Fictional universe of Avatar
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In the 2009 science-fiction film
Na'vi
The Na'vi are humanoid creatures that inhabit Pandora along with other creatures. They use animals ranging from direhorses to even viperwolves.
The world of Pandora
The
Astronomy and geology
In the film, Pandora is depicted as being located in the
Leri Greer, a designer at
I actually wrote about how it causes a particular sky coloration across the visible spectrum at moments of pure dusk. And the Na'vi, depending on what elevation they live at (sea level versus higher altitudes), perceive a distinct color in a narrow band at the horizon at that moment. They identify themselves, and signify in their markings, with this color. This helps other Na'vi quickly discern at a distance what/where they are from, or what they are likely to be like (fishermen, high plains, sky riders, etc.). That pure dusk "color," combined with their other predominant color markings lets you also know how they relate to Eywa as a "religion" versus Eywa as a physical reality. And during ceremonial gatherings, you can "read" a Na'vi by how they mark themselves with dyes, muds, and paints. And the environment and day/night cycle are directly responsible for the development of this social expression behavior. Again, this was an internal idea to help us design things at Weta Workshop, it's hard to say how much filtered upward to the larger production.[4]
Pandora has tropical
Cameron hopes to explore the other moons in future sequels, books, and spin-offs.[1][5][6][7]
Human interest
In the Avatar universe (set in the year 2154), humans have achieved a very technologically advanced,
Although Earth is never seen in the film, other than in the extended collector's edition, Cameron developed the future Earth of Avatar as a
Technology
Technologically, humans have achieved monumental advancements by 2154:
As with many science fiction films, many space vehicles, aircraft, ground vehicles, weapons, and technologies were created to fit the story. Many were patterned after historical or contemporary technologies to give the film a sense of futuristic realism.[9] Concept artist Ryan Church based many drawings on aerodynamic research from previously classified NASA and DARPA technical papers. Unlike the movie Aliens which employed one drop ship from de-orbit to ground combat, several vehicles cover specific roles of utility transport, gunship, and base resupply. This is similar to the specialization of aircraft and helicopters in the United States military since the Vietnam war.
Amplified Mobility Platform
Amplified Mobility Platforms (also known as AMP suits) are MK-6 vehicles redesigned for Pandora's hostile environment. They are worn and controlled as a large "
SA-2 Samson
The SA-2 Samson is a twin-
AT-99 Scorpion Gunship
The AT-99 Scorpion Gunship is the heavily armed gunship counterpart to the SA-2 Samson and is similar in role and appearance to the
C-21 Dragon Assault Ship
The C-21 Dragon Assault Ship is a large four-post ducted-fan VTOL heavily armed transport and gunship which can deliver AMP suits or troops through drop doors. Quaritch led RDA forces with one of these. Its myriad arsenal of heavy machine guns, dozens upon dozens of rocket and missile pods, and door-gunners makes it the RDA's largest ship so far, with the Valkyrie shuttle being the only larger vehicle designed for extended use in the atmosphere of Pandora. Quad turbine generators drive the four-posted ceramic propellers. The Dragon is heavily armed with multiple weapons systems including grenades, rockets, missiles, and point-defense Gatling cannons. Ability to deploy many troops and AMP suits, variety of medium automatic guns, ATG and ATA missiles, incendiary rockets, grenades, door gunners, plus dual and quad Gatling gun systems. All gun and missile systems are constrained by friendly fire avoidance codes (IFF Lockout). It has twin cockpits. Its propellers counter-rotate to navigate, plus the nose-mounted radar suite. There are eight 50 mm sentry guns mounted below the right cockpit.
GAV Swan
The GAV Swan is a six-wheeled light utility vehicle. Its full name is the Ground Assault Vehicle JL-723. It has a gyrostabilized platform so when it travels over rough terrain, the gunner platform is stabilized. The extended gunner's chair can rise up 3.6 meters above the vehicle to see over obstructions between the gun and the target, like the long neck of a swan, hence the name. This 6x6 is built for all-terrain, and its permalloy armor and four turret-mounted sixty-millimeter rotary autocannons provide protection from the Pandoran environment. The wheels have little armor and are designed with a thick polymer alloy. Swans have a gyrostabilized system that rotates a full 360 degrees. Swans also have a roll bar and four rear headlights. Swans have redundant fuel cells in the rear. When the chair extends, the ammunition storage canister is located at the back.
Slash Cutter
The Slash Cutter is a clearcutting tree harvester that is used to cut down and remove trees from the forests of Pandora to enable mining operations. It is propelled by four sets of continuous tracks. The harvester's blade unit resembles a pizza cutter, which is made from a diamond-hard, carbon fiber composite that cuts trees with minimal wear. A liquid hydrogen coolant runs down the cutting arm to prevent the blade from rising above operational temperatures caused by the extreme friction against the trees. The driver cab is auto assist and is protected by a DY-Flex Support.
