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7[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/avatar_922.jpg]]
8''[[caption-width-right:350:[[{{Tagline}} Enter the world....]]]]''
9
10->''"This is why we're here. Unobtainium. Because this little gray rock sells for $20 million a kilo. That's the only reason. This is what pays for the whole party, and it's what pays for your science. Those savages are threatening our whole operation. We're on the brink of war, and you're supposed to be finding me a diplomatic solution. So use what you've got and get me some results."''
11-->-- '''Selfridge'''
12
13''Avatar'' is a 2009 {{epic|movie}} ScienceFiction {{adventure}} film directed and written by Creator/JamesCameron.
14
15The film takes place in a future where Earth is a polluted CrapsackWorld, though the story itself unfolds on Pandora, a large moon of the planet Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri A system. The moon's air is toxic to humans, but it has lots of {{Unobtainium}} [[note]]Seriously, that's what it's called as an in-joke; most viewers miss the single line in the film in which it is revealed that the characters in the film intentionally chose the name ironically.[[/note]], which the human [[MegaCorp Resources Development Administration]] is mining, but in order to get at the richest source of it, they need to relocate a clan of the native population; ten-foot-tall, blue HumanoidAliens called the Na'vi who live in the forests.
16
17A paraplegic former U.S. Marine named Jake Sully (Creator/SamWorthington) is given a remotely-controlled Na'vi body called an "avatar" in order to communicate with the Na'vi and gain their trust, but the resident GeneralRipper Colonel Miles Quaritch (Creator/StephenLang) has other ideas and wants to [[KillItWithFire remove]] [[HumansAreWarriors the Na'vi by force]]. Jake ends up torn between his humanity and the adopted Na'vi way of life, made harder by his growing bond with TheChiefsDaughter, Neytiri (Creator/ZoeSaldana).
18
19James Cameron first got the idea for ''Avatar'' in TheNineties and wrote an 80-page scriptment for it, but he shelved the project because he felt that the special effects technology at the time was insufficient for portraying Pandora and its inhabitants adequately, particularly in regards to translating actors' faces to CGI. Thus, he spent the time between ''Film/{{Titanic|1997}}'' and ''Avatar'' creating smaller products as he developed these technologies and amassed a large budget for the movie.
20
21''Avatar'' 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, it currently stands as the highest-grossing film of all time[[note]]In raw numbers at least; adjusted for inflation, it's 2nd behind ''Film/GoneWithTheWind''[[/note]], having held the title for a decade before being overtaken by ''Film/AvengersEndgame'' in 2019, and then reclaiming the title in 2021 through re-releases.
22
23For sequels and other media see ''Franchise/{{Avatar}}''.
24
25[[JustForFun/IThoughtThatWas No relations to]] ''Franchise/AvatarTheLastAirbender'', or any other meanings of the word "{{avatar}}".
26----
27!!This film provides examples of:
28
29[[foldercontrol]]
30
31[[folder:A-B]]
32* AccidentalMisnaming: A unique version. When Mo'at asks Jake his name, he responds with his full name "Jake Sully". The Omaticaya all call him this, except for Neytiri who calls him Jake, but they pronounce it (and it's subtitled) as Jakesully, meaning they think that's his full proper name.
33* ActorAllusion: Grace was called Shipley in earlier drafts. She spends a lot of time in a capsule, is pretty badass and no-nonsense, and knows a lot about extraterrestrial life forms. [[Franchise/{{Alien}} Are we being told something?]]
34* ActuallyPrettyFunny: Quaritch and Selfridge both laugh when Jake tells them how he told the Na'vi that he belonged to the "Jarhead Clan."
35* AlienBlood: Averted, the Na'vi bleed red as people do.
36* AlienInvasion: By humans, naturally, invading Pandora to get Unobtanium to save their own homeworld.
37* AlienLandmass: The SceneryPorn includes the Hallelujah Mountains of Pandora, verdant floating rock formations that are sacred to the Na'Vi. The phenomenon is {{Hand Wave}}d as an interaction of the moon's magnetic field with its {{Unobtainium}} deposits.
38* AlienSky: Pandora is one of the moons of a blue gas giant named Polyphemus, so we are treated to many shots of said planet in the sky. Other moons are also visible.
39* AllThereInTheManual:
40** An [[http://www.pandorapedia.com/ online encyclopedia]]. It contains any information that could possibly help explain why humans are there, what the {{Unobtainium}} actually does, and gives backstory to the creatures, plants, technology, and Na'vi.
41** There is an InUniverse manual on the Na'vi in the movie, courtesy of Dr. Grace.
