Terry Cong Tam Tran
Instructor Vanstrom
English Composition 3 1 March 2012
Officially Outlawed Hero The movie directed by James Cameron, Avatar, is considered to be one of the biggest and most popular films ever. This film provides many insights about the social and cultural aspects of what heroes are imaged as in American’s 21st century society. The film heavily revolves around the different traits that are idolized in “official” and “outlaw” heroes. Avatar’s work of glamorizing the characters in the movie enables viewers identifies with the heroes and ultimately aspires to be them. The film has long reflected common trends and contradictions in current society’s myths and values. One of the most common patterns seen in movies is the character being able to possess opposite traits that enable to the character to overcome binary oppositions (Ray 342). In this particular movie, Jake Sully is identified as the main character, who was formerly military personnel who ironically protested against his military organization’s missions. Because Jake Sully shares these diametrically opposite traits and identities, he represents both the image of an “Official Hero” and an “Outlaw Hero.” He is an Official Hero in the sense that he follows the mundane standards of rules the military has him carry out. In the military, orders are meant to be followed with no questioned asked; this limits the creativity and the ability to make personal decisions leading him down the path of an “Official Hero.” Amazingly, at the same time, he is also identified with the characteristics of an “Outlaw Hero” because he values self-determination and frees himself from entanglements such as military protocols in order to stand up for what he believes is right regardless of what society thinks near the end of the movie. The introduction of Jake Sully begins when he arrives to the mystical world of Pandora on a massive transportation ship, the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star. Soon as he exits out of the transportation ship behind the armed workers in camouflaged uniforms, audiences are able to identify which side he works for. He participates in a military force also known as SecOps, short for Security Operations. The Chief of the security force is Colonel Miles Quaritch, an aggressive military oriented character who is serves as another important villain in the film. Their primary job is to provide security and protection to all the working personnel from all the dangers that the environment of Pandora presents. As mentioned, Jake sully is a disabled former Corporal in the Marines, and he initially connects with the strong values and motives of the traditional military back at home on Earth. However, his impression of the military established at the current base was far different from the military he had previously served in. He compares the traditional motives of the men military he had served with by being inspired by loyalty to their country and the desire to fight for freedom as oppose to those in the private military being simply motivated by financial means. Jake then mentions that the personnel of the Security Operations were, “hired arms” and “working for the company,” which only implicates that the Security Operations is run and controlled by a powerful rich corporation. In this case, the Security Operations team is hired by the Resources Development Administration (RDA) Company. Just this scene alone sets the overall tone and image of the Security Operations in the movie. The security team personnel are almost labeled as mercenaries, which by definition are considered hired arms that take part in armed conflicts and do not associate themselves with a national or party group. In this sense, the members of SecOps including Jake Sully can be classified as mercenaries: they both are armed with weapons, trained for combat or direct conflicts, and do not associate with anyone else other than the private corporations that hire them. At this point, it is distinctive that Jake Sully may not even appear as a hero with any strong valiant values because he works with an organization that no longer emphasizes on these popular core values of honor, which is what America’s military capitalizes its proud work on. Instead their motive to do the dangerous work is purely driven by financial opportunities; Jake Sully risks his life for the employees at the Resources Development Administration only so he can receive new legs to overcome his disability. Sure this may seem to make the main character courageous for putting his life on the line, but ultimately he does not bear the heroic image just yet because he obviously is out there for his personal agendas. Jake Sully begins to expose the characteristics of an official hero when he is tasked of an escort duty in the wilderness of Pandora. The head administrator of Pandora, Parker Selfridge, asks Colonel Quaritch to seek a capable individual to protect the scientists of the company on their expedition. Jake Sully is selected for his harden combat experiences and tags along with the crew on their journey. His acceptance of the task supports the claim of the author Robert B. Ray that, “official heroes were … willing to undertake even those public duties demanding personal sacrifice” (345). He personally sacrificed his pride to be ordered around by civilian scientists who initially undermines and displays a lack of appreciation for his presence. Jake also demonstrates his maturity and careful wisdom from his past military experiences as he secures the landing of the aircraft. As he escorts the crew of scientists through the treacherous trails, he carefully pays close attention and carefully adjusts their path accordingly to what seems safe. This goes to support the traits of an official hero; they embodied attributes based of matureness which includes sound reasoning and judgments, and their wisdom is ultimately based on experience (Ray 344). Jake then encounters a wild beast that posed as a major threat to the safety of his crew. Regardless of the intimidating aggressive nature of the monster, Jake still embodied bravery by remaining calm and maintain his bearing. This scene reaffirms to the audience that Jake possesses one of the many basic traits of a hero, courage. In addition to his rising identity as an official hero, he follows orders from a civilian scientist leader, Grave Augustine, and obeys the rules of engagement although Jake clearly does not favor it. Jake follows the proper legal laws set forth by his the scientists, which serve to preserve the all of Pandora’s nature. By adhering to his responsibilities, demonstrating respect to the laws, and remaining civilized in the face of insults from his scientist team, Jake shows promising features of an “official” hero.
