History Film / Avatar

* {{Wormsign}}: The Toruk is named ''Last shadow'' by the Na'vi for a reason.

The film is also notable for using a form of [[UsefulNotes/ThreeDMovie stereoscopic 3D]] for filming. The film's incredible financial success led to [[FollowTheLeader a surge in interest for 3D films]]; indeed, ''Avatar'' stood for a decade as the highest-grossing film of all time[[note]]In raw numbers at least; adjusted for inflation it's 2nd behind ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''[[/note]], before eventually being overtaken by ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' in 2019 (although it reclaimed the title in 2021).

* DeathWorld: Pandora is a planet with a jungle loaded with animals eager to slaughter visitors if provoked, local folks who will attack if also provoked, flora which can withstand human weapons and a toxic air which can kill humans in minutes. That being said, it's really only a death world to ''humans'' with the Na'vi being shown to be perfectly capable of living in the ecosystem without much fear (though they still do have to be savvy about the dangers in the wild).

* RemoteBody: Jake spends most of the movie as the controller of a synthetic alien.

** More like Gory Camera Pan. A lot of the attacks that would be bloodier are quickly panned away from. Most noticeable near the end where [[spoiler:Jake is running on the top of the shuttle]] and unloads his machine gun into a group of marines. You see him open fire, but the camera very quickly pans up so you can't see most of the results, although you know exactly what they are. Gotta keep that PG-13 rating.

* {{BFG}}: The [[MoreDakka autocannons]] and [[KillItWithFire Flamethrowers]] carried around by AMP Suits.

* CoolGun: Plenty of futuristic weapons shows up in this movie, notably the final battle when Jake, in his huge Avatar form, gets to wield an MBS-9M .50 Caliber Hydra (meant to be ''mounted on vehicles'') against the RDA's forces.

Its sequel, ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'', took [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation the better part of the following decade]] to produce, since Cameron (as usual) was interested in utilizing experimental technology to portray new environments (specifically, Pandora's [[AuthorAppeal oceans]]), taking a few years to improve it. Production finally began in September 2017 and the film was released in December 2022. Currently, there are three more sequels planned for release, with ''Avatar 3'' planned for December 2025. Cameron is set to write and direct all of them. Alleged titles for further sequels include ''Avatar: The Seed Bearer'', ''Avatar: The Tulkun Rider'', and ''Avatar: The Quest for Eywa'' respectively. Cameron also suggested the possibility of sixth and seventh films in the series depending on the performance of the sequels, though he may not direct them.

A prequel spinoff show made by the Creator/CirqueDuSoleil titled ''Theatre/TorukTheFirstFlight'' [[https://www.cirquedusoleil.com/TORUK debuted in 2015]]. A theme park land at [[Ride/DisneyThemeParks Disney's Animal Kingdom]] set decades afterwards called ''Ride/PandoraTheWorldOfAvatar'' opened in late May 2017.

A third-person action video game ''James Cameron's Avatar: The Game'' was released in 2009. The game acts as a {{prequel}} to the movie and Creator/SigourneyWeaver, Creator/StephenLang, Creator/MichelleRodriguez, and Creator/GiovanniRibisi reprise their roles from the film. Creator/{{Ubisoft}} has also announced the open-world ''Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora'' for 2023.

Creator/DarkHorseComics published a comic book ''Avatar: Brothers'' for the 2017 UsefulNotes/FreeComicBookDay and the six-issue series ''Avatar: Tsu'tey's Path'', written by Sherri L. Smith and with art by Jan Duursema, in 2019. The next series was ''Avatar: The Next Shadow'' written by Jeremy Barlow and with art by Josh Hood.

Mega Games published ''Avatar: The Board Game'' in 2010.

In late 2019, after going through DevelopmentHell for a few years, ''Avatar: Pandora Rising'', a massively multiplayer online strategy game for mobile devices, launched in its early access stage.

* CoolStarship: The ''[[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Avatar_ISV_Venture_Star ISV Venture Star]]''is so godadamned realistic, that it even feature ''radiators'', something that even other hard sci-fi spaceships forget.

* MagicSkirt: Top half version, Averted for the most part, Neytiri spends most the film clad in a series of necklaces that have no back fastening, any time she moves sharply or downwards, it's revealed that her nipples are fully rendered, the one notable aversion is when she is flying on her banshee, with the windspeed, her necklaces ''should'' be essentally flying behind her, giving the audience an eyeful, but they instead stick tight to her chest.

** Ikran are mostly lizard-like, but have a facial structure reminescent of certain carnivorous fish like barracudas, as well as having hind legs modified into wings, similar to the ''Microraptor''.

