FILM · 2009 · USA
Avatar
190 archived facts 8 topics 2 sources Last reviewed Nov 2026
In the 22nd century, a paraplegic Marine is dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission, but becomes torn between following orders and protecting an alien civilization.
In 2014 an article entitled "The 1960s Avatar TV Show" was posted to the web, claiming that the film was actually a re-imagining of a science-fiction television series from 1963. It supposedly starred William Shatner as Jake Sully (until being replaced by Roger Ewing in season 3) and featured several images from other 1960s sci-fi films and series, with the actors' skin tinted blue. Despite claiming to be authentic, it was entirely a hoax.
"Unobtainium" is a humorous term used mainly in the aerospace industry. It describes a material that is perfect for an application (but does not exist), is extremely expensive, or violates the laws of physics. Its chemical symbol is Uo. "Unobtainium" is also a general concept term used by sci-fi enthusiasts for any fictional substance that is needed to build a certain device that is crucial to the plot of a sci-fi story. "Unobtainium" is featured in The Core (2003), where the earth-boring vessel called the "Virgil" has a hull made from unobtainium to help it withstand the massive pressures inside the Earth's core. "Unobtainium" is also an anti-gravity element in the online multi-player video game "Skyrates." Finally, "Unobtanium" is a term used by the Oakley sunglasses company which refers to the material used in certain nose and earpieces. According to the Oakley website, its properties allow it to maintain its grip despite the presence of perspiration.
James Cameron revealed how his Avatar fandom is so dedicated that even he, the work's creator, is unsure about meeting them in person. "There was a guy in the Netherlands who just hit 100 times he's seen it in movie theatres," Cameron shared. "Not sure I want to meet that person. But certainly, anecdotally, many, many people are seeing it two, three, four times." Considering how Cameron cheekily likened his Avatar franchise to JRR Tolkien's epic Lord of the Rings saga and Peter Jackson's Lord of the Rings movies which helped define modern fantasy it seems like superfans will become more commonplace. "I was trying to do a simulation of, OK, I'm Peter Jackson making Lord of the Rings, except Lord of the Rings doesn't exist yet, so I need to go be Tolkien and create Lord of the Rings, and then I can go be Peter Jackson," he explained. "But I wasn't adapting some big pantheon of books that existed. I had to go do that."
Grace's avatar was the most difficult to realize. Sigourney Weaver's face wasn't a natural mesh with the features of a Na'vi. Her narrow, patrician nose did not translate well to the distinctive leonine Na'vi nose. Moreover Grace's avatar was to have been created 18 years in the past, so her avatar had to appear as an 18-years-younger version of Grace/Sigourney, so artists at Stan Winston Studio brought pictures of Sigourney Weaver from Alien (1979) into ZBrush and used them to sculpt her avatar.
Colonel Quaritch says that being on Pandora makes him feel like a 'shavetail Looie'. 'Shave tail' comes from the 19th century, when new soldiers in US cavalry units were given horses with shaved tails to indicate their inexperience. 'Looie' is a nickname used for lieutenant; it is one of the two lowest ranks among marines and army officers.
In the scene where the concept of the Tree of Souls is introduced, Grace says that outsiders are forbidden to go there, but that she is 'willing to die to take a sample.' This line later comes true like a prophecy when, on the verge of death, she is taken to the Tree of Souls, and her first words upon arriving are 'I need to take a sample...'
An article titled 'The 1960s Avatar TV Show', published online in 2014, claimed that the film was actually a reimagining of a 1963 science fiction series. According to the article, Jake Sully was first played by William Shatner, with Roger Ewing taking over in season 3, and the actors' skin was painted blue; but it was entirely a hoax.
How Tsu'tey understands that Jake and Neytiri have mated is not explicitly stated. On close inspection there are several hints: 1. While flying, they flirt by blowing wind at each other and laughing, and they do this in front of Tsu'tey. 2. They are all connected to Eywa and can feel this bond if they wish (Tsu'tey and Neytiri had previously been matched). 3. The Na'vi have a highly developed sense of smell; after they have been together, when Tsu'tey and his warriors arrive at the area with the bulldozers, if subtitles are on, Tsu'tey is seen taking a deep breath in anger and also smelling something else that has just happened in that area. 4. Neytiri and Jake enter the Home Tree hand in hand, and Neytiri defends Jake when he is attacked.
In the montage where Jake gathers the clans for war, in the scene with the Eastern Sea clan, Jake can be heard shouting 'Return to the stars!' By this, he means that if the Na'vi win, they will send the humans back to Earth. This is also similar to the famous American battle cry 'Remember the Alamo!'
According to James Cameron, the Na'vi are blue to create a conceptual parallel with traditional Hindu depictions of God (e.g., Vishnu and his later "avatars" - a Sanskrit word meaning "a manifestation of divinity in bodily form" - such as Rama, Krishna, etc.) but also because Cameron just likes the color blue. Once Cameron and his team have figured out the right look, the director knew that "their most alien features" would be "their scale and their color." As far as color, however, Cameron knew from the start that he couldn't go with his first choice. "As for the color: green was taken. There was a long history of green aliens. Plus, the Hulk," he pointed out. "And the human colors, pinks, and browns, weren't alien. SpongeBob was yellow. That pretty much left blue and purple. Purple is my favorite color, but I figured we'd use that for one of our main bioluminescence colors, which we did, associating it with Eywa and anything sacred to the Na'vi." Cameron also settled on blue for another special and more personal reason. "Also, my mom told me about this dream she had where there was a ten-foot-tall blue woman with six breasts. Cool image," the director continued. "I drew her, but the six breasts thing didn't come out looking as good as it sounds, plus would mess with the rating. So, anyway blue."
