Miles Quaritch

Colonel Miles Quaritch is a character in the American science fiction franchise Avatar created by Canadian filmmaker James Cameron. He serves as the main antagonist of the 2009 film Avatar and its 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water, and one of the two main antagonists, alongside Varang, in its 2025 sequel, Avatar: Fire and Ash. In all his appearances, including in the 2009 film's tie-in video game Avatar: The Game, the character is portrayed by American actor Stephen Lang, who won Best Supporting Actor for his performance as Quaritch in the first film at the 36th Saturn Awards.

After serving in the United States Marine Corps with the 1st Reconnaissance Battalion, Quaritch became a senior officer in the security forces of the Resources Development Administration (RDA), a megacorporation, and was deployed to the exomoon of Pandora, where he served as their chief of security. Leading the RDA in their conflict against the indigenous Na'vi, Quaritch enlists the help of new arrival Jake Sully to spy on the Na'vi and help him defeat them. Sully eventually turns on the RDA, and defeats an attempt by an RDA force led by Quaritch to destroy the Tree of Souls. During the battle, Quaritch is killed by Sully’s Na'vi lover Neytiri. A copy of his consciousness is subsequently transferred by the RDA into a genetically grown Na'vi body, known as a Recombinant, which returns to Pandora to track down Sully alongside other Recombinants. However, he is unsuccessful in this attempt but survives the second confrontation with Sully. Quaritch struggles with his paternal instincts for his human son Miles "Spider" Socorro. He forms a strategic and deeply personal alliance with Varang, the Tsahìk (spiritual leader) of the Mangkwan clan (also known as the Ash People), to secure their assistance in hunting down and capturing Sully. Following the battle at the Cove of the Ancestors, Quaritch's status is left ambiguous after leaping off a floating rock into a flaming abyss when cornered by the Sullys.