Final Avatar: The Way of Water Trailer Breakdown

Alright everyone, final trailer means final breakdown, and we have a good amount of new stuff to go through! Let's not waste any time getting to it, spoilers ahead for those looking to avoid them.​

Our first shot might look familiar to those of you who picked up the Empire Magazine article last June.  We open on a stunning shot of the Sully family flying their Ikran at sunrise/sunset, heading for the Metkyina clan and fleeing from the RDA.  Jake and Neytiri take the front with Tuk asleep in her mother’s arms, and Kiri, Lo’ak, and Neteyam taking up the back.

We then cut to back to back shots of the Sully family arriving at the Metkayina reefs, flying over the reef pools, with a new shot of the clan members below reacting to their arrival, and finally a shot of the family landing on the clan’s beaches. As we pointed out in our previous breakdown, Spider is absent in these shots- likely due to capture by the RDA during this period of the film.

The next shot is brief, but also provides a surprising amount of information for eagle-eyed viewers.  The shot itself is part of the Sully family’s arrival, with Tonowari asking “Why do you come to us?”  However, if you look closely, you’ll see that Ronal’s stomach is flat, rather than the pregnant belly that has been shown in all other preview clips, trailers, and promotional shots we’ve seen yet.  Knowing that she is very much pregnant during what looks to be the final battle of the movie, it seems that the Sullys will spend a good number of months with the tribe.

​Returning to Tonowari’s question of “Why do you come to us?”, in the next shot we see a staggering amount of AMP suits leaving a vehicle, likely an improved Valkyrie shuttle. We cut back to a shot of Jake holding Tuk in his arms, saying “I just want to keep my family safe”.  From there we see a couple of shots of the Sully kids growing up and Jake and Neytiri being parents.  We first get an adorable shot of the entire family spending time in a hammock not long after Tuk is born, then hopping back in time with Jake playing with a younger Neteyam and Kiri, with Neytiri looking after a younger Lo’ak.

Next, we jump back to the arrival scene, with Lo’ak and Neteyam noticing Tsireya emerging from the water. Neytiri also notices out of the side of her eye (or is just glaring at her boys both are likely).  Some of you might have also noticed that Tsireya’s eyes looked a little weird coming out of the water, and you’re right!  It seems the Metkayina also have a nictitating membrane as part of their eyelids.  We finish the arrival scene shots with two back to back shots of Aonung and Rotxo observing the Sully family as they first arrive and not reacting to Neteyam and Lo’ak signing “I See you” as a greeting.

From there we jump to a shot of Lo’ak swimming down part of the reef, with another Na’vi above him. Tonowari’s dialogue plays over the next couple of shots, Saying “treat them as our brothers and sisters, teach them our ways”.  After that we have a few shots of one of the preview scenes, with Tuk watching the fish after she jumps into the water, Lo’ak and Neteyam surfacing after their first diving attempt, and the Metkayina kids antagonizing the Sully kids after their first attempt at diving.  It should be noted that the “keep up forest boy” dialogue from Aonung that plays over the last of these clips is not from this scene (that we have seen), and is likely taken from another.

Up next is a bit of dialogue from Aonung saying “if you want to live here, you have to ride”, which is also taken from one of the scenes shown at D23.  This bit of dialogue plays over Kiri meeting and bonding with an Ilu, bonding with it, and then a separate shot of Tsireya showing Lo’ak how to bond with an Ilu. The next shot of Lo’ak saying “let’s do it” is unquestionably taken from another scene, given that the background is different and his hair is tied up, where it wasn’t in the previous shot.  From there we jump back to the Ilu training with Lo’ak, who seems to overconfidently prepare himself to ride the Ilu as if he was riding an Ikran.  Safe to say after a few shots of him struggling to hold on, falling off, and Aonung laughing at him underwater, he didn’t nail it the first time.  We even have a reaction shot of Tsireya giggling, although she seems much further out of the water than she was in the previous shots, so it might not be from the same scene.

After those shenanigans, it seems like Tsireya give Lo’ak another chance to ride (or it may be from the previous set of shots).  We hear a voiceover from her saying “just breathe, breathe”, which is actually from her lines in the swimming preview scene from the remaster. Her voiceover ends with a shot of Lo’ak seeming to ready himself to ride the Ilu.

​From here we cut to a shot of a forest Na’vi with five fingers tightening a strap on their water mount.  From the shots before the first guess would be Lo’ak, but checking the structure of the loincloth and the fact that no one uses a leather strap for an Ilu, this is likely Jake learning to ride his Skimwing.

