Avatar: The Way of Water is James Cameron's eighth directorial effort and sees many references and callbacks to his earlier films. The Way of Water continues the Avatar franchise and is the first Cameron film in 13 years since the release of its predecessor. The film is the first of four expected Avatar sequels and continues the story of Jake Sully and Neytiri's war against humanity on the distant moon of Pandora.
Despite continuing this untold story from the events of 2009's Avatar, Cameron includes many familiar elements within the script. However, different from the first movie's similarity to other filmmakers' efforts in terms of its story, Avatar: The Way of Water features seemingly deliberate references to the older films of Cameron's own filmography. From Titanic similarities to references to James Cameron's other sequels like Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, here is every callback to Cameron's filmography found in Avatar: The Way of Water.
The Terminator
Avatar: The Way of Water features some similarities to Cameron's The Terminator, one specifically being the relationship between Jake Sully's family and Quaritch. At the beginning of the film, after Quaritch's return is explained, he returns to Pandora to seek revenge against Jake while simultaneously furthering the efforts of the RDA. The film's driving plot point then sees Quaritch tracking Jake and his family for the majority of the movie, causing death and destruction in his path. This is very similar to the overall plot of The Terminator, in which Arnold Schwarzenegger's titular cyborg tracks down Sarah Connor as a seemingly unstoppable force.
The Terminator was Cameron's first film, discounting Piranha II: The Spawning which Cameron himself has disowned, and was released in 1984. The film begins with the Terminator emerging from the future and going on a killing spree in order to reach Sarah Connor. This is similar to Quaritch's journey in Avatar 2. The Colonel's search for Jake causes him to burn the homes of the Metkayina, as well as killing the sacred wildlife of Pandora to lure Jake into the open. Quaritch's chase of the Sully family looms over them as an inescapable threat, something that is similar with Sarah Connor and the Terminator from Cameron's directorial debut.
Terminator 2: Judgement Day
Another reference to one of Cameron's other films comes through Avatar 2's climactic fight scene between Jake and Quaritch, who is now a Na'vi himself through Avatar cloning. At the end of the film, the two engage in a hand-to-hand fight aboard the sinking RDA vessel and use a variety of chains, grates, and barriers in their fight against one another. The fight is very visceral, and is much more grounded in its choreography and filming. This is very similar to the final fight scene in T2 between the Terminator and the T-1000. The latter takes place in a steel mill, having very similar apparatus in the environment as the fight between Jake and Quaritch in Avatar: The Way of Water.
The location is one way the fights emulate each other. However, the respective climactic sequences are also thematically similar. The reason behind the fight in both T2 and Avatar 2 is in order to protect the future generation. The Terminator is fighting to save John Connor from the T-1000, while Jake engages Quaritch after the latter vows never to stop hunting Sully and his family. In these ways, Avatar: The Way of Water resembles Cameron's Terminator sequel.
The Abyss
Perhaps simultaneously the most overt and most vague callback in Avatar 2 comes from The Abyss. The callback is so overt due to The Way of Water's main story taking place in a water-based environment. There are plenty of underwater sequences from both humans and Na'vi, with humans utilizing submarines and naval craft that look similar to those of The Abyss. However, the reason these callbacks are also the vaguest is that there are no direct references to any specific scenes or moments from The Abyss as with some of James Cameron's other films mentioned. It is majoritively the underwater aspects of both films that draw comparisons.
Aliens
One of Cameron's other greatest hits referenced in Avatar: The Way of Water was Aliens. Aliens was the sequel to Ridley Scott's Alien and switched the franchise towards action rather than horror. In doing so, many action elements were implemented into the sci-fi horror roots of Alien, leading to the likes of mech suits being used on an alien world. This aspect can be applied to Avatar: The Way of Water also.
A returning element from the first film was the RDA and their oversized mech suits that emulate Ripley's, a character introduced in Ridley Scott's Alien. While not being used to the same extent due to the introduction of Recombinants, some mechs were still used. One of them involves a soldier being in an exoskeleton, with the giant mech emulating their movements. This style is very similar to the one used by Ripley in Aliens. While the design of Ripley's suit in Aliens is not exactly the same, it is almost a combination of the mech suits largely used in 2009's Avatar and the thinner, exoskeleton type from Avatar 2.
Titanic
Arguably the biggest callback to one of James Cameron's most revered films - Titanic - comes in Avatar 2's final act. The climactic sequence of the film sees Quaritch and the RDA launch an attack on the tulkun, a whale-like creature of Pandora who bonds with the Metkayina people. In order to do so, they utilize a giant naval craft which stages the final fight between Quaritch and Jake. However, before this fight, the RDA and the Metkayina people engage in a skirmish with the latter being aided by a tulkun, Payakan, who bonded with Jake's son Lo'ak.
Payakan's involvement in the battle, as well as the explosive confrontation, caused the giant boat to take on water and begin sinking. After the fight between Jake and Quaritch - whose Way of Water return is explained in the films prologue - the duo, Neytiri, and Tuk are trapped in the sinking ship. This sequence greatly emulates Titanic with the confined, claustrophobic filmmaking used to portray the respective sinking vessels. From the sequences involving Neytiri and Tuk trying to escape the onrushing water through different parts of the ship to the very similar way in which both vessels are sunk, the callbacks to Titanic in Avatar: The Way of Water are just one of many references to Cameron's greatest hits.
