Downloaded from YTS.MX
NARRATOR: It's finally here.
It's the gift that keeps on giving.
NARRATOR: Thirteen years after Avatar.
Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX
Whoo!
NARRATOR: Its sequel is ready to take you even further.
What will audiences see in this film
that they've never seen in a movie before?
You show me one image from this film
that you've seen before, and I'll give you ten bucks.
NARRATOR: Tonight, we're taking you behind the scenes,
to the magic of Pandora.
When I met Jim, he said, "Do you want to fall in love
with a beautiful nine foot tall blue woman?"
And I said, "Yeah, mate, no worries."
And now they're not just two partners on the run.
Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.
ZOE: Now, it's two partners and children on the run.
NARRATOR: And they're on the run, underwater.
BAILEY: I wanted to avoid it in the beginning.
It's nerve-wracking holding your breath!
NARRATOR: Now, we're going inside that tank.
We were competing who was gonna hold their breath longer.
Yes, man, look at that!
NARRATOR: The unsinkable Kate Winslet
back with director James Cameron,
25 years after Titanic.
It's better than being in a corset for seven months
on a sinking ship, I promise you that.
NARRATOR: Sigourney Weaver, time-warping like you can't imagine.
You know, I was thinking, how can I get Sigourney back
in this damn movie?
He said, "Come on, we both know you're 14 at heart,
so I don't think this is going to be a problem for you."
NARRATOR: Now, the cast is taking you to their "Blue carpet" premiere.
Come with me.
NARRATOR: For the most anticipated movie sequel ever?
Avatar: The Way Of Water is...
Worth the wait.
NARRATOR: Here's Chris Connelly.
[indistinct chattering]
WOMAN 1 ON TV: Avatar which raked in 75 million dollars...
MAN 1 ON TV: A record weekend at the country's movie theaters.
WOMAN 2 ON TV: Avatar shoots to the top the box office this weekend.
NARRATOR: When Avatar first hit theaters in December of 2009...
Yeah, check it out!
NARRATOR: No one had seen anything like it...
Oh, my God.
NARRATOR: By 2010, it was as if everyone in the world had seen it.
I see you.
JAMES: I remember, you know, I worked on that film
for about three years before I saw one shot finished.
We had no guarantee that it was going to work.
So, it was a giant leap of faith you know?
And then for that to-to be fulfilled and for people
to embrace it felt great.
NARRATOR: Years earlier, writer/director/producer
James Cameron had conquered Hollywood with Titanic.
This is just pure bliss.
NARRATOR: Now it was happening again.
I remember Jim telling us to leave town
when the movie came out and, you know don't have friends
that tell us about box office receipts.
I disappeared and when I came back into society,
life had changed 180 and people looked at you different.
NARRATOR: Getting pop culture shoutouts from the men and women of SNL.
I choose you.
And I choose you, Neytiri.
[audience laughing]
NARRATOR: An homage from The Simpsons...
[instrumental music]
plus talk shows.
How's it going there, Loki?
Avatar hit a worldwide record.
I mean, it was the fastest-growing film to hit a billion dollars.
And hit a billion dollars in 19 days.
That's colossal.
NARRATOR: Avatar became the top-grossing film of all time.
Its mix of live-action and performance-capture
a cinematic singularity in 3D.
Amazing, isn't it?
NARRATOR: Its ground-breaking, breathtaking visuals
introducing viewers to Pandora.
You are ready.
NARRATOR: Zoe Saldana's Neytiri and the rest of the Na'vi,
guides to a glorious world where magical possibility
and harmony with nature is beset by humans.
-Fire. -Firing.
ZOE: I feel like it was the first time, at least for audiences
like myself, where we were hearing the conversation
around climate change
and given a clear picture of what could happen.
NARRATOR: The result was an action-filled thrill ride
set in a place so idyllic...
that just like Sam Worthington's Jake Sully...
Welcome to your new body, Jake.
