Miles Quaritch | |
---|---|
Avatar character | |
First appearance | Avatar (2009) |
Created by | James Cameron |
Portrayed by | Stephen Lang |
In-universe information | |
Species | Human (genetical origin) Na'vi Recombinant |
Gender | Male |
Title | Colonel |
Occupation | Soldier, mercenary |
Affiliation | U.S. Marine Corps 1st Recon Bn (formerly) Resources Development Administration (RDA) |
Spouse | Paz Socorro (deceased) |
Children | Miles "Spider" Socorro (son) |
Homeworld | Earth (formerly) Pandora |
Colonel Miles Quaritch is a fictional character in the American science fiction franchise Avatar created by Canadian filmmaker James Cameron. He serves as the main antagonist of the 2009 film Avatar and its 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water , and will appear in its upcoming sequels, including the third and currently untitled fourth films. In all his appearances, including in the 2009 film's tie-in video game Avatar: The Game , the character is portrayed by American actor Stephen Lang, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Quaritch in the first film at the 36th Saturn Awards. [1]
After serving in the United States Marine Corps with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, Quaritch became a senior officer in the security forces of the Resources Development Administration (RDA), a megacorporation, and was deployed to the exomoon of Pandora, where he served as their chief of security. Leading the RDA in their conflict against the indigenous Na'vi, Quaritch enlists the help of new arrival Jake Sully to spy on the Na'vi and help him defeat them. Sully eventually turns on the RDA, and defeats an attempt by an RDA force led by Quaritch to destroy the Tree of Souls. During the battle, Quaritch is killed by Sully’s Na'vi lover Neytiri. A copy of his consciousness is subsequently transferred by the RDA into a genetically grown Na'vi body, known as a Recombinant, which returns to Pandora to track down Sully alongside other Recombinants. However, he is unsuccessful in this attempt but survives the second confrontation with Sully.
James Cameron was initially reported to have met with Michael Biehn for the role of Quaritch in Avatar , having previously collaborated on The Terminator , Aliens , The Abyss , and Terminator 2: Judgment Day , and apparently even showed him multiple drafts of the script and some of the 3D test footage. Ultimately, Biehn was not cast in any role, as Sigourney Weaver had been cast to play Dr. Grace Augustine in the film and Cameron seemingly did not want audiences to draw comparisons to Aliens. Although Cameron confirms he met with Biehn for a part in the film, he disputed the claim that it was for Quaritch. [2]
Having remembered Stephen Lang from auditioning for the roles of Dwayne Hicks and Carter Burke in Aliens, Cameron decided to cast Lang as Quaritch. [3] Lang said of his casting: [3]
I'd auditioned for Aliens about 20+ years ago, and he talked about that in our conversation, so, y'know, I've kind of gone on record as saying that this was the world's longest callback. [3]
Despite the character's death at the end of Avatar, Cameron confirmed in 2010 that Lang would return in the film's sequels, stating, "I'm not going to say exactly how we're bringing him back, but it's a science fiction story, after all. His character will evolve into really unexpected places across the arc of our new three-film saga". [4] In October 2019, Lang revealed that his character was always meant to return in the sequels, stating: [5]
Jim indicated to me years ago, before filming on Avatar was completed, that Quaritch had a future. I might have taken that with a grain of salt at the time because we'd had a few beers. Shortly after Avatar opened, Jim mentioned again that the Colonel was coming back, and by then I knew Jim well enough to know that he means what he says and he says what he means. [5]
Cameron later confirmed that Quaritch would act as the main antagonist across all four sequels. [6] Lang later confirmed that Quaritch would return as a Recombinant, a Na'vi Avatar embedded with the memories of a soldier, which meant that, like the other actors portraying Na'vi characters, Lang's performance in the sequels involved motion capture, which included the new underwater performance capture Cameron developed for the films, which Lang initially found "challenging". [7] [8] [9] Described as "avatars embedded with the memories of human[s]", [10] Quaritch's Recombinant would seek revenge for his human self's death, [11] while seeking to retrieve his son, Miles Quaritch "Spider" Socorro, who was rescued and adopted by Jake and Neytiri after being abandoned on Pandora after his father's initial death. [12] [13] [14]
On the moon Pandora, tensions between humans and its indigenous Na'vi had been rising, making it harder for the RDA to mine for unobtanium, a highly valuable mineral used for energy generation which sits under the Omaticaya Clan's Hometree. When paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully arrives on Pandora to replace his brother Tom in the Avatar Program, Quaritch offers to pay for his reconstructive leg surgery in exchange for information about the Na'vi, the Omaticaya Clan, their Hometree, and the Tree of Souls. But Jake falls in love with a Na'vi named Neytiri, and begins to sympathize with them and their culture. After Quaritch shows him video logs of Jake lamenting the hopelessness of convincing the Na'vi to leave Hometree, along with reports that the Na'vi had begun burning bulldozers and killing RDA troopers, the RDA's Administrator Parker Selfridge comes to the conclusion that the Omaticaya Clan are a threat to their operation and could not be convinced to leave their Hometree, orders the destruction of the Omaticaya's Hometree, but gives Jake and Dr. Grace Augustine one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate Hometree before commencing the attack.
