This weekend, James Cameron became the first solo diver to reach Challenger Deep and only the third person in history to do it. The whole thing was part of a National Geographic expedition and it was filmed so expect a 3D IMAX release of the footage sometime in the future. Cameron spent nearly four hours down there, and now the first footage from the deepest part of the ocean has been released.

At one point it was speculated that he may even film some stuff for Avatar 2 down there, as the second movie is supposed to take place in Pandora’s oceans. Who knows if that’s still the case, but even if it isn’t the experience of being down there will obviously influence the sequels in unknown ways. Cameron’s previous dives influenced the atmosphere of Pandora so that humans only had to have filtering masks to breath, compared to having to carry around heavy oxygen tanks as divers have to do.

Here’s the first footage released of the dive, we’re definitely looking forward to seeing all of it in IMAX 3D: