If you haven't yet seen Avatar and don't want to have something that's pretty obvious from the first half-hour of the movie onward spoiled for you, run away now!
Okay. This is actually something that will probably only be of interest to Robert and Biji since we had a conversation on this very topic as we exited the theater. Though, after reading this article, I guess it was a hot topic for all viewers of the movie. You know what "it" is - the scene in the film where Jake and Neytiri, uh, mate for life before Eywa. As you recall, the scene is both vague but awkward. Had James Cameron had his original idea brought to life, however, it might've been just a wee bit more squirm-inducing. Or romantic, I guess, depending on if you're into that kind of thing.
[From EW.com] Fox released James Cameron’s original Avatar script online and despite the ambiguous intimacy we saw in the movie, it turns out Neytiri and Jake’s “tendrils INTERTWINE with gentle undulations.” Whoa! In the U.S. theatrical release, the pair only kiss a little (weak!) before the camera zooms out, and the next thing you know they’re on the ground, totally spent. It’s unclear why this wouldn’t have been included, but my guess is that it might imply that tendril-intertwining is what happens when the Na’vi have sex, which, I guess, by definition would mean they also had sex with the trees and the six-legged panther/dogs and the flying peacock lizards and anything else that ruffled their tendrils, and that might have been confusing and maybe made the whole thing less PG-13. Who knows? You can read the deleted section of the scene [below].CAMERON’S ORIGINAL SCRIPT
He puts his face close to hers. She rubs her cheek against his. He kisses her on the mouth. They explore each other. Then she pulls back, eyes sparkling.
NEYTIRI: Kissing is very good. But we have something better.
She pulls him down until they are kneeling, facing each other on the faintly glowing moss.
Neytiri takes the end of her queue and raises it. Jake does the same, with trembling anticipation. The tendrils at the ends move with a life of their own, straining to be joined.
MACRO SHOT — The tendrils INTERTWINE with gentle undulations.
JAKE rocks with the direct contact between his nervous system and hers. The ultimate intimacy.
They come together into a kiss and sink down on the bed of moss, and ripples of light spread out around them.
THE WILLOWS sway, without wind, and the night is alive with pulsing energy as we DISSOLVE TO –
LATER. She is collapsed across his chest. Spent. He strokes her face tenderly.
I have to say, Robert, Biji and I all had the same idea about the whole Na'vi sex thing and agreed that, while the whole tendril-entwining thing made the most sense, it also basically implied that the Na'vi essentially rape the Ikran when 'bonding' with it. Which sort of puts a negative spin on things. Then again, as one commenter put it, "This is a science fiction STORY. It doesn’t have to fit northern hemisphere values."
I am, at the very least, glad that my friends and I were not the only ones spending too much time dissecting an alien sex scene...
2 comments:
Ok, I gotta put in my 2 cents here, since I absolutely love Avatar and believe that it is the beginning of a new era in filmmaking (the method, not the nice but famaliar story). I'm pretty sure everyone who's passed through puberty could fill-in-the-blank on the sex scene, and so it has sparked much conversation. The best I can work it out, the tendril connection is just a more direct connection, like a Vulcan mind meld. (That's right, I snuck a Star Trek reference in there!) So when combined with sex, it's sexual. But when combined with communication, it's better, unspoken communication. Like more bandwidth. The other, far out idea is that Jake could kind of overtake Neytiri's body like the Na'vi do with the animals, or vice versa. If it didn't take weeks to render a single frame of that movie, I'd think that scene would materialize on the DVD.
I believe James Cameron has already said there will be a "director's cut" DVD released so maybe the tender tendril touching will be included after all. :o) I see your point, though - I'm sure the Na'vi, just like humans, have other body bits that are involved in the act of sex! The tendril connection actually reminded me a lot of the sex helmets in Demolition Man...
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