Avatar

Avatar is a science-fiction motion picture released in 2009. Soon after its release, Avatar broke the historical record for worldwide box-office sales. The Canadian-born filmmaker James Cameron wrote, directed, co-edited, and produced the film.

Avatar is set in the year 2154. Earth’s human race has overused the planet’s natural resources, leading to an energy crisis. Under the supervision of the Resources Development Administration (RDA) on Earth, humans operate a highly mechanized system to mine a valuable mineral called unobtanium on the alien moon Pandora. Pandora’s atmosphere is poisonous to humans. To aid the mining operation, RDA scientists combined human DNA with that of Pandora’s native people to create avatars, bodies that can breathe easily in the atmosphere. A machine enables humans to link their minds to the avatars and thus operate their bodies.

Pandora is home to the Na’vi, blue-skinned people who stand 10 feet (3 meters) tall and resemble human beings. The Na’vi have a close physical and spiritual relationship with the dense rain forests covering Pandora. The village of one Na’vi clan, the Omaticaya, is inside the Hometree, a giant tree that stands upon a rich deposit of unobtanium. The RDA sends the human Jake Sully to Pandora. There, he is linked to an avatar and begins his mission to gather information about the Na’vi and the Hometree.

Sully meets a princess of the Omaticaya clan named Neytiri, and they fall in love. Sully comes to sympathize with the Na’vi and to oppose the RDA’s plans to destroy the clan to acquire more unobtanium. The RDA’s desire for unobtanium eventually leads to a fierce battle on Pandora.

Avatar’s cast featured the English-born Australian actor Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and the American actress Zoë Saldana as Neytiri. The American actress Sigourney Weaver played biologist Dr. Grace Augustine, the head of the avatar project on Pandora, and the American actor Stephen Lang played Colonel Miles Quaritch, the leader of the RDA corporation’s military force.

Cameron started planning Avatar in 1995, but did not begin making the movie until 2006. He had to wait several years for the development of the technology needed to create the story’s spectacular computer-generated imagery (CGI), including characters, creatures, and scenery. Avatar was shot primarily in California and Hawaii in the United States, and in New Zealand. A linguist created an original language for the Na’vi. Costing $237 million, Avatar was one of the most expensive movies ever made. Cameron announced that he would make four sequels to Avatar. The first, Avatar: The Way of Water, was released in 2022.

Avatar won Academy Awards for art direction, cinematography, and visual effects. Avatar: The Way of Water also won an Academy Award for visual effects.