Jake’s identity as official hero completely flips around when he initiates his avatar operation in which he takes charge and control of his artificial “Na’vi” avatar, or his puppet. The Na’vi beings are blue indigenous species that live on Pandora, and they share many similar traits and physical appearances with the humans. He begins to unveil his “outlaw” hero personas when he takes his avatar for a test run. He is drowned in excitement because he is finally able to walk with his artificial legs, thus he becomes free from restrictions such as his paralysis disability. He then disregards the scientists’ guidance to take it easy on getting used to his avatar. He fails to contain his curiosity and eagerness to explode, and Jake Sully is seen running through the training camp wildly and enthusiastically as if he was a kid all over again in a candy store. Outlaw heroes represent a flight from maturity and this scene is a prime example of Jake’s “childlike” qualities that he is content with (Ray 344). The RDA Company strategically uses Jake Sully to infiltrate the Na’vi tribe in order to persuade them to move out of their holy “Hometree.” As Jake trains with a female Na’vi named Neytiri in order to get closer to the community, Neytiri even calls him a “baby” for his incompetence in their training. This furthermore adds to the childlike qualities that Jake possesses. Soon, Jake falls in love with NeytiriThis whole ordeal of the Resource Development Administration occupying the Na’vi’s homeland strongly resembles the past history of America when the white European settlers came to inhabit the lands of the Native Indians. The RDA and the Europeans were similar in many ways. The RDA came from another world to settle in Pandora and in order to find and furnish profitable minerals, unobtanium, for their company. The Europeans came over to the new world to look for valuable minerals to fund their colonies too. A passage from James Loewen’s work goes to support European’s motive to acquire resource in the new world, “[Virginians] spent their early days digging random holes in the ground, haplessly looking for gold…” Both the RDA and Europeans also tried to share their culture to the natives: the RDA offered the Na’vi education just as the Europeans offered to share their religion among the Native Indians. The Na’vi in the movies were portrayed almost identically to the Native Indians of the past American history: the way they dressed, their spiritual culture, to even how they were labeled as the “savages” by the RDA. James Loewen also mentions in his book about the struggle for the Native Indians to defend their homeland from the European settlement, which resulted in the Savage War. American Indians and Europeans’ conflicting past history repeats itself again in the 21st century. A great modern example of how intrusive foreigners are being opposed and attacked by citizens who are trying to defend their land is when a convoy containing four Xe Services guards was ambushed by Iraqi insurgents’ gunfire in the hopes of discouraging their presence in Fallujah. This lethal attack on the Xe Service’s convoy vehicles perfectly mirrors the scene of the hell trucks being attacked by the Na’vi who too were trying to push RDA to leave Pandora. American privatized military’s presence has been increasing dramatically in the Middle East within the recent years stated by USA Today. As the traditional United States troops withdraw from the unpopular war in the Middle East, Xe Services operatives as well as other private security contractors come in to fill in their place. The growing presence of the private armies is becoming more unpopular by the citizens of the Middle Eastern countries such as Iraq, Iran, and Afghanistan. As time progresses, more people are becoming aware of the fact that the private military forces such as Xe Services are not serving in their Middle Eastern countries for the citizens’ best interests and welfare. Their primary concern in the Middle East is to provide security for important corporations or personnel just like how SecOps operates in Pandora to provide protection for the RDA corporations’ important assets such as staffs and resources. The devastating turn in the movie that pushed the Na’vi, Jake, and his friends to go to battle against the Resource Development Administration and its private army occurs during the scene where the SecOps destroys the sacred Hometree that served as an ancient shelter for the Na’vi. RDA’s head administrator, Parker Selfridge, sees the Na’vi as an immovable obstacle to the corporate’s interest and orders the Security Operations to remove the massive Hometree sheltering the Na’vi. SecOps tries to remove the inhabitants as humanely as possible by drawing the Na’vi out with nonlethal rounds of irritable gas agents. The Na’vi then begin to fight back against the SecOp’s offensive action, which then sparks Colonel Miles Quaritch’s trigger happy ego into ordering his men to fire live ammunition instead. The Na’vi