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NARRATOR: It's finally here.

It's the gift that keeps on giving.

NARRATOR: Thirteen years after Avatar.

Official YIFY movies site: YTS.MX

Whoo!

NARRATOR: Its sequel is ready to take you even further.

What will audiences see in this film

that they've never seen in a movie before?

You show me one image from this film

that you've seen before, and I'll give you ten bucks.

NARRATOR: Tonight, we're taking you behind the scenes,

to the magic of Pandora.

When I met Jim, he said, "Do you want to fall in love

with a beautiful nine foot tall blue woman?"

And I said, "Yeah, mate, no worries."

And now they're not just two partners on the run.

Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.

ZOE: Now, it's two partners and children on the run.

NARRATOR: And they're on the run, underwater.

BAILEY: I wanted to avoid it in the beginning.

It's nerve-wracking holding your breath!

NARRATOR: Now, we're going inside that tank.

We were competing who was gonna hold their breath longer.

Yes, man, look at that!

NARRATOR: The unsinkable Kate Winslet

back with director James Cameron,

25 years after Titanic.

It's better than being in a corset for seven months

on a sinking ship, I promise you that.

NARRATOR: Sigourney Weaver, time-warping like you can't imagine.

You know, I was thinking, how can I get Sigourney back

in this damn movie?

He said, "Come on, we both know you're 14 at heart,

so I don't think this is going to be a problem for you."

NARRATOR: Now, the cast is taking you to their "Blue carpet" premiere.

Come with me.

NARRATOR: For the most anticipated movie sequel ever?

Avatar: The Way Of Water is...

Worth the wait.

NARRATOR: Here's Chris Connelly.

[indistinct chattering]

WOMAN 1 ON TV: Avatar which raked in 75 million dollars...

MAN 1 ON TV: A record weekend at the country's movie theaters.

WOMAN 2 ON TV: Avatar shoots to the top the box office this weekend.

NARRATOR: When Avatar first hit theaters in December of 2009...

Yeah, check it out!

NARRATOR: No one had seen anything like it...

Oh, my God.

NARRATOR: By 2010, it was as if everyone in the world had seen it.

I see you.

I see you.

JAMES: I remember, you know, I worked on that film

for about three years before I saw one shot finished.

We had no guarantee that it was going to work.

So, it was a giant leap of faith you know?

And then for that to-to be fulfilled and for people

to embrace it felt great.

NARRATOR: Years earlier, writer/director/producer

James Cameron had conquered Hollywood with Titanic.

This is just pure bliss.

NARRATOR: Now it was happening again.

I remember Jim telling us to leave town

when the movie came out and, you know don't have friends

that tell us about box office receipts.

I disappeared and when I came back into society,

life had changed 180 and people looked at you different.

NARRATOR: Getting pop culture shoutouts from the men and women of SNL.

I choose you.

And I choose you, Neytiri.

[audience laughing]

NARRATOR: An homage from The Simpsons...

[instrumental music]

plus talk shows.

How's it going there, Loki?

Avatar hit a worldwide record.

I mean, it was the fastest-growing film to hit a billion dollars.

And hit a billion dollars in 19 days.

That's colossal.

NARRATOR: Avatar became the top-grossing film of all time.

Its mix of live-action and performance-capture

a cinematic singularity in 3D.

Amazing, isn't it?

NARRATOR: Its ground-breaking, breathtaking visuals

introducing viewers to Pandora.

You are ready.

NARRATOR: Zoe Saldana's Neytiri and the rest of the Na'vi,

guides to a glorious world where magical possibility

and harmony with nature is beset by humans.

-Fire. -Firing.

ZOE: I feel like it was the first time, at least for audiences

like myself, where we were hearing the conversation

around climate change

and given a clear picture of what could happen.

NARRATOR: The result was an action-filled thrill ride

set in a place so idyllic...

that just like Sam Worthington's Jake Sully...

Welcome to your new body, Jake.

NARRATOR: ...some never wanted to leave it,

a feeling shared by some Avatar fans,

as articulated during this sequence

of HBO's How to with John Wilson.

