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JAKE, bored, scouts ahead a few meters.

He comes to a GLADE filled with shoulder-high SPIRAL PLANTS

called HELICORADIANS.

He BRUSHES one and SHTOONK! -- it SUCKS DOWN into a tube in

the ground so quickly it seems to simply vanish.

Curious, Jake touches another -- SHTOONK! And another --

like popping balloons after a party. SHTOONK! SHTOONK!

SHTOONK!

A chain reaction begins and the whole colony pulls down into

the ground, REVEALING --

A HAMMERHEAD TITANOTHERE. Like a six-legged rhinoceros, but

twice that size. Its massive, low-slung head has projections

of bone giving it the look of a hammerhead shark.

Its baleful eyes lock onto him. Jake raises his rifle.

Grace, alerted by the creature's SNORTS, runs to where she

can see the tableau. She presses her THROAT MIKE.

GRACE:

Don't shoot. You'll piss it off.

32.

The bull HAMMERHEAD bellows and lowers its 3 meter wide

sledgehammer of a skull.

JAKE:

It's already pissed off!

GRACE:

Jake, that armor's too thick. Trust me.

Jake starts to back away. The hammerhead bellows again,

pawing the earth.

GRACE:

It's a territorial threat display. Do not

run, or he'll charge.

JAKE:

What do I do?

GRACE:

Hold your ground!

The hammerhead SLASHES its head sideways, splintering

saplings. It bellows again, lowers its head and CHARGES --

Jake SCREAMS at the top of his lungs, spreads his arms wide

and runs straight at the thing.

It STOPS abruptly, with an oversized BLEAT.

ON JAKE -- amazed the gambit worked.

JAKE:

Oh yeah! Who's bad?! That's right.

SOMETHING rises up behind him out of focus --

A THANATOR. The most awesome land predator the universe has

ever conceived This thing could eat a T-rex and have the

Alien for desert.

It is a black six-limbed panther from Hell, with an armored

head and massive distensible jaws.

JAKE, unaware of the advancing thanator, is still bracing the

hammerhead --

JAKE:

That's what I'm talkin' about, b*tch!

The bull wheels around, TRUMPETING in fear, and CRASHES away

through splintering undergrowth.

33.

JAKE:

That's right motherf--

A guttural SNARL behind him. Jake spins in time to see --

THREE TONS of rippling thanator LAUNCH over him, landing

between him and the hammerhead. The ground shakes.

The thanator emits an earsplitting ROAR, enraged that the

hammerhead got away. It twists on itself, turning to face

Jake, and bares its fangs with a lethal HISS.

JAKE:

What about this one? Run, don't run?

What?

GRACE:

Run. Definitely RUN!

Jake BOLTS as --

The thanator LEAPS after him and --

Jake launches himself between two large trunks, forcing the

beast to claw its way around to the side while --

Jake scrambles up -- around -- over a tangle of roots and --

SK-RASH!! CLAWS SLASH the air behind him, EXPLODING bark off

a trunk as --

JAKE wills himself forward in a frenzy. With rippling muscle

the beast is airborne again, blacking out the sun but --

JAKE dives under a massive root system, and --

CRASH! Kindling rains around him as the beast tears into the

root-trunks above him. Claws SLASH down next to him as he

rolls and crawls --

Glistening jaws SMASH and SNAP against the barrier trunks,

sending chunks of wood flying. It's spittle sprays across

Jake, jaws inches away as --

He rolls onto his back, and FIRES his AR point blank but the

rifle is SNATCHED out of his hands. The beast SCREECHES an

ungodly WAIL of pain and rage and -- RIPS the ENTIRE TRUNK

away. Jake scrambles to escape but --

GLISTENING JAWS lunge downward, SNAP SHUT and --

The creature rips Jake out of the tree, shaking him like a

junkyard dog with a rabbit, only --

34.

It has him by the BACKPACK, so Jake unlatches it and --

He FLIES FREE as the thanator crushes the pack with its

teeth. Giving Jake a moment to sprint away, but --

With a hideous BELLOW the thanator crashes after him,

splintering trees.

JAKE RUNS in a blur, dodging between trunks as a glistening

black tornado shreds the forest behind him and --

He sees WATER ahead and DIVES OUTWARD with all his might --

The thanator's jaws SNAP SHUT inches behind him as he flies

out into open space and --

JAKE SPLASHES down into a swiftly moving river.

The thanator LEAPS DOWN AFTER HIM, pursuing from rock to

rock, its claws swiping like a grizzly fishing for salmon.

Jake ducks under as -- FWHOOSH! -- black claws SLASH past

his face amid turbulent bubbles.

A WATERFALL ahead. Jake is swept over the falls, with the

thanator SWIPING at him from a rock, just MISSING and --

Jake disappears down the throat of the thundering cataract.

EXT. RIVER BELOW FALLS - DAY

The water boils below the cataract. Jake's head bursts

through the surface, and he gasps for breath.

He is carried along by the current, but manages to grab a

limb on a fallen tree. He weakly pulls himself up, and just

lies there gasping on the trunk.

Above him, on the cliff, the THANATOR BELLOWS, a roar which

echoes across the jungle.

CUT TO:

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY

JAKE, wet and bruised, crouches under a screen of giant

leaves. He hacks manically at the end of a cut sapling with

his knife, forming a crude but sharp tip.

EXT. RAINFOREST - DAY

TRACKING with Jake as he walks through the forest like it's a

minefield, carrying his SPEAR white-knuckled. He is freaked

and hyper-alert.

35.

The trees here are a hundred meters high, blocking out the

sky. A few pencil beams of sunlight filter down into the

cyan gloom.

POV FROM ABOVE -- looking down through leaves we watch Jake

move warily through the forest.

ECU -- TWO GOLDEN EYES, bright in the shadows.

DOWNANGLE as Jake passes under a tree limb. Invisible to

him, draped on the limb like a leopard, is a striking NA'VI

GIRL. She watches, only her eyes moving.

She is lithe as a cat, with a long neck, muscular shoulders,

and nubile breasts. And she is devastatingly beautiful --

for a girl with a tail. In human age she would be 18. Her

name is NEYTIRI(nay-Tee-ree).

Jake passes less than 2 meters beneath her, oblivious.

NEYTIRI rises soundlessly. In one fluid, sinuous movement

she NOCKS an arrow to her BOW and DRAWS, aiming RIGHT AT

JAKE. Utterly silent.

Below her Jake is totally unaware of the arrow aimed at his

THROAT.

ON NEYTIRI as she follows him with the bow, muscles tensing

for the shot --

-- and SOMETHING drifts down in front of her, F.G. She

hesitates.

RACK FOCUS to the tip of the arrow -- where a single

WOODSPRITE floats down to land on the arrow-head.Like a

dandelion seed, but larger, the WOODSPRITE waves its silky

CILIA, feather light, as it balances on the deadly point. It

glows faintly in the dark shadows.

NEYTIRI frowns, puzzled, and LOWERS her bow slowly. The

woodsprite WHIRLS away into the gloom.

CUT TO:

INT./EXT. SAMSON - SUNSET

GRACE and NORM peer down into the shadowed forest as TRUDY

banks in a search pattern.

TRUDY (INTERCOM)

I'm going to have to call it, guys. We're

not allowed to run night ops. Colonel's

orders.

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