Norm was originally named Norm Cheeseman in Project 880. His role in the plot was much less significant. He was just another cameraman who trained under Josh Sully and participated in the Avatar Rebellion; in particular, it was he who smashed through the window of the operations center.
Matt Damon said he turned down an offer from James Cameron to play Jake Sully and receive 10% of the film's gross. Cameron disputed Damon's claim, saying he was considered but never received a formal offer because he was busy filming The Bourne Ultimatum (2007), and Damon only assumed he would receive 10% of the gross (his standard compensation), which the studio would not approve.
Michael Biehn was considered and approached for the role of Col. Quaritch. Biehn stated that for 9 months, he believed he had the role. However, James Cameron ultimately rejected him because he'd already cast Sigourney Weaver, and he didn't want people to think it was Aliens (1986) all over again.
Weta FX was the lead visual effects company that worked on the film after James Cameron was turned down by Industrial Light & Magic because they wanted to take on a less risky project so they passed on the film to work on Rango (2011). However ILM did contribute to the film being brought in that at the last minute to help with some clean up on the film's sci-fi vehicles. They weren't an instrumental part of the pre-production, though, and didn't have anything to do with the motion capture Navi scenes. They also animated a few scenes of said vehicles firing their weapons at the giant Hometree during the film's climax. ILM general manager Janey Kewin spoke about when they were first offered the job back in 2006. ILM was eager to be hired at the time, putting together a few minutes of test footage depicting a few actors into the Navi. For the test reel, they transformed the Daniel Bess into the Na'vi Jake Sully role and Yunjin Kim into Neytiri. At the time, Bess was best known for a regular role on "24" and Kim had starred in several Korean thrillers. Cameron was impressed with ILM's test footage and offered them the job. But they surprisingly turned him down. As explained by Lewin, "we turned down Avatar after many, many months of bidding on it, and working on a test that got it green-lit. Our leadership at the time, when faced with it, they said, 'Okay, this could be unachievable, it's huge.' They were not willing to take that risk. But we had a great relationship with Gore Verbinski, and he had this incredible idea: Rango." ILM had worked with Verbinski on his Pirates of the Caribbean movies, and the director's idea for a bonkers animated Western with a talking chameleon was intriguing enough to warrant ILM producing their very first animated feature.
The Na'vi language was created entirely from scratch by linguist Dr. Paul R. Frommer. James Cameron hired him to construct a language that would be easily enunciable for actors to pronounce but would not resemble any human language. Frommer created about 1,000 words. Cameron requested Dr Frommer that the Na'vi language must be entirely new, as it's supposed to be from another planet, and that it should sound "nice" to the audience. Cameron didn't want any additional editing done to their voices and wanted them to sound authentic and not unnatural. Equipped with a vast knowledge of linguistics, Dr Frommer understood what kinds of sounds the Na'vi language would or wouldn't have. Just like "j" and "r" don't exist in Korean, in English, the 'h' sound is unaspirated. In a similar vein, Frommer's conception of the new language totally avoided the sounds of "ch", "th", and "sh". Additionally, Frommer had to decide on the language's syntax -- or rules regarding word order. He came up with his own set of constraints and words to be used in the language of Pandora. The tongue took inspiration from the natural languages of the world to create a totally different spoken form.
In designing Neytiri, one of the challenges was making her look sufficiently alien but with enough familiar and appealing aspects to make Jake's attraction to her seem natural and convincing. Her lithe but powerful athleticism was central to her characterization.
The most feared land predator on Pandora is the thanator, similar to a Terrain panther. Originally thanator was called manticore. This was the only design where James Cameron did not have a complete vision in his head. Designing this animal took months and hundreds of illustrations. The name was changed to thanator; and James Cameron himself took on the final design late in the production. Neville Page fleshed-out the design and built it as a Zbrush model.
Jake Sully is meant to be a rich and complex character with a rare combination of passion, strength, street smarts and soul. The role required a strong performance from his actor a fact that James Cameron acknowledged when he, Jon Landau and casting director Margery Simkin began their search to fill the part. "The trick about Jake was not writing the character," says Cameron. "The trick was finding the guy to play him." After spending months looking at actors in the U.S. and Europe, Simkin reported to Cameron that she found a candidate in Australia. Sam Worthington, Simkin told the filmmaker, had a "visceral quality and would make audiences believe that people would follow him. There was an intelligence and intensity in his eyes that never wavered." Intrigued, the filmmakers offered Worthington an audition, but he was initially skeptical due to the secrecy surrounding the project and the scant details about the character of Jake being offered to Worthington at that time. "I got a phone call to do this audition, but they wouldn't tell me anything about the script or even who the director was," Worthington recalls. "And I thought, 'Well, here's another waste of my time.' Then, a week later, I got another phone call 'Look, Jim Cameron wants to fly you to L.A. to audition for him.' And I said, 'Yes, but for what?'" Even after Cameron filled him in on the story and on the character of Jake, adding an intriguing question to complete his pitch to the actor "Are you ready to start the adventure?" Worthington had one earthbound priority to fulfill before beginning his journey to Pandora. "I told Jim, yes, of course I'll join him on the adventure but first I've got to get the brakes fixed on my car." For Cameron and Landau, Worthington was worth the wait. "I think one of the hardest things to find in an actor of Sam's age is a combination of sensitivity, vulnerability and strength, and Sam has all of that," says Landau. While many of the actors, including Worthington, received special physical and weapons training, Worthington was more interested in the mental preparation to portray Jake. "I didn't want my prep to be like boot camp," he says. "Anyone can do push-ups. I hung out with Jim's brother, John David, a former Marine. To me it was more about capturing the way these Marines see the world and how their training can make them think they're unstoppable."
In the original draft, Jake's name was Josh, while Neytiri's was Zuleika (a real female name of Arabic origin, meaning "fair", "brilliant" and "lovely"). Grace Augustine was named Shipley in earlier drafts.