NARRATOR: ...some never wanted to leave it,
a feeling shared by some Avatar fans,
as articulated during this sequence
of HBO's How to with John Wilson.
I have this serial track record of just trying to escape my reality.
And, uh, Avatar provided that escapism
in a way that I had never really experienced before.
NARRATOR: A smash around the world and a Disney world attraction...
ALL: Welcome to Pandora!
NARRATOR: It would be such a success that Cameron mulled walking away
from moviemaking forever.
You could have dropped the mic and said, "I'm done with filmmaking."
Why did you want to get back in the chair and be a storyteller again?
At certain point, I had to face that crossroads.
You know, do I want to do another Avatar movie?
Do I want to invite lightning to come and strike the same place again?
Of course, my final answer was "Go big or go home."
NARRATOR: Cameron did both.
Resettling in New Zealand and deciding
to expand the franchise to as many as five films.
And expanding the environments of the first Avatar,
where Jim Cameron has always been drawn to,
in the movies and in real life...
into the deep.
JAMES: I thought, "Alright, if I'm going to go down this rabbit hole,
let's see how deep we can go with it,
metaphorically and-and physically,
because it obviously took us into the ocean.
NARRATOR: Now, in Avatar: The Way Of Water,
he's giving his beloved characters a family.
I know one thing.
[sobbing]
Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.
ZOE: Now they're not just, you know, two partners on the run.
Now it's two partners and children on the run.
So, the heart is much more compromised.
I don't want to be late for my own party.
NARRATOR: Years after Avatar's end,
The Way Of Water finds Jake and Neytiri,
the lovers and heroes of the first film,
tending to a flock of children.
What was important to you about it being a blended family?
It's really a mixed-race family if you think about that dynamic.
You know, Jake is-is essentially partially human.
He has a human mind in a Na'vi body, but it's really an Avatar body.
And Neytiri is a full-blooded Na'vi
and so how does their community look upon them
and more importantly, their children?
NARRATOR: The responsibilities of parenthood
affecting their response to crisis.
JAMES: The humans have come back, and here they are having to go war
pick up their weapons again.
Now they've got children. What does that look like?
I think it speaks to everyone because everyone has a family.
I think it's about the lengths that people will go
to make sure your family is safe and protected.
JAMES: They're forced to leave Neytiri's home.
They wind up taken in by a sea clan.
We called it the fish out of water story.
They have to learn how to adapt to being in water,
just as our actors did.
NARRATOR: Putting that family beneath the waves
would require major advances in filmmaking.
And performers who were up for the unique challenge.
I never get intimidated by Jim's crazy ideas.
I think that you always get inspired by them.
You can give me a two... a close... a loose shot.
SAM: He doesn't have the answers.
He has his notions of what he wants to achieve
and then we become the Guinea pigs.
It's very hard to say no to Jim.
"No, I'd rather not do that. No, I'm afraid to do that."
These are words you just don't use with him.
Because he believes you can do it, and kind of
because he believes you can do it, you go, "Well, I better do it."
We really were well-trained for this.
I think what makes Jim special are his dreams.
He dreams these things, and then he has the acumen
to make them a reality.
NARRATOR: And who better to help those dreams take shape
than the actress who joined with him 25 years ago
for one of cinema's best-loved stories?
Only...
JAMES: So Zoe trusts me, Sam trusts me,
Sigourney trusts me.
And, uh, I didn't know where I was going to stand with, uh, with Kate.
They didn't know if she had any reticence about wanting to...
to act with me again.
NARRATOR: Kate Winslet's response, more on that later,
would bring much of what's new about Avatar: The Way Of Water
into clear focus, part of Cameron's own evolution.
One of the things about Jim Cameron is that
on a movie set, I think there are few jobs that he can't do
better or as well as anybody.
One of them is acting.
And the other one is catering.
NARRATOR: Cutting-edge moviemaking
with an epic budget and mega expectations...
its first trailer earning a ridiculous
148 million views in the first 24 hours.
It's yet another high-risk, high-reward moment
for James Cameron.