42** The video game has additional information on the characters, species, etc. that doesn't appear in the movie.
43* AlwaysABiggerFish: On Jake's first excursion into the Pandoran forest, a massive titanothere charges at him. Grace tells him to hold his ground. When it halts and then retreats, Jake is exultant, not realizing that the reason for its fear is [[spoiler:the even bigger and nastier Thanator creeping up behind him]]. This time, Grace tells him to run...
44* AnalogyBackfire: When Jake asks why Neytiri saved him from danger despite perceiving said danger as being Jake's own fault:
45-->'''Neytiri:''' You have a strong heart. No fear. But stupid! Ignorant like a child!\
46'''Sully:''' Well, if I'm like a child, then maybe you should teach me.
47* AnimalStampede: Invoked in the climax. [[spoiler:The Na'vi forces are decimated by the human's far more advanced technology in the all-out battle, and all hope seems lost... when suddenly something big starts crashing through the brush. The RDA soldiers stand ready, but [[CurbStompBattle are utterly annihilated]] when a massive herd giant Pandoran megafauna and predators plows right through them, Eywa herself having called upon Pandora's biosphere to fight off the alien invaders.]]
48* AnimalWrongsGroup: PETA's at it again in the backstory. In fact, RDA mucking around on Pandora was ''not'' popular at all, thanks to ads put out by PETA... until someone revealed that the emaciated Na'vi in the commercials PETA put out was a human with prostheses. This is what caused the whole "RDA gets mining rights" fiasco and people unaware of Selfridge being an ass to Na'vi, and presumably was a holdover from the first draft (RDA was being monitored by an inspector as a result of charges of abuse, but he was bribed).
49* AnnoyingArrows: Justified in [[spoiler:the attack on the home tree]], where the Na'vi arrows harmlessly bounce off the gunship cockpits. Later when the Na'vi fire their arrows from a dive on their banshees at the gunship canopies, they have sufficient velocity and the right angle to penetrate.
50* AnyoneCanDie: The film pulls no punches in showing nobody is safe during a battle situation. In terms of leading characters, [[spoiler:five (Eytukan, Tsu'tey, Grace, Trudy and Quaritch) die, with only one of them an antagonist.]]
51* ArcWords:
52** The Na'vi greeting "I see you", plays into the film's repeated [[BodyMotifs image of eyes]] and learning to see the world from another's perspective.
53** Grace Augustine repeatedly refers to collecting "samples" as a method by which they could come to understand the Na'vi greater. Tellingly, when [[spoiler: she's mortally wounded and plugged into the Tree of Souls, she mentions to Jake that they should "try and take some samples."]]
54* AreWeThereYet: Jake, coming out of cryo, asks a med tech "Are we there yet?" The tech assures him "Yeah, we're there, sunshine."
55* ArmiesAreEvil: This one is led by Quaritch, a GeneralRipper who sounds like an AM talk show host, and takes his orders from a CorruptCorporateExecutive. All of the science department employees shown in the movie are shown as closer to Earth and completely accepting of the Na'vi.
56* ArmorPiercingQuestion: During the pause in the final battle, [[spoiler: Quaritch asks Jake how he feels betraying his own race, to which Jake hissed in response.]]
57* ArtisticLicenseAstronomy: The film takes place on a moon orbiting a gas giant around Alpha Centauri A. No such large world has been detected in this trinary star system.
58* ArtisticLicenseBiology:
59** All the large land animals of Pandora have six limbs. However, the first two pairs of legs are identically shaped, and move in unison, meaning that despite having six legs the creatures all walk with a quadruped-like gait. Which realistically, would ''cause them to trip over their own legs when running.''
60*** [[http://members.casema.nl/gertvandijk/walking/hexapods.htm And here's an interesting guide on how hexapods might believably walk,]] showing the movements of each pair of limbs to avoid them all colliding with each other while moving.
61** The Na'vi are said to be related to the Prolemuris, which is stated to be a link between the four-limbed Na'vi and the rest of the six-limbed wildlife. However, the Prolemuris has two pairs of arms that ''are partly fused at the elbow joint,'' which along with being an unlikely course of evolution, would also compromise the functionality of said limbs. A more realistic option would be the Prolemuris having two sets of arms, but one pair much smaller and greatly reduced, which in turn would be completely lost in the Na'vi.
62** The direhorses would make terrible mounts in jungle environs, being tall and lanky so that any hole they step in would break their leg. Similarly, just riding through the jungle would ensure that rider and mount both would hit plenty of brush, as anyone who has ever ridden a horse through a forest can attest.