* SleeperStarship: Most of the passengers aboard the ''Venture Star'' are cryonically frozen since it takes about five years to reach Alpha Centauri.

** To ''Anime/PrincessMononoke'' (and, to some degree, its SpiritualPredecessor ''Manga/NausicaaOfTheValleyOfTheWind''). Both dealt with the theme of militaristic human civilizations clashing with MotherNature, and featured a disabled protagonist mediating both sides along with a young woman siding with the nature. James Cameron has acknowledged Hayao Miyazaki's anime's influence on his movie, based Pandora's ecosystem from the forrest from the anime, and some shots from the movie homages the others shots in the anime. Both Jake Sully and Neytiri in some ways both DecompositeCharacter and CompositeCharacter of Aishitaka and San - Jake is Aishitaka but decided to abandon his humanity and fully sided with the nature (like San), and Neytiri is San but came from a dying indigenous tribe where she's their prince(ss) (like Aishitaka). [[RecycledInSpace Setting wise]], ''Princess Mononoke'' did a fantastical take on Japan's past, where ''Avatar'' did a fantastical take on the hypothetical future where intergalatic space travel is possible but [[CrapsackWorld the planet earth remained polluted]]. However, on thematic stand-point, ''Princess Mononoke'' [[WarIsHell treats the battle between humans and nature as destructive to the point of no return]], while ''Avatar'', being a sci-fi action flick, embraces the method of going [[ViolenceIsTheOnlyOption all-out war]] on mining corporations settled on the moon. In comparion with ''Nausicaa'', characters riding wild banshees almost resembles the hang-glider in the anime.

* CoolVersusAwesome: Most of the battles, given that one side is armed with helicopter gunships and MiniMechas and the other is an army of 10-foot {{Noble Savage}}s riding the pterosaur-like banshees and six-legged horses.

* [[BaseonWheels Base on Wheels]]: The Bucket-Wheel Excavators, despite only having ''15 seconds of screentime'', is the single largest vehicle on Pandora save for starships. These monsters are ''half a kilometer long and 300 meters tall''. It is effectively a mobile mining installation on threads.

* DeathWorld: Pandora is a planet with a jungle loaded with animals eager to slaughter visitors if provoked, local folks who will attack if also provoked, flora which can withstand human weapons and a toxic air which can kill humans in minutes.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Selfridge looks visibly uncomfortable at Quaritch's [[spoiler: MoralEventHorizon destruction of Hometree]], but never so much as lifts a finger to stop him.

* GaiasVengeance: [[spoiler:Or "Eywa's Vengeance" in this case. The Na'vi equivalent to Mother Earth, Eywa, eventually fights back against the humans by sending a huge stampede of Pandoran wildlife, including mountain banshees to push back the humans.]]

* HeelFaceTurn: Jake eventually siding with the Na'vi over of the RDA.

* HumansAreTheRealMonsters: Played with. On one hand, you have it played straight with RDA; an enormous, corrupt corporation with enough resources to field its own ''private army'' in numbers rivaling modern military's in our time, fully and unashamedly intend to wipe the natives of Pandora out of existence just so they can mine Unobtanium freely. On the other hand, there ''are'' humans, like Grace and later Jake, who want to work with the Na'vi, and are horrified by RDA's intentions for the moon and its inhabitants.

Its sequel, ''Film/AvatarTheWayOfWater'', took [[ExtremelyLengthyCreation the better part of the following decade]] to produce, since Cameron (as usual) was interested in utilizing experimental technology to portray new environments (specifically, Pandora's [[AuthorAppeal oceans]]), taking a few years to improve it. Production finally began in September 2017 and the film was released in December 2022. Currently, there are three more sequels planned for release, with ''Avatar 3'' planned for December 2024. Cameron is set to write and direct all of them. Alleged titles for further sequels include ''Avatar: The Seed Bearer'', ''Avatar: The Tulkun Rider'', and ''Avatar: The Quest for Eywa'' respectively. Cameron also suggested the possibility of sixth and seventh films in the series depending on the performance of the sequels, though he may not direct them.

-->'''Jake Sully:''' Well, uh, I guess this is my last video log. 'Cause whatever happens tonight, either way, I'm... I'm not gonna be coming back to this place. Well, I guess I'd better go. I don't wanna be late for my own party. It's my birthday, after all. This is Jake Sully signing off.

* ADateWithRosiePalms: Used for a throwaway joke near the end of Jake's first day Avatar piloting, when he inspects his queue. Grace admonishes him not to play with it or he'll go blind (though the queue isn't actually used for reproduction)[[note]]A deleted scene expands on the love scene between Jake and Neytiri, showing them connecting their queues, and they react orgasmically[[/note]].