At Play in the Fields of the Lord is a 1991 epic adventure drama film directed by Héctor Babenco, adapted from the 1965 novel of the same name by American author Peter Matthiessen. The screenplay was written by Babenco and Jean-Claude Carrière, and stars Tom Berenger, John Lithgow, Daryl Hannah, Aidan Quinn, Tom Waits and Kathy Bates. Director and producer James Cameron stated that At Play in the Fields of the Lord was used as a reference for the 2009 blockbuster film Avatar. Plot A pair of explorers, Lewis Moon and Wolf, become stranded in Mãe de Deus (Portuguese: Mother of God), an outpost in the deep Brazilian Amazon River basin, after their plane runs out of fuel. The local police commander wants the Niaruna tribe, living upriver, to move their village so they will not be killed by gold miners moving into the area and cause trouble for him with the provincial government. The commander cuts a deal with Moon: if he and his fellow mercenary would bomb the Niaruna village from the air and drive them away, they will be given enough fuel for their airplane and be allowed to leave. Born-again Christian evangelist (and missionary) Martin Quarrier and his wife Hazel arrive with their son Billy, to spread the Christian gospel to the primitive Niaruna indigenous natives. They arrive in Mãe de Deus to meet fellow missionaries Leslie and Andy Huben, who live with a Niaruna helper. In town, they meet a Catholic priest who wants to re-establish a mission to the Niarunas, as the former missionary was killed by them. Moon and Wolf leave in their plane to attack the Niaruna. But upon seeing the community with his own eyes as well as an Indian firing an arrow at the plane, Moon has second thoughts. The plane returns to Mãe de Deus. That night, after a discussion with Wolf, Quarrier and the priest, Moon takes an Indian drug and begins hallucinating. He takes off alone in his plane and parachutes into the Niaruna village. Moon, a half-Native American Cheyenne, aligns himself with the Niarunas. He is accepted as "Kisu-Mu", one of the Niaruna gods, and begins to adapt to Niaruna life and culture. The four evangelists travel upriver to establish their mission. Indians originally converted by the Catholics turn up, awaiting the arrival of the Niaruna. Eventually they do come and accept the gifts that the