[ cheers and applause ] ♪ this is "nightline." >> tonight, royal brawl. inside the bitter family meeting that changed everything. >> it was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that simply weren't true. >> harry and meghan lashing out against the monarchy in their docuseries. narco slaves. the hidden human cost of the booming cannabis industry. >> we have drug trafficking organizations that are keeping people in slavery. >> migrants working on illegal pot farms, exploited, living in deplorable conditions, held against their will. >> they're totally at the mercy of the people who are their contractors.

>> the findings of a year-long abc news investigation. and "avatar: the way of water." >> the way of water connects all things. >> the magic and the challenges. >> i think we were all amazed at how long we could hold our breath for. and act at depth. >> an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the highly anticipated sequel. >> the women are going to be badass and they're going to save us, that's rule number one. >> can director james cameron strike gold again? cameron strike gold again? when you really need to sleep. you reach for the really good stuff. zzzquil ultra helps you sleep better and longer when you need it most. its non-habit forming and powered by the makers of nyquil. bye, bye cough. later chest congestion. hello 12 hours of relief. 12 hours!! not coughing? hashtag still not coughing?! mucinex dm gives you 12 hours of relief from chest congestion and any type of cough, day or night. mucinex dm. it's comeback season.

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♪ thanks for joining us. tonight, the family drama in the royal house of windsor taking an ugly detour. prince harry accusing his brother william's aide of planting negative stories in the press, allegedly motivated by jealo jealousy, in the latest episod of his docuseries "harry and meghan." here's abc's james longman. >> she's becoming a royal rock star. >> reporter: explosive new revelations about the royal family. >> to see this institutional gaslighting, that is extraordinary. >> reporter: after the second installment of harry and meghan's netflix show revealed just how deep the rift is between the younger prince and his family. >> it was terrifying to have my brother scream and shout at me and my father say things that simply weren't true. and my grandmother quietly sit there and sort of take it all in. >> reporter: the duke and

duchess of sussex argue their popularity threatened some within the monarchy. >> the issue is when someone is marrying in, there should be a supporting act, is stealing the limelight better than the person born to do this, it upsets people. >> reporter: stressed by tabloids that they say caused meghan to lose a child. >> the first morning we woke up in our home, i miscarried. >> i believe my wife suffered a miscarriage because of what "the mail" did. >> reporter: stepping out for the annual christmas concert, no comment from the palace so far. the queen's former press secretary is pushing back. >> in the 13 years i worked for the royal household, there was not one occasion where i ever briefed against a member of the royal family. >> reporter: "harry and meghan," making history, the first three episodes generating e iing 81.5 million hours of viewing in its first four days. >> i don't think it's going to

dramatically change minds, but i think at the very least it gives harry and meghan peace. >> our thanks to james. we turn to a year-long abc news investigation of the hidden underbelly of the booming cannabis industry. the exploitation of migrant workers, forced to live in deplorable conditions with bucks forrest rooms and floors for beds. sometimes held against their will without pay. here's abc's maria villareal. >> reporter: it only takes a matter of minutes -- >> go, go, go. >> reporter: law enforcement busting into unlicensed illegal pot farms in oregon. >> this is the jackson county sheriff's office! >> reporter: in one raid, agents found greenhouses full of lush marijuana plants. thousands of pounds of processed pot and 17 farm workers, even one child. and it's people like them, those working the fields, who could be most in danger as the booming business of pot, both legal and illegal, keeps growing.

>> we've had bodies show up that have been dropped off, literally they've been worked to death. >> we have drug trafficking organizations that are keeping people in slavery. >> reporter: officials say drug cartels are taking advantage of the pot industry and often staffing their illegal farms with what experts call narco slaves. >> reporter: over a year ago, a woman we will call alejandra fled mexico, risking her life to cross the border with the hope of finding a job to provide for her three children, now determined to tell her story but worried the cartels she claims to have worked for could come after her. she asked us to distort her voice and not show her face. alejandra shared this video of her scaling over the u.s./mexico border wall.

she tells us she fell 13 feet trying to cross into the united states, limping as she walked further into texas. she spent two months in el paso working as she recovered, eventually deciding to move to oregon. >> reporter: oregon has long been at the forefront of the fight to legalize marijuana. now more than 20 states have enacted measures to regulate recreational marijuana, and business is good. alejandra says she accepted a job at a farm near medford, oregon. initially, nothing about the job seemed out of the ordinary.

but a day later, things took a dramatic turn. >> reporter: trimming plants before, but she says, never under conditions like this.