Hell's Gate
Hell's Gate is a secure forward operating base with an airfield, resembling a "modern-day Khe Sanh". Slightly more than a third of the site is taken up by the shuttle runway, VTOL pads, hangars, equipment storage areas, and garage structures. The armor bay is where vehicles come to get stored, repaired, or refitted. This building is the main storage area of all AMP suits. There is also a small weight room inside a weapons locker that Quaritch uses. Designed for security and rapid force deployment, the Armor Bay is the core of Hell's Gate's defenses. Housed inside its fortified hangar and at ready are Dragon Assault Ships configured for forward strike operations, Scorpion Gunships, Samson Helicopters, Slash Cutter tree harvesters, an array of AMP Suits, and other attack craft including support vehicles and assorted battle-ready machinery.
ISV Venture Star
The ISV Venture Star (also called the Interstellar Vehicle Venture Star) is an interstellar bulk carrier starship that uses antimatter propulsion systems to enable interstellar travel. It transports supplies, equipment, humans in cryonic hibernation, refined ore, and data between Earth and Pandora, taking around six years to travel from one to the other. The Venture Star typically does not land on the planetary surface, but stations itself in orbit and rendezvous with operations on Earth and Pandora via Valkyrie shuttlecraft that dock with it or it deploys landing modules called "Sling Loads", which can carry more payloads to the moon's surface than the Valkyrie. The Venture Star is one of twelve RDA ISV mineral carriers, continuously traveling between the Sol and Alpha Centauri A systems. According to film designer Ben Proctor:
The huge glowing radiators mounted to the engines dissipate their heat, and the enormously long central truss, with its own protective coolers and reflectors, protects the cargo and crew modules from the engines' heat and radiation using the simple rule of r-squared attenuation rather than heavy shielding. (Yes, [James Cameron] really thinks about this kind of stuff and explains it very clearly in text and in person.) The ship has a pair of centrifugal-gravity-gen modules for the crew who remain awake for the duration, which has become a pretty typical feature of quasi-realistic ship designs in movies. But one unique feature it has which directly relates to the sub-light realistic travel is a cascade-style shield stack to protect the speeding craft from interstellar debris. Jim's [brief] completely explains this technology, apparently based on current NASA research, and how it obliterates potentially catastrophic particles by letting them slam through a series of thin, light shield surfaces.[4]
The ship was based on designs by scientist and author
Valkyrie TAV
The Valkyrie TAV is a delta-wing
Bridgehead
Bridgehead is a massive, city-like base stationed near the oceans of Pandora. Roughly the size and layout of
SA-9 Kestrel
The SA-9 Kestrel is a twin ducted-fan
AT-101 SeaWasp
The AT-101 SeaWasp is a quad ducted-fan
Hexbot
Hexbots (also known as Swarm Assemblers) are a family of hexapod-like, arc welding robots that are used for construction purposes. Hexbots can use their electric arcs to weld metal. They have impressive maneuverability thanks to their leg structure, allowing them to climb vertical surfaces and move at impressive speeds. They can also transport supplies across bases by carrying them with one set of legs.
Skel-Suit
Skel-Suits (also known as EXO-32 Light Mobility Platforms) are powered exoskeletons that are about the same size as a Na'vi warrior. They are worn as a skeletal frame and are more akin to motorized stilts. Soldiers at Bridgehead and other RDA installations use these for industrial and military applications. They are controlled in a similar manner to the older AMP Suit. Skels are usually armed with the same weaponry used by Recombiants such as assault rifles, SMGs, combat knives, and flamethrowers.
S-76 SeaDragon
The S-76 SeaDragon is a giant CET-OPS
Mako Sub
The Mako Sub (also known as the MS-3 Type 2) is a midget submarine/submersible used for short-ranged scouting, underwater defense/exploration, and tulkun hunts. It complements a crew of two, a pilot and a gunner. Its propulsion consists of three ducted propellers. It also boasts four foldable 'winglets' that give the sub hydrodynamic maneuverability. It is usually armed with a single ventral rotary speargun, four harpoon torpedoes with inflatable lift bags, and wildlife nets.
Crab Suit
The Crab Suit (also known as the SMP-2) is a submersible/mech hybrid that functions as an underwater AMP Suit that resembles a
Picador Jetboat
The Picador (also known as the Picador 9300) is a small and fast jetboat used for short-range patrol missions and tulkun hunts. It complements a crew of five operators: a pilot, three gunners, and a spotter. Powered by twin jet drives, the seacraft is armed with two .50 caliber machine guns, one or two grenade launchers, or one sound cannon. It is equipped with smokescreen launchers for defense or strategic retreat. The boat is also equipped with a sensor on its roof that contains the radar, cameras, and other sensor equipment, alongside a HUD display on the cockpit windscreen.
