It’s no secret that the Avatar films are a gargantuan technical feat – constantly pushing the boundaries of technology to deliver pure, visceral cinematic experiences. There are photorealistic visual effects aplenty. But sometimes, you have to go old-school too. And one upcoming battle in James Cameron’s hugely-anticipated threequel, Avatar: Fire And Ash, blended the saga’s cutting-edge technology with the most fundamental elements. It’s not called Fire And Ash for nothing.
One sequence in the film sees the benevolent airborne Wind Traders, led by David Thewlis’ Peylak, attacked by the fearsome new Na’vi antagonists – the Ash People, aka the Mangkwan clan. It’s a skybound skirmish that, for all its astonishing effects, was produced as practically as possible. Including the use of real fire. “We want people to feel the heat,” second-unit director Garrett Warren says, teasing the sequence as “a cross between a pirate-ship [invasion] and an air-to-air combat battle, with the ikran, the flying creatures that move through the air, like fighter jets”.
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There were huge practical builds to augment the shooting process – replica aluminium airships measuring 100 feet long, and ikran puppets for stunt performers, like second-unit stunt co-ordinator Steve Brown, to ride on. “Steve basically had to jump off a moving bird the same way the Ash Warriors do,” says Warren. “There were a couple of good faceplants.” Even with a location like Pandora, there’s no excuse for not doing things the real way. “This is Jim Cameron, you know?” laughs Warren. “We’re not doing stuff for fake.”