The Na'vi refuse to listen, and after the hour is up, Quaritch and his men destroy Hometree, killing multiple Na'vi. He also separates Jake and Grace from their avatars and imprisons them. Disgusted by Quaritch's brutality, pilot Trudy Chacon returns to base and frees Jake and Grace, airlifting them out of the base. Quaritch shoots Grace during the escape, but fails to stop them from escaping Hell's Gate. Quaritch then begins an assault on the Tree of Souls, quickly dispatching the bewildered Na'vi until Pandora's wildlife, seemingly at the direction of Eywa herself, attacks RDA's forces in mass. With all escorts either distracted or destroyed, Quaritch pursues Jake in his gunship, but he attacks it, causing it to crash. Quaritch escapes from his gunship in an AMP suit and advances to the Tree of Souls. Neytiri arrives on a Thanator to protect the Tree, but Quaritch stabs the thanator with his AMP suit's knife, trapping Neytiri beneath it. Jake arrives and fights Quaritch, but he finds and breaks open the module containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere, interrupting Jake's link with his Avatar. Quaritch then attempts to slit Jake's throat, but Neytiri fires two arrows into his body, killing him.
More than a decade later, the RDA return to Pandora, erecting a new main operating base named Bridgehead City to prepare Pandora for colonization. The RDA transfers the consciousness of Quaritch and other deceased RDA soldiers into Na'vi Avatars called Recombinants. After Jake initiates a guerilla campaign against the RDA supply lines, Quaritch and his recombinants capture his children. Jake and Neytiri arrive and free most of them, but Spider is taken by Quaritch, who recognizes him as his son, Miles Quaritch Socorro, who was born on Pandora and was unable to be transported to Earth due to his young age. Quaritch spends time with Spider in order to draw him to the RDA's side, and Spider teaches him more about the Na'vi. Aware of the danger Spider's knowledge of his whereabouts poses to their safety, Jake and his family exile themselves from the Omaticaya and join the Metkayina reef people clan at Pandora's oceans to hide from the RDA. Later, Jake's adoptive daughter Kiri suffers a violent seizure after trying to link with the Metkayina's Spirit Tree, Jake calls Norm Spellman and Max Patel for help, which allows the RDA to track them down. Quaritch brings Spider with him and commandeers a whaling vessel and orders them to kill tulkuns to draw Jake and the Metkayina out.
Learning of the tulkun killings, Jake's youngest son Lo'ak takes off with his siblings to warn Payakan, a tulkun being chased by the whalers. Quaritch captures Lo'ak, along with Jake's youngest daughter Tuk, and Tsireya, the daughter of the Metkayina's chief, Tonowari, and aggressively demands Jake to surrender in exchange for their safe return, but Payakan attacks the whalers, triggering a fight that kills most of the crew and damages the vessel, causing it to sink. Jake's oldest son Neteyam rescues Lo'ak, Tsireya and Spider, but is fatally shot. Jake faces Quaritch, who uses Kiri as a hostage, but desists when Neytiri does the same with Spider. Jake strangles Quaritch into unconsciousness, and escapes the sinking vessel with his family. Spider rescues Quaritch, but renounces him for his cruelty and rejoins Jake's family as Quaritch leaves on his banshee.
Lang reprises his role as Quaritch in the game, which is set two years before the events of Avatar. If the player chooses to side with the RDA, Quaritch will appear at the end, taking over the operation from the Central Command in Plains of Goliath from Commander Karl Falco. He will then give Able Ryder a Dragon Ship to go to Tantalus for some charges to blow up a stone wall to access the Well of Souls, where Ryder will find Falco. After killing Falco and activating the Emulator which cuts off the Na'vi's connection with Eywa, Quaritch congratulates Ryder and orders them to return to base.
