Allegories & Parables in Film, TV, & Theatre: Avatar (2009)

There are quite a few Catholic allegories in this film. But let me give a summary of the movie first. In a dystopic future, Earth is running out of natural resources. So an Earth corporation has traveled to the planet Pandora and set up operation to mine a valuable mineral found on Pandora. But the planet's indigenous people, an alien species called the Na'vi, dwell in the forest above where the mineral is. The planet's air is poisonous to humans, who the Na'vi call "sky people," so they must link their minds to Na'vi bodies called avatars to move freely on Pandora. Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington), a paralyzed former Marine, is one of the people selected to participate in the Avatar program and learn the ways of the Na'vi so he can gain their trust and persuade them to move off the lands where the mineral is. But he soon falls in love with the Na'vi clan leaders' daughter, Neytiri (played by Zoe Saldana). Soon, he is drawn into a battle for the survival of her world and her people. 

So the first allegory is the Na'vi's relationship with their environment. In the Book of Genesis, God brings all the animals to Adam and instructs him to name them. Naming establishes a relationship. 

The Na'vi have  neuron tendrils at the end of their braids and they use these exposed neuron tendrils to connect with everything around them: the planets and the animals. There is a scene where Jake bonds with a Ikran, which in English is called a Mountain Banshee. These are winged creatures that fly. The bonding process looks scary and dangerous because the Ikran hisses and shrieks at the Na'vi trying to bond with it.  Once Jake gets on the creature's back, the two wrestle because the Ikran is trying to get him off and Jake is fighting to stay on and trying to bond with the creature at the same time. Once Jake bonds with the creature by attaching his  nueron tendrals to the Ikran's antenae, he takes flight because the first flight seals the bond between the rider and the Ikran.  

The Na'vi do not consider the Banshees pets. The same goes with the direhorses (Na'vi name: Pali), which are horse-like creatures native to Pandora. 

The second is the relationship that the Na'vi have with each other, especially when it comes to marriage. Jake and Neytiri commit to each other as mates. They link their neuron tendrils before engaging in the marital act beneath the Tree of the Ancestors. 

That's two allegories in one scene: the first is the one flesh union of marriage that the Church teaches. The second is the Eucharist. While the Eucharist is first and foremost Our Lord, we also connect with the Communion of Saints and everyone who will receive the Eucharist in the future. 

The third is the Na'vi's spiritual community. The Na'vi gather before the Mother Tree, the Tree of Life, or  the Great Mother, who they call Eywa. Eywa is their deity. They sing and sway as one united community during spiritual rituals. Their seats have a spot for their tseyhalu, which is the Na'vi word for their neuron tendrils. 

The fourth and final allegory is Jake's character arc. Jake starts out on the side of the humans who are so selfish in their pursuit of the mineral that they hurt Pandora's lush environment, the Na'vi, and themselves. Jake initially does not care about the Na'vi, but he goes through a spiritual and eventually physical redemption during his time with the Na'vi. 

The Na'vi open his eyes to so many things: respect for nature and the environment, the circle of life, among other things. This is his spiritual redemption. At the end of the movie, Jake dies, but is resurrected in his Na'vi body. Remember, Jake is paralyzed as a human. But as a Na'vi, his body works perfectly. And where does this resurrection occur: before the Tree of Life; before Eywa. 

Jake's death and resurrection is an allegory for our death and resurrection into our new, glorified bodies after the Second Coming.  

And guess what? The director, James Cameron, is a hardline Atheist. There's a bio page for him on the Freedom From Religion Foundation website. Catholic allegories found their way into a movie directed by a staunch Atheist. Way to go, Holy Spirit!