I have this serial track record of just trying to escape my reality.

And, uh, Avatar provided that escapism

in a way that I had never really experienced before.

NARRATOR: A smash around the world and a Disney world attraction...

ALL: Welcome to Pandora!

NARRATOR: It would be such a success that Cameron mulled walking away

from moviemaking forever.

You could have dropped the mic and said, "I'm done with filmmaking."

Why did you want to get back in the chair and be a storyteller again?

At certain point, I had to face that crossroads.

You know, do I want to do another Avatar movie?

Do I want to invite lightning to come and strike the same place again?

Of course, my final answer was "Go big or go home."

NARRATOR: Cameron did both.

Resettling in New Zealand and deciding

to expand the franchise to as many as five films.

And expanding the environments of the first Avatar,

where Jim Cameron has always been drawn to,

in the movies and in real life...

into the deep.

JAMES: I thought, "Alright, if I'm going to go down this rabbit hole,

let's see how deep we can go with it,

metaphorically and-and physically,

because it obviously took us into the ocean.

NARRATOR: Now, in Avatar: The Way Of Water,

he's giving his beloved characters a family.

I know one thing.

[sobbing]

Wherever we go, this family is our fortress.

ZOE: Now they're not just, you know, two partners on the run.

Now it's two partners and children on the run.

So, the heart is much more compromised.

I don't want to be late for my own party.

NARRATOR: Years after Avatar's end,

The Way Of Water finds Jake and Neytiri,

the lovers and heroes of the first film,

tending to a flock of children.

What was important to you about it being a blended family?

It's really a mixed-race family if you think about that dynamic.

You know, Jake is-is essentially partially human.

He has a human mind in a Na'vi body, but it's really an Avatar body.

And Neytiri is a full-blooded Na'vi

and so how does their community look upon them

and more importantly, their children?

NARRATOR: The responsibilities of parenthood

affecting their response to crisis.

JAMES: The humans have come back, and here they are having to go war

pick up their weapons again.

Now they've got children. What does that look like?

I think it speaks to everyone because everyone has a family.

I think it's about the lengths that people will go

to make sure your family is safe and protected.

JAMES: They're forced to leave Neytiri's home.

They wind up taken in by a sea clan.

We called it the fish out of water story.

They have to learn how to adapt to being in water,

just as our actors did.

NARRATOR: Putting that family beneath the waves

would require major advances in filmmaking.

And performers who were up for the unique challenge.

I never get intimidated by Jim's crazy ideas.

I think that you always get inspired by them.

You can give me a two... a close... a loose shot.

SAM: He doesn't have the answers.

He has his notions of what he wants to achieve

and then we become the Guinea pigs.

It's very hard to say no to Jim.

"No, I'd rather not do that. No, I'm afraid to do that."

These are words you just don't use with him.

Because he believes you can do it, and kind of

because he believes you can do it, you go, "Well, I better do it."

We really were well-trained for this.

I think what makes Jim special are his dreams.

He dreams these things, and then he has the acumen

to make them a reality.

NARRATOR: And who better to help those dreams take shape

than the actress who joined with him 25 years ago

for one of cinema's best-loved stories?

Only...

JAMES: So Zoe trusts me, Sam trusts me,

Sigourney trusts me.

And, uh, I didn't know where I was going to stand with, uh, with Kate.

They didn't know if she had any reticence about wanting to...

to act with me again.

NARRATOR: Kate Winslet's response, more on that later,

would bring much of what's new about Avatar: The Way Of Water

into clear focus, part of Cameron's own evolution.

One of the things about Jim Cameron is that

on a movie set, I think there are few jobs that he can't do

better or as well as anybody.

One of them is acting.

And the other one is catering.

NARRATOR: Cutting-edge moviemaking

with an epic budget and mega expectations...

its first trailer earning a ridiculous

148 million views in the first 24 hours.

It's yet another high-risk, high-reward moment

for James Cameron.