>> when they get here, they're expecting a certain type of employment. like they're expecting to be working in the strawberries or drapes or something. so then they take them up into the illegal marijuana fields. >> reporter: the ngo unite has been fighting for migrant farm worker rights over two decades. they step in after a raid to make sure workers have access to food and shelter. >> all these families, when they get this promise of, hey, you can make this much money an hour, you're going to be making thousands of dollars, you can bring it home to your family. well, of course, they're desperate. they're totally at the mercy of the people who are their contractors. >> reporter: authorities say this allows the illegal farms, often controlled by the cartels, to have total control over the lives of workers. most workers, if not all, are undocumented. >> most of them don't want to be working in the marijuana fields. but it's their only option.

>> reporter: maria, who also asked us to conceal her fac alter her voice, says she heard about a job in oregon through someone that called themselves a contractor. and they paid well. >> reporter: maria says there were armed men guarding the doors. but just like in alejandra's case, she says when the workers were ready to leave, they were stopped by the guards.

>> reporter: oregon congressman earl blumenauer says the problem isn't states like his legalizing marijuana -- >> what we are seeing across the country in terms of problems is totally a product of a dysfunctional federal policy. people who try to play by the rules are dramatically disadvantaged. they face higher costs, there's no effective regulation for the people who cheat. >> reporter: advocates say the product needs to be decriminalized nationally to prevent cartels from smuggling cannabis to buyers in states where it's still illegal. >> if we were able to vote on this issue, on the floor of the house and the senate, the problem would be gone in a week. >> reporter: alejandra and maria's stories are just two among thousands. last december, oregon lawmakers agreed, the problem with illegal pot farms was out of control. but help can't come fast enough.

>> our thanks to maria. up next, "avatar: the way of water." an exclusive behind-the-scenes look at the sequel fans have waited for for 13 years. i prep without pills. bring on apretude. long-acting protection from hiv. apretude is a prescription medicine used to reduce the risk of hiv without daily prep pills. bring on not worrying about daily doses. i prep without pills. apretude is the first and only long-acting prep with one shot every other month just 6 times a year. apretude was proven superior to a daily prep pill

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moviegoers had never seen anything quite like "avatar" and couldn't get enough, making it the highest-grossing movie of all-time. now, 13 years later, the sequel looks to be another visual feast. we take an exclusive look behind the scenes and underwater with the star-studded cast. here's abc's chris connelly. >> reporter: they are among the most mesmerizing images of the holiday season. stunning 3d vishes of "avatar: the way of water." the golden globe-nominated sequel from director james cameron. >> what we set out to do with an "avatar" film is not just convey a message, not just tell a story, but tell that story in terms that have a lot of impact. >> reporter: opening in theaters friday, december 16th, is anticipating an opening weekend over $150 million. >> this family is our fortress.

>> reporter: thanks to its seascapes teeming with life, its characters known as the navi, played by actors who were taught to hold their breath for minutes at a time. >> we prepared for months to be that confident underwater. >> reporter: on the richly imagined planet of pandora, paradise and battleground. a fusion of cutting-edge filmmaking technology and cameron's "oh yes you can" inspiration to his team. >> he shatters his own glass ceiling. and he compels you to do the same for yourself. >> reporter: the original movie once seemed like a pipe dream. its mix of live action and performance capture a cinematic singularity in 3d. >> i worked on that film for about three years before i saw one shot finished. so it was a giant leap of faith. >> reporter: the sheer scope of the original film, its budget coming in at a whopping $237 million. >> we had no guarantee that it was going to work. >> reporter: but the blockbuster