suffers heavy casualties from the multiple explosions of the devastating incendiary rounds. The bottom structure of Hometree was so severely damaged from the impacts of the incendiary rounds that the massive tree eventually toppled over, crashing down into the ground. As a result, more Na’vi were killed were from impact of the fallen tree, they became homeless, and their morale was severely shattered. Afterwards, the Colonel congratulates his men on their good work and leaves the Hometree ablaze in black thick smoke and fire without any remorse. The horrendous massacre that the SecOps’ actions enacted represents the lack of ethical and moral values found in private military today. Collateral damage occurs in many firefights Xe Services has engaged in the recent past. They were responsible for many of the tragic deaths of civilians in the Middle East including a shooting incident in Baghdad back in 2007. CNN reported that after a firefight broke out in Baghdad’s Nusoor Square, Xe Services guards killed seventeen innocent civilians as well as wounded twenty more persons including women and children. Though Xe Services operatives were just as responsible for the loss of innocent deaths of the Iraqis as the SecOps were for the Na’vi, yet no disciplinary actions were taken nor did they admit any fault to it. Another case where private enterprises use hired military armies to secure their resources is the Shell Oil Company involvement in Nigeria, Africa. The Shell Corporation financed Nigerian private military forces to use lethal force on villagers and other small communities to remove them from the Delta State in order to build commercial oil refineries and pipelines in the region. Corporates went far as even providing the private army their company’s boats helicopters to carry out their tasks as noted by the article on albionmonitor.com. The private military involvements in deaths of innocent civilians demonstrates the unethical motives behind their actions and how they view the lives of civilians insignificant to their role in corporate worlds just as how Colonel Miles Quaritch saw the lives of the Na’vi expendable to their mission objective. Throughout the film, characters one by one such as Jake Sully, scientists, and even a SecOp pilot begin to oppose the RDA firm and SecOps private military that employs and protects them. Jake Sully, a character that can mostly relate to the SecOps because of his heavy military background, does not identify himself as one of them. Instead, he sides with the Na’vi even though this would technically mean he would be betraying his own human race. Jake rises up the hierarchy of the Na’vi clans and eventually leads all the clans to fight the SecOps. Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the science department, along with Norm Spellman, an assistant to Dr. Grace, try to persuade Parker Selfridge to refrain from going through his corporate goal, which would ultimately lead to the Na’vi massacre. Jake instructs another scientist of the program, Dr. Max Patel, to act as an inside man in the RDA corporate. Dr. Patel leaks and exposes the Security Operations’ plans, movement, and location to Jake in order to provide him a better chance to defeat them. The female SecOps pilot, Trudy Chacon, disobeys the Colonel’s order to fire her weapons along the side of her private army comrades. As a result, Trudy joins along Jake’s effort to stop SecOps from carrying out its unethical and vicious attempt to exterminate all the Na’vi beings and everything else that impedes the RDA’s ability to acquire the valuable Unobtanium minerals. The characters go through many of their own sacrifices in order to stand by their moral values and shut down both the RDA Company and Security Operations once and for all. Jake Sully loses his only opportunity of ever being able to walk again, the scientists loses their funds from RDA that enables for them to make progresses in their research, and the former SecOps pilot ends up losing her life in the end of this struggle. All of the sacrifices illustrate of how people are becoming more aware of the private military actions becoming run by corrupted motives that these private corporations instill upon them. Residents of nearby San Diego, environmentalist, and anti-war organizations protested and opposed Xe Services’ attempt to establish a training facility near Portrero of San Diego County. Despite the fact that Xe Services stated that these training facilities’ purposes was to provide advance military training, their actions and deeds in Iraq made them ostracized and discouraged any forms of public support. Even high profiled people began to criticize and question their purpose as a private military organization. Chris Hedges, a former Middle East Bureau Chief for New York Times, stated, “These hired guns… appeared on the streets of New Orleans following Hurricane Katrina. They operate, at home and abroad the bounds of legal constraints and are secretive puppet master corporations.” An