5 plotholes in Avatar 2

Avatar 2 is one of the most exciting films of 2022. As a sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time, Avatar: The Way of Water shows us the journey of Jake Sully and his family so far.

The Resource Development Administration (RDA) has been hell-bent on capturing Jake Sully after the events of the first film. However, things have changed significantly over the course of the time-skip of 15 years on both Earth and Pandora.

While Avatar 2 might be one of the costliest movie projects ever, it's still not without its plotholes. In this piece, we'll discuss five plotholes from Avatar 2 and attempt to explain why they were incorporated into the film despite there being better choices available.

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The RDA's obsession with Jake Sully, Unobtanium, and more in Avatar 2 plotholes

Sully's hiding plan is flawed

The Hallelujah Mountains from Avatar and Avatar 2 (Image via 21st Century Studios)

Colonel Quaritch is back on Pandora, and Jake Sully knows his family might have to take the brunt of his wrath. While Sully naively believes that the Colonel only wants to exact revenge on Jake over the death of his human form, he takes his family off to the Hallelujah Mountains.

The flaw comes in the form of his belief that the Omatikaya tribe would be spared if Quaritch ever encounters them. When Quaritch encounters Metkayina tribes and inquires about Sully's whereabouts, he torches their homes despite getting an honest answer. It's by sheer luck that the Omatikaya tribe survives in Avatar 2.

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The RDA is obsessed with Jake to a fault

Jake Sully in Avatar 2 (Image via 21st Century Studios)

In Avatar 2, the RDA is returning to Pandora to find a new homeworld for humans. However, they put a comically large bounty over Jake Sully's head. While this is not entirely outside of their scope, given that Sully was the catalyst for their loss to Pandora 15 years ago, he is not that important in the grand scheme of things.

Of course, Sully was immediately familiar with the RDA's tactics, which is why he proved to be a key target. However, the war was 15 years ago, and since then, Sully has probably trained many in the art of defense and offense against the RDA.

It's also odd that, apart from Quaritch, the RDA is still concerned with Jake Sully.

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Unobtanium is somehow no longer important

The rare mineral Unobtanium in Avatar (Image via 21st Century Studios)

The events of Avatar (2009) occurred solely for the purpose of obtaining Unobtainium. As we saw in the film, the Earth-rare compound is abundantly available on Pandora. The element was shown to be so rare that it was valued at $20 million for a kilo of it. In the second film, however, it's not even mentioned once.

The Earth is apparently on the brink of extinction, so it's clear that the RDA wants to colonize Pandora. The film then shifts its focus to Amrita, which opens up the possibility of prolonged interstellar travel. Even if Earth is on the verge of collapse, the RDA still has major energy needs.

Unobtainium in Avatar (Image via 21st Century Studios)

Unobtainium deserves more incorporation within the plot, though an active pursuit and incorporation of the element would have made it imminent for the RDA to be almost too strong for their opponents.

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Where is Jake's army when he needs them?

The Metkayina tribe in Avatar 2 (Image via 21st Century Studios)

The Metkayina clan was there to support Jake during the first hostile situation in the film. However, as soon as their princess, Tsireya, was rescued, they were nowhere to be seen.

It seems that the Metkayina clan only cares about their place in the conflict. However, another explanation would be that the film wanted to focus only on the family aspect of Avatar 2.

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The Recoms abandon their undercover plan halfway through

Colonel Quaritch in Avatar 2 (Image via 21st Century Studios)

The Recoms initially wanted to go undercover after learning as much as possible about the language and culture of the Na'vi. However, that was abandoned halfway through, as they would not have been able to fool anyone out of the insurrection, let alone kill Jake.

The second half of the film then focused on Quaritch figuring out how to track and locate Jake Sully and his family. It would have been nice to see the film stick to either one cohesive approach or the other.