The most popular epic movie, Avatar, offers an interesting account of Jake’s new life in the fictional planet, Pandora, after a successful mining venture of his scientist brother Tom. During his stay on Pandora, the former marine is originally tasked with the responsibility of interacting with the native Na’vis and relaying on the prompt intelligence to the RDA headquarters for the purpose of the continued mining. The mission has prompted Jake to design the mechanical robots and humanoids, which resemble the human beings in traits, mannerism and intelligence; and to explore the space regardless to the prevailing limitations that would otherwise hinder human beings in the ordinary sense. However, after a considerable interaction with the humanoid natives of the planet, he deeply learns their ways of life, language and culture inside an avatar engineered by his late brother.
At this juncture, the main character drastically loses focus on his original mission, cuts off all the linkages with the head of RDA Security Force (Colonel Miles Quaritch) and the top Administrator Parker Selfridge. As a result, Jake is fully incorporated into the Na’vis of the Pandora. At the end of the movie all humans, except Jake, are expelled fro Pandora. This paper therefore attempts to analyse whether the actions of the created humanoids by the human’s character Jake was moral or immoral in the light of Kantian’s moral theory.
Several moral issues erupting from the movie revolve around the actions taken by the main character Jake to accomplish his grand missions. His decision to invent the human-like characters (humanoids) for the purpose of exploring the unknown worlds in a space is widely viewed by many as unethical or rather immoral. This opinion is based on the understanding that it is only God who has the sole powers over creation. Nevertheless, it is most apparent that the invention of the humanoid by the human character Jake is not motivated by his ulterior quest to challenge the sovereignty of God, but his relentless desire to come up with the workable ways of exploring Pandora strictly for the purpose of mining.
The necessity of the humanoids in a bid to interact with the wild creatures of the Pandora which in turn would make it possible to realize his dream is largely responsible for his actions. Even though the aftermath of Jake’s decision to make humanoids (robots) seems quite an unpalatable in Avatar, particularly when his own creations tteamed up with Na’vis, the natives of Pandora, to exterminate the human species from the space, his actions ought not to have been declared immoral because this was never his intention. According to the Kantian theory which states that the persons are blamed for the actions based on their acted intention, Jake is not found to be immoral in any way. Nonetheless, many viewers are strongly convicted that Jake is to blame for the actions of humanoids that pertains to the killings of the human beings as portrayed by the producer of the movie, James Cameron.Based on the Kantian’s principle of Categorical Imperative, the action plan taken by Jake to explore space through the use of the humanoid characters forms the strongest basis upon which a universal law could be formed.
The sense of a duty constitutes the basis of Jake’s actions, as portrayed in the Avatar, in his approach to tackle the menace of dreaded Na’vis in the space. Ideally, this was the only feasible approach through which the execution of mining of precious minerals from the unexplored Pandora could be done by the human character without putting the human lives into an imminent danger. In the light of Kant’s moral theory, Jake is not immoral as it was earlier emphasized.
