school, feeling unseen eyes.

CUT TO:

INT. SCHOOL RUINS

TRACKING WITH JAKE'S BOOTS as he steps among dried leaves and

a few moldering CHILDREN'S BOOKS. Floorboards CREAK.

GRACE (O.S.)

The kids were so bright, so eager to

learn... they picked up English faster

than I could teach it to them.

WIDER as Jake explores the room. Grace and Norm are selecting

INSTRUMENTS from storage cases on a wooden table.

GRACE:

Bring the soil probe -- right there,

yellow case.

Jake looks up at a RUSTLING among the dark rafters. Roosting

STINGBATS eye him warily, fluttering their wings.

Grace picks up a moldering copy of "The Lorax" by Dr. Seuss

from the floor and puts it back on a shelf.

GRACE:

(WISTFULLY)

The stingbats knock them off. I guess I

always hope somebody will come back and

read them.

NORM:

Why don't they come back?

GRACE:

(GRIMLY)

The Na'vi learned as much about us as

they needed to know.

Jake sees something, and approaches the blackboard -- reaches

out to touch a pattern of holes blasted into the slate.

Unmistakably BULLET HOLES.

31.

JAKE:

(turning to her)

What happened here?

GRACE:

(SHARPLY)

Are you going to help with this gear?

We've got a lot to do.

She turns away. Jake watches her as he jams equipment into

his pack.

CUT TO:

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY

CLOSE ON Grace's blue hand gently brushing away soil,

exposing a tangle of ROOT TENDRILS.

GRACE:

See, right here where the roots of the

two trees interact.

WIDER -- GRACE and NORM crouch among enormous octopoidal

roots. She takes a tiny sample using a needle-like probe.

Norm uses a digital DEVICE to scan the roots.

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