*** Note: Navi don’t know avatars are human, and Sully’s backstory is different. He can walk. ***

Corporal Wilson of the British army is among several fellow soldiers in an airplane on their way to a new assignment. Wilson is all grins as his last two missions were successful, the latest only taking 6 months to achieve a land deal. The British soldiers chuckle how the Americans are so far behind in the drilling game and how the whole planet will be under the Queen’s rule soon enough. They celebrate that this latest tribal zone is the richest ore deposit they’ve ever detected. There are 3 tribes they’d need to negotiate with, but there’s plenty of time to grab it all. It will be 10 years before the Americans can mine out their small plot, much less try for more. The men laugh again as they land on the alien planet and we pull back to see how wondrous the flora and fauna is and how the British fort has ravaged and ruined the landscape. This is our planet, says Wilson.

10 Years Later

Wilson comes out of his Avatar pod, complaining how he can’t get the last chief to see reason. I’ve been a trusted member of their tribe for 5 years. 5 YEARS, screams Wilson, and the chief still won’t speak with him about land rights. I even convinced a rival chief to visit and explain the benefits we’ve given his people and he still doesn’t care.

Well, says another soldier. Then you’ll hate this news. Sully just locked down another.

Dammit, yells Wilson, his gray starting to dominate the sides of his scalp, that bastard American has single-handedly signed the tribes on half this bloody planet!

Cut to the American fort. Someone is shouting, Sully! We see Sully, a 20-something tough guy, handsome and cocky, playing cards with a small group. Someone calls him out for cheating and Sully says he doesn’t cheat. When the next guy says it’s hard to trust a Na’vi, Sully says he’s not Na’vi. Well you spend more time with them than you do your own people, says one soldier. Probably got a wife and kids out there we don’t know about too. They all laugh, and it’s then that Sully punches the man in the face.

When attacked by the remainder of the card group, Sully fends off the assault of the others. The shouting soldier from off camera is still yelling Sully over and over as they burst into the barracks to see Sully standing over several unconscious soldiers. The shouting soldier changes his tone. He says Sully again (as in ‘Sully, you loveable scamp’). Sully says he doesn’t cheat, but when you’ve been playing cards with the same deck for seven years, you get to know the wear and tear of the more important cards. The soldier replies, You’re late for your next assignment.

Sully, escorted by the soldier, walks into the highly-scientific control room of the Avatar pods. We see the process of transitioning as Sully gets locked in and opens his new eyes as a native to the planet. His skin is blue and he has a tail, but he moves with ease in his foreign body. He checks in over comms with the Americans and given coordinates for his next tribe. Sully steps out of a modest house in the forest and hops on a beast of burden, riding to his next destination.

We cut back to the Americans where General Quaritch is in a council room with the scientific head of the Avatar program and the various heads of the many mining and ore extraction mining operations. One of them says the local tribe is beginning to complain about the work their doing, that she and her crew are polluting the waters. The General asks if the natives are hostile and the woman says no. Head scientist Dr. Augustine says some of her people can help find a means of filtering the water, supplying them stockpiles of fresh water in the meantime. The group agrees, then the General says he’s going to send scouts to feel out the attitude of the other tribes, even those allied with the British.

Sully arrives at the new tribe where everyone recognizes him as a foreigner. Most of the tribe is cautious but not aggressive. Sully demonstrates that he speaks the language by asking around for the chief. He is struck by the defiant look given to him by a local Navi woman who asks who he is and why he’s here. He dismisses her questions and is greeted by the chief instead, a massive Navi who has another foot over Sully and a hundred extra pounds of muscle. We cut back to the American scientists and soldiers who are taking bets on how quickly Sully will become the new chief. Even the men Sully recently pummeled at the card game are putting down money though not everything thinks he’ll win.

