James Cameron

The final fight sequence of Avatar: The Way of Water proves that James Cameron is the King of Action.

Jake defeats Quaritch and he and his family nearly die in the process, and the Sullys and Quaritch are able to escape. "Battle for Pandora's oceans" is a bit hyperbolic as the final battle is more about stopping the "skypeople" from slaughtering any more Tulkun than it is about full control of the oceans. One area where The Way of Water shines is its expansion of Jake Sully as a character, who was oft-criticized as being bland and forgettable in the first film. Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his band of resurrected avatar mercenaries are holding several of the Sully children hostage on a ship, and the vengeful military leader says he'll set the children free if Jake surrenders. Just like the last film, The Way of Water concludes with an absolutely thrilling climactic battle, complete with a sense of scale that we rarely see in modern cinema. The sequel to the Oscar-winning, highest-grossing movie of all time has managed to defy all odds and deliver a sequel more than worthy of its predecessor, already earning a [certified fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes](https://collider.com/avatar-the-way-of-water-fresh-rotten-tomatoes/).

The director shares how Earth's oceans inspired The Way of Water—and his hope it will motivate viewers to protect our own planet.

The reason that I went down the path of making a series of films in the same universe is because I thought that what I needed to say artistically—to communicate with people—I could do within that framework. I’d spent a lot of time diving out in the Pacific amongst these atolls and at coral reefs all over the world. We built essentially mockups of the creatures that could do what the creatures [in The Way of Water] did: race around underwater at high speed, pop out of the water, fly over the surface of the water, go back into the water, and scream around underwater—and we figured out how you would really ride such a thing. So, the onus is on us, creatively, to try to make it seamless, to try to have everything that everybody does—every action, every riding of a creature and so on—be based in real-world physics. We use that jet-thruster technology to make essentially a Harrier jet that had a pilot inside it, and somebody could ride on top of it and could fly over the surface of the water, dive into the water, scream around, and then pop out of the water and do it all again. I’m not asking the audience to think of this as some kind of tech demonstration; I want them to believe that we went to Pandora and shot it all as a big documentary. What real-world locations inspired what we’ll see in The Way of Water? That has involved spending thousands of hours underwater in shallow settings and hundreds of hours underwater in deep settings—as deep as the deepest place on the planet—and many dives to Titanic. We dedicated ourselves to this idea that we would take the actors into the water. They have complex music that’s adopted by other members of the population of that species, and it travels around the world like a kind of greatest-hits album. In the first film, the Na’vi of the world’s rainforests fight to protect their home, aided by human soldiers and scientists sympathetic to their cause. This time around, Cameron is exploring the waters of Pandora, and he brings a lifetime of experience with him.

"The beauty of performance capture is that we can get a bright idea on take five and do it completely differently," Cameron told IndieWire.

The music used in this podcast is from the “Marina Abramovic: The Artist Is Present” score, courtesy of composer [Nathan Halpern](http://www.copticonmusic.com/). I can circle overhead, I can be in a helicopter half a mile away or I can be on a close up. You could play a scene that was meant to be played standing, facing away from each other seated, facing each other all of a sudden, because all I need is one good take and from that I can extract all my coverage.” “But the beauty of performance capture is that we can get a bright idea on take five and do it completely differently. [James Cameron](https://www.indiewire.com/t/james-cameron/) wrote and directed “ [Avatar](https://www.indiewire.com/t/avatar/)” in 2009, he introduced performance capture technology and other innovations that would change the movies forever, as his techniques were adopted and developed (though never surpassed) by the industry at large. Cameron noted that the room for discovery that comes when the actors get new ideas or respond in unusual ways to each other and their environment is actually far more limited on a traditional film than it is with performance capture.

He may be the king of the worldwide box office but only one of his movies—Titanic? Aliens? The Terminator?—can be crowned as his best.

[The Abyss](https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/the-abyss-1989) to building multiple Titanics while making [Titanic](https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/titanic-1997). [Avatar: The Way Of Water](https://www.avclub.com/avatar-the-way-of-water-film-review-james-cameron-1849882442) being only the American auteur’s ninth film, his films have amassed more than $6 billion and he’s twice made the highest-grossing blockbuster of all time. And his films have always been moralistic fairytales: cautionary, inspiring, or somewhere in between.

We need your help in deciding the best character in a James Cameron-directed movie. Jack or Rose? The Terminator himself? Jake Sully or Neytiri?