An illusionary Quaritch briefly appears in a nightmare Jake has while in a coma, tormenting him alongside the deceased Tsu'tey. [15]
Mattel made an action figure of Quaritch as part of their range of Avatar action figures. [16] Lego has produced Minifigures of Quaritch for its Lego Avatar theme based on the first two films, his human form comes in set 75571 Neytiri & Thanator vs. AMP Suit Quaritch, and his Recombinant form comes in set 75577 Mako Submarine. [17] [18]
Writing for Reelviews, James Berardinelli praised Lang's performance in the first film, writing, "Quartich is never CGI animated but he always seems bigger than life. If there's a human star of Avatar, it's Lang.". [21] Similarly, Chris Hewitt, writing for Empire , described Lang's performance as "excellent" and claimed the character was "a scenery-chewing bad guy so badass that he can breathe the Pandoran air without a mask." [22] Elsewhere, A. O. Scott and Manohla Dargis of The New York Times both singled out Lang's performance in the original film as one of the five best male supporting performances of 2009. [23]
Conversely, Kenneth Turan of the Los Angeles Times criticized the "flat dialogue" and "obvious characterization" of Quaritch and the other antagonists in the first film. [24] Russell D. Moore of The Christian Post concluded that "propaganda exists in the film" and stated "If you can get a theater full of people in Kentucky to stand and applaud the defeat of their country [as represented by Quaritch and his men] in war, then you've got some amazing special effects." [25]
Lang's performance as Quaritch in the first film received nominations for Best Villain and Best Fight (with Sam Worthington) at the 2010 Teen Choice Awards and the 2010 MTV Movie Awards, [a] he won Best Supporting Actor at the 36th Saturn Awards. [1] For his motion capture performance in Avatar: The Way of Water, Lang was nominated for Best Voice Acting/Animated/Digital Performance at the Austin Film Critics Association Awards 2022. [30] [31]
Stephen Lang is an American actor. He is known for roles in films such as Manhunter (1986), Gettysburg and Tombstone, Gods and Generals (2003), Public Enemies and The Men Who Stare at Goats, Conan the Barbarian (2011) and Don't Breathe (2016).
Samuel Henry John Worthington is an Australian actor. He is known for playing Jake Sully in the Avatar franchise, Marcus Wright in Terminator Salvation, and Perseus in Clash of the Titans and its sequel Wrath of the Titans.
Avatar is a 2009 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, written, and directed by James Cameron. The cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez and Sigourney Weaver. It is the first installment in the Avatar film series. It is set in the mid-22nd century, when humans are colonizing Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system, in order to mine the valuable unobtanium, a room-temperature superconductor mineral. The expansion of the mining colony threatens the continued existence of a local tribe of Na'vi, a humanoid species indigenous to Pandora. The title of the film refers to a genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain of a remotely located human that is used to interact with the natives of Pandora.
Avatar: The Game is a 2009 third-person shooter action-adventure game based on the 2009 film Avatar. The game was developed by Ubisoft Montreal and published by Ubisoft. It was released on the PlayStation 3, Xbox 360, Microsoft Windows, Wii, and Nintendo DS on December 1, 2009, with a PlayStation Portable version later released on December 7. It uses the same technology as the film to be displayed in stereoscopic 3D. As of May 19, 2010, the game has sold nearly 2.7 million copies.
In the 2009 science-fiction film Avatar, director James Cameron conceived a fictional universe in which humans seek to mine unobtanium on the fictional habitable moon Pandora. The Earth-like moon is inhabited by a sapient indigenous humanoid species called the Na'vi, as well as varied fauna and flora. Resources Development Administration scientists, administrators, recruits, support, and security personnel travel to Pandora in the 22nd century to discover this beautiful, lush world, which is inhabited by many lifeforms including the human-like Na'vi. The clan with which the humans have contact in the film lives "in a giant tree that sits on a vast store of a mineral called unobtainium, which humans want as an energy supply." Cameron has described Avatar as more "science fantasy" than true science fiction and has said that he would explain in the novel for the film why in the fictional universe the Na'vi look like humans.