You know, it's like working on a moon mission.

We spent five years building this rocket,

and it's either gonna blow up on the pad

or it's gonna go to the moon.

And I couldn't, I couldn't call that right now.

NARRATOR: As his unprecedented achievement

awaits a world very different from the one

that welcomed Avatar in 2009,

can the Way Of Water exert the same pull

on the hearts and minds of moviegoers?

Cameron says yes.

What kind of story did you want to give the world

on this second Avatar movie?

I think there's a conscience of the first film

which I wanted to continue, which is around

our remaining natural spaces

and how civilization is encroaching on them.

But I also just really fell in love with these characters,

Jake and Neytiri, and I thought, what would that love story

look like 15 years later?

Then, how much more powerful a story could it be?

NARRATOR: She is every bit the beating heart of the Avatar films.

Neytiri, as portrayed via performance capture

for director James Cameron

by the extraordinary Zoe Saldana.

ZOE: The cadence of the scenes and how the story is carried along

is absolutely powerful.

NARRATOR: From J.J. Abrams' Star Trek films...

We're receiving a stress signal from the USS Kobayashi Maru.

NARRATOR: To James Gunn's Guardians Of The Galaxy series.

You have the bearing of a man of honor.

NARRATOR: Saldana has been a go-to talent

for franchise directors like Cameron.

All of whom, she believes, recognize in her a rebel spirit.

I think that there's probably something that they see in me

that they see in themselves.

I hear words like an outsider, a misfit, uh, an underdog.

And these were words that I would use to describe myself

when I was younger.

KELLEY: What I love about Zoe is that for better or for worse,

she has a voice and she is not afraid to use it.

She is very strong, and she's very confident.

Above all of that, she's extremely courageous.

ZOE: As a daughter of immigrants, as a woman of color,

it gave me an empty, vast space

where I can be anything that I wanted.

But I needed the gatekeepers of these worlds

to believe in me and, and they did.

This is our home.

JAMES: Zoe came back and I think on her very first day

she said one of my favorite lines in the film.

And I was like, "She's back. Neytiri's back."

NARRATOR: So is Jake Sully.

I got no plan, but I can protect this family,

that I can do!

NARRATOR: Leaving his human form behind.

Becoming a father.

I feel her, dad.

SAM: First one he was stuck between his allegiances

with the humans and his allegiances with the Na'vi.

Protect the people.

This time, he's stuck between his allegiances with

remaining the legendary Na'vi warrior

or the responsibilities to his family.

NARRATOR: As an actor, Sam Worthington has starred in another series, too.

He's featured in three black ops video games

in the Call Of Duty franchise.

As Avatar's leading man,

he thrives working for James Cameron.

Look, Jim's this guy, I've always said I'm, I'm his soldier.

Jim's this director I'll do anything for,

but he's in the trench right there next to me.

Well, Sam is his own soldier, He can project incredible power.

Incredible strength, incredible leadership

just through his voice.

If the people harbor us, they will die.

And there was more of a consonance between the character

an-and Sam's real life because now he's a father of, of two boys.

I need you to be strong, strong heart.

JAMES: In many ways she and Sam are the rock, the core of the story.

But there's almost a whole act

that leaves the parents behind and follows the kids.

NARRATOR: For The Way Of Water's family members,

team Avatar conducted an extensive search

to find the next generation of Pandora inhabitants.

I see you.

MARGERY: We had over 15,000 submissions.

Keep up, forest boy.

MARGERY: 4,662 were seen.

And we winnowed that down and 16 kids came in for tests.

NARRATOR: To play Jake and Neytiri's first born,

the UK's Jamie Flatters stood out with this original monologue.

Now I can join the armed forces, pay tax, and get married.

But I can't vote.

NARRATOR: Entitled "It's time to speak"

and got the part.

When I flew to LA for the final round I was told,

"Look, you're, you're just an option.

You're going to be too old to do this."

And when you're 16 to be told you're too old, you get very

you know, you're in crisis, right?

