National Geographic Posts First Footage of Cameron’s Ocean Dive

Director/writer/inventor/explorer James Cameron made history yesterday by being the first man in over fifty years to travel to the ocean’s deepest point, the bottom of the Mariana Trench. He was the first person to ever do it by himself, and I almost forgot to mention he did it in a submersible he spent years secretly designing and building in Australia. National Geographic has teamed with Cameron to bring us a 3D documentary called Deepsea Challenge which gives us an inside look into the whole process, and now the first footage from yesterday’s dive has already made its way online (found via FilmDrunk). See it below! Say what you will about the storytelling merits of Avatar—I actually wasn’t as crazy about that film as a lot of other people—but this project makes Cameron a certifiable badass in my book. He spent more than three hours on the ocean floor taking samples and …