You know, it's like working on a moon mission.
We spent five years building this rocket,
and it's either gonna blow up on the pad
or it's gonna go to the moon.
And I couldn't, I couldn't call that right now.
NARRATOR: As his unprecedented achievement
awaits a world very different from the one
that welcomed Avatar in 2009,
can the Way Of Water exert the same pull
on the hearts and minds of moviegoers?
Cameron says yes.
What kind of story did you want to give the world
on this second Avatar movie?
I think there's a conscience of the first film
which I wanted to continue, which is around
our remaining natural spaces
and how civilization is encroaching on them.
But I also just really fell in love with these characters,
Jake and Neytiri, and I thought, what would that love story
look like 15 years later?
Then, how much more powerful a story could it be?
NARRATOR: She is every bit the beating heart of the Avatar films.
Neytiri, as portrayed via performance capture
for director James Cameron
by the extraordinary Zoe Saldana.
ZOE: The cadence of the scenes and how the story is carried along
is absolutely powerful.
NARRATOR: From J.J. Abrams' Star Trek films...
We're receiving a stress signal from the USS Kobayashi Maru.
NARRATOR: To James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy series.
You have the bearing of a man of honor.
NARRATOR: Saldana has been a go-to talent
for franchise directors like Cameron.
All of whom, she believes, recognize in her a rebel spirit.
I think that there's probably something that they see in me
that they see in themselves.
I hear words like an outsider, a misfit, uh, an underdog.
And these were words that I would use to describe myself
when I was younger.
KELLEY: What I love about Zoe is that for better or for worse,
she has a voice and she is not afraid to use it.
She is very strong, and she's very confident.
Above all of that, she's extremely courageous.
ZOE: As a daughter of immigrants, as a woman of color,
it gave me an empty, vast space
where I can be anything that I wanted.
But I needed the gatekeepers of these worlds
to believe in me and, and they did.
This is our home.
JAMES: Zoe came back and I think on her very first day
she said one of my favorite lines in the film.
And I was like, "She's back. Neytiri's back."
NARRATOR: So is Jake Sully.
I got no plan, but I can protect this family,
that I can do!
NARRATOR: Leaving his human form behind.
Becoming a father.
I feel her, dad.
SAM: First one he was stuck between his allegiances
with the humans and his allegiances with the Na'vi.
Protect the people.
This time, he's stuck between his allegiances with
remaining the legendary Na'vi warrior
or the responsibilities to his family.
NARRATOR: As an actor, Sam Worthington has starred in another series, too.
He's featured in three black ops video games
in the Call Of Duty franchise.
As Avatar's leading man,
he thrives working for James Cameron.
Look, Jim's this guy, I've always said I'm, I'm his soldier.
Jim's this director I'll do anything for,
but he's in the trench right there next to me.
Well, Sam is his own soldier, He can project incredible power.
Incredible strength, incredible leadership
just through his voice.
If the people harbor us, they will die.
And there was more of a consonance between the character
an-and Sam's real life because now he's a father of, of two boys.
I need you to be strong, strong heart.
JAMES: In many ways she and Sam are the rock, the core of the story.
But there's almost a whole act
that leaves the parents behind and follows the kids.
NARRATOR: For The Way Of Water's family members,
team Avatar conducted an extensive search
to find the next generation of Pandora inhabitants.
I see you.
MARGERY: We had over 15,000 submissions.
Keep up, forest boy.
MARGERY: 4,662 were seen.
And we winnowed that down and 16 kids came in for tests.
NARRATOR: To play Jake and Neytiri's first born,
the UK's Jamie Flatters stood out with this original monologue.
Now I can join the armed forces, pay tax, and get married.
But I can't vote.
NARRATOR: Entitled "It's time to speak"
and got the part.
When I flew to LA for the final round I was told,
"Look, you're, you're just an option.
You're going to be too old to do this."
And when you're 16 to be told you're too old, you get very
you know, you're in crisis, right?