Sully confirms that this Navi, Gor’el, is the chief, then says he intends to take over the tribe, challenging him in what appears to be a formal and understood means. The tribal leader agrees and they go to an open area where the tribe gathers around. The fight starts with Sully throwing the first punch. He seems to have the upper hand when the chief quickly puts Sully on his back, then waits for Sully to stand. Good, says Sully, but fighting fair never got anyone what they really wanted. Sully tosses dirt in the chief’s face and kicks him in the groin. The chief falls and Sully beats him over and over, but the chief regains control and takes Sully down again. He continues to hit him this time until Sully is losing consciousness. The Americans aren’t cheering him on anymore; they’re concerned. Then Dr. Augustine says to give him the boost and one of the scientists injects something into Sully’s human body. It wakes him and his Avatar with an extreme strength and clarity. Sully shoves off the chief and hurts him until Go’rel is stumbling, no longer defending himself. Sully is angry and he pulls a knife from his belt to kill Go’rel but the defiant Navi woman from before grabs his hand and tells him no. He has won. He is their new leader. The former chief should live. Sully connects with her in some way and relents. He stands to announce he, Sully, now leads the tribe, then he walks back to his beast to leave.

The Americans congratulate each other on another victory, describing the next steps of mining. Dr. Augustine says to prepare to pull Sully out when he gets home. The scientist says it looks like that may be delayed. Cutting back to Sully, Neytiri, the woman Navi from before is telling Sully he can’t go. They need to prepare him for the celebration, that it is better for their people to get to know him. He declines and she says SHE wants to get to know him. Sully decides to stay.

Sully and Neytiri, as well as the rest of the tribe, appear to be getting on well. We’re shown, despite Sully saying he is the leader of several tribes on the planet, that he knows more OF their customs without actually having done many of them. He tries food he’s never had, some good, some bad, gets drunk on Navi wine, and dances like the rest of the tribe before being taken by Neytiri to her home. When he passes out in her bed, she sneaks away to speak with the old chief. They discuss knowledge of Sully, revealing they knew he was coming. The other one, Wilson, was right.

The story develops with Sully being drawn into the Navi life, giving excuses to the Americans as why he needs to stay longer, resisting taking on another tribal assignment, yet still he explains to them that he intends to bring others in to work their land for them. It won’t interfere with their lives and will ultimately be better for everyone.

Wilson, meanwhile, visits the other tribes where Sully had become the chief and brought in miners. The people are bitter and confused as Sully rarely even returns, and Wilson tells them all similar stories of how evil Sully is and he represents a mining tribe that is ruining the planet. Wilson’s people, he explains, share their wealth with the tribes who sit on valuable land, slowly convincing them to negotiate land deals and relinquish Sully’s leadership.

While with Sully and Neytiri we learn more about just how massive the planet is and that tribes are so physically separated with abundant resources there has never been a need for conflict among them. Neytiri expresses her fears about these tribes who have become so interested in pulling certain rocks from the ground, that there are rumors it is bad for them, and Sully explains the ores have value to others, delicately explaining that there are other species on other worlds who will compensate them, which is good.

She says she didn’t know what to think of him before but she thinks he is good. She hopes that he won’t guide them into anything that could be bad for her people or planet. Sully is torn about revealing to her that he is human, but when she kisses him, he falls for her. The Americans, meanwhile, are trying to reach Sully over his comms and he silences them. Neytiri and Sully have a Disneyesque pleasant romp across the landscape, but when they return to the tribal village, Wilson is there with some Navi bodyguards.

He confronts Sully about being bad for the tribe, that his mining is harmful with no benefit to anyone but himself, and the tribe should no longer listen. Sully says if Wilson wants to challenge his leadership then he has to do it in the traditional means. Wilson accepts and is defeated, but tells Sully it doesn’t matter. When he’s finished, Wilson will have an army and Sully will have nothing.

Sully returns to his Navi house to get pulled back into his human body. There he is told that Wilson has converted tribes and they’re losing land rights. The general says one of his scouts was captured, thinking it was Sully, the evil tribal conqueror Wilson had warned them about. The British are turning the planet against Sully and by proxy, the Americans. Someone says they can just pull the scout from his Avatar, but the General says no. The Avatars are modified, not real Navi bodies. If they discover the ruse, they put everything at risk. They’ll never gain their trust again.

They need Sully to rescue the captured scout, but even if he does so peacefully, they fear a war is imminent. Sully says they can’t let it come to that. The Navi are good people and we can’t bring warfare to their planet, he says. Maybe we have enough ore. We can end our mining operations and let the British deal with the Navi their way, not interfering with tribal leadership or creating conflict. It’s clear to everyone that Sully has begun to sympathize more with the Navi than the humans, namely the Americans.