James Cameron recalled the disagreements he had with 20th Century Fox over the film, "I think I felt, at the time, that we clashed over certain things. For example, the studio felt that the film should be shorter and that there was too much flying around on the ikran - what the humans call the banshees. Well, it turns out that's what the audience loved the most, in terms of our exit polling and data gathering. And that's a place where I just drew a line in the sand and said, 'You know what? I made 'Titanic.' This building that we're meeting in right now, this new half-billion dollar complex on your lot? 'Titanic' paid for that, so I get to do this.' And afterward, they thanked me. I feel that my job is to protect their investment, often against their own judgment. But as long as I protect their investment, all is forgiven."
The direhorse was intended to be a creature that Na'vi warriors use for riding and hunting. Conceived as a sort of horse crossed with a dinosaur, it had to incorporate reptilian aspects while maintaining a horse's natural grace and glory. The main terrestrial inspiration for the designers was the Clydesdale horse with its massive scale and strength. Based on Wayne Barlowe's concept, Christopher Swift sculpted the final direhorse maquette. Joseph C. Pepe did design modifications and color designs in Photoshop that ended up serving as the final design scheme for the movie. As with all the terrestrial creatures, getting the six legs to work together and make them seem natural and still beautiful and graceful was one of the greatest challenges. The animators ultimately achieved a natural-looking gallop by coupling the front four legs, but off-setting the movement of the first pair by a few degrees.
Some of Avatar's story was actually based on one of James Cameron's other past projects: a futuristic action thriller titled Screaming Steel. Originally, the story was written by Cameron around 1981, and in 1991, after massive success of Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Cameron and his writing partner Randall Frakes, who also wrote novelizations of Cameron's both Terminator films, started working on it again. Frakes wrote the first version of the screenplay which Cameron thought was good, but he still decided to hired several other screenwriters to write their own versions. One of them was J.F. Lawton, who was hired after lot of positive reactions he got for his original spec for Under Siege (1992) titled Dreadnought which he sold to Warner Bros. for $1 million. The story of Screaming Steel took place in run down future inside walled-off Los Angeles full of rich elites, with violent street gangs riding flying motor bikes and ruling the areas outside in what's left of destroyed streets. One of the teenagers inside the city, who's also a son of one of the top elites of it, meets and saves the female gang member from brutal army-like police force and they both have to escape out of the city, and after she shows him how police and elites are killing hundreds of poor and homeless people and forcing others be their slaves, he agrees to join her gang and after helping them battle other gangs and police, he fights his way to become their new leader thanks to his intelligence with planning hit and run attacks and his skills with riding flying motor bikes, and they declare war to L.A. and police force. However, Screaming Steel never passed writing stages and was left unproduced. When asked about this project around late 2010's, Frakes said how the story was something which he always found interesting and how he tried to get Cameron interested in it, but he was already busy working on all Avatar sequels. Lawton's version of the script can often be found online, and remains as the only version which is available.
The Na'vi were partially inspired by a dream James Cameron's mother had about a tall, blue woman. The idea of humans landing on an alien planet with a toxic atmosphere which necessitates breathing masks was an unused element from an original story Cameron had once written called "Mother"; the rest of the story had been used as the basis for his screenplay for Aliens (1986).
Chris Evans, Channing Tatum, and Sam Worthington were the final three in the running to play Jake Sully. James Cameron said, "I really liked Channing's appeal. I liked Chris' appeal. They were both great guys. But Sam had a quality of voice and a quality of intensity. Everybody did about the same on all the material through the script, except for the final speech where he stands up and says, 'This is our land, ride now, go as fast as the wind can carry you.' That whole thing. I would have followed him into battle. And I wouldn't have followed the other guys. They've since gone onto fantastic careers and all that, but Sam was ready. He was ready." Coincidentally, all three men were also considered for the role of Duke in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra (2009), which went to Tatum, and the title role in Captain America: The First Avenger (2011), which went to Evans.
The concept of lower gravity on Pandora was the justifcation for the evolution of giant fliers like banshee or the great leonopteryx. Both creatures were conceived as bird-like four-winged aerial predators, extremely colorful and very bright. The references and inspiration for the banshee (and the giant leonopteryx, too) came from sea creatures such as manta rays, skates and the great white shark. While sea-creature biology informed the profiles and bodies of the flying creatures, their aerodynamic and hydrodynamic characteristics incorporated the most current thinking of the way extinct species such as plesiosaurs and pterosaurs moved through water and air. But the most unique feature of the banshee was the articulation and mechanics of its mouth and teeth. Skin of both the banshee and the great leonopteryx has a wide range of complex color schemes based on Earth animals, like poison dart frogs and monarch butterflies. Their wings were a mixture of bird and bat wings. And while banshee has only vestigial legs, the great leonopteryx legs are not vestigial at all!
The film was thrown into an unwanted spotlight when several filmmakers, including Canadian director John Greyson, put out a press release stating that James Cameron had blocked the movie from being released in Israel, in accordance with the Boycott Divestment Sanctions movement (which calls for all Israeli activities to be shunned until Israel acceded to all Palestinian demands to end their conflict). Cameron found out about this when his top producing partner called him, and he was furious about it, as he had no intention of boycotting Israel (or any other nation that wanted to show the film) and Greyson and his colleagues admitted that their original press release was "a joke" that amounted to "wishful thinking" on their part.