I remember getting the audition notice February of 2017,

and being so excited that I showed up a week early by accident.

NARRATOR: An actress and singer/songwriter.

♪ California sun ♪

NARRATOR: Trinity Bliss was just a baby when the first film came out.

She's playing Jake and Neytiri's youngest child, Tuk.

TRINITY: Having Jim as the director, he really takes the time

to explain to you about the Pandora around us,

so we each can really transfer ourselves

into this amazing world that he's created.

She's another one of these just kind of luminous people, you know?

She never missed a line. Never missed a mark.

And yet, at the same time, she was completely spontaneous

and would just make stuff up that was completely in character.

And some of it's in the, in the movie.

NARRATOR: And then there was New Yorker Bailey Bass.

Now 19, a model since she was just 2.

I didn't have much experience, and because of that,

I thought my audition was terrible.

NARRATOR: Now playing Tsireya, the daughter of her clan's leader.

Avatar was my, like, big, oh, my gosh, this is happening,

I'm becoming an actor.

NARRATOR: This role would be a life-changer for Bailey

in more ways than one.

I didn't grow up... I had much when it comes to love,

but in terms of, like, financially, we didn't have much.

But we always got through it

because my mom's just the best.

And then I'm sitting in my mom's car,

and I start tearing up

because I reached this moment in my life, in my career

where I can take care of my family.

NARRATOR: Virginian, Jack Champion, who plays Spider,

had been in a blockbuster before.

That's him riding a bike in 2019's

Avengers: Endgame.

JACK: I'm in it for, like, ten seconds

and I worked with Paul Rudd.

I was like, hey, man, I'm going to fly to LA

to do this screen test for Avatar.

And he's like, "Oh, that's good, kid. You know, I wish you luck."

And then I saw him again like, "Dude, like, I did it."

And he was like, "Oh, my gosh."

I'm taller than him now.

NARRATOR: On set, it was Trinity and Jack taking care

of The Ways Of Water's swear jar.

Designed to keep the language on-set

appropriate for young ears.

TRINITY: An F-bomb was $5 [bleep]

and S-bomb was $1 [bleep]

Sam, Slang? Oh geez.

Sam was our primary contributor

and he'd just come to me and say

"Can I start the day with negative $40?"

But he actually tried really hard.

He replaced some words with "hot dog."

NARRATOR: The money raised went to a canine clinic

but, ah, what could have been.

I'm wondering if you made any donations to the swear jar, Jim?

I could've funded this movie

if I was donating to the swear jar.

[chuckles]

They're not aggressive.

Relax, marine.

NARRATOR: Attuned to the wonders of Pandora

imbued with a reverence for the Na'vi.

Dr. Grace Augustine in the first Avatar...

Come on, Grace, move!

...sought to ensure their safety.

One idiot with a gun is enough.

NARRATOR: While in human form...

Relations with the indigenous are only getting worse.

Yeah, that tends to happen when you use

machine guns on them.

NARRATOR: This tough-talking scientist worked to foil efforts

to dislodge the Na'vi.

Parker, there is time to salvage the situation.

Shut your piehole!

Or what, Ranger Rick?

You going to shoot me?

NARRATOR: Sigourney Weaver, three-time Oscar nominated

actress, honored for playing another scientist

Dian Fossey in Gorillas In The Mist

If I ever see you or your meat wagon again

you'll be lucky if you don't end up in a wooden box.

NARRATOR: Bad boss Katharine Parker in Working Girl...

And this woman is my secretary.

She's not.

Oh, no? Ask her.

NARRATOR: And Ellen Ripley in the 1986 sequel Aliens

written and directed by James Cameron

who 36 years ago, gave her a career-defining line.

Get away from her, you bitch!

NARRATOR: Securing Ripley's place in the top rank of action heroes

female or male, and a creative partnership with Cameron

through the first Avatar and even beyond.

There's so many things I admire about him.

SIGOURNEY: He's incredibly generous. He believes in us.

He's a great friend.

You know, I think if I was really in trouble, I'd call Jim.