I remember getting the audition notice February of 2017,
and being so excited that I showed up a week early by accident.
NARRATOR: An actress and singer/songwriter.
♪ California sun ♪
NARRATOR: Trinity Bliss was just a baby when the first film came out.
She's playing Jake and Neytiri's youngest child, Tuk.
TRINITY: Having Jim as the director, he really takes the time
to explain to you about the Pandora around us,
so we each can really transfer ourselves
into this amazing world that he's created.
She's another one of these just kind of luminous people, you know?
She never missed a line. Never missed a mark.
And yet, at the same time, she was completely spontaneous
and would just make stuff up that was completely in character.
And some of it's in the, in the movie.
NARRATOR: And then there was New Yorker Bailey Bass.
Now 19, a model since she was just 2.
I didn't have much experience, and because of that,
I thought my audition was terrible.
NARRATOR: Now playing Tsireya, the daughter of her clan's leader.
Avatar was my, like, big, oh, my gosh, this is happening,
I'm becoming an actor.
NARRATOR: This role would be a life-changer for Bailey
in more ways than one.
I didn't grow up... I had much when it comes to love,
but in terms of, like, financially, we didn't have much.
But we always got through it
because my mom's just the best.
And then I'm sitting in my mom's car,
and I start tearing up
because I reached this moment in my life, in my career
where I can take care of my family.
NARRATOR: Virginian, Jack Champion, who plays Spider,
had been in a blockbuster before.
That's him riding a bike in 2019's
Avengers: Endgame.
JACK: I'm in it for, like, ten seconds
and I worked with Paul Rudd.
I was like, hey, man, I'm going to fly to LA
to do this screen test for Avatar.
And he's like, "Oh, that's good, kid. You know, I wish you luck."
And then I saw him again like, "Dude, like, I did it."
And he was like, "Oh, my gosh."
I'm taller than him now.
NARRATOR: On set, it was Trinity and Jack taking care
of The Ways Of Water's swear jar.
Designed to keep the language on-set
appropriate for young ears.
TRINITY: An F-bomb was $5 [bleep]
and S-bomb was $1 [bleep]
Sam, Slang? Oh geez.
Sam was our primary contributor
and he'd just come to me and say
"Can I start the day with negative $40?"
But he actually tried really hard.
He replaced some words with "hot dog."
NARRATOR: The money raised went to a canine clinic
but, ah, what could have been.
I'm wondering if you made any donations to the swear jar, Jim?
I could've funded this movie
if I was donating to the swear jar.
[chuckles]
They're not aggressive.
Relax, marine.
NARRATOR: Attuned to the wonders of Pandora
imbued with a reverence for the Na'vi.
Dr. Grace Augustine in the first Avatar...
Come on, Grace, move!
...sought to ensure their safety.
One idiot with a gun is enough.
NARRATOR: While in human form...
Relations with the indigenous are only getting worse.
Yeah, that tends to happen when you use
machine guns on them.
NARRATOR: This tough-talking scientist worked to foil efforts
to dislodge the Na'vi.
Parker, there is time to salvage the situation.
Shut your piehole!
Or what, Ranger Rick?
You going to shoot me?
NARRATOR: Sigourney Weaver, three-time Oscar nominated
actress, honored for playing another scientist
Dian Fossey in Gorillas In The Mist
If I ever see you or your meat wagon again
you'll be lucky if you don't end up in a wooden box.
NARRATOR: Bad boss Katharine Parker in Working Girl...
And this woman is my secretary.
She's not.
Oh, no? Ask her.
NARRATOR: And Ellen Ripley in the 1986 sequel Aliens
written and directed by James Cameron
who 36 years ago, gave her a career-defining line.
Get away from her, you bitch!
NARRATOR: Securing Ripley's place in the top rank of action heroes
female or male, and a creative partnership with Cameron
through the first Avatar and even beyond.
There's so many things I admire about him.
SIGOURNEY: He's incredibly generous. He believes in us.