James Cameron wanted elegant, slender, blue-skinned cat creatures that retained humanoid forms with human-facial characteristics. To capture the look, Jordu Schell created the first concept sculptures and James Cameron responded immediately to them. After approving a general Na'vi design, Stan Winston Studio artists lead by John Rosengrant detailed them in Photoshop to develop the final color and skin texture including stripes and a bioluminescence pattern. The crew created and presented many variations of the Na'vi look, making note, for example, that the color design should still believable as organic flesh rather than artifical body markings. Once Photoshop renderings were approved, the next step in the conceptual process involved the transference to 3D space. Stan Winston Studio took photographs of models in key poses with a variety of facial expressions. Scott Patton brought those to ZBrush to resculpt them as Na'vi characters. They were supposed to resemble their human counterparts to make it easier for audiences to recognize and relate to them. For example Sigourney Weaver's Na'vi avatar retains the actress' distinctive small nose.
James Cameron claimed that he cast Sam Worthington as Jake Sully over other actors who auditioned for the role on the strength of his delivery of the "This is our land!" speech. His only reservation was that Worthington spoke in a thick Australian accent, and was inexperienced playing an American character. Cameron took the chance that Worthington would be able to trained by the dialect coach to speak in a colloquial American accent in time for filming.
Another early concept was that Pandora's animals would have six limbs rather than the Earthly norm of four. ILM successfully animated a six-legged viperwolf hunting. The extra legs looked appropriately graceful and powerful in motion, so all of the terrestrial creatures got six limbs and these extra limbs led the design team to incorporate an extra pair of wings on the flying creatures.
James Cameron said of motion capture technology, "For years, there was this sense that, 'Oh, they're doing something strange with computers, and they're replacing actors.' When in fact, once you really drill down and you see what we're doing, it's a celebration of the actor-director moment."
Twenty of the world's top creature designers worked with James Cameron on the film, as well as character designs and landscape designs, all for the hardware, amp suits and the helicopters. Eighteen months was spent on design. James Cameron wanted the creatures to be plausible so their form and function were interrelated--e.g., if a creature has four wings, how does it fly, do the wings move together or the opposite way or 90 degrees out of phase like they do in the film with one wing moving and the other acting as a stabilizer, but if they need to climb or make a rapid escape all four wings beat furiously. All the six-legged creatures in the film move like ants, in that their four front legs move together but the rear two move separately.
James Cameron considers "Avatar" different from anything he's made before. He said making the film was "a complete leap into the unknown. Like a jump off a cliff and madly fabricating a parachute on the way down. It's a lot of fun to be out on the edge and know that you're doing something nobody's ever done before."
The movie was re-released in cinemas on August 27, 2010, little under 9 months after the theatrical release, in a Special Edition that featured 9 minutes of additional footage (including some exposition about the Na'vi school, a hunting scene and a longer ending). Both the Theatrical and Special Edition were later released on the Collector's Edition DVD/Blu-ray, which also included a third version, the Collector's Extended Edition, which added a total of 16 minutes to the Theatrical Edition. According to James Cameron, the 7 extra minutes on the Collector's Extended Edition mainly consist of an altered opening of the film on Earth; Cameron had felt that these Earth scenes weren't really necessary for the movie, but when fans indicated their disappointment over those missing sequences, he created the Extended Edition especially for them. He also added that finishing the additional 16 minutes of footage cost about $1 million per minute, an investment that Fox was happy to make since the Theatrical Version had been such a huge hit.
A piece of concept art for an unused Na'vi elder shared by artist Joseph C. Pepe, which is featured in The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure, highlights just how daunting a task it was to create all of Avatar's flora and fauna, especially the Na'vi. Pepe stated: "While working for Stan Winston Studio in late 2004, myself, Christopher Swift and Supervisor John Rosengrant visited James Cameron at Lightstorm Entertainment in Santa Monica, CA to read the Avatar scriptment and receive a download of information and artwork. This was our introduction to begin a two week "trial by fire" process to bring our take to the characters, the Na'vi, for Project 880, the working name of Avatar We were given 14 days to show Cameron "something new, further develop the characters and bring them some new life." At the time, Cameron had stated that the film would be photorealistic once completed and felt the extreme pressure to illustrate something that would impress him. Shown here is the very first image of a Na'vi that I created in a photorealistic style. At the time Cameron did not express any emotion during the review, only that he recognized the Sea Slug bioluminescence that I used on the forehead, Cameron said "That is a Pelagic Nudibranch, Phylliroe bucephala." My mouth agape in total astonishment that not only did he recognize what type of animals' bioluminescence had used, he also knew its scientific name. Fortunately, my dedicated research paid off in a way that I would only understand after working with Cameron for a number of years. He loves research about Earth, Science, Flora, Fauna, Anthropology and Ethnology. Not only is he a genius in filmmaking but also Science and Engineering."
Joel David Moore discussed the cut subplot from the first Avatar that involved his character Norm's relationship with Michelle Rodriguez's Trudy. When asked about his feelings surrounding the removal of said subplot, Moore admitted that he was glad to see it cut. "I was very happy because that every movie that you make, you cut, right? So as a director, I've learned this," Moore stated. "I directed my first feature at 25-26. So I think it was a really good lesson on not being offended when things were cut on the acting side of things. But you have to approach and edit story first. Of course, you want to make sure that the action sequences are correct and the characters are well-evaluated. But you have to take a holistic view of your entire 30,000-foot view and say, 'What drives my story the best so an audience is satiated at the end of this movie?' And every moment that Michelle and I worked together, we became good friends. And every moment that we had, from hanging out and partying in New Zealand all the way to our on set work, was so wonderful and so precious, but unnecessary for that story."
Before James Cameron left for his 1995 undersea expedition to the Titanic, his 80-page treatment for AVATAR was already complete, but the necessary technology did not exist to achieve his story and vision. AVATAR gathered dust till early 2005, when advances in digital technology made it possible to tell the story the way he imagined. Under the code name of "Project 880" which was a "retooled version of AVATAR," the conceptual process began, along with the technical research and development.
