‘Avatar: The Way of Water’: James Cameron Used Water Jet Propulsion to Put Actual People in Extreme Water Action Scenes
James Cameron released the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water to cinemas 13 years after its predecessor’s release. Moviegoers and critics alike raved about the 2009 movie‘s masterful use of 3D technology and visual effects to bring the world of Pandora to life. Avatar: The Way of Water is no different, as Cameron explained how he used water jet propulsion in mock-up tests to bring the creatures’ movement to life.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ introduces new creatures
Cameron introduced Avatar moviegoers to the mountain banshees that Pandora’s native Na’vi population uses for transportation through the skies. Other creatures included the hammerhead titanothere, direhorses, and the thanator. However, Pandora is monumental in size and has plenty of other terrains. With these different locations come various species that Cameron didn’t fully display until now.
Avatar: The Way of Water finds Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their four children taking refuge in the reefs. There, they meet a different Na’vi race that excels in Pandora’s ocean waters. A whole wealth of new creatures live in this terrain, including skimwings used for hunting and enormous whale-like creatures called tulkuns.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ filmmaker James Cameron used water jet propulsion technology to create mock-up creatures
In an interview with BBC Radio 1, Cameron talked about what went into making Avatar: The Way of Water possible. He took the actors into the ocean so that they could “interact with coral reef and see the wonders for themselves” to imagine later while filming. Additionally, Cameron also wanted to fully plan out how the water creatures would play out in the final cut. The team created “functional mock-ups that could actually fly, dive, and do hydrobatics underwater.”
“It sounds impossible, but we did it with water jet propulsion,” Cameron said. He compared it to the sight of resort guests who go on a platform and fly high into the air doing flips using this same technology.
“We took that technology, developed it further, and made a four-jet version of a skimwing,” Cameron explained. “The skimwing could go 20 miles an hour underwater, pop out of the water, fly around, and then dive back in. Then, we put people on it. Just to see what would happen. That’s my whole approach in life. Let’s just see what happens. What’s the worst that could happen?”
The filmmaker compared this preparation work to “figuring out the choreography.” He wants audiences to know that “everything that you see a character doing is actually being done by a person. It’s not just sort of made-up CG animation. Somebody’s doing it somewhere.”
James Cameron sees 3D going further in cinema
Some reports in 2020 claimed that Cameron was developing a form of glasses-free 3D technology for Avatar: The Way of Water and its sequels. However, he later revealed to Wired that it wasn’t true. However, Cameron remained confident in his feelings toward the technology. The sequel embraces a high frame rate along with the option to see it on IMAX screens. Nevertheless, he still sees a path toward 3D technology that allows moviegoers to experience the format without glasses.
“I don’t think that’s a near-term technology,” Cameron stated. “Someone could walk through the door tomorrow having cracked it … but someone could also walk through the door tomorrow with a warp drive.”
Cameron explained that this technology is likely to hit home theater markets more widely before it comes to movie theaters. The world will have to wait to see how he plans to further push such technologies within the future sequels.
