Avatar: The Way of Water Ending Explained — The Game-Changing Setup for Avatar 3

With Avatar: Fire and Ash on deck, it is a good time to revisit how Avatar: The Way of Water actually lands the plane. Spoiler: it does not really land. It banks hard into the next movie. Thirteen years after the original, Cameron came back with a sequel that is bigger, brighter, and stacked with new faces who clicked fast with fans. Reviews were solid overall, even if the Rotten Tomatoes score slipped compared to the first film. More importantly, people walked out asking what that ending means. Let’s talk about it.

• Movie: Avatar: The Way of Water
• Director: James Cameron
• Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Joel David Moore, Sigourney Weaver, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald
• Production: Lightstorm Entertainment
• IMDb: 7.5/10
• Rotten Tomatoes: 76%
• Runtime: 3h 12m
• Streaming: Disney+
• Next up: Avatar: Fire and Ash hits December 19, 2025

So what actually happens at the end

The finale bundles up the emotional gut-punches and the big action while quietly laying track for what is next. The main tension stays the same: Jake Sully vs. Colonel Miles Quaritch, now uploaded into a Na'vi body and very much on the hunt. That chase costs Jake and Neytiri their eldest son, Neteyam, which becomes the center of gravity for the whole ending.

Meanwhile, the Metkayina initially keep their distance. But the RDA’s brutal tulkun hunt turns them, hard. Watching humans torture and slaughter a sacred species jolts the reef clan into the fight. It also makes something very clear: they are not sitting this war out again.

On the mystery front, Kiri’s connection to Eywa gets a sharper tease. When she links in, she can influence Pandora’s creatures in ways that feel... different. It is clearly important, and just as clearly not explained yet. Deliberate choice.

Jake sees his son again, and chooses the next fight

After Neteyam’s funeral, Jake makes tsaheylu with the Metkayina’s spirit tree. Through that bond, he reconnects with Neteyam — not as a ghost, but through stored memory. He relives teaching his kid how to shoot. It is heartbreaking and weirdly comforting at the same time. The catch is obvious: Jake can see him, but he is never going to watch him grow up.

That moment flips a switch. Running is done. The Sullys are tied to the water clans now, and they are staying put. The RDA has upgraded tools — those recombinant Avatar bodies let them fight the Na'vi on even footing — and they are not slowing down. Jake moves from reacting to planning. He is not just a dad or a warrior anymore; he is a leader prepping for the next round.

Why it ends on a cliffhanger (and why that is intentional)

Cameron has always designed Avatar as a multi-film saga, not a set of tidy one-and-dones. The Way of Water is built as a middle chapter. It is supposed to leave threads dangling.

There is also a very practical reason for the soft cliffhanger. The writers room had too much story. Per writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver in Variety, the second movie’s material ballooned enough that Cameron split it across two films. The franchise was initially set at four movies; that split pushed it to five, with what overflowed from The Way of Water rolling into Avatar: Fire and Ash.

This is not the end; it is the handoff to the next chapter.

That is why the movie leaves you with active problems: Jake vs. Quaritch is ongoing, Kiri’s abilities are unresolved, and Spider’s loyalty is messy after he secretly saves Quaritch.

The handoff to Fire and Ash

The table is set for a nastier conflict. The humans know Pandora better now, they have heavier hardware, and their motivation is only growing. The Na'vi need to brace for a wider war.

Inside the Sully family, Neteyam’s death shifts focus to Lo'ak. He is positioned as the next emotional anchor, and his bond with Payakan is not just a sweet side plot — it feels like a strategic asset. His budding romance with Reya could tighten bonds between Metkayina and Omaticaya in a way the war will absolutely test.

Then there is Amrita — the golden tulkun extract that stops human aging. That single fact guarantees Earth will come back harder for Pandora’s resources. And on the character-drama side, Spider saving Quaritch is a live grenade, especially for Neytiri. We have already gotten a quick look at Spider in the Fire and Ash trailer, so expect that tension to spark early.

Bottom line

The Way of Water does not wrap things up so much as it narrows the sights. Jake stops running, the reef clans step up, and the next fight is coming straight to the coastline. Whether you loved the sequel or just liked it, the ending is designed to make you lean into the next one. Mission accomplished.