The biggest challenge in prepping the film for production, besides developing the new 3D Fusion Camera System, was to establish a final design for the Na'vi. All of the digital work to bring the humanoid figures to life was accomplished at Weta Digital, but the designs and detail were based on the characters generated by the Stan Winston Studio. James Cameron himself made the first sketches for all the Pandoran creatures including the Na'vi. Those early sketches already featured the blue skin and feline characteristics such as cat-like eyes, broad leonine noses, large articulating ears, and tall, slender, muscular bodies. A team of artists, Wayne Barlowe, Yuri Bartoli, Jordu Schell and Neville Page, began producing hundreds of pencil-and-paper drawings based on the character sketches and in mid 2005, Stan Winston Studio also joined the AVATAR project to help with the film's designs.
The film's original title was "Project 880." In the original script: Earth and its environmental problems are explored. Josh Sully (Jake) has never even seen a forest, so Grace has to practically hold his hand when they go into the woods. We witness Josh Sully's Avatar being born (he actually "births" himself), and his reaction to walking again is quite different, as it takes him a while to gain any sort of strength, and then he cries. It is revealed the Avatar program originally existed to train Na'vi to be an indigenous workforce for the Corporation, since it is so expensive to send human workers. Obviously, they did not like that; there is an Avatar controller who is burnt out because his Avatar died with him in it. He committed Avatar suicide because he had fallen in love with a Na'vi girl who had been killed by the military; the Avatars have a Na'vi guide named N'Deh, who is sleeping with Grace; Grace survives the soul transfer.
For the avatars the similarity to the humans portraying them had to be evident, at least for the face. Plaster casts and 3D scans of the actors were made for this purpose. The artists at Stan Winston Studio retained the mouth area and the area around the eyes of the subject actors and blended these features into their avatar faces. Na'vi eyes are cat-like, large and yellow, but the area around those eyes kept the shape and proportion of the actors who who played them. The Stan Winston Studo artists took lifecasts of the actors and actresses, then did a clay press-out and sculpted that into a Na'vi or avatar character. These full-size versions of the Na'vi were used on set for lighting references for CG and to provide useful eyelines for the actors.
The VFX team modeled the AMP suit in Autodesk SoftImage XSI and created an exploded view which was over a thousand parts. Like automotive repair manuals that show you how to disassemble and reassemble car engines, the team also needed to have a parts list to keep track of how many pieces to make and run. Every piece was either a rapid prototype or made "old school" (ie. sculpted, molded, and cast) if they felt that was the best approach. Various prototypes that were used to make the AMP suit. Much of the AMP suit was cut from foam and fit together. Then, when the pieces came back, the model shop team went in to texture them and add a cast metal finish to give it a realistic feel. "We still wanted it to have a sense of a reality that you can relate to," John Rosengrant says. "It was the same idea that Jim had with the guns. They'd probably be caseless ammo in the future, but Jim said it's just not as visually entertaining and fun as seeing brass flying." Texture was applied to the pieces that were rapid prototyped, and then each piece was molded and cast in the traditional way. For the interior structure, it was important to have something tangible that the actors could really climb into and feel part of it. Rosengrant elaborated, "You're not making anything up when you're in there." With an actor on a green screen stage, it can be challenging to know what the real environment would be. But with something practical surrounding the actor physically, they could really react to it. While there's plenty of awe-inspiring CG AMP suit performance in the film, all of it is based on the model Rosengrant and the Stan Winston team made. It was photographed extensively to come up with the colors and to depict how it reacts in various lighting situations.
Grace's avatar was the most difficult to realize. Sigourney Weaver's face wasn't a natural mesh with the features of a Na'vi. Her narrow, patrician nose did not translate well to the distinctive leonine Na'vi nose. Moreover Grace's avatar was to have been created 18 years in the past, so her avatar had to appear as an 18-years-younger version of Grace/Sigourney, so artists at Stan Winston Studio brought pictures of Sigourney Weaver from Alien (1979) into ZBrush and used them to sculpt her avatar.
Stephen Lang briefly blacked out in one take in which he was struck in the chest by Neytiri's arrows.
The AMP suit is seen in the movie as a helpful mech for heavy construction, and later as part of a destructive military weapon against the Na'vi. In all cases, the performance of the AMP suits was entirely motion-captured. The upper half of the AMP suit was put onto a motion base driving movements based on the motion capture. For this motion capture, there were no legs or arms on the AMP suit. John Rosengrant says they sometimes removed the glass for the shot, such as when actor Stephen Lang, who portrays Colonel Miles Quaritch in the film, is inside of the AMP suit piece, reacting and reciting his lines. "It really grounds it, and it feels really real," Rosengrant said. Building a practical machine and using CG to further elevate it is what makes standout hybrid characters. To make the AMP suit functional from a practical aspect, the team placed tracking dots all over the model to help the animators line up and reconcile the information. Then, the animators added the arms digitally so there was free fluid motion tied into the cockpit base, though the movements of the base itself were captured from the unit moving around on the hydraulic motion control system. The result on screen was a hybrid blend of techniques, Rosengrant says. These included: complete CG, complete static models, an interactive working prop with lights inside, as well as a hybrid combination where the machine is functioning hydraulically on a motion base with an actor riding in it, and the arms and legs added digitally.' has been replaced with 'The AMP suit is seen in the movie as a helpful mech for heavy construction, and later as part of a destructive military weapon against the Na'vi. In all cases, the performance of the AMP suits was entirely motion-captured. The upper half of the AMP suit was put onto a motion base driving movements based on the motion capture. For this motion capture, there were no legs or arms on the AMP suit. John Rosengrant says they sometimes removed the glass for the shot, such as when actor Stephen Lang, who portrays Colonel Miles Quaritch in the film, is inside of the AMP suit piece, reacting and reciting his lines. "It really grounds it, and it feels really real," Rosengrant said. Building a practical machine and using CG to further elevate it is what makes standout hybrid characters. To make the AMP suit functional from a practical aspect, the team placed tracking dots all over the model to help the animators line up and reconcile the information. Then, the animators added the arms digitally so there was free fluid motion tied into the cockpit base, though the movements of the base itself were captured from the unit moving around on the hydraulic motion control system. The result on screen was a hybrid blend of techniques, Rosengrant says. These included: complete CG, complete static models, an interactive working prop with lights inside, as well as a hybrid combination where the machine is functioning hydraulically on a motion base with an actor riding in it, and the arms and legs added digitally.
