Thanator is Hungry

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkjZbAyJ6Zs

The scene takes place in the forests of Pandora. It is the first exploration done by Jake Sully and the rest of the scientific team in their avatar forms. However, the scientific, peaceful research is quickly disturbed by an attack of the vicious Thanator. The scary creature chooses Jake Sully for his meal and chases him through out the forest until Jake is able to escape by diving into the waterfall and as result looses contact with his counterparts.

The Thanator Chase is the first scene in which we get a distancing feeling between Jake Sully and the humans. After his dive in the waterfall he is essentially cut off from his superiors and left on his own. He is later saved not by another human or human in avatar form but by another actual avatar. While exploring the forest, Jakes avatar is dressed like a human being and is even carrying a weapon of some sort (Signifier). The clothes and the weapon portray Jake as an outsider, conqueror and someone who is fairy new and cautious to an area (Signified). The clothes and weapons point out the superiority of humans over the savages. However, they prove to be useless against a terrifying creature with Jake firing many shots at the Thanator with out doing any type of damage.

The scene is intended to show the dangers of Pandora and the unexpected events that can occur even though the research of the scientists is designed to be harm free. Regardless of all this, human beings are still viewed as outsiders even in their avatar form. Another key argument that this particular scene is trying to establish is the fact that Pandora is no different than Earth in terms of it having its own system and order. This system has to do with the fact that although Na’vi people are animal and nature loving creatures, they must survive by sometimes killing those that they respect so much. The notion of ‘survival of the strongest’ is very real in the case of Pandora and the biggest and strongest creatures eating those that are the weakest follow the food chain. The fact that Thanator was going to kill and eat Jake is not that surprising if you think about it. To the creature, Jake is just another blue snack of the day but to the viewer Thanator is the unfamiliar and scary product of the beautiful but yet dangerous planet.