Avatar (2009 film) before it can reach the Tree of Souls; Quaritch, wearing an AMP suit, escapes from his own damaged aircraft and breaks open the avatar link unit containing Jake's human body, exposing it to Pandora's poisonous atmosphere. Quaritch prepares to slit the throat of Jake's avatar, but Neytiri kills Quaritch and saves Jake from suffocation. With the exceptions of Jake, Norm and a select few others, all humans are expelled from Pandora and sent back to Earth, after which Jake is permanently transferred into his avatar with the aid of the Tree of Souls. In 1994, director James Cameron wrote an
Avatar (2009 film) to cut his fee in case the film flopped. Cameron installed a traffic light with the amber signal lit outside of co-producer Jon Landau's office to represent the film's uncertain future. In mid-2006, Fox told Cameron "in no uncertain terms that they were passing on this film," so he began shopping it around to other studios, and approached Walt Disney Studios, showing his proof-of-concept to then-chairman Dick Cook. However, when Disney attempted to take over, Fox exercised its right of first refusal. In , Fox finally agreed to commit to making "Avatar" after Ingenious Media agreed to back the film,