The lean body and graceful motion of the mink inspired the design of the viperwolf. Jim Charmatz rendered the concept artwork in Photoshop, then Scott Patton did a 3D model of the head in ZBrush. Stan Winston Studio created a viperwolf puppet scaled to human proportions used for the scene in which viperwolves chase Jake through the forest. The puppet was strapped to calibrators and had patterns that the mocap system could recognize for integration into the scene and to guide the animation. This puppet had the necessary "viperwolf weight" to help sell the illustion of weight and actual impact with actor Sam Worthington in the scene when this beast knocks Jake down.
To help the actors prepare for their roles, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii, where they spent their days trekking through the forests and jungles in order to get a better sense of what it would be like to live and move around in the jungle on Pandora, since there would not be any actual jungle sets to aid and guide the actors and crew. Zoe Saldaña even dressed up as a warrior during these journeys, complete with an alien tail symbolic of the one her character has in the movie. These hikes were only done during the daytime, however, as the cast and crew spent their nights at a Four Seasons hotel.
The active firing versions of the Standard Issue Rifle and Personal Defence Weapon contained customized Ruger Mini-14 AC-556 rifle receivers with some fitted with shortened barrels. Some of these PDW rifles almost bear resemblance to Muzzelite MZ14 Bullpups. Due to the strict weapon laws of Australia, neither of these blank firing weapons were present with the Australian filming units, however they were only used by American units regarding to availability.
The cigarettes that Sigourney Weaver's character "smokes" are computer-generated.
Every drawing had to be approved by James Cameron before rendering to Photoshop. Once a rendering was approved by the director, it was transferred from a 2D concept to a 3D digital sculpt in ZBrush. In some cases, clay models were also sculpted and used for visualizing the designs and to provide lighting reference.
The SN-9 WASP revolver is said to have been based on the Russian revolver MP-412 REX which it also bears resemblence to but the original prop was actually assembled around a Ruger GP100 .357 Magnum using CNC machined alloy housings over top of the real weapon. Hammer tang was cut off meaning it could only be fired double action and the prop was designed to appear as though it has a break-open action, however it retains the "flip-out" cylinder of the donor weapon (at some considerable technical effort) in order for it to be able to be loaded and fired (blanks). There was only ONE hero prop, and at least one stunt prop
The team built the AMP suit in less than four months so it could be crated up, packed in a container on a ship, and shipped down to New Zealand for filming. "Not only do you have the stress of building this great machine for James Cameron and making it super cool and making sure it functions and does everything it's supposed to do, but we also have the stress of that it's got to get in a container and ship," Rosengrant said. They loaded all the pieces for the AMP suit in, which all had to be separated later, and tied them down in a container before making their way to the "land of the long white cloud," the English translation of the Maori name for New Zealand, Aotearoa. Cameron had only seen photographs of the AMP suit, but he hadn't seen the completed unit since it was a wooden mockup. Rosengrant recounts taking the AMP suit out of the crate in New Zealand and trying to build it on the enormous soundstage filled with different Avatar sets. With everyone's anticipation building to see the fabled AMP suit for the first time, Rosengrant says he, executive producer Colin Wilson, producers, and first assistant director Josh McLaglen attempted to assemble the suit in a corner, away from prying eyes. That way, Cameron could get the full impact of the suit upon seeing it for the first time.Their caution and patience paid off. Cameron was thrilled. "That's quite a build-up. But for Jim to see it and love it it was a huge relief," Rosengrant said with a laugh.
James Cameron shared with Variety a memorable moment when he took the cast and crew to Hawaii, involving actor Sam Worthington during his audition. "Sam Worthington was literally running around in kind of like a jockstrap, like a loincloth," director said. "He hasn't been in the sun in two years, he's just pure white ... he's got a bow and arrow and he comes around a bend in the path ... and there's a guy walking his poodle. And Sam just instinctively draws his bow and almost shoots the poodle. He was so in character." While Worthington truly embodied the fighting spirit of his character, it would understandably freak out any dog owner, as it did in this instance. Cameron continued, "And the guy said, 'What are you doing?' and Sam says, 'We're making a movie, mate!'"
Jake's atrophied legs were prosthetics created by Stan Winston Studio. John Rosengrant took a mold from the legs of a paraplegic who was approximately Sam's skeletal size, and then created rubber legs. Sam's actual legs were tucked down through the chair and digitally removed in post-production.
VFX Artist React series, Saindon explains the surprising way Jake Sully's (Sam Worthington) brief underwater action scene was filmed as the original film did everything on a sound stage with no actual water involved. In fact, one part of the scene was captured with Worthington being wheeled around on an office chair. "Well first, I'll correct you in that Jake was sitting in an office chair with wheels getting pushed around the capture stage for the first movie. [Laughs] And going like this [motions swimming], so it was a very different experience. Just talking performance capture underwater, you can see it when all the characters are swimming. You understand that they're in the water, because the way their arms are moving, the way they move around, it feels much more real, whereas if it was "Dry-for-Wet," you always get that overacting, like, "Okay, pretend your underwater!" [Mimics fake swimming] You don't want that, Jim would never let that happen, so putting them in water, they act like they actually are."