By deciding the winner throughout all these match-ups, you're ensuring that your picks for the best character to appear in a James Cameron film will have a fighting chance to reach the top of the list. The character that won the most matchups will be crowned the "winner," and in the event of a tied number of "wins," the character with the least "losses" will take the top spot. This Face-Off is made up of characters that have appeared in a James Cameron directed film. Playing until you vote for all your favorites or ensuring that certain characters don't get in the winner's circle are different options you can take with a Face-Off. When voting ends on December 21, we tally up the total number of "wins" and "losses" each character has, and create a ranked list based on your choices that will be revealed on December 22. This is also a big moment for James Cameron as it will be the first film he’s directed since the original Avatar.

We Ranked Every James Cameron Movie, From 'The Terminator' to 'Avatar: The Way of Water'. The Oscar-winning director has been pushing the medium forward for ...

and often disarmingly hilarious ( [thank you](https://parade.com/1214874/michelleparkerton/thank-you-messages-card-note/), [Bill Paxton](https://parade.com/550850/sphillips/bill-paxton-dies-at-61/)). Titanic still holds a shared record for most Oscar nods and wins, and in recent years it seems like the petty backlash is subsiding. [John Carpenter](https://parade.com/606101/samuelmurrian/7-reasons-why-john-carpenters-halloween-is-one-of-the-most-beloved-horror-films-of-all-time/)'s enormously successful [Halloween](https://parade.com/movies/halloween-movies-in-order), [The Terminator](https://parade.com/941427/nicolepajer/arnold-schwarzenegger-terminator-president/) was inspired by a nightmare Cameron experienced of a bloodthirsty cyborg emerging from flames. It's still one of the most beloved performances in any movie ever. [Sam Worthington](https://parade.com/40192/jeannewolf/1218-sam-worthington-avatar/) expands upon his performance in the original in every way conceivable way here, and The Way of Water juggles an ensemble of various species with precision. A liquid-metal CGI villain ( [family](https://parade.com/1045384/marynliles/family-quotes/) unit, that will indubitably hook international audiences. [Jamie Lee Curtis](https://parade.com/tag/jamie-lee-curtis) has said her role in True Lies is the best of her career. [Arnold Schwarzenegger](https://parade.com/tag/arnold-schwarzenegger) headlines Cameron's lightest, if not necessarily his funniest, blockbuster film. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://parade.com/movies/avatar-2-the-way-of-water) appears poised to dominate the international box office for some time. Smith-style setup about a long-married couple, only he's secretly a super spy, she's longing for some excitement in [life](https://parade.com/937586/parade/life-quotes/)—then a terrorist threat emerges. To celebrate the release of The Way of Water, we've rounded up and ranked every James Cameron film from worst to best.

This article contains one specific spoiler for Avatar: The Way of Water in its discussion of the James Cameron body of work and how his movies return to ...

Sigourney Weaver has pointed out the similarities between [the family unit in the film and Cameron’s own family](https://variety.com/2022/film/news/avatar-way-of-water-james-cameron-family-1235388223/). The Way of Water is rooted in many of Cameron’s pet interests and themes: environmentalism, militarism, industrialization, hard science fiction, the horrors of capitalism, and the coolness of water. It is hard to quantify the idea of authenticity within the portrayal of something as common as the family unit. Cameron says that he was also inspired by the fact that [Saldana and Worthington were parents](https://www.asiaone.com/entertainment/james-cameron-says-zoe-saldana-sam-worthington-parents-inspired-avatar-way-of-the-water-sequel-kate-winslet). [three children with Amis and one with Hamilton](https://www.closerweekly.com/posts/james-cameron-wife-suzy-amis-reveals-secret-to-20-year-marriage/). By the end of the film, the group has also taken in the human child known as Spider (Jack Champion), who is the biological son of the villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch (Lang). Jake is accepted into the Na’vi tribe and pairs with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the daughter of the clan’s chieftain and its priest. However, Jake and Neytiri also take in Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the child born of seemingly immaculate conception from the avatar of deceased scientist Doctor Grace Augustine (also Weaver). [a vital scene of backstory from the theatrical cut](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GPItoMfPHLQ) that revealed that Ellen Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) had a daughter who died of old age while she was lost in space. At the end of the film, it is revealed that the family has found some sort of balance, with the two embarking on dangerous espionage missions together. [a science fiction slasher movie](https://www.escapistmagazine.com/the-terminator-is-a-subtly-subversive-slasher/), but it is also an epic love story between a time-traveling war veteran (Michael Biehn) and a diner waitress (Linda Hamilton) that spawns the messiah that will save mankind. The Terminator contrasts its metallic inhuman killing machine (Arnold Schwarzenegger) with [a love scene as sweaty and steamy as Titanic’s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gTqCWoGEySw).