Avatar 2: The Way of Water is a family-friendly sci-fi blockbuster. Only in this way could James Cameron’s work bring in more than 2 billion US dollars at the worldwide box office and become the third highest-grossing film in history. However, one scene in Avatar 2 is so violent that it caused many gasps of surprise in cinemas.
Avatar 2 has been available on Disney+ since June 7th*. That means you can watch the disgusting scene over and over again in peace. We’ll tell you where to find it – and what’s behind it. Spoilers follow.
Look closely: in Avatar 2 body parts fly through the air
20th Century Fox/Disney
The Tulkun in Avatar 2
What exactly happens in the arm scene
That fights in the finale of the blockbuster Water people Metkayina against the nasty whalers. The battle splits into several smaller fights. One of them: Tulkun hunters against Tulkun, that’s the marine-biologically correct term for the tattooed whale creatures.
Our protagonist is the Tulkun Payakan, soulmate of Lo’ak (Britain Dalton). His opponent: The hunter Mick Scoresby (Brendan Cowell). For minutes, the film builds the arm-down scene on. Payakan wraps around Mick Scoresby’s hunter’s boat with powerful curves and the steel cable that was actually supposed to fix him. Payakan dives down with a bang, soft whaling arm gets caught between hard boat wall and unyielding whaling rope. 30 tons (the weight of a normal humpback whale) presses against Mick Scoresby’s biceps, separating him from the rest of his body.
What the arm scene means for the movie (quite a lot)
Behind the arm scene is, among other things, a personal revenge story, as we explain in more detail in this article. The short version: Payakan lost part of his fin in a fight against the hunters. In the scene above, he retaliates on an eye-for-an-eye basis. The arm scene also shows the complex emotions the wily animals are capable of – and that the human vs. Pandora war involves not only the Na’vi, but also the animal and plant world.
On the subject:
When is James Cameron’s Avatar 3 coming out?
Avatar 3 will officially release on December 20th, 2024 in German cinemas. It won’t stop there. James Cameron is planning a five-part science fiction series about Pandora, Sully and the Na’vi.
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