Miles Quaritch

"You are not in Kansas anymore. You are on Pandora, ladies and gentlemen. Respect that fact every second of every day. If there is a Hell, you might wanna go there for some R & R after a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubes. We have an indigenous population of humanoids called the Na'vi. They're fond of arrows dipped in a neurotoxin that will stop your heart in one minute - and they have bones reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber. They are very hard to kill. As head of security, it is my job to keep you alive. I will not succeed. Not with all of you. If you wish to survive, you need to cultivate a strong, mental aptitude. You got to obey the rules. Pandora rules."

- Colonel Miles Quaritch addressing his troops.

Colonel Miles Quaritch (simply known as Miles Quaritch) is the main antagonist of the 2009 science-fiction blockbuster film, Avatar. He is the villainous head of the RDA (Resources Development Administration) corporation's security detail, a fierce colonel that follows almost obsessively his military code.

He was portrayed by Stephen Lang, who also played Increase Mather in the TV series Salem, Norman Nordstrom in Don't Breathe, and Percy "King" Dimplewade in The Nut Job.

Personality
Quaritch looked and acted like a lifelong military man. He wore his hair short and was covered with battle scars, most notably a trio of claw marks on the side of his head which he sustained during his time on Pandora. He only respected brute force and dominance, and showed little respect for the Na'vi or their home. He destroyed their Hometree, killing numerous Na'vi in the process, without regret, seeing it as merely a mission and remained mostly indifferent about the destruction.

His long-running military career was representative of his personality. He regularly worked out to off-set the low gravity on Pandora so he didn't get "soft". He was in outstanding physical condition, despite being middle aged, and he was known to leave his exopack back in his base for short periods when entering combat in the poisonous atmosphere of Pandora when he felt the situation demanded it. An expert with his AMP suit, he was still familiar with combat techniques as demonstrated by his marksmanship, hand-to-hand and melee combat skills.

Despite being a fierce, merciless, bloodthirsty, and aggressive warrior, Quaritch claimed to "take care of his own", and appeared to have good relations with his men, who all seemed to respect him as an authoritative leader. However, he also acknowledge during an initial debriefing that he would be unable to help all of those under his command. He also shows great admiration for the dedication Jake Sully showed by willing to go covert with the Na'vi people and rewarded him greatly by promising him an operation that would give Jake his legs back.

Quaritch was also a charismatic and persuasive military leader, as shown by the way he inspired his troops during the meeting before the assault on the Tree of Souls.

History
Miles Quaritch was the headstrong leader of the RDA security force. The government has gone through even more searches of valuable resources in the year 2154. He sent Marines and soldiers to the planet Pandora. In the universe of the movie, humans have advanced technology allowing them to even travel farther into space, even outside the solar system. They find Unobtainium, a valuable resource costing $20 million per kilogram, which is found only on Pandora, the home planet of blue-skinned humanoid aliens called the Na'vi who are taller than the humans.

Two years ago, Miles Quaritch revealed the company's actual hostility toward Na'vi by tries to wipe out Na'vi children whom responsible for setting one of their bulldozer ablaze and destroyed Grace's school for Na'vis. Though Grace managed to save most of the children, Sylwanin and few children were killed during the gunfire and thus, Quaritch had the school closed for good.

One of the marines whom coming for Pandora was Jake Sully, whose legs were paralyzed. His organization created scientific technology that allowed troops go into new bodies mixed with human DNA and Na'vi DNA called Avatars (which is what the movie is named after). He ordered Jake Sully, female scientist Grace Augustine, and xenoanthropologist Norm Spellman into the Avatar operation, where Quaritch planned the three to trick the Na'vi to move out of the area where Unobtainium is found.

However, Jake Sully, Grace Augustine, and Norm Spellman believed that stealing the land of the Na'vi was wrong, and tried to persuade the RDA to close the operation, but RDA's president Parker Selfridge had no feelings for the Na'vi, ordering almost all of his troops using large helicopter-like vehicles to destroy the Hometree of where the Na'vi clan, the Omayatica, lived. Quaritch later imprisoned Sully, Augustine, and Spellman into a cell chamber after releasing them from the Avatar system chambers. Later, two other humans named Trudy and Dr. Max Patel also decided to help the Na'vi by releasing the three in the cell chamber and escaped in one of the flying helicopter-like vehicles. Miles Quaritch noticed this and used a gun trying to shoot them, but was only successful at shooting Grace Augustine.

Grace slowly died, which left Jake Sully, Norm Spellman, and Trudy left while Dr. Max Patel stayed at the home base where the humans had landed their vehicles on Pandora. Jake Sully later formed an alliance with the other Na'vi, along with the leader's daughter, Ney'tiri. The next day, Miles Quaritch and all the soldiers came up ready for the war.