NARRATOR: Even between these friends, there's a secret

that's never been shared.

How long had you known Jim Cameron before he found out

that you had begun your career

with a project called "Titanic?"

I don't think I've ever told him about it.

[laughing]

NARRATOR: Her Titanic, a comedy, a play produced off-Broadway in 1976.

He knows nothing about it.

It wasn't quite as big a hit as his movie.

Grace...

NARRATOR: When the first Avatar ended, it seemed like

Dr. Grace Augustine had breathed her last.

Grace...

NARRATOR: A lunch found actor and director hoping to reteam

on the upcoming Avatars.

What do you remember about that lunch?

[laughing]

Well, I'd already made up my mind.

I just needed to get her to agree.

NARRATOR: Cameron giving Jake and Neytiri

an adopted teenage daughter.

Kiri.

JAMES: The obvious choice to play that character was Sigourney.

And in fact, I wrote it for her.

You know, I was thinking, "How can I get Sigourney

back in this damn movie?"

How did he tell you he wanted you to play someone

who was 14 years old?

Well, you know, he said

"Come on. We both know you're 14 at heart."

"So, I don't think this is going to be a problem for you."

NARRATOR: Playing a character decades younger

it's perhaps her biggest acting challenge ever.

SIGOURNEY: I don't think he would've offered it to me

if we didn't know each other

if he didn't know what a goofball I was.

And, basically, that is who I am.

And you know, Kiri is much more perhaps serious.

-Earnest. -Earnest, yeah, and searching.

Hi, mom!

NARRATOR: Just as her teen character Kiri is searching

Weaver could recall grappling with her own

life issues as she was growing up.

SIGOURNEY: I had, as many of us do, a very memorable adolescence.

I was this tall when I was 11. I remember all of it so well.

And just wanting to shrink, wanting to disappear.

I was terribly shy.

So that sense of alienation when you're young

that sense of, like, conflict with your mom

maybe, or... How did those things sort of come to play?

I remember all of that very vividly.

I think children feel things so strongly.

And, I think Kiri takes things very much to heart.

So what does her heartbeat sound like?

Mighty.

NARRATOR: Kiri's look, based on an adjustment that Weaver suggested

to Cameron, who'd initially envisioned her as a poised

note-perfect teen version of Neytiri.

And I said, "That's not Kiri."

You know, Neytiri is like this incredible goddess, warrior

who's so perfect, who's so beautiful.

You know, she can do anything.

I'm telling you that as a 13, 14-year-old girl, I don't ever

imagine that I'm going to be anything like that

and I'd rather not try.

CHRIS: And he heard you when you said that?

SIGOURNEY: He heard. It went from this very

composed-looking young woman

to what they call awkward Kiri.

The challenge for you is that you were acting along with

other young people who actually are children right now.

May I just say how grateful I am to all the kids

for accepting me as one of the group.

I did all the physical preparation with them.

I was determined not to be this old lady who couldn't do.

NARRATOR: So, she committed fully.

Doing parkour alongside her real-life co-stars.

Now more of a mouth open, kinda, hah!

NARRATOR: Like Jack Champion, whom she'd auditioned with.

She was the most warm, welcoming person, and made me

feel really like, okay, we're having fun, instead of, like

this is an audition.

It was one of the most amazing experiences of my life

because here is this beautiful boy who, we just grab

each other's hands and I fell in love

with Jack then and even though now he's a huge tall man

that 12-year-old will always be dear to my heart.

I forget that I'm working with Sigourney

and she just becomes Kiri, the character.

NARRATOR: A character born of a unique trust

between actor and director.

Jim gave me total freedom. And I just would let Kiri out.

At this point in my work

I know just to, to put a lot of work

and thought in, and then you

just get out of the way of the character.

And so, I, I really wasn't driving this thing.

SIGOURNEY: She was pretty much driving it.

And I was, you know, running after her.

Alright, the moment of truth.

Somebody's life is about to change.

NARRATOR: One life surely did when Kate Winslet was cast

by James Cameron in Titanic.