He's a great friend.
You know, I think if I was really in trouble, I'd call Jim.
NARRATOR: Even between these friends, there's a secret
that's never been shared.
How long had you known Jim Cameron before he found out
that you had begun your career
with a project called "Titanic?"
I don't think I've ever told him about it.
[laughing]
NARRATOR: Her Titanic, a comedy, a play produced off-Broadway in 1976.
He knows nothing about it.
It wasn't quite as big a hit as his movie.
Grace...
NARRATOR: When the first Avatar ended, it seemed like
Dr. Grace Augustine had breathed her last.
Grace...
NARRATOR: A lunch found actor and director hoping to reteam
on the upcoming Avatars.
What do you remember about that lunch?
[laughing]
Well, I'd already made up my mind.
I just needed to get her to agree.
NARRATOR: Cameron giving Jake and Neytiri
an adopted teenage daughter.
Kiri.
JAMES: The obvious choice to play that character was Sigourney.
And in fact, I wrote it for her.
You know, I was thinking, "How can I get Sigourney
back in this damn movie?"
How did he tell you he wanted you to play someone
who was 14 years old?
Well, you know, he said
"Come on. We both know you're 14 at heart."
"So, I don't think this is going to be a problem for you."
NARRATOR: Playing a character decades younger
it's perhaps her biggest acting challenge ever.
SIGOURNEY: I don't think he would've offered it to me
if we didn't know each other
if he didn't know what a goofball I was.
And, basically, that is who I am.
And you know, Kiri is much more perhaps serious.
-Earnest. -Earnest, yeah, and searching.
Hi, mom!
NARRATOR: Just as her teen character Kiri is searching
Weaver could recall grappling with her own
life issues as she was growing up.
SIGOURNEY: I had, as many of us do, a very memorable adolescence.
I was this tall when I was 11. I remember all of it so well.
And just wanting to shrink, wanting to disappear.
I was terribly shy.
So that sense of alienation when you're young
that sense of, like, conflict with your mom
maybe, or... How did those things sort of come to play?
I remember all of that very vividly.
I think children feel things so strongly.
And, I think Kiri takes things very much to heart.
So what does her heartbeat sound like?
Mighty.
NARRATOR: Kiri's look, based on an adjustment that Weaver suggested
to Cameron, who'd initially envisioned her as a poised
note-perfect teen version of Neytiri.
And I said, "That's not Kiri."
You know, Neytiri is like this incredible goddess, warrior
who's so perfect, who's so beautiful.
You know, she can do anything.
I'm telling you that as a 13, 14-year-old girl, I don't ever
imagine that I'm going to be anything like that
and I'd rather not try.
CHRIS: And he heard you when you said that?
SIGOURNEY: He heard. It went from this very
composed-looking young woman
to what they call awkward Kiri.
The challenge for you is that you were acting along with
other young people who actually are children right now.
May I just say how grateful I am to all the kids
for accepting me as one of the group.
I did all the physical preparation with them.
I was determined not to be this old lady who couldn't do.
NARRATOR: So, she committed fully.
Doing parkour alongside her real-life co-stars.
Now more of a mouth open, kinda, hah!
NARRATOR: Like Jack Champion, whom she'd auditioned with.
She was the most warm, welcoming person, and made me
feel really like, okay, we're having fun, instead of, like
this is an audition.
It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life
because here is this beautiful boy who, we just grab
each other's hands and I fell in love
with Jack then and even though now he's a huge tall man
that 12-year-old will always be dear to my heart.
I forget that I'm working with Sigourney
and she just becomes Kiri, the character.
NARRATOR: A character born of a unique trust
between actor and director.
Jim gave me total freedom. And I just would let Kiri out.
At this point in my work
I know just to, to put a lot of work
and thought in, and then you
just get out of the way of the character.
And so, I, I really wasn't driving this thing.
SIGOURNEY: She was pretty much driving it.
And I was, you know, running after her.
Alright, the moment of truth.