A conflict/war started between the RDA human squad and the Na'vi clans. The RDA squad had AMP suits that soldiers control with a large gun, giant flying vehicles that shoot missiles, several soldiers were on the ground with guns, and a few giant flying battleship vehicles. The Na'vi clans rode on bird-like animals called Banshees, including a giant bird-like animal named Toruk Macto, horse-like animals named Direhorses, and were prepared with bows and arrows. While Quaritch and his soldiers manage to kill off Trudy and Tsu'Tey, one of the Na'vi, all the soldiers were killed off except for Quaritch. He was on a giant flying battleship, which Jake Sully destroyed by destructing the ship's flying generator, despite Quaritch's best efforts to stop him. Quaritch then quickly went onto an AMP suit and jumped out of the battleship before it crashed, saving himself. Now alone, he advanced to the Tree of Souls to destroy it himself, as well kill Jake Sully once for all.

Neytiri attacked and fight Miles Quaritch by dispatching a giant panther-like animal called the Thanator. Miles Quaritch lost his missile gun, but found a knife and quickly killed the Thanator by stabbing it with the knife. Before he could do the same to Neytiri, Jake Sully in his avatar body came in, declaring that "It's all over".

Quaritch did not agree with the answer ("Nothing's over while I'm breathing!"), and attacks Jake Sully with his knife while Jake Sully used a broken part of the missile gun to shield himself from the knife. An intense fight to the death erupts between the two, in which they appear evenly matched. Quaritch also lost the blade of the knife, the only weapon he had. He then tries to destroy the Avatar body system chambers to disable Jake Sully in his Avatar body, but doesn't get the chance to when Jake almost stabs him with a knife at his right shoulder. Soon, Quaritch held Jake on his hair and was about to kill him with the new knife.

However, Neytiri managed to aim two arrows at Quaritch, which killed him and caused his AMP suit to fall to the ground. Jake Sully and Neytiri united, with the Na'vi winning the war after Quaritch died. The RDA surrendered and returned to Earth, while Norm Spellman and Dr. Max Patel also stayed on Pandora with Jake Sully.

Quotes
"This low gravity'll make you soft. And when you get soft, Pandora will eat you and shit you out dead with zero warning. I read your file, Corporal. Venezuela, that was some mean bush. Nothin' like that here, though. You got some heart, kid, showing up here."

- Quaritich commenting over Jake's paralysis.

"Son, I take care of my own. You get me what I need, I make sure that when you rotate home you get your legs back.... your real legs."

- Quaritich offering a deal with Jake.

"A recon gyrene in an Avatar body... that's a potent mix! Gives me the goosebumps!"

- Quaritich commenting over Jake's new Na'vi avatar.

"Everyone on this base, every one of you, is fighting for survival, and that's a fact. There's an aboriginal horde out there massing for an attack. These orbital images tell me that the hostile numbers have gone from a few hundred, to well over two thousand in one day. And more are pourin' in. In a week's time there could be 20,000 of 'em. At that point they will overrun our perimeter. That's not gonna happen. Our only security lies in preemptive attack. We will fight terror with terror. The hostiles believe that this mountain territory is protected by their... deity. And when we destroy it, we will blast a crater in their racial memory so deep, that they won't come within 1,000 clicks of this place ever again. And that, too, is a fact."

- Quaritich ordering for the destruction of the Tree of Souls.

"NOTHING'S OVER WHILE I'M BREATHING!!"

- Quaritch to Sully before their fight.

"Hey, Sully... how's it feel to betray your own race? You think you're one of them? Time to wake up!"

- Colonel Miles Quaritch's last words.

Trivia

 * Though Selfridge is the head of the RDA, Quaritich is the main antagonist of the film as he had bigger plans than anyone else, even proving to be far more ruthless than Selfridge.
 * Quaritch serves as an allegory of Western land explorers' quest for capturing natural resources in modern United States history as while the Na'vi are an allegory of Native American tribes.
 * It is likely that Miles Quaritch will appear in the sequel of Avatar due to the fact that when Stephen Lang was asked if his character was returning he stated 'Nothing's over while I have DNA', which may suggest that he may be revived through cloning.
 * His duel with Jake Sully is the ultimate display of the constant battle between human technology and mother nature, in which there is no decisive winner as both combatants were evenly matched and there was no official winner (Quaritch only lost because Neytiri interfered).
 * Quaritch has a lot in common with the following villains:
 * Colonel Koobus Venter from District 9. They both have the same military rank, they both fight and suppress an alien race and have no regard for other life. Even the way they are defeated is similar. But one thing is very different. Quaritch for the first half of the movie had a good relationship with the protagonist, Jake Sully, who he saw as a son, while Venter never really had a good relationship with Wikus. In fact, some could say he may have hated Wikus. Both their films came out in 2009.
 * Lyle Tiberius Rourke from Atlantis: The Last Empire, as both of them wished to invade a civilization to harvest their resources. However, unlike Quaritch, Rourke decided to wipe out said civilization and did not care for the well-being of his squad, leaving them to die when they did not want to participate in the plan.
 * Cyrus Temple's design seemed to be heavily influenced by Quaritch. In fact, both men's attitude, the way they carried themselves, their body armor and facial structures all have strong resemblances.