Page by Gabriella Pollner
fictional elements
Worshipping Nature:
Avatar, considered to be one of the most revolutionary films in the science fiction industry (of our time), is known for its breathtaking quality, advanced plot, and numerous elements of science. Avatar focuses on the significance and preservation of nature on a distant planet known as Pandora. Pandora is populated with human-like creatures known as the Na’vi. Through worshipping holy insects that resemble glowworms, the Na’vi pay their thanks and respect while saying prayers after killing an animal for food or safety. The film gives nature an explicitly positive connotation as it puts emphasis on the idolization of nature. Avatar works to focus on the relationship between the environment and the Na’vi, and why that bond is so important to the continuation of Na’vi existence.
In Avatar, the Na’vi worship nature as an equal and even higher power on Pandora. The environment on the moon is distinctly different to Earth’s ecosystem, as, “The trees and plant life of Pandora have formed electrochemical connections between their roots and effectively act as neurons, creating a planet-wide "brain" that has achieved sentience, which is known to the Na'vi as Eywa” (James Cameron’s Avatar: Pandora par. 3).
The Na’vi also exemplify various types of symbiosis, which are the science behind plant and animal relationships. Avatar demonstrates two main types of symbiosis, a form of natural selection and mutualism. This ‘natural selection’ occurs when an animal gains on another plant or animal’s loss, while mutualism is when both an animal or plant and animal or plant both receive benefits from a situation (Symbiotic Relationships par. 2). An example of natural selection took place in the beginning of Avatar when Neytiri scolded Jake after she was forced to kill an animal when he accidentally summoned it through his lack of experience in Pandora. In this case, Jake and Neytiri earned the continuation of life while the (although ferocious,) innocently portrayed animal lost it. The other type of symbiosis portrayed in the film occurred in numerous occasions and truly brought out the beauty and individuality of Pandora’s society compared to Earth’s culture. The Na’vi rely on mutualism to survive. They worship the soul tree that brings back life, depend on Eywa to help the Na’vi in times of need, and create a bond with animals that act as their companions. The Na’vi’s bonds with animals conjoin their minds, making their minds think as one. On the contrary, humans only share a bond with animals to the point of domesticating them as pets. These drastic differences serve as a background to why Avatar’s stress on worshipping nature is so phenomenal.
Not only does Avatar lay an impact for sci-fi fans, the film reaches out and connects to all individuals. Different cultures on Earth follow diverse beliefs, ranging from conserving the environment by being “green” (especially in the United States), worshipping animals such as cows as a higher power (predominately in India), or being vegetarians in respects to animal’s lives (all over the world). Avatar provides an accurate, yet fictitious portrayal of science concepts. This is because Avatar uses factual and scientific information, but the filmmakers created an entire planet with fictional species and nature concepts.
Elements of Pandora:
Avatar, a 2009 film, took place on a distant planet called Pandora in the year 2154. During the film, the protagonist’s mission is to gain inside information concerning the indigenous Na’vi in order for the humans to infiltrate the Na’vi community. Pandora’s environment contains floating mountains, dense rainforests, dragons, ferocious six-legged animals, and a holy soul tree. The film provides a positive connotation in terms of the importance of the entire environment and glorifies all aspects of Pandora’s diverse nature. Avatar emphasizes the differences between the survivability of humans and the Na’vi on Pandora and concludes that human life is not able to survive on Pandora.
On James Cameron’s Avatar (website), the Pandora page explains all things about Pandora ranging from its geography, natural resources, day-night cycle, location, and atmosphere (“James Cameron’s Avatar: Pandora” par. 6). The moon of Pandora contains an atmosphere made up of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, xenon, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. These circumstances make it impossible for humans to breathe in Pandora. Pandora’s atmosphere specifically contains a heavy mixture of 18% carbon, 5.5% xenon, and 1% hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that can cause death within four minutes (par. 6). Humans are able to survive on Earth because of the five factors of its atmosphere, climate, water, light, and sun (“Bob the Alien: Why is there Life on Earth” par.1). Earth’s atmosphere contains a mixture that is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases (“Windows 2 Universe: Earth’s Atmosphere” par. 1). Pandora differs from Earth because it contains 20% lower gravity and a denser air mass, resulting in lighter impacts and lower body weights.