I feel like this man gave me opportunity

and belief in myself.

Because when you're a young actor, it's terrifying.

NARRATOR: Up to that point, she'd been an up-and-coming British film actress,

known for critically-acclaimed movies

Heavenly Creatures.

It's all frightfully romantic.

And Sense And Sensibility.

Then in 1997, Titanic made Kate Winslet, at just 22

into a movie star.

NEWS REPORTER 1: Titanic is expected to cruise past the $200 million

mark at the box office tomorrow.

NEWS REPORTER 2: The Oscars crowd is in a frenzy!

NEWS REPORTER 3: Are you big fans of Kate Winslet?

ALL: Yes!

KATE: It is a very kind of unreal feeling and without sounding daft,

I do kind of think, how come this has happened to me?

NARRATOR: Much of that with Titanic

had to do with the work ethic she'd displayed.

When did you sort of learn how strong you were?

Well, I've always had stamina.

[gasping] Ah!

People have always said that about me.

Like, "Oh, God, Kate, you're so..."

What is it that people always say to me, "Oh, she's a trooper!"

They always say that to me.

They've been saying that to me for years.

NARRATOR: As she discussed with Stephen Colbert back in 2017...

-You were really cold? -Yeah, I was really [bleep] cold!

Kate Winslet.

NARRATOR: An A-lister, she'd win a best actress Oscar in 2009

for The Reader.

I think I was probably eight years old and staring in the bathroom mirror

and this would have been a shampoo bottle.

Well, it's not a shampoo bottle now!

NARRATOR: Then, two decades after Titanic, a familiar face

resurfaced with a new project.

Kate had been rather public about the stress on her

on Titanic.

I mean, she and I have been pals since then.

We've buried that hatchet, you know, 20 years ago.

But I didn't know that she was going to say yes to this.

JAKE: Let's get it done.

NARRATOR: This was a chance to work together again.

A proffered role for Winslet in the Avatar saga.

KATE: I play Ronal.

Jim described her as being the fearless, tenacious warrior

goddess, leader of the water tribe.

And I'm just like, tick, tick, tick, tick.

You're the first director she's ever worked with more than once.

I didn't even realize that until a few days ago

somebody mentioned it to me.

So, I guess we can drive a stake through that old dumb myth.

I was just excited. Yeah. My children were like...

"Oh, mum, you have to do it. You have to do it. You have to do it."

I said, "Okay, okay. You know, we'll read the script."

It was almost like they didn't care what the script was like!

NARRATOR: This second Avatar film and those still to come reunite

Winslet with Cameron and the water,

with some key differences this time.

KATE:You know, Titanic, so much water, moving water.

-And cold water. -And cold water.

So there was never any way of being able

to truly predict how the water would behave.

Whereas on Avatar...

the tank was huge. It was secure.

And actually, it was incredibly calm.

It's better than being in a corset for seven months

on a sinking ship. I promise you that.

[chuckles]

NARRATOR: Now, she put her experience to good use,

displaying leadership to younger actors on the set.

JAMES: She's such a powerhouse, as a star in her own right,

I thought, well, you know, is she gonna even wanna be directed?

It turns out that, yes and no.

The way Kate does it is, she listens very carefully

to what I say and then she directs everyone else in the scene for me.

It does take a female voice, almost a mother to say,

"Okay, come on, everyone, all look at me for one second."

"I think what Jim is going to want is to see you

more in this kind of space, is that right, Jim?"

BAILEY: When we were filming I was like, "Oh my gosh, she's from Titanic."

She's an icon." I can't put it into words.

She's Kate Winslet. You wanna learn from her.

Every time she gives advice, I take it to heart.

KATE: I remember being a young actor and wishing at times

I had someone to hold my hand and say, "It's okay to make mistakes."

NARRATOR: Winslet's character Ronal and her guidance,

helping the film to address new issues.

Like when Jake and the rest of the Sullys must leave

their part of Pandora and come into contact with a different clan of Na'vi.

