Miles Quaritch

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Miles Quaritch
Avatar character
First appearance	Avatar (2009)
Created by	James Cameron
Portrayed by	Stephen Lang
Voiced by	Stephen Lang (James Cameron's Avatar: The Game)
Information
Species	Human (formerly) Na'vi Avatar
Gender	Male
Title	Colonel
Occupation	Marine (formerly) RDA Chief of Security Recombinator
Affiliation	U.S. Marine Corps (formerly) RDA Recombinators

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Colonel Miles Quaritch is a fictional character and the main antagonist in the American science fiction film series Avatar.

Quaritch served as the RDA's Chief of Security during their war with the Na'vi on Pandora. After former Marine Jake Sully is brought to Pandora, he promises to pay for an operation that would fix his paralysis in exchange for giving information about the Na'vi, but he instead falls in love with a Na'vi named Neytiri begins sympathizing with them. He directed the destruction of the Omaticaya Clan's Hometree and led his forces into an assault on the Tree of Souls, where his human body was killed. The RDA later transferred Quaritch's consciousness into a Na'vi Avatar (dubbed Recombinators).

The character is portrayed by Stephen Lang in Avatar, and its sequels Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar 3. Lang also reprised his role for the film's tie-in video game, James Cameron's Avatar: The Game. Merchandise of the character have also been produced, including action figures.

Production history

Casting

James Cameron initially met with Michael Biehn for the role of Quaritch, having previously collaborated on The Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, and Terminator 2: Judgment Day, and even showed him multiple drafts of the script and some of the 3D test footage. Ultimately, Biehn was not cast in the role, as Sigourney Weaver had been cast to play Dr. Grace Augustine in the film and Cameron did not want audiences to draw comparisons to Aliens. Although Cameron confirms he met with Biehn for a part in the film, he disputes the claim that it was for Quaritch.

Having remembered Stephen Lang from when he auditioned for the parts of Dwayne Hicks and Carter Burke in Aliens, Cameron decided to cast Lang in the role of Quaritch. Lang said of his casting in Avatar,

I’d auditioned for Aliens about 20+ years ago, and he talked about that in our conversation, so, y’know, I’ve kind of gone on record as saying that this was the world’s longest callback.

Despite the character's death at the end of Avatar, Cameron confirmed in 2010 that Lang would return in the film's sequels, stating, “I'm not going to say exactly how we're bringing him back, but it's a science fiction story, after all. His character will evolve into really unexpected places across the arc of our new three-film saga”. Lang stated that his character was always meant to return in the sequels, stating,

Jim indicated to me years ago, before filming on Avatar was completed, that Quaritch had a future. I might have taken that with a grain of salt at the time because we'd had a few beers. Shortly after Avatar opened, Jim mentioned again that the Colonel was coming back, and by then I knew Jim well enough to know that he means what he says and he says what he means.

Cameron later confirmed that Quaritch would act as the main antagonist across all four sequels. Lang later confirmed that Quaritch would return as a Recombinant, a Na'vi Avatar embedded with the memories of a soldier, which meant that, like the other actors portraying Na'vi characters, Lang's performance in the sequels involved motion capture, which included the new underwater performance capture Cameron developed for the films, which Lang initially found "challenging".

Appearances

Films

Avatar (2009)

On the moon Pandora, tensions between humans and its indigenous Na'vi had been rising, making it harder for the RDA to mine for unobtanium, a highly valuable mineral used for energy generation which sits under the Omaticaya Clan's Hometree. When paraplegic ex-Marine Jake Sully arrives on Pandora to replace his brother Tom in the Avatar Program, Quaritch offers to pay for his reconstructive leg surgery in exchange for information about the Na'vi, the Omaticaya Clan, their Hometree, and the Tree of Souls. But Jake falls in love with a Na'vi named Neytiri, and begins to sympathize with them and their culture. After Quaritch shows him video logs of Jake lamenting the hopelessness of convincing the Na'vi to leave Hometree, along with reports that the Na'vi had begun burning bulldozers and killing RDA troopers, the RDA’s Administrator Parker Selfridge comes to the conclusion that the Omaticaya Clan are a threat to their operation and could not be convinced to leave their Hometree, orders the destruction of the Omaticaya's Hometree, but gives Jake and Dr. Grace Augustine one hour to convince the Na'vi to evacuate Hometree before commencing the attack.

The Na'vi refuse to listen, and after the hour is up, Quaritch and his men destroy Hometree, killing multiple Na'vi. He also separates Jake and Grace from their avatars and imprisons them. Disgusted by Quaritch’s brutality, pilot Trudy Chacon returns to base and frees Jake and Grace, airlifting them out of the base. Quaritch shoots Grace during the escape, but fails to stop them from escaping Hell’s Gate. Quaritch then begins an assault on the Tree of Souls, quickly dispatching the bewildered Na'vi until Pandora's wildlife, seemingly at the direction of Eywa herself, attacks RDA's forces in mass. With all escorts either distracted or destroyed, Quaritch pursues Jake in his gunship, but he attacks it, causing it to crash. Quaritch escapes from his gunship in an AMP suit and advances to the Tree of Souls. Neytiri arrives on a Thanator to protect the Tree, but Quaritch stabs the thanator with his AMP suit's knife, trapping Neytiri beneath it. Jake arrives and fights Quaritch, but he finds and breaks open the module containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere, interrupting Jake’s link with his Avatar. Quaritch then attempts to slit Jake's throat, but Neytiri fires two arrows into his body, killing him.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Quaritch will return in the film's sequel, set roughly a decade after the events of Avatar, with the RDA having transferred his consciousness into a Recombinant, a Na'vi Avatar embedded with the memories of a soldier.

Literature

Comic books

The Next Shadow

An illusionary Quaritch briefly appears in a nightmare Jake has while in a coma, tormenting him alongside the deceased Tsu'tey.

Video Games

James Cameron's Avatar: The Game

Lang reprises his role as Quaritch in the game, which is set two years before the events of Avatar. If the player chooses to side with the RDA, Quaritch will appear at the end, taking over the operation from the Central Command in Plains of Goliath from Commander Karl Falco. He will then give Able Ryder a Dragon Ship to go to Tantalus for some charges to blow up a stone wall to access the Well Of Souls, where Ryder will find Falco. After killing Falco and activating the Emulator which cuts off the Na'vi‘s connection with Eywa, Quaritch congratulates Ryder and orders them to return to base.

Merchandise

Mattel made an action figure of Quaritch as part of their range of Avatar action figures.

Reception

Lang won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Quaritch at the 36th Saturn Awards.

References

• Text was copied from Miles Quaritch at Avatar Wiki, which is released under a Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 (Unported) (CC-BY-SA 3.0) license.

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