The world of the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water” is largely one of fiction: an elixir which halts human aging, space expeditions to a planet four light-years away and humans metamorphosing into an extraterrestrial species.
However, from a plot steeped in fantasy, some shreds of truth emerge — and others are left for scientific discovery. At Comic-Con on Friday, a panel of scientists, engineers and explorers convened to discuss the intricacies of the film — including Scripps Institution of Oceanography professor John Hildebrand, marine scientist and explorer Gaelin Rosenwaks, John Jay College of Criminology biology professor Nathan Lents, freediving coach Kirk Krack and NASA engineer Tracy Gill.
During the panel, the five experts picked apart fanciful phenomena from “Avatar: The Way of Water,” shedding light on the science of marine mammals’ communications, the extent of humans’ amphibious capabilities and spiritual connections with sea life.
In the film, humanoid members of the seashore-dwelling Metkayina clan communicate with whale-like creatures, called tulkuns, through hand signs, and are able to interpret tulkuns’ language of moans and clicks.
Some scientific research into communications with marine mammals goes back to the 1960s, Hildebrand noted during the panel, but 60 years later, humans still cannot communicate with whales. However, he and his colleagues at the Scripps Institution have engineered novel methods of collecting and analyzing the sounds of marine mammals.
Now, about 32 high-frequency acoustic recording packages — devices developed by Hildebrand’s team — dot the world’s oceans. Once recordings make their way to the lab, his team can parse them to identify patterns using artificial intelligence models developed in-house.
“I believe that the sounds that we’re hearing might as well be a language that they’re communicating,” Hildebrand said in an interview before the panel. “It’s part of their survival. They’re social animals the way we are.”
In addition to communication, the panel examined other ways humans interact with the under sea world. The Metkayina people distinguish themselves in the “Avatar” universe with their extensive marine abilities: holding their breaths for more than five minutes and diving to great depths.
The film is a fiction, but human actors still pushed their abilities under water. Kate Winslet, playing Ronal, held her breath for more than seven minutes, said Krack, who coached actors in the film.
Lents, who studies genetics, spoke about the marine capabilities of the Bajau people of Indonesia, Malaysia and the Philippines, a nomadic people who have lived at sea for more than a millennium. Some, Lents said, can dive 230 meters into the ocean without an oxygen tank for more than five minutes. The longest recorded dive by a Bajau person lasted 30 minutes, Lents added.
This skill, Lents said, can be attributed to bodily adaptations made through human evolution.
“Living this lifestyle for 1,000 years, they’ve actually undergone genetic evolution,” Lents said.
The Metkayina people of the “Avatar” franchise also claim a spiritual kinship to tulkuns — a connection not dissimilar to the one that inspires Rosenwaks to explore the ocean. Her work has culminated in expeditions to both the Arctic and Antarctic regions, as well as a published book of photographs chronicling sperm whales.
“Just like the Metkayinas are bonded with their spirit animal, the tulkuns, in ‘Avatar,’ as soon as you look into the eye of one of these whales, you feel that connection,” Rosenwaks said.
Since a buoyant encounter with a sperm whale as a toddler, she has led a daring life of marine exploration. In a 2022 Youtube live stream, Rosenwaks even said she had multiple times been in the mouth of a sperm whale.
At the panel, Rosenwaks drew on her experiences seeing whales as animals, but also as parents, children and beings with curiosity and intelligence.
“It’s been so incredibly special to spend time in the water with them and to really bond with them as my spirit animal, like in the movie,” Rosenwaks said.