Major plot hole? (Big spoiler warning)

[Numeie]

I think PTSD would be very real. After Norm's avatar gets shot, he comes out of link clutching his chest. Now it's not the same as pushing the button, but it interrupted a link in progress.

You seem to have missed my point. I'm assuming, based partly on not-strictly-canon material*, I'll admit, that being killed in avatar is worse than having the link interrupted with the red button. My question is why they left him to be killed rather than pull him out, given that Grace assumed the avatar to be a write-off anyway.

* The original scriptment, which is floating around on the web.

Even if it wasn't stated explicitly that pushing the red button is dangerous, how would this be a major plot hole? Let's say they did use the button to bring Jake back. He would have immediately told them that his Avatar was okay and gone right back in to keep it alive. No plot hole.

It shows a major character acting uncharacteristically, IMO. My take on Grace is that she would have preferred to pull him out and write off the investment - unfortunate, but she's resigned to losing it anyway - than to risk him being driven insane by being killed.

[Tirea Pa'li]

I think that whit all that fancy equpment that they have its easy to tell if jake`s close to death. Pulling him out will mean that all thet multimilion avatar`s just feast for all the bigs there. Connected he has a chance to save it. And how else he`s gonna meet Neytiri? Good for the story line. And if not hitting the red button can be justified, there`s no excuse for not having a simpe tracking beacon in 2154 while wandering a strange new world. Its just plain stupid. And the lost backpack is not excuse. The whole poing of a beacon is to be small and wear it at a place, where u cant accidently lose it. It can be inplanted in that hyper expensive avatar body. This is a lot bigger plot hole. But hey.. if they pick him up, how he`s gonna meet Neytiri?

[Ftiafpi]

Well, there's a bunch of things that could interfere with tracking systems, the flux, certain environments, water (though they're usually waterproof), simple mechanical failure, or perhaps it was in the backpack (not unreasonable by any means).

Also, being a search and rescue pilot I know that finding a target from the air is hard. Even with a clear signal you can only narrow it down to about 1/4 of a mile, with heavy tropical vegetation it would be next to impossible to spot Jake even if they flew right over him. Also, he didn't have a throat mic, he had an earpiece which he lost so he would have had no way of communicating with the search team even if they were right over him, they would have to see him.

Finally, if there's any interference the ability to locate a target can go from 1/4 of a mile to about 2 miles or more. I once had to track down a beacon that someone dumped in a trash bin in a harbor. I'd fly over the harbor, see the direction needle flip, think "oh I flew over it" but then all of a sudden it would flip back and I'd fly around a bit more and the damn thing would keep flipping. A ground team finally figured it out.

That said, it's still a stretch but obviously necessary for the movie. I wouldn't call this a major plot hole.

[Txon Tsyal]

Well, there's a bunch of things that could interfere with tracking systems, the flux, certain environments, water (though they're usually waterproof), simple mechanical failure, or perhaps it was in the backpack (not unreasonable by any means).

Also, being a search and rescue pilot I know that finding a target from the air is hard. Even with a clear signal you can only narrow it down to about 1/4 of a mile, with heavy tropical vegetation it would be next to impossible to spot Jake even if they flew right over him. Also, he didn't have a throat mic, he had an earpiece which he lost so he would have had no way of communicating with the search team even if they were right over him, they would have to see him.

Finally, if there's any interference the ability to locate a target can go from 1/4 of a mile to about 2 miles or more. I once had to track down a beacon that someone dumped in a trash bin in a harbor. I'd fly over the harbor, see the direction needle flip, think "oh I flew over it" but then all of a sudden it would flip back and I'd fly around a bit more and the damn thing would keep flipping. A ground team finally figured it out.

That said, it's still a stretch but obviously necessary for the movie. I wouldn't call this a major plot hole.

Cool job you have there ma tsmukan 

Cool job ma

[Ftiafpi]

Cool job you have there ma tsmukan 

I actually was a volunteer pilot and radio operator so it wasn't a job. It was fun though. [/off topic]