Avatar’s Pandora shows correlations with Earth as both worlds strongly relate to their environment. Earth is overrun with technology, making its relation to the environment far less dramatic than life on Pandora. Pandora’s lack of technology allows the Na’vi to solely depend on their environment for existence. Both worlds use the environment for water, food, and other resources. Before Earth’s advances in technology, it would relate to Pandora in the other uses of clothes, shelter and weapons (without machinery). Although human life on Pandora would be impossible, human and Na’vi connections are apparent in the film.
Use of Technology:
In the Avatar universe the humans of 2154 had achieved a technologically advanced corporations and industries. The humans created an interplanetary spaceflight that is travel between planets within a single planetary system. They created 3-D printing and holography mapping. Walker stated that "Scientists have already developed video game controllers that give players the ability to control on-screen movement with their brain waves, paralyzed patients can control a robot’s movements with just their thoughts via brain implants, and in Israel, a test subject was recently able to effectively direct the movements of a robot located nearly 1800 miles away." (Humans Achieve Immortality as Holographic Avatars).
In Popular Mechanics, ‘How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar’ explains the different types of technologies used to create the planet of Pandora to how the Na’vi were created. It goes into depth with the technologies and how each one creates the setting and characters. It talks about how the characters are created with their bodies to how they move. It goes into depth as well with the specific types of technologies (machines and mechanics) used to create the settings of Pandora and the Na’vi characters.
Cameron’s vision for the movie required extremely advanced versions of technology to complete the communication from his mind into the film. Without advances in technology, Cameron’s vision may have never been fulfilled. The Internet, new softwares, discoveries of new planets, and more advanced information about foreign solar systems finally allowed Avatar to be made accurately. Avatar also shows a possibility of having life on other planets besides Earth and furthering human existence. Avatar was not accurate in most of its portrayal. It was not accurate with having the planet of Pandora especially having life on it. It was accurate with the amount of time it takes to get to a planet with it taking 6 years to get there it just depends on how far from the sun it is.
In reality, scientists will be able to discover habitable moons like Pandora with the James Webb Space Telescope. In the real world superconductors can float in the presence of a magnetic field whereas on Pandora it is loaded with unobtanium can float in magnetic pockets that are on the moons surface. Every living organism on Pandora is bioluminescent which means it can produce light. Bioluminescence can be seen on Earth with fireflies and sea algae etc. (Choi 1).
Avatar, considered to be one of the most revolutionary films in the science fiction industry (of our time), is known for its breathtaking quality, advanced plot, and numerous elements of science. Avatar focuses on the significance and preservation of nature on a distant planet known as Pandora. Pandora is populated with human-like creatures known as the Na’vi. Through worshipping holy insects that resemble glowworms, the Na’vi pay their thanks and respect while saying prayers after killing an animal for food or safety. The film gives nature an explicitly positive connotation as it puts emphasis on the idolization of nature. Avatar works to focus on the relationship between the environment and the Na’vi, and why that bond is so important to the continuation of Na’vi existence.
In Avatar, the Na’vi worship nature as an equal and even higher power on Pandora. The environment on the moon is distinctly different to Earth’s ecosystem, as, “The trees and plant life of Pandora have formed electrochemical connections between their roots and effectively act as neurons, creating a planet-wide "brain" that has achieved sentience, which is known to the Na'vi as Eywa” (James Cameron’s Avatar: Pandora par. 3).
The Na’vi also exemplify various types of symbiosis, which are the science behind plant and animal relationships. Avatar demonstrates two main types of symbiosis, a form of natural selection and mutualism. This ‘natural selection’ occurs when an animal gains on another plant or animal’s loss, while mutualism is when both an animal or plant and animal or plant both receive benefits from a situation (Symbiotic Relationships par. 2). An example of natural selection took place in the beginning of Avatar when Neytiri scolded Jake after she was forced to kill an animal when he accidentally summoned it through his lack of experience in Pandora. In this case, Jake and Neytiri earned the continuation of life while the (although ferocious,) innocently portrayed animal lost it. The other type of symbiosis portrayed in the film occurred in numerous occasions and truly brought out the beauty and individuality of Pandora’s society compared to Earth’s culture. The Na’vi rely on mutualism to survive. They worship the soul tree that brings back life, depend on Eywa to help the Na’vi in times of need, and create a bond with animals that act as their companions. The Na’vi’s bonds with animals conjoin their minds, making their minds think as one. On the contrary, humans only share a bond with animals to the point of domesticating them as pets. These drastic differences serve as a background to why Avatar’s stress on worshipping nature is so phenomenal.