incident in the recent news this year involved a US Army Soldier trying to expose private military companies like Xe Services of its corruption and recklessness in Iraq. The army soldier, Bradley Manning, passed restricted government information to Wikileaks for the staffs do distribute it among the public. Documents obtained from the Iraq War portion of the data described the serious abuse of Xe Services’ power and authority in Iraq, including killing innocent civilians. One of the major evidence in the files completely tore down the reputation of Xe Services; Iraq War logs published by Wikileaks confirmed that Xe Services operatives killed innocent Iraqi civilians as well as implicitly shot at the 69th Regiment of the US Army before eluding from the scenery. Due to the sensitivity of the classified files he leaked out, he is detained in a medium-security prison located in Kansas. The nature of this matter goes to show that people working for the system associated with private military and corporations turn against them for the greater good and make an effort to expose their true images to others. Jake, Trudy, and the other scientists’ determination to defeat and shut down SecOps along with RDA resembles a lot of Bradley Manning valiant effort to also shut down and stop the corporate mercenary empire, Xe Services. Bradley Manning has sacrificed his career, freedom, and reputation in order to unmask the true identities and motives these private military try to protect from the public. Throughout the movie the Colonel is attached closely along the side of Parker Selfridge, serving as his right hand man. The Colonel understands that Parker is in charge of the entire operation, but Parker relies on Colonel’s experience and expertise in handling combat oriented situations. The scene where the Colonel discusses with Parker about how to deal with the Na’vi demonstrates this relationship between private military personnel and a corporate administrator. After Parker gave Dr. Grace and Jake their last chance to resolve the problem diplomatically, he then consults with the Colonel to solve the problem more directly and aggressively. Colonel begins to explain how he plans to carry his task, and finally convinces Parker to give in to his military strategy when the Colonel ensures that everything will be done humanely as possible. Detailed intelligence gathered originally by Jake and precise mission planning from the Colonel go hand to hand to reinforce Parker’s confidence his in decision, which he then ultimately regrets when he is struck by the silence of shame and the disgust in his empty stare while supervising the Colonel’s men on his live feed screen. Military personnel have increasingly become appealing to resource enterprises for their unique experience and specialized training. Oil Companies such as Baker Hughes, Orion International, and American Petroleum Institute seek to recruit former military members to integrate their valuable leadership skills and tactical insights to any problem the energy companies might encounter. Such as the Colonel demonstrated to Parker, the use of ex-military men or privatized military personnel provides and expands the corporate industry’s choice of action and options to choose from whether the matter be handled diplomatically or aggressively. Private military firms are often hired by these private industries and serve has a consultant for the corporate members. This allows the corporate members to gain an additional perspective to solve any conflicting issues that deal with their interests. The combination of private military’s expertise and unethical business mindsets presents a devastating compound that can serve as a potential risk for disastrous tragedies such as the decision Parker made for Resource Development Administration and the actions carried out by Colonel Quaritch.
SecOps, although a fictional group corporate mercenaries in the movie Avatar, do however exist in the real world in another form of private security firm, the Xe Services. These private military do not function traditionally and ethically as the government military. These private operatives do not promote democracy or fight to defend human rights; instead their main focus is to generate massive profits. When a corporation is presented an obstacle that cannot be solved by legal means, they resort to these private military companies to operate around these laws and even sometimes above the laws. Private military firms have created another frontier in the corporate world where there are no limits to what business can do to obtain whatever deems necessary for their prosperity to grow. The rise of the private military corporation industry reflects the new business face of war.

Bibliography
Ray, Robert B. The Thematic Pardigm. Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 342-50. Print.
Postrel, Virginia. Superhero Worship. Signs of Life in the U.S.A.: Readings on Popular Culture for Writers. Boston: Bedford/St. Martin's, 2012. 351-54. Print.