Jake Sully, or Tsyeyk te Suli in the Naʼvi language, is a fictional character and the main protagonist of the American epic science fiction film franchise Avatar, created by James Cameron. Portrayed by Sam Worthington in Avatar (2009) and its sequels, including Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), the upcoming Avatar: Fire and Ash, and the currently untitled Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, and directed by James Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver from a story the trio wrote with Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar (2009) and the second installment in the Avatar film series. It features Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao and Matt Gerald reprising their roles from the first film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in an additional role and Kate Winslet joining the cast. It follows a blue-skinned humanoid Na'vi named Jake Sully (Worthington) as he and his family, under renewed human threat, seek refuge with the aquatic Metkayina clan of Pandora, a habitable exomoon on which they live.
The 2009 American science fiction film Avatar has provoked vigorous discussion of a wide variety of cultural, social, political, and religious themes identified by critics and commentators, and the film's writer and director James Cameron has responded that he hoped to create an emotional reaction and to provoke public conversation about these topics. The broad range of Avatar's intentional or perceived themes has prompted some reviewers to call it "an all-purpose allegory" and "the season's ideological Rorschach blot". One reporter even suggested that the politically charged punditry has been "misplaced": reviewers should have seized on the opportunity to take "a break from their usual fodder of public policy and foreign relations" rather than making an ideological battlefield of this "popcorn epic".
Avatar: Fire and Ash is an upcoming American epic science fiction film co-produced, co-edited, co-written, and directed by James Cameron. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it is the sequel to Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) and the third installment in the Avatar film series.
This Ain't Avatar is a 2010 3D science fiction sex comedy parody film that parodies James Cameron's Avatar, to which it serves as a spiritual sequel. The film was shot, edited, and directed by Axel Braun and stars an ensemble cast headed by Chris Johnson as Jake, the main human character. It was produced by Hustler Video. Industry reviewers noted that the release used old-style rather than modern 3D technology and faulted it for its poor production quality.
Pandora – The World of Avatar is a themed area inspired by James Cameron's Avatar located within Disney's Animal Kingdom theme park at the Walt Disney World Resort in Bay Lake, Florida, near Orlando. Set generations into the future after the events of the Avatar films, the area is based upon the fictional habitable exomoon, Pandora, and features Pandora's floating mountains, alien wildlife, and bioluminescent plants. Spanning 12 acres (4.9 ha), Pandora – The World of Avatar includes two major attractions, Avatar Flight of Passage and Na'vi River Journey, as well as retail and dining outlets.
Avatar is an American epic science fiction media franchise created by James Cameron, which began with the eponymous 2009 film. Produced by 20th Century Studios and distributed by Lightstorm Entertainment, it consists of associated merchandise, video games, and theme park attractions. Avatar is set in the mid-22nd century on Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. The films' central conflict is between the indigenous Na'vi led by Jake Sully and Neytiri, and humans led by Colonel Miles Quaritch from the Resources Development Administration (RDA), a megacorp which has arrived on Pandora to colonize and pillage it for its natural resources. The title of the series refers to the genetically engineered Na'vi body operated from the brain that humans pilot to interact with on Pandora.
The Resources Development Administration (RDA) is a fictional organization that first appears in Avatar, the 2009 science fiction film written and directed by James Cameron. It is depicted as a powerful corporate entity seeking unobtainium, a valuable mineral, to sustain its operations. To this end, the RDA establishes a colony on the extrasolar moon Pandora, where it employs both scientific and military means to extract resources, often clashing with the indigenous Na'vi population.
Britain Dalton is an American actor known for his role as Lo’ak, the second son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, in the science fiction film Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
Avatar Flight of Passage is a 3D flying simulator attraction within Pandora – The World of Avatar at Disney's Animal Kingdom. Set in the Avatar universe, the attraction allows guests to take flight on a native mountain Banshee and soar across the landscape of Pandora.
Avatar 4 is an upcoming American epic science fiction film co-written, co-edited, co-produced and directed by James Cameron. Distributed by 20th Century Studios, it will be the sequel to Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) and the fourth installment in the Avatar film series.
Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora is a 2023 action-adventure game developed by Massive Entertainment and published by Ubisoft. The game is part of the Avatar franchise, and was released for PlayStation 5, Windows, and Xbox Series X/S on December 7, 2023. It received mixed reviews from critics.
Neytiri te Tskaha Mo'at'ite is a fictional character in the Avatar franchise, created by James Cameron. She is portrayed by Zoe Saldaña.
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