The entire model of the gunship Scorpion was roughly 25 feet long. By building the front of the craft practically, the VFX team could get shots of the film's RDA pilots jumping in with the canopy coming down, then adding onto it using CG extension. Much like the AMP suit, the Scorpion was put onto the motion base so they could get specific shots, such as rocking, flying, shattering glass, as well large Na'vi arrows shooting through to a pilot inside, so the environment could inform the performance. The resulting shots seem completely real. "It was, once again, taking this hybrid idea, and it's just a no-brainer," John Rosengrant said. "This is part of the toolbox now. This is what we do."
Sigourney Weaver plays a James Cameron persona for her character in this film. Sigourney stated in an interview, "I teased him because to me I'm playing Jim Cameron in the movie as this kind of brilliant, approach-driven, idealistic perfectionist. But that same somebody has a great heart underneath. So I have to say I was always kind of channeling him."
Zoe Saldana liked the atmosphere of the Na'vi society regarding how it handles gender roles, due to them being a society where people are measured by their ability, not their gender, likening it to a world where feminism doesn't need to exist. As such, she never wanted to portray Neytiri as "empowered" but instead simply portray her powerful essence. She could relate to Neytiri being a rebel, feeling like a misfit in her own clan who simply wants to live her life on the forest, instead of being the next Tsahik
In James Cameron's films, the main characters' allies generally carry Catholic references. In 'Aliens' (1986) this ally is 'Bishop', in 'The Abyss' (1989) it is 'Monk', while in 'Avatar' the character played by Sigourney Weaver is named Grace Augustine. Saint Augustine was a monk who brought Christianity to pagan England and became an archbishop; one of the forms of address for archbishops is 'Your Grace'.
Jake Sully's initials (J.S.) are the same as John Smith, a central figure in the historical and often romanticized story of Pocahontas. This film shares many similarities with the Pocahontas story in plot and theme. Like John Smith, Sully is a member of an invading force who falls in love with a tribal princess, after learning her customs.
In the montage where Jake is recruiting the clans for battle, during the scene with the clan of the Eastern Sea, Jake can be heard giving the rally cry, "Back to the Stars!" He means that if the Na'vi win the battle, they will banish the humans back to Earth. It's also similar to the famous American rally cry, "Remember the Alamo!"
There are two sound effects borrowed from Jurassic Park (1993) creatures. During Jake's run from the panther-like Thanator, it roars at him, using a T-Rex roar. Later, when Jake is learning to ride the horse-creature, Pale, she makes a barking noise, like that of the Velociraptors in the kitchen scene.
There are striking similarities between the movie and the "Destination: Void" universe depicted by Frank Herbert and Bill Ransom in the science fiction novels, "The Jesus Incident" and "The Lazarus Effect." In the novels, an alien planet called Pandora is home to a global network of sentient kelp in which the minds of the deceased also continue to exist. The kelp, as well as other native lifeforms on the planet, are linked into a large entity with a shared consciousness, called "Avata."
Grace mentions there are ten to the fourth connections between each tree, and ten to the 12th trees on Pandora, and that this is more than the human brain. In scientific notation, "ten to the fourth" is 10,000, and "ten to the 12" is one trillion. This makes for a total of ten to the 16th, or ten quadrillion, connections. The human brain has an average of 100 trillion.
In James Cameron's films, allies to the main characters often have Catholic references. In Aliens (1986), this ally was called "Bishop;" in The Abyss (1989), it was "Monk." In "Avatar," Sigourney Weaver plays a character called Grace Augustine. Saint Augustine was a Catholic monk who brought Christianity to pagan England, and became Archbishop. One manner of address for an Archbishop is "Your Grace."
The concept of a network of trees, in which minds of the deceased continue to exist, appears in several novels of the "Ender" series by Orson Scott Card, most prominently in "Speaker for the Dead." Just like in the movie, the trees in the novel are sacred to the native (remotely humanoid) inhabitants, who tolerate the presence of a small human colony on their world until cultural misunderstandings lead to conflict.
Calling the sizable pallets of explosives on-board the shuttle "Daisy Cutters" refers to the BLU-82B, a 15,000-lb. bomb and the largest non-nuclear weapon the US Air Force had at its disposal (until 2008, when the MOAB was deployed), designed to flatten a wide expanse of jungle to create landing areas.
On Jake Sully's first mission in the jungles of Pandora, he's attacked by a pack of hairless dog-like creatures. They are a nod to a legendary creature from North American folklore. The "chupacabra" is said to attack livestock, especially goats, and has been described either as a reptilian, alien-like being or as a hairless dog-like animal. Despite numerous sightings, no scientific evidence supports its existence.
At the beginning when Col. Quaritch is briefing the men on the situation on Pandora, there are blinds, as well as a metal panel in the top-left corner of the blinds, that resemble an American flag. Oddly enough, the panel has a "50" engraved in it, as 50 is the number of stars on the American flag.
The Extended Collector's Edition DVD/Blu-Ray set has a collection of deleted scenes. The last one, titled "New Life", shows Neytiri pregnant. It also shows the starship Venture Star leaving Pandora. The music score heard in this short deleted scene is a snippet from the track "Civilisations Brought By Sea" from the soundtrack of the 2006 movie "Apocalypto". That movie also features a plot about native warriors encountering an advanced civilization and James Horner, the composer for "Avatar", also scored that film.
In the theatrical release, deleted scenes gives a glimpse of Jake on Earth. It shows him navigating a futuristic city full of neon billboards, holograms, and crowds of people in a setting reminiscent of Blade Runner (1982). The scene also shows Jake heading home to a small dilapidated apartment. Jake's voiceover reveals what his life is like on Earth. He describes how the economy and subpar veterans' benefits have blocked him from surgery that would repair his spine. And he explains why he joined the Marines and his desire to keep the strong from preying on the weak. Then the scene cuts to Jake's social life, showing him drinking and laughing with friends at a bar. When he sees a man abusing a woman, Jake starts a fight and gets thrown out. "All I ever wanted in my sorry-ass life," he says, "was a single thing worth fighting for." While he lies on the ground, two men in suits approach and tell Jake they need to speak with him about his brother. It's the perfect lead-up to the events that happen at the beginning of the film. These scenes were restored in the extended cut.
