This version, which runs 16 minutes longer than the theatrical cut, offers, according to the site, "a glimpse of life on crowded, polluted 22nd century Earth, where city dwellers are bombarded by digital ads and wear masks for protection from the foul air. The sequence Cameron showed reporters depicts the dreary existence of his hero, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), before he's invited to join the Avatar program on the distant moon Pandora. An ex-Marine now in a wheelchair, Jake lives in a tiny, seedy room and hangs around boozing it up at a bar, where he starts a fight — but for a good cause. Jake takes on a guy who had been slapping a woman around."
Cameron explains that his reason for cutting the sequence, which shows Jake not being a victim and retaining his warrior spirit despite being in a wheelchair, is that "the guiding principle for me was the movie doesn't really start until we meet Neytiri. It's about their relationship and where that relationship takes him. So every minute that we delayed meeting her we looked at with extra scrutiny."
Adds producer Jon Landau, "We didn't want to start the movie with something people had seen before. Right when people start to watch it, they know they're getting something new, and it's a whole new opening."
Besides the extended cut, the set includes the theatrical version, the extended (by eight minutes) theatrical cut, 45 minutes of deleted scenes, feature length documentary and 17 featurettes looking at different aspects of production.