Fire & Ash Might Surprise You

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One of James Cameron’s favorite scenes in his 2025 blockbuster “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (read our review here) was a hallucination sequence. In the film, audiences are introduced to a war-happy tribe of Na’vi called the Mangkwan, led by the aggressive and villainous Varang (Oona Chaplin). Varang hates the Pandoran earth mother Eywa, and aims to slaughter other Na’vi tribes as a show of power. About halfway through the movie, Varang manages to kidnap Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the wicked human antagonist of the “Avatar” movies, who (thanks to a technological twist) now lives in a Na’vi body. It’s not a good idea to have those two in the same room

 While Quaritch is in Varang’s custody in her yurt, Varang blows a strange hallucinatory powder into Quaritch’s face, and he begins to have a powerful drug trip. We see the hallucination sequence from Quaritch’s own eyeballs, including the bulging and warping of reality, and the eerie, colored worm-like pulsations underneath Varang’s skin. The “Avatar” movies, with their photorealistic, ultra-colorful alien landscapes, already have a psychedelic “Alice in Wonderland” quality, but this was the first time the film series dabbled in actual psychedelics. During his trip Quaritch manages to bond with Varang, and the pair form a villainous alliance. 

Cameron loved the scene where Varang and Quaritch bonded. This was explained in John Fordham’s new book “The Making of Avatar: Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ash.” The “Fire and Ash” FX technicians, specifically Weta’s Eric Saindon and animation lead Dan Barrett, talked about the sequence in Fordham’s book, and how the details of the characters’ bonding was the film’s best sequence full of tiny details you might not have noticed. 

As all “Avatar” fans can tell you, the Na’vi, and many of the life-forms on Pandora, are equipped with a special cranial tentacle called a kuru. Na’vi can “plug” their kuru into other beings and form a psychic bond. Varang has been using her kuru to link up to people’s brains and activate their pain receptors, effectively torturing them. This is something she tries to assert her dominance over Quaritch, with Eric Saindon pointing out some small details he was proud of. He said: 

“When Varang moves her kuru toward him, […] the tentacles inside her kuru aggressively surge forwards, and the other kuru pulls back, like a scared dog pulling its tail under. Jim wanted it to feel like her kuru was attacking, in a very aggressive maneuver, showing the way she’s forcing herself on him. It’s a little bit sexual, a little bit aggressive, and a very dominating way of connecting.”

If you look closely at the tiny tendrils inside of Varang’s and Quaritch’s kuru, you can see that it is indeed the case. Quaritch’s tendrils recoil. As for the hallucination sequence, Saindon was allowed to be a lot more creative. He had to essentially create a drug trip, with James Cameron giving detailed instructions. It seems that Cameron wanted hallucinated worm shapes. Saindon said:

“We took all the geometry close to camera. […] and Jim had us give those textures ‘worms’ under the surface, so the objects appeared to move like there were worms inside. Further back, we added streaking camera motion and light effects. It was a very colorful effect; and in stereo, it was really out there.”

It’s certainly the most striking scene in “Fire and Ash.” 

Animation lead Dan Barrett was the one who pointed out how much Cameron liked the hallucination sequence. It wasn’t just because it was fun to visualize and animate, but because it showed the way two strong-willed villains, each one trying to assert control over the world, could come to become partners. It was a battle of wills that met in the middle, all realized through glowing worms, aggressive tendrils, and careful character work from actors Oona Chaplin and Stephen Lang. Dan Barrett described the character interplay in the following way: 

“Varang has a pretty large chip on her shoulder. […] Things have gone badly for her, in the way she believes Eywa has treated her people. She finds a partner in crime in Quaritch; or, at least, Quaritch finds a partner in crime in her. To use a Pandoran parlance, they “see” each other. It is an unholy alliance. Quaritch, in his drugged-up state, stands up to her and, at that point, they become lovers. It was a powerful scene with two actors at the peak of their powers, connecting in the Pandoran world. It was electric.”

The climax of “Fire and Ash” is another extended battle sequence, very similar to the one seen in “The Way of Water,” but with Varang and her tribe of Mangkwan thrown into the mix. Varang was the most interesting character in “Fire and Ash,” and it was nice to see Cameron treat her as an equal, or even a superior, to Quaritch, rather than a mere afterthought. We felt she was one of the best movie villains of 2025. Time will tell if Varang returns for any additional “Avatar” films.