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Screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver explain the flawed relationship Neytiri has with Spider in James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Avatar: The Way of Water.
Avatar: The Way of Water screenwriters Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver break down Neytiri’s flawed relationship with Spider in James Cameron’s long-awaited sequel. Continuing the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) 13 years after the events of the first Avatar, the sequel sees the couple and their new children on the run after humans return to Pandora. In addition to returning actors like Worthington, Saldaña, Stephen Lang, and Sigourney Weaver, the sequel features a host of new ones as well, including Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Bailey Bass, Trinity Bliss, Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, and Jack Champion, who plays Spider, Miles Quaritch’s son.
In a recent interview with The Wrap, Jaffa and Silver delve into why Neytiri is so hard on Spider in Avatar: The Way of Water. The screenwriting duo explains that Neytiri’s attitude and actions toward Spider are all rooted deeply in character, with her animosity toward the RDA and humanity more generally being the result of the race’s historic mistreatment of Pandora and the Na’vi. Plus, Jaffa explains, Neytiri’s flaws and the dynamic between her and Spider is setting up future story beats. Check out the full comments from Jaffa and Silver below:
Rick Jaffa: Well, it’s based in character, meaning Neytiri’s backstory. Its roots are firmly planted far before the first movie ever came into … before the first movie starts, that Neytiri’s feeling about, and rightfully so, about the human race, is pretty well planted. There’s that. And I think all that’s a very natural thing.
Amanda Silver: When you say it’s firmly planted, it’s also totally relatable. You understand how much the forest and the Omatikaya and the planet means to Neytiri. The fact that it’s been so threatened and thwarted in such a heartless way by the RDA, you understand where she’s coming from, why she’s so angry, and that’s part of the fun when she gets together with Jake. But then they have their own kids who are mixed race, if you will, or mixed species. And then they’re Spider, they call him Pink, meaning human. It’s a way of exploring… I mean, Neytiri is a fully fleshed-out character. She’s got flaws. So it’s okay to let her have flaws, we think. And that’s where Jim was coming from.
Rick Jaffa: Not to be coy or anything, but we’re also setting up where the story’s going.
What Neytiri’s Treatment of Spider Could Mean For Avatar 3 & Beyond
From his first scenes, it’s made clear that Spider is in a unique position as a character. He was among the first humans to have been born on Pandora and was too young to join humanity on their quest back to Earth after their defeat in the first Avatar. He then becomes something of an adopted Sully child in Avatar: The Way of Water, growing up alongside Neteyam (Flatters), Lo’ak (Dalton), Tuk (Bliss), and Kiri (Weaver) who is also an adopted child. Because Spider is human, however, Neytiri believes that he doesn’t belong with them in the forests of Pandora and that he should be back with his own kind. Spider, then, doesn’t totally fit in with the Na’vi, but he also doesn’t feel as if he belongs with the humans.
It’s this feeling of being an outsider that could define how Spider evolves in Avatar 3 and the other two planned sequels. Spider’s feelings of being an outsider are only exasperated when, at the end of Avatar: The Way of Water, Neytiri holds him at knifepoint and threatens to kill him if Quaritch doesn’t let Tuk go. Spider already clearly feels some form of love for Quaritch, even though the Na’vi avatar clone isn’t technically his father, as is made clear by his choice to save the villain from drowning. Neytiri’s rejection of him as a son could end up driving him back to Quaritch in Avatar 3.
As his dynamic with Spider makes clear in Avatar: The Way of Water, the recombinant version of Quaritch is not without empathy and the capacity for change, a far cry from the steely and ruthless colonel seen in the first movie. Spider could, in fact, end up being the key to Quaritch’s redemption, with the character ultimately opening the villain’s eyes to the beauty of Pandora. With Quaritch himself now a Na’vi, the character may be able to be swayed toward actually protecting Pandora in future films. In any case, Avatar: The Way of Water makes clear that Spider will likely have a crucial role moving forward.
Source: The Wrap
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