defied all expectations, breaking box office records to become the highest-grossing film of all-time. >> "avatar." >> "avatar." >> reporter: winning multiple oscars and golden globes. becoming a pop culture sensation. >> i choose you. >> and i choose you, natiri. >> reporter: "avatar" getting shout-outs from "snl." >> the mating ritual has begun. >> reporter: "the way of water" debuts to an entirely different landscape than the original in 2009 did. >> a lot's changed since your last tour here. >> reporter: can the new "avatar" revive the ailing movie theater industry? even cameron needs it to, for the next "avatar." do you feel pressure for it to make money? >> sure, sure. movie 3 is already in the can. we're in post production on movie 3. when all the theaters in the world closed at the same time, it was like -- okay guess we're screwed. but your, it's coming back. so hope is building up.

>> reporter: "the way of water" finds jake and natiri, heroes and lovers of 2009's "avatar" raising a family. they must flee their forest home as jake lands in the crosshairs of those with evil designs on pandora. >> i can protect this family, that i can do. >> now it's two partners and children on the run. so the heart is much more compromised. >> reporter: zo saldana, sam worthington, steven lang, sigourney weaver among the returning cast. performance capture rendering their physicalities and facial expressiveness, even eye movements on screen. >> people think we've voiced an animated film. >> i hadn't imagined that every single movement of our faces would really be picked up, and not just used, but treasured. >> reporter: once again, kate winslet is in a film by james cameron. 25 years after his "titanic" became the top-grossing movie ever and transformed winslet

into a star. >> i feel like i'm living proof in the belief that jim has instilled in me. >> reporter: from his lifelong love and exploration of the sea, to his interfamily dynamics, so much of "the way of water" is drawn from cameron's life. >> as a father of five kids, i've seen how you have to, with love, create boundaries. but not be overtly disciplinarian. >> he said they had taught him how to direct because he had to deal with so many situations. he brought all that love and complexity to us. >> reporter: weaver shoulders that complexity, after playing grace augustine in the first "avatar," cameron asked her to return and play a teenager named kiri. >> what does the heartbeat of the earth sound like? >> mighty. >> he said, nobody knows this about you, but i know you're

actually 14. always clowning around. i'm going to make use of it. >> reporter: he wanted his actors to give their performances underwater, so he had freediving expert kirk croc teach them techniques -- seriously, don't try this at home. >> what was it like when jim told you, i want you to be able to hold your breath for minutes at a time? >> i thought he was speaking a foreign language. i looked at him, "that's -- yeah, that's great, how i wide receiver going to do this this". >> we did a take together, we were so proud of ourselves, we did a take at depth that was just over four minutes. >> reporter: part under the sea coming of age story. part environmental cautionary tale. it's a james cameron movie, and that means his brand of action, guns blazing, arrows flying, women at the forefront. what is it that you understand about how sequences like that work that make them so effective? >> one thing i've learned is that you can't just have random

action with random characters. it's got to be personal. the women are going to be badass and they're going to save us, that's rule number one. >> he doesn't just create strong roles for women, he creates roles for women who are leaders, who lead with their heart, who live their lives with integrity and stand in their truth. and that is what we need. >> our thanks to chris. for more on the making of "avatar: the way of water," be sure to watch 20/20's special "avatar: the deep dive" now on hulu. and impact of "nightline's" "avatar" streaming on hulu. new episodes drop thursday nights. up next, uvalde in focus. snapshots of the lives of elementary students. it disrupts my skin with rash. but now, i can disrupt eczema with rinvoq. rinvoq is not a steroid, topical, or injection.

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♪ finally tonight, focus. the children of robb elementary documenting their lives, proving they're much more than their tragedy. eight young survivors of the robb elementary school shooting -- >> there's like so much things to take a picture of, and they

have meanings to them. >> in partnership with abc news are using photos to share their stories. >> i took a picture of the clouds because they looked cool. >> learning the basics of photography to help put into focus their feelings about the community, family, and finding happiness after the tragedy. to see photos from the uvalde 365 digital project, the kids of robb elementary, go to ab