Tom Sully

Tom Sully
Biographical Information
Name	Thomas Sully
Aliases	* Tommy (by Jake) Sully, T. (ISV Venture Star locker and AVTR backpack nametag)
Born	August 24, 2126
Died	2148
Age	22-years-old
Status	Deceased †
Lives in	Earth
Physical Description
Species	Human
Gender	Male ♂
Height	5' 9" (actor height)
Skin color	White
Hair color	Brown
Eye color	Green
Family Information
Siblings	Jake Sully (twin brother)
Extended family	Neytiri (sister-in-law) Neteyam (older nephew) † Kiri (adoptive older niece) Lo'ak (younger nephew) Tuktirey (younger niece)
Affiliations
Occupation	Scientist
Loyalties	Humans (RDA)
Behind the Scenes
Portrayed by	Sam Worthington
First seen	Avatar
Last seen	Avatar: The Next Shadow

Doctor Tom Sully, nicknamed Tommy by Jake Sully, was the late twin brother of Jake Sully. Tom was supposed to participate in the Avatar Program on Pandora, having undergone much training. He met and befriended Norm Spellman during these courses.

Biography

Avatar: Brothers

After Jake bonds with the Toruk, Jake tells the Toruk about his twin brother Tommy. Jake described Tom as being similar in appearance yet opposite in personality to him, always studying in comparison to Jake being more outgoing. Tom had an interest in reading as well as science and mathematics. They both shared an interest in one of Tom's books about myths and legends about Earth's heroic figures. Tom was also quite interested in the mythological Greek hero Bellerophon.

Avatar

According to testimony by Dr. Grace Augustine, Tom was supposedly a brilliant scientist with PhD honors.

However, a week before he was going to ship out he was killed by a thief who attempted to steal his wallet, three years into his training in the summer of 2148, thus ending his journey as a result.

He was witnessed being covered with plastic inside a cardboard box before a hasty cremation in the Municipal Crematorium. Tom's brother, Jake was chosen to replace him in the Avatar Program by the RDA as Jake had identical DNA to Tom and was therefore able to drive his avatar.

Avatar: The Next Shadow

Tom blaming Jake for the deaths of Jake's loved ones.

In Issue 3 of Avatar: The Next Shadow, Jake suffers from being poisoned via cut from a tampered blade during a dispute resulting in him experiencing nightmarish mental imagery. A vision of a ghostly Tom in cremation, or perhaps a dream aspect manifested from Jake's guilt, appears in Jake's mind. This burning Tom blames Jake, claiming his actions bring suffering and lead others to their deaths.

Trivia

• Jake does not cry or seem to feel emotional when he views his brother's deceased body.
  • In the original script (Project 880), it is mentioned Jake and Tom "weren't that close".
• In Project 880, it is said Tom signed an NDA regarding the Avatar Program, with Jake only knowing Tom had work to do in space.
• In Project 880, Tom had been working with the Avatar Program for the last year prior to his death. He signed a ten year contract and his viable avatar embryo had been growing in the lab for several months (the investment valuing at over $20 million dollars).
• In Avatar, Tom had been training with the Avatar Program (alongside Norm Spellman) for three years prior to his death. The growth and value of Tom's embryo are not disclosed. The contract Jake receives is only for six years instead.
• In Project 880, Tom dies from breathing in the fumes when a subway caught on fire in Boston. Meanwhile, Jake lived in Charlotte, North Carolina. Tom dies three weeks before the next mission to Pandora was scheduled to leave from Earth. Jake gets a call from a computer at the municipal admin complex and is told via a polite automated voice message about his brother's death (as a victim of the news story Jake saw earlier about the fire) and was required to claim the body by 1200 the next day at the Boston municipal crematorium.
• In Avatar, Tom died a week before he was scheduled to ship out for Pandora. He was murdered via being mugged by a man for the paper in his wallet. The murder weapon however differs depending on the version of the film. In the theatrical release and the extended re-release, Tom was said to have been killed by a gunshot, while in the Extended Collector's Edition, Jake said that Tom's killer used a knife. Jake finds out about his brother's death by two men in suits. As seen in the Extended Collector's Edition, the suits find Jake laying in an alleyway puddle after being tossed out from the rear service door of a bar. The suits then transport Jake to Tom's body at a large crematorium, arriving seemingly moments before the body was set to be burned. As the suits try to convince Jake to take over Tom's contract, Jake signs a form (likely a consent form to release the body for cremation and or also possibly confirming his positive identification of the body) and Tom's body is then pushed into the furnace, door shut, and subsequently burned as Jake spectates from the other side of the door's glass window.
• The number on Tom's cardboard cremation box is: 976323.
• In the extended version of the scene seen in the Collector's Edition, a continuity error occurs in which the actor that plays Tom's body changes from Sam Worthington (at 00:04:07) to an obvious stand-in (at 00:04:18).
• The name Tom means "Twin" and Tom was Jake's twin brother.
• On the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star, it can be seen that Jake's locker reads "Sully, T." since Tom was the one intended to go to Pandora.
• In a deleted extended scene titled Scenes 36A-37 "You're in My World Now", Jake is seen having just used a marker to modify the first name initial on the nametag of his AVTR backpack from a "T." for Tom into a "J." for Jake.
• More about Tom's life and his murder were supposed to be explored in a prequel novel written by James Cameron.

Gallery

Tom's cremation.

Tom's cremation.

Tom's cremation.

Appearances

Title	Format	Release date	Details
Avatar	Film	December 18, 2009
Avatar: Brothers	Comic book	May 6, 2017
Avatar: The Next Shadow	Comic book	January 6, 2021