Matador Gunboat
The Matador Gunboat is a high-speed forward command patrol boat used for water patrol missions. The Matador is operated by a crew of seven to eight operators: five gunners, a pilot, a spotter, and a captain. The boat features a "deep-V" hull, twin jet drives, and shock-mitigating seats. The Matador is armed with three .50 caliber machine guns on the boat's port, starboard, and stern, a co-axial depth charge launcher on top of the second deck next to the pilot, and a large harpoon cannon on the bow.
Reception
Owen Gleiberman of Entertainment Weekly writes, "Cameron turns Pandora into a vertiginously suspended forest landscape ... Jake and the sexy tribal princess Neytiri (Zoë Saldana) wow us with their fluid, prancing movements, but there's no subtext to their smoothly virtual faces."[12] Carol Kaesuk Yoon of the New York Times wrote that Avatar "has recreated what is the heart of biology: the naked, heart-stopping wonder of really seeing the living world".[13]
CNN reported that the film's universe has had a profound effect on the audience over their perception of Earth, and life on it, in reality. Avatar Forums posted a topic thread entitled "Ways to cope with the depression of the dream of Pandora being intangible" which received "1,000 posts from people experiencing depression and fans trying to help them cope" (a second thread was posted for more room). Philippe Baghdassarian, the site administrator, commented "I wasn't depressed myself. In fact, the movie made me happy, but I can understand why it made people depressed. The movie was so beautiful and it showed something we don't have here on Earth. I think people saw we could be living in a completely different world and that caused them to be depressed." Many have confessed to falling to depression and harboring suicidal thoughts, while others have expressed disgust towards humanity and "disengagement with reality." Psychiatrist Dr. Stephan Quentzel added that "Virtual life is not real life and it never will be, but this is the pinnacle of what we can build in a virtual presentation so far."[14]
In February 2010, CNN published an article exploring the "Avatar science" (the technology linking the human mind to a remotely controlled body). Elizabeth Landau wrote, "Scientists say we are many decades, even centuries, away from making this kind of sophisticated interaction possible, if it can be done at all." A neuroscientist at the University of Pittsburgh, Andrew Schwartz, further commented that it "shouldn't be taken as anything but fantasy."[15]
Notes
- ^ a b Rottenberg, Josh (December 18, 2009). "James Cameron Talks Avatar: Brave Blue World". Entertainment Weekly. No. 1081. p. 51.
- ^ Kozlowski, Lori (January 2, 2010). "Inventing the plants of "Avatar"". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved January 3, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0.
- ^ a b Anders, Charlie Jane (February 4, 2010). "27 Avatar Questions, Answered by the Movie's Designers". io9.com. Retrieved February 8, 2010.
- ^ Carroll, Larry (June 29, 2006). "'Titanic' Mastermind James Cameron's King-Size Comeback: Two Sci-Fi Trilogies". MTV. Retrieved October 18, 2006.
- ^ Murphy, Mekado (December 21, 2009). "A Few Questions for James Cameron". The New York Times.
- ^ Eric Ditzian (December 21, 2009). "James Cameron Talks 'Avatar' Sequel Plans". MTV. Retrieved January 2, 2010.
- ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0.
- ^ "Avatar's hardware was all based on real-life stuff". io9.
- ^ "SA-2 Samson". Archived from the original on October 6, 2014. Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ "Charles Pellegrino Web Site". Retrieved October 5, 2014.
- ^ Gleiberman, Owen (December 25, 2009). "But What About Avatar? James Cameron's 3-D epic didn't make our top 10 lists. But critic Owen Gleiberman praises its visual artistry". Entertainment Weekly. No. 1082/1083. p. 84.
- ^ Kaesuk Yoon, Carol (January 19, 2010). "Luminous 3-D Jungle Is a Biologist's Dream". The New York Times. p. D-1.
- ^ Piazza, Jo (January 11, 2010). "Audiences experience 'Avatar' blues". CNN. Retrieved February 19, 2010.
- ^ Landau, Elizabeth (February 3, 2010). "Is the 'Avatar' concept really possible?". CNN. Retrieved February 9, 2010.
References
- Fitzgerald, Lisa (2009). The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure. Abrams. ISBN 978-0-8109-8286-4.
- Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). Avatar: A Confidential Report on the Biological and Social History of Pandora. It Books. ISBN 978-0-06-189675-0.
- Wilhelm, Maria; Mathison, Dirk (2009). James Cameron's Avatar: The Movie Scrapbook. HarperFestival. ISBN 978-0-06-180124-2.