KATE: That's where Jim is so brilliant, is that he constructs

these strong female roles who are resilient.

They're robust. They live with their heart.

They lead with intention, and they are true leaders.

NARRATOR: Maori actor Cliff Curtis plays her husband.

CLIFF: That negotiation between one tribe and another.

One clan and another. One family and another.

Trying to figure out how to find an agreement.

How are we gonna get along?

She is, I think, understandably suspicious of anyone

who might come in and threaten this harmony and this peace.

She is a tenacious mother who will stop at nothing

to protect her family and her, and her tribe.

NARRATOR: Winslet's warrior Ronal shown going into battle while pregnant.

JAMES: From having five kids, I just thought,

everybody's always talking about female empowerment.

And they never show a pregnant woman doing anything physical,

like fighting for her life or for her children's lives.

I don't know a single pregnant woman who got pregnant,

sat down, and did nothing.

I climbed mountains through pregnancies.

I mean, my goodness, I think my water broke when I was actually

like practically on the top of a mountain.

It's amazing to see that celebrated on screen.

Cliff Curtis' character puts his hand on her, on her belly

and says, "You should stay back." She says, "I ride."

Grabs her atlatl spear and then walks out and then she goes

and kicks serious ass.

NARRATOR: 25 years after making history, Winslet and Cameron

looking out for each other.

I told her, you know, we'd contain it so that it didn't stand

in the way of her, you know, winning another Emmy or Oscar.

But it's still full on.

Because, you know, no actor of Kate's stature wants to hear

that it's not full on, you know. And she of course made it full-on.

NARRATOR: In doing so, she did for younger actors what Cameron once did for her.

KATE: My whole thing on a set is setting everyone up to succeed.

We all have the ability to nurture that person

and to tell them, you can do it.

It was lovely, him kind of letting me contribute to that.

NARRATOR: No director has done a better job of conveying

the absolute terror of trying to survive under water, or failing to,

than James Cameron has.

From Ed Harris and Mary Elizabeth Mastrontonio

gasping for life in 1989's The Abyss...

Help! I'm scared!

NARRATOR: To Danny Nucci's Fabrizio and his final,

fatal plunge in Titanic.

Not to mention Jack Dawson slipping off that doorframe

into the eternal depths.

But now?

This looks like fun.

When you're underwater, it's easy to pretend to be

the character and just like, stay in the scene and be like,

"Okay, now, you know, I'm in, like, the oceans

you know, interacting with this creature."

NARRATOR: In Avatar: The Way of Water Cameron's performance-captured

actors are swimming stress-free beneath the waves

with full facial expressiveness.

TRINITY: I always looked forward to days all together there

on the surface before we go down into the scene.

It was a very kind of Zen experience and very unifying.

We had to look completely comfortable, as if this was

just, you know, our element.

We really were on a journey, which you could call the way of water.

We had to learn the way of water.

So that we could show it convincingly.

NARRATOR: So, how did they do that?

The answer begins with Cameron and his love of the sea.

CHRIS: That goes back to your... I guess your youngest days

watching Jacques Cousteau, right? What's the genesis of it?

Jacques Cousteau made it his mission to bring the oceans to us

so we'd take better care of them, you know, hopefully with some success.

I was landlocked in Canada.

I was hundreds of miles from the nearest ocean.

I'd never seen the ocean in person, but I fell in love with it then.

So, I learned how to scuba dive.

My first open water dive was in the creek in my village,

Chippawa Creek, depth 15 feet.

NARRATOR: Freediving, plunging into the deep, unsupported by breathing apparatus

was on Cameron's mind as he pondered,

how could he get his cast to act underwater?

I really kinda went back to free diving probably about 20 years ago

and just really, you know, became an aficionado of it.

And I thought, well, let's just incorporate that into the film.

James Cameron, he's such a water person,

and adventurer, an explorer.

And to help him see his vision come to life is pretty awesome.

NARRATOR: Kirk Krack, a life-long freediver

and experienced trainer,

is capable of holding his breath underwater

for up to seven minutes.