Somebody's life is about to change.
NARRATOR: One life surely did when Kate Winslet was cast
by James Cameron in Titanic.
I feel like this man gave me opportunity
and belief in myself.
Because when you're a young actor, it's terrifying.
NARRATOR: Up to that point, she'd been an up-and-coming British film actress,
known for critically-acclaimed movies
Heavenly Creatures.
It's all frightfully romantic.
And Sense And Sensibility.
Then in 1997, Titanic made Kate Winslet, at just 22
into a movie star.
NEWS REPORTER 1: Titanic is expected to cruise past the $200 million
mark at the box office tomorrow.
NEWS REPORTER 2: The Oscars crowd is in a frenzy!
NEWS REPORTER 3: Are you big fans of Kate Winslet?
ALL: Yes!
KATE: It is a very kind of unreal feeling and without sounding daft,
I do kind of think, how come this has happened to me?
NARRATOR: Much of that with Titanic
had to do with the work ethic she'd displayed.
When did you sort of learn how strong you were?
Well, I've always had stamina.
[gasping] Ah!
People have always said that about me.
Like, "Oh, God, Kate, you're so..."
What is it that people always say to me, "Oh, she's a trooper!"
They always say that to me.
They've been saying that to me for years.
NARRATOR: As she discussed with Stephen Colbert back in 2017...
-You were really cold? -Yeah, I was really [bleep] cold!
Kate Winslet.
NARRATOR: An A-lister, she'd win a best actress Oscar in 2009
for The Reader.
I think I was probably eight years old and staring in the bathroom mirror
and this would have been a shampoo bottle.
Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now!
NARRATOR: Then, two decades after Titanic, a familiar face
resurfaced with a new project.
Kate had been rather public about the stress on her
on Titanic.
I mean, she and I have been pals since then.
We've buried that hatchet, you know, 20 years ago.
But I didn't know that she was going to say yes to this.
JAKE: Let's get it done.
NARRATOR: This was a chance to work together again.
A proffered role for Winslet in the Avatar saga.
KATE: I play Ronal.
Jim described her as being the fearless, tenacious warrior
goddess, leader of the water tribe.
And I'm just like, tick, tick, tick, tick.
You're the first director she's ever worked with more than once.
I didn't even realize that until a few days ago
somebody mentioned it to me.
So, I guess we can drive a stake through that old dumb myth.
I was just excited. Yeah. My children were like...
"Oh, mum, you have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it."
I said, "Okay, okay. You know, we'll read the script."
It was almost like they didn't care what the script was like!
NARRATOR: This second Avatar film and those still to come reunite
Winslet with Cameron and the water,
with some key differences this time.
KATE:You know, Titanic, so much water, moving water.
-And cold water. -And cold water.
So there was never any way of being able
to truly predict how the water would behave.
Whereas on Avatar...
the tank was huge. It was secure.
And actually, it was incredibly calm.
It's better than being in a corset for seven months
on a sinking ship. I promise you that.
[chuckles]
NARRATOR: Now, she put her experience to good use,
displaying leadership to younger actors on the set.
JAMES: She's such a powerhouse, as a star in her own right,
I thought, well, you know, is she gonna even wanna be directed?
It turns out that, yes and no.
The way Kate does it is, she listens very carefully
to what I say and then she directs everyone else in the scene for me.
It does take a female voice, almost a mother to say,
"Okay, come on, everyone, all look at me for one second."
"I think what Jim is going to want is to see you
more in this kind of space, is that right, Jim?"
BAILEY: When we were filming I was like, "Oh my gosh, she's from Titanic."
She's an icon." I can't put it into words.
She's Kate Winslet. You wanna learn from her.
Every time she gives advice, I take it to heart.
KATE: I remember being a young actor and wishing at times
I had someone to hold my hand and say, "It's okay to make mistakes."
NARRATOR: Winslet's character Ronal and her guidance,
helping the film to address new issues.
Like when Jake and the rest of the Sullys must leave
their part of P