Jake about to go to Pandora!

1. The scene I selected to watch was in the beginning of the film, where Jake Sully is preparing for his first moments in an avatar body. (Here is the clip I am essentially referencing via YouTube)

2. This moment begins with Jake wheeling up to the capsule that will take him to Pandora. As he moves his wheel chair right next to the machine, Jake denies the nurse’s help and continues to hoist his own body up onto the machine (using just his arm strength) and move his legs into position.

The nurse then talks to Jake with snappy comments; she criticizes Jake’s decisions to enter Pandora with no prior training, asking why he would ever do such a thing. Jake simply responds with, “Maybe I was sick of doctors telling me what I couldn’t do.”

When I suspend my disbelief and picture myself as Jake, I understand his actions. Jake lacks the use of his legs on Earth, and by lifting his own body into the capsule, I see that he wants to avoid a helpless attitude from developing. He demonstrates both to the nurse and to himself that he is not physically inept. To every doctor who said “You can’t”, he just said, “I can.”

However, I am also able to picture myself as a nurse. When Jake refuses her help, he appears a bit cocky and overly confident despite his physical limitations. The nurse questions him about his lack of training, and his response implies that he feels invincible; that only on Earth is he limited, but on Pandora things will be different.

When I watch Avatar though, it is clear I should be taking the viewpoint of Jake. He is, after all, the main character, while the nurse is only a marginal figure. In this scene [I think] I am supposed to feel a bit worried for Jake, as is cued by the snarky remarks from the nurse, but I am also compelled to feel confidently about Jake’s decision to enter Pandora. Jake shows no fear, no reserve; only anticipation for what Pandora will offer.

Ultimately, I feel pretty excited for Jake to enter Pandora. It’s like I should exclaim, “Yeah, you go Jake!” as the capsule is closed. I just listened to the nurse advising against his eagerness to reach Pandora, implying he is ill prepared and quite foolish, but he leads me to feel otherwise. It’s as if he is saying, “Whatever happens, I can deal with it. I’ll be just fine.” Overall, his attitude is reassuring and adds suspense to find out what life is like in Pandora.

3. The argument made, as I see it, is to not underestimate Jake. He might be crippled on Earth and be coming into the mission with no previous training and little knowledge, but that is no reason to lose faith. We see how he has to use his arms a tremendous amount to move his own body. We see how he won’t readily accept others’ help. We see him brush off everything people have told him he “can’t do”. But yet, his attitude and speech refutes everyone. He maneuvers himself because he can do it himself. He doesn’t need the training because he knows he can do it and doesn’t want to hear otherwise. People tell Jake “no”, but Jake tell us “yes”. Pandora is a test to even the most physically capable individuals, but that won’t discourage Jake. He can do it, he knows he can; we need to believe he can too.

How does fantasy play into this scene? We have surely all been told we cannot do something before, and oh how we proved those individuals wrong. We desire the feeling of triumph. Your buddy in third grade said you couldn’t do a pull up in gym class, so you got up to the bar and you proved him wrong. Someone said you weren’t good enough to get into the school of your dreams, so you studied hard, tested well, and made achievements to get that acceptance letter.

Or at least, you wish that was how the story went. Whether success was obtained or not, we had at least wished for the success. Now, we see Jake wishing for success. We have the image of ourselves, disadvantaged, and the fantasy of obtaining a competitive advantage. Our current selves are not good enough, and the fantasy selves are perfect. Where is the gap? In between. What will close the gap? It’s about to be Jake Sully going to Pandora.