Not only does Avatar lay an impact for sci-fi fans, the film reaches out and connects to all individuals. Different cultures on Earth follow diverse beliefs, ranging from conserving the environment by being “green” (especially in the United States), worshipping animals such as cows as a higher power (predominately in India), or being vegetarians in respects to animal’s lives (all over the world). Avatar provides an accurate, yet fictitious portrayal of science concepts. This is because Avatar uses factual and scientific information, but the filmmakers created an entire planet with fictional species and nature concepts.
Elements of Pandora:
Avatar, a 2009 film, took place on a distant planet called Pandora in the year 2154. During the film, the protagonist’s mission is to gain inside information concerning the indigenous Na’vi in order for the humans to infiltrate the Na’vi community. Pandora’s environment contains floating mountains, dense rainforests, dragons, ferocious six-legged animals, and a holy soul tree. The film provides a positive connotation in terms of the importance of the entire environment and glorifies all aspects of Pandora’s diverse nature. Avatar emphasizes the differences between the survivability of humans and the Na’vi on Pandora and concludes that human life is not able to survive on Pandora.
On James Cameron’s Avatar (website), the Pandora page explains all things about Pandora ranging from its geography, natural resources, day-night cycle, location, and atmosphere (“James Cameron’s Avatar: Pandora” par. 6). The moon of Pandora contains an atmosphere made up of oxygen, nitrogen, carbon dioxide, xenon, methane, and hydrogen sulfide. These circumstances make it impossible for humans to breathe in Pandora. Pandora’s atmosphere specifically contains a heavy mixture of 18% carbon, 5.5% xenon, and 1% hydrogen sulfide, a toxic gas that can cause death within four minutes (par. 6). Humans are able to survive on Earth because of the five factors of its atmosphere, climate, water, light, and sun (“Bob the Alien: Why is there Life on Earth” par.1). Earth’s atmosphere contains a mixture that is 78% nitrogen, 21% oxygen, and 1% other gases (“Windows 2 Universe: Earth’s Atmosphere” par. 1). Pandora differs from Earth because it contains 20% lower gravity and a denser air mass, resulting in lighter impacts and lower body weights.
Avatar’s Pandora shows correlations with Earth as both worlds strongly relate to their environment. Earth is overrun with technology, making its relation to the environment far less dramatic than life on Pandora. Pandora’s lack of technology allows the Na’vi to solely depend on their environment for existence. Both worlds use the environment for water, food, and other resources. Before Earth’s advances in technology, it would relate to Pandora in the other uses of clothes, shelter and weapons (without machinery). Although human life on Pandora would be impossible, human and Na’vi connections are apparent in the film.
Use of Technology:
In the Avatar universe the humans of 2154 had achieved a technologically advanced corporations and industries. The humans created an interplanetary spaceflight that is travel between planets within a single planetary system. They created 3-D printing and holography mapping. Walker stated that "Scientists have already developed video game controllers that give players the ability to control on-screen movement with their brain waves, paralyzed patients can control a robot’s movements with just their thoughts via brain implants, and in Israel, a test subject was recently able to effectively direct the movements of a robot located nearly 1800 miles away." (Humans Achieve Immortality as Holographic Avatars).
In Popular Mechanics, ‘How James Cameron's Innovative New 3D Tech Created Avatar’ explains the different types of technologies used to create the planet of Pandora to how the Na’vi were created. It goes into depth with the technologies and how each one creates the setting and characters. It talks about how the characters are created with their bodies to how they move. It goes into depth as well with the specific types of technologies (machines and mechanics) used to create the settings of Pandora and the Na’vi characters.
Cameron’s vision for the movie required extremely advanced versions of technology to complete the communication from his mind into the film. Without advances in technology, Cameron’s vision may have never been fulfilled. The Internet, new softwares, discoveries of new planets, and more advanced information about foreign solar systems finally allowed Avatar to be made accurately. Avatar also shows a possibility of having life on other planets besides Earth and furthering human existence. Avatar was not accurate in most of its portrayal. It was not accurate with having the planet of Pandora especially having life on it. It was accurate with the amount of time it takes to get to a planet with it taking 6 years to get there it just depends on how far from the sun it is.
In reality, scientists will be able to discover habitable moons like Pandora with the James Webb Space Telescope. In the real world superconductors can float in the presence of a magnetic field whereas on Pandora it is loaded with unobtanium can float in magnetic pockets that are on the moons surface. Every living organism on Pandora is bioluminescent which means it can produce light. Bioluminescence can be seen on Earth with fireflies and sea algae etc. (Choi 1).