In the year 2154, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former U.S. Marine paralyzed from the waist down due to wounds sustained in combat, is selected to participate in the Avatar Program. Originally, the position was supposed to be filled by his identical twin brother Tom Sully, who was recently killed by a man who attempted to rob him of his money. Arriving from the six-year journey from Earth to Pandora, Jake awakes from cryosleep with hundreds of other personnel to work at the human colony on this inhabited moon of Polyphemus, one of three fictional gas giants orbiting Alpha Centauri A. Jake meets with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), a hardened and seasoned military veteran who is in charge of security on the colony. Quaritch welcomes the new personnel and military soldiers and briefs them on Pandora. It is mostly covered with lush rainforests and wildlife, and home to the primitive Na'vi, a sentient race of tall, blue-skinned humanoids.