The general says they’ll pull the scout out without Sully, but Sully insists he can do it without violence. They put him back in, but his negotiations do not go well. The Navi tribe captures him as well and Sully doesn’t resist.

Wilson back at British HQ, hears that the Americans are sending an army of Avatars into British territory and they prepare their own troops. We see that part of the use of the extracted ore is in military shielding. They’ve created impenetrable body suits and armored vehicles.

Sully is still in a cage with the scout when Navi come rushing into the village to say heavily-dressed and well-armed tribes are coming! The locals discuss options and decide they must defend their land or be killed. Sully tries to talk them out of it, saying they don’t know warfare. They’ll be slaughtered.

The American avatars move in to extract Sully and the scout but are surprised by the British, Navi avatars on both sides in protective suits and hardened spears. The Americans say they only want to rescue their men, the British say they’re trespassing. The actual local Navi join them on what now looks like a battlefield. They say they no longer want any mining tribes on their land and tell them all to leave. A battle ensues with all sides suffering casualties, but only the local Navi truly die. The Americans and British are simply disconnected from their avatars.

Neytiri meanwhile rescues Sully and the scout, taking him back to her village. Neytiri tells her people what she saw and that everyone agrees that the tribes are going to war. They must ready for the same. Then Sully explains the truth, that the mining Navi are simply wearing disguises. They are the foreign species from other worlds that he told Neytiri about before. They are the true enemy and must be expelled from the planet. Just then, the Americans are yelling into Sully’s comms again, whether he’s at his house or not. He looks to Neytiri, not ready for her to discover who he truly is yet, and tells everyone to pull the mining soldiers from the field. They can see the truth for themselves. He kisses Neytiri goodbye, says he’ll be back, and leaves the village.

He wakes in the American HQ. The Americans have declared war on the British and any Navi that resist. The peaceful approach is over. The Americans are going to stake a planet-wide claim, all previous agreements be damned. They know now the Navi tribes will never be united and can’t assemble a proper army to resist them and if they capture all the British ores now, they won’t be able to construct an equal force to resist them. Sully knows this is bad, and he needs to worn Neytiri  and the others, but he can’t just jump into his avatar. He’ll have to go back as a human.

Sully leaves HQ and steals an armored car to return to his village. He explains who he is, that he too was lying to them, but he wants to help make things right. When the group rumbles in protest he yells that he is still their chief. They need to follow him or challenge him. Gor’el, now 6 feet taller than Sully and hundreds of pounds heavier, steps forward. Sully doesn’t back away, and Gor’el says they’ll all follow. Neytiri stands with him, and everyone falls in line.

We get a montage of Sully and the others pulling suited and armed avatars from the earlier field of battle, showing them how to melt ore down to forge into similar weapons and shielding. He then makes the rounds to other tribes, convincing them to unite against the American and British invaders.

When we cut back to American HQ, alarms are blaring. The British have formed an assault team and took the offensive before the Americans could attack them. They are bombarding the fortified headquarters, a back and forth of advances and rebuffs. It seems to be a draw when Navi emerge from the forest with handmade shields and spears, primitively crafted helmets and gear, but still from the same impenetrable ore mined from their planet. They begin an attack on the British forces and the American HQ.

The Navi, inexperienced in combat, are killed in droves, but their numbers continue to grow as more and more emerge from the trees. At some point Sully and Gor’el are fighting alongside one another. Neytiri gets in trouble and is attacked. Sully injects himself with the same booster from before and climbs up Neytiri’s avatar attacker, stabbing him all the way until finally reaching his skull. He drops like a giant and Sully and Neytiri get back into the fight. The Navi kill most of the humans, others escaping in ships off planet. Others surrender. Victory goes to the Navi. Only Sully and a few other humans are left behind. They agree to stop mining and live in peace with the Navi, but Sully warns they have to assume more will return.

10 years later

American ships descend on the Navi planet and troops exit, armed to the teeth and driving tanks. They move into the forest only to encounter a giant dome constructed entirely from the impenetrable ore. They blast at it to no effect and the camera moves in past the wall to see dozens of tribes living peacefully, Neytiri and Sully (in his avatar) content and carefree, his human body lying in its pod alongside several others.