In 2009, James Cameron released his groundbreaking and highly-anticipated 3D movie, Avatar. The movie became a huge success due to its use of motion capture, which would later become mainstream in the film industry. The movie also broke the record for the highest-grossing film of all time, previously held by Titanic.
Thirteen years later, James Cameron finally announced the release date for the sequel to Avatar, titled Avatar: The Way of Water. Cameron has also announced the signing of three more Avatar sequels set for release in 2024, 2026, and 2028 respectively.
The Setting
It is the year 2154 in the 22nd Century when humans have exhausted Earth’s natural sources and now inhabiting a moon called Pandora. Pandora is the home to a rare and valuable mineral called Unobtanium and the home to a tribe of tall indigenous blue humanoid creatures known as the Na’vi.
But due to its poisonous atmosphere for humans, a group of humans has inhabited genetically engineered Na’vi bodies known as avatars to learn how to explore Pandora and interact with the Na’vi tribe.
The Premise
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a paraplegic ex-Marine, is sent to Pandora to replace his deceased twin brother, who signed up to join the Avatar program.
When Jake’s avatar is attacked by the Pandoran wildlife, a female Na’vi, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), saves his life and brings him to her clan. Mo’at, Neytiri’s mother Mo’at (Carol Christine Hilaria Pounder), orders Neytiri to initiate Jake into their society.
The Conflict
However, Jake becomes conflicted when Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) promises to restore Jake’s legs, but only if he provides inside information about the Na’vi tribe and their gathering place, Hometree, where there is a rich deposit of Ubontanium.
As Jake settles into a new life and adjusts to the Na’vi tribe, things get even more complicated as Jake and Neytiri fall in love with each other.
Jake Confesses
When Jake confesses that he is a spy, the Na’vi hold him and Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) captive. Meanwhile, Colonel Quaritch and his men destroy Hometree and kill many members of the Na’vi tribe, including Neytiri’s father, to take possession of the land and mine the rare Unobtanium mineral.
The only saving grave is pilot Trudy Chacón (Michelle Rodriguez), who is appalled by the brutal actions of Colonel Quaritch and instead decides to save Jake, Grace, and Dr. Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore).
The Ending
Grace gets shot during the escape, and in an attempt to save her, the Na’vi clan tries to transfer Grace into her avatar with the help of the Tree of Souls (a tree of spiritual significance to the Na’vi) but fails. Even after the destruction of Hometree, Jake regains the trust of the Na’vi clan by battling against the RDA (Resources Development Administration) in unison.
Colonel Quaritch, on the other hand, exposes Jake’s human body in the avatar link unit and attempts to slit his throat. But while doing so, Neytiri kills him and saves Jake’s body from suffocation. Jake permanently transfers to his avatar and becomes one with the Na’vi clan.
It is the Highest-Grossing Film of All Time
Since its release in 2009, Avatar became an instant hit and immediately surpassed the record for the highest-grossing film, which Titanic held at the time. In 2019, however, Avatar lost its title as the highest-grossing film to Avengers: Endgame in 2019, which grossed $2.797 billion.
However, a re-release of Avatar in China led the film to reclaim the top spot. It pushed its cumulative total to $2.847 billion, surpassing that of Avengers: Endgame, reclaiming the title of the highest-grossing film of all time.
3D Release
It's a common misconception that Avatar was the first movie released in 3D. It was not the first major movie to be released in 3D, but it greatly contributed to subsequent 3D film releases. It was highly advanced and revolutionary during its time for using “motion-capture technology and computer-generated imagery” and required the skills and effort of over 900 people.
James Cameron, the director of Avatar, used his unique Fusion Camera System to shoot the movie in 3D, which needed using two cameras working in tandem to create a 3D image. For scenes that showed the Na’vi tribe, Cameron used motion-capture technology which required the actors to wear suits for the camera to track their movements.
The Na’vi Language
James Cameron knew that for Pandora, for a distant place that inhabited 10-foot-tall blue humanoid creatures to be alien but still real, they had to speak their language too, or in technical terms, “conlanging." Conlanging refers to language creation, which has been done for famous book franchises such as The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy. For this reason, Cameron hired a linguist and USC professor, Paul Frommer, to create the Na’vi language for the film.
When asked about the origins behind the Na’vi language, Frommer says that Na’vi contains sounds from languages such as Amharic (the national language of Ethiopia) and indigenous languages of America and Central Asia. And for its grammar, there is a resemblance to a unique combination of Persian, Mandarin, Hebrew, and Indonesian. Frommer further adds that the Na’vi language now has an impressive 1400 words in its vocabulary.
Microsoft Built Brand New Technology Exclusively For 'Avatar'
With great ambition comes great innovation. James Cameron knew his ambitious project needed innovative technology to make his vision a reality. For a movie that helped revolutionize the world of cinema with motion capture, it needed a substantial base to host all the massive amounts of metadata and content generated during the production.
Cameron required Microsoft's help to build a brand new Digital Asset Management (DAM) system, named Gaia, exclusively to store all the data of his project.
“Without Gaia, we would not have been able to do the production,” Landau said in a phone interview with MSW. “Gaia was the backbone that everything else ran on top of.” - Jon Landau, Microsoft Interview
Sound in Film
Many might not realize the importance of sound and its significance in a movie. Not only did Avatar showcase incredible visuals of the characters and the world that they lived in, but also its sound. Skywalker Sound was the company responsible for crafting and producing the ambient noise of Pandora and the many creatures that inhabited it.
The head of post-production sound at Skywalker Sound, Juan Peralta, and Avatar’s sound designer, Christopher Boyce, worked closely during the movie's production. They shared the behind-the-scenes of where many of the sounds heard in the film came from. For instance, the sounds of the viper wolf came from hyenas and coyotes. As for Pandora’s ambient sounds, actual sound recordings were taken in Costa Rica and around Africa.