​After that, there is a quick cut to black followed by the music swelling to a plethora of shots, with a Metkayina and forest Na'vi launching their Ilu out of the water, likely hunting. We have another set of shots of Tsireya leading Kiri and Tuk on a little adventure with their Ilu, with all of them having a great time.  We revisit another shot from the original teaser of Lo’ak skimming the surface of the water from below while riding on Payakan’s fin, and a shot of Tonowari riding his Skimwing (not in battle garb) above the water while surrounded by Tulkun.  We get another callback to the official trailer of Lo’ak talking to Tsireya saying “outcast, that’s all they see” gesturing to his hand, as well as the shot of him getting tackled.  These two shots are matched by a shot of what seems to be Jake and Neytiri underwater, grabbing each other’s hand, and Tsireya holding Lo’ak’s hand and saying “I see you” to him. Following up those shots, we have a gorgeous shot of Lo’ak and other Metkayina member riding their Ilu through a pod of Tulkun, which is as beautiful and chaotic as it sounds.

The next shot is a huge one in terms of spoilers, so turn back now if you want to save this surprise for when you go see the film.

​The next shot shows at least 3 recoms flying Ikran above the water, dressed up with RDA gear.  The one at the focus seems to be our recom antagonist Miles Quaritch, with Spider at the front of his Ikran.  Plenty of speculation has been going around about Spider’s story, given that he seems to be a major player going by the character posters, and yet we’ve barely had any shots in the trailers focus on him.  We know from D23 footage that he is captured by Quaritch before the Sully family flees, and that he is present at the assault on the Metkayina village from a shot in the official trailer.  Where Spider’s story goes, what he does, and his overall arc has been hidden from us save for these few shots.  Whatever it is, there is a strong chance it will be a major focus of the movie, and we won’t know until the day of.

​From there, we jump back to two shots of a conversation between Jake and Neteyam in the Omatikya forests, ready for battle.  Neteyam argues that “I’m a warrior like you, I’m supposed to fight”, with an Ikran behind him, and Jake looking concerned as he tells them this.  Neteyam strives to be a hero like his father, and it seems to lead him to wanting to endlessly prove himself and make rash decisions.

Things take a darker turn with the next few shots, as we see the massive Sea Dragon leave Bridgehead and followed by some Seawasps, to panicked Metkayina watching their home be burned by human and recom alike, and a time jump back to Neytiri begging Jake to “Protect the people”, whilst holding her father’s bow with both of her hands on the eve of the Sullys fleeing.  It should be noted for that last shot, there is a digital display behind her, but it is difficult to tell what it is showing.

​The tension with the music only ramps up from here, with plenty of action shots to go.  We see Neytiri jumping off her Ikran to do a summersault down a set of stairs on the sea dragon and shoot her bow, some kind of RDA transport (tag says 42-DM) on a bridge flipping over as the bridge is destroyed, an Ilu making beautiful bioluminescent swirls in the nighttime water, and obviously pissed off Quaritch whipping around, wielding his knife, and Jake slipping off his leather harness as he fails to handle the intense underwater speeds of his aquatic mount.

We get a breather with the music for a fraction of a second to return with a shot of Jake at the forefront, likely during the final battle, saying “let’s get it done” and charging forward, with what looks like Neytiri, Kiri, Tuk, and Spider in the water behind him.  Neytiri matches the badassery as the music picks up, taking off on her Ikran at night, fire around her, and an unidentifiable Na’vi on the ground in front of her.  We then see Payakan enacting his massive back flop onto the Sea Dragon form the previous trailer, crushing a number of RDA personnel.  It then seems like he slaps the Sea Dragon upwards, as the next shot shows Lo’ak, Tuk, Tsireya and other incapacitated RDA personnel starting to lift off the ground.  We cut back to a chase sequence from the official trailer, with Kiri holding onto Tuk as tight as she can while they are racing through kelp forests, followed by a shot as crab suit mech knocks away one of those leaves to close in on what might be a hiding place.  There is another shot of Lo’ak drawing his knife and facing down an Akula, and a shot of Jake starting to get the hang of riding his Skimwing, and we finally close on Neytiri rocketing down on her Ikran, readying her bow to shoot through the glass of a Seawasp cockpit.

And just like that, roll credits on the final full-length trailer we will receive before Avatar: The Way of Water premieres in just over 20 days! Did we miss anything? Let us know in the comments below! Thank you for reading along, and to guest-writer TheAllPowerfulSteve for putting this breakdown together.