A skill he said he could teach

Avatar's cast and crew

under his careful supervision.

And here we go. Two minutes.

I think he's half fish.

You'll notice when you have a conversation with him

that he breathes differently.

NARRATOR: He's trained Tom Cruise in Mission Impossible.

And Margot Robbie in Suicide Squad.

But he hasn't trained you.

So do not do this at home.

How long could you hold your breath before you began this movie?

I was able to sort of do a breath hold of a minute.

I wanted to avoid it in the beginning.

It's nerve-racking, holding your breath.

ZOE: I'm an island girl. I felt comfortable in the ocean.

but I never really felt safe.

So, this challenge was unnerving to say the least.

NARRATOR: Starting in summer 2017

with a trip to Hawaii and white-board sessions.

We went to school, basically, you know, for weeks.

All that oxygen in the lungs now gets squeezed.

NARRATOR: Krack began to teach the ins and outs of his breath-hold technique.

ZOE: We were in the water,

half of the cast became certified in scuba diving.

NARRATOR: But the bulk of training and filming took place later

in the movie's massive water tanks.

This one holds up to 265,000 gallons.

KIRK: Almost all the cast trained in here.

They prepped via a series of elite breathing techniques,

and by inhaling an oxygen-augmented air mix.

It's pushing yourself to the limit in an environment

that is foreign to all of us, you know what I mean?

You do go into this kind of meditative,

almost trance-like state because you have to relax.

You've got no option but to clear your mind.

Because you use more oxygen holding that breath

than you do thinking about other things.

I can't even

describe what it felt like to be 30 feet deep in that tank,

and with everything that I was having to carry

for Neytiri and just waiting for Jim to say action and just releasing.

NARRATOR: The results were, what else?

Breathtaking for the cast at any age.

Kirk Krack came to me and said that,

"we wrote down during your audition

that you were uncomfortable in the water.

And you have excelled more than we could have imagined."

And that meant a lot.

Once you were done with the training,

how long could you hold your breath for?

Well, a static breath hold, where I'm lying with my face in water,

-Six and a half minutes. -Five minutes and thirty-three seconds.

-Three minutes. -Twenty-four seconds.

We were competing

in terms of who was going to hold their breath longer.

Somewhere between four and five minutes.

If I had to be under there for four minutes,

I got myself to four minutes.

I think I'm in second or third place,

but definitely not in first.

I think Kate Winslet held hers longer.

Yes, man, look at that!

It's not a competition.

NARRATOR: But because of it, audiences get to see untethered joy

and pure exhilaration in The Way of Water.

It took months for us to get there.

It was wonderful.

It wasn't easy, but my god, was it rewarding.

It was amazing.

[instrumental music]

WOMAN 1: To your right, please.

TRINITY: I'm feeling really excited.

- This is action. - Oh, my gosh.

Time for the premiere.

We're here at the world premiere, so I feel so lucky to be here for Avatar

and part of this Avatar family.

Come with me.

Stars are born!

Why do we make movies? To share them.

And now tonight, we're finally getting to share it,

and people can see what we're talking about.

MAN 1: And bank to your right please!

Jim is so immersed in the vision of Avatar

and what it is.

It's an extremely clear universe that he's created.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: I think it's one of the most beautiful, most stunning,

delightful, terrifying, you know, all the things you want

in a Jim Cameron film.

I think it's worth you dressing up

and putting on a nice sweater, and you know,

holding your partner's hand, and taking your kid

and buying them popcorn and sitting together as a family.

I just hope they go to watch it in theaters,

because they're not going to regret it.

JAMES: We're at the, the most interesting stage of any film

where you've done your best, there's nothing more you can do

that you haven't thought of already.

And it's going to go out there to the world.

You hand it over.

And I don't know how people are going to react.

I know the film delivers, but have tastes changed?

You know, we're in a post-pandemic world,

we're in a current streaming world.

You know, we're going to have to see together.

It's an anxious time, but it's also a time of relief,

because we've done it.