The naming of the large explosive pallets on the shuttle as 'Daisy Cutters' is a reference to the BLU-82B, a 6,800 kg bomb that was (until the MOAB was deployed in 2008) the largest non-nuclear bomb of the US Air Force; it was designed to flatten wide areas of forest to create landing zones.
In the final battle scene, when Colonel Quaritch sees Jake on the warship, he pushes the control stick and turns the ship. Jake loses his balance, slides off the ship and grabs hold of a missile. This is a reference to 'True Lies' (1994), also directed by James Cameron, in which Harry Tasker turns the Harrier jet he is piloting with the control stick, and the terrorist on top of the jet slides down the wing while his straps catch on a missile.
On Jake Sully's first mission in the forests of Pandora, he is attacked by a pack of creatures resembling hairless dogs. These are a reference to a legendary creature in North American folklore, the chupacabra. The chupacabra is said to attack livestock, especially goats, and is described as reptilian, alien-like or hairless dog-like; however, there is no scientific evidence of its existence.
While the movie was often described as "anti-war" by critics and fans, James Cameron repeatedly said in interviews that the film was not inspired by or commenting on any specific conflicts or any specific nation's overall foreign or defense policies. Cameron also said that the film DID have a brutally strong pro-environmentalist message on purpose because, as he put it, "I am a tree-hugger."
Although not related to Sam Worthington's performance, there has been minor controversy attributed to his ethnicity with some critics feeling Avatar contributes to the "white savior" trope which some people view as being problematic and would have preferred a person of color to portray Jake. The trope was less of a talking point in 2007 when Avatar was filmed. James Cameron explained his opinion on the subject, and how he views the movie is an allegory for a white man making amends for what settlers did to indigenous peoples. Other viewers disagree with Jake as being the sole savior as well, feeling this take devalues everything that Neytiri has done, pointing out she has to rescue Jake five times (viperwolves, bulldozers, Tsu'tey, Quaritch and from suffocating). Grace, a white woman, also requires help from the Na'vi when she is dying. There is also a moment where Jake and Grace require saving by Mo'at during the destruction of Hometree. James Cameron noted that The Way of Water rectifies some of this.
The name of the spirit of the planet, Eh'wa, also bears a resemblance to the Hindi/Aramic/Urdu word "Hewa," which, in English, means "Eve." "Eve" in Hebrew means "The Giver of Life," an entity from which all life arises. Also, in the Bible, Eve is tempted to eat from the Tree. The word na'vi bears close resemblance to the Arabic/Hindi/Urdu word for Nabi, meaning "prophet." "Avatar" is Hindi for the "incarnated one." Lord Krishna was one of the avatars of Lord Vishnu. Some Hindus believe that Lord Buddha was also an avatar.
Col. Quaritch mentions that being on Pandora made him feel "like a shavetail Looie." "Shave tail" was a term originally used in the 19th century among U.S. cavalry regiments. Newly assigned cavalry troopers were given horses with a shaved tail, to let other troopers know that the rider was dangerously inexperienced and should be given extra room to maneuver during training. "Looie" is a nickname for lieutenant, the two lowest ranks--2nd Lieutenant is lowest, with 1st Lieutenant being one step above it--for Marine Corps and Army Officers.
To help the actors prepare for their roles, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii, where they spent their days trekking through the forests and jungles in order to get a better sense of what it would be like to live and move around in the jungle on Pandora, since there would not be any actual jungle sets to aid and guide the actors and crew. Zoe Saldaña even dressed up as a warrior during these journeys, complete with an alien tail symbolic of the one her character has in the movie. These hikes were only done during the daytime, however, as the cast and crew spent their nights at a Four Seasons hotel.
Although the film is often described as 'anti-war', James Cameron repeatedly emphasized in interviews that the film was not inspired by any particular conflict or nation's policy. Cameron said the film deliberately carries an extremely strong environmental message because he is a 'tree-hugger'.
Members of the RDA's (Resources Development Administration) private security force wear French military rank insignia. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) bears the rank insignia of a French colonel, while Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez), the woman who warns Quaritch when she flies Sully and Augustine out of confinement to the avatar link station, bears the three stripes of a French captain.
James Cameron was nominated for the Academy Awards for Best Picture and Best Director, but lost both to his ex-wife Kathryn Bigelow for The Hurt Locker (2008). This marked the only time a couple or ex-couple competed against each other for the same Academy Award. Cameron reflected on the publicity surrounding their competition, "I was the first one on my feet applauding [Bigelow's wins]. Kathryn and I thought the whole meta-narrative around us was pretty funny. I was a little concerned that it would just take away from her credibility as a filmmaker. It started to turn into a conversation that wasn't about her film, and that bothered both of us."
One of the earlier roles for Stephen Lang (Quaritch) was in Tall Tale (1995), where he played a farmer standing-up to a mining company from developing a fertile valley. In the light of Avatar, an ironic earlier role was as Major General George Pickett; Confederate commander at Gettysburg who followed flagrantly unwise orders and was forced to lead his division to their near total annihilation in the infamous "Pickett's Charge."
According to a CNN report, James Cameron visited the Brazilian rain forest more than once after receiving outcries from tribal leaders inspired by his film. During one visit, Cameron was akin to a real-life Jake Sully; with warpaint on his face, and a spear in his hand, he met with 18 Indigenous leaders to plan a battle to stop the construction of a proposed dam.
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