63** The avatars are, despite all appearances, remarkably human -- their voices, spectrum of vision, and hearing all fit human parameters, despite Na'vi evolving on a moon with a different atmosphere guaranteeing all three of the above should be significantly different. The fact the Na'vi are [[HumanoidAliens functionally human with the exception of some minor physical traits]] despite the extreme unlikelihood of this coincidental evolutionary route (even evolving from the Pandoran equivalent of "monkeys") [[WordOfGod has been stated]] to be entirely for artistic reasons.[[invoked]]
64** Humans smoking would be phenomenally stupid. All their environments are artificially oxygenated. Any equipment failure would risk explosion or faster asphyxiation for smokers.
65** The mere concept of "avatars" is a massive example of artistic license, since it involves mixing of human and Na'vi genes to create a seamless hybrid. The likelihood of alien genes being equivalent enough with human DNA to produce a perfectly compatible body is outrageously improbable (AllThereInTheManual notes Na'vi don't even ''have'' DNA).
66* ArtisticLicenseEconomics:
67** While we never learn what unobtanium is used for, we do see several small miracles that humans oddly don't seek to explore or exploit. Even aside from an entire world's worth of new biological data to ship back to Earth to study alive, unlocking the secrets of the floating islands would lead to revolutions in shipping and physics.
68* AscendToAHigherPlaneOfExistence: When Grace Augustine dies, she becomes one with Eywa. The movie as well as Na'vi mythology implies that this happens to ALL life on Pandora when they die.
69* AssInAmbassador: Jake clearly couldn't care less about the Na'vi or their culture, at least until he falls in love.
70* AsYouKnow: "''This'' is why we're here. {{Unobtainium}}. Because this little gray rock sells for 20 million a kilo."
71* AttackItsWeakPoint:
72** The enemy AMP suits and vehicles all have canopies and air intakes where they're vulnerable.
73** The Na'vi have a weak point in the form of [[spoiler:the tree that's their primary link to their deity]] (Quaritch specifically goes after it to "blast a hole in their racial memory"), and in their queue (the braid-looking neural link thing), as seen when Jake and Grace are taken prisoner and frog-marched with knives held to their queues.
74* AudienceSurrogate: Jake, who ended up being taught the ways of the Na’vi by the Omaticaya Clan’s chieftain’s daughter, Neytiri.
75* AwardBaitSong: The theme song [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3YDz-ftqr1g "I See You"]], composed by Music/JamesHorner and performed by Leona Lewis was nominated for a Golden Globe Award for Best Original Song in 2010.
76* AwesomeButImpractical: [[https://www.pandorapedia.com/human_operations/vehicles/dragon_gunship.html The Dragon Gunship]] is very powerful (carrying enough conventional weaponry to wipe out [[BigApplesauce Manhattan]] in six seconds), but requires several components to be shipped all the way from Earth. There was a second Dragon airframe on Pandora, but said components hadn't arrived from Earth yet.
77* BadassBookworm: Norm. He punches a merc on the face, suits up and fights in his avatar, [[spoiler:and when his avatar gets killed, he grabs a rifle and proceeds to kick even more ass]].
78* [[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 treads.
79** The D-22 Bulldozer is also this on a lesser extent. These autonomous bulldozers are nearly ''40 meters long and 13 meters tall''. Imagine each one of them the size of a NASA Crawler-Transporter but three times the height. They are effectively mobile buildings.
80* BattleBolas: While Neytiri leads him back to hometree for the first time, Jake Sully is tripped with a bola thrown by the Na'vi hunters.
81* BeastMan: The Na'vi are HumanoidAliens with pointy ears and tails.
82* BecomingTheMask: The main character even remarks at one point that [[spoiler:the situation had become reversed -- "out there was reality, and in here [in his human body] was the dream."]] At the end of the movie, he undergoes a ceremony that [[spoiler:permanently puts him in the avatar body, and he leaves his old human body to die in the toxic atmosphere.]]
83* {{BFG}}:
84** The [[MoreDakka autocannons]] and [[KillItWithFire Flamethrowers]] carried around by AMP Suits.
85** 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.
86* {{BFS}}: In the final battle, Jake uses an AMP suit bayonet as a sword, before switching to using it more as an axe.
87* BigBad: Selfridge is initially the one leading RDA in destroying large chunks of Pandora's wildlife to get Unobtanium. However, by the final battle, [[DragonAscendant Quaritch]] usurps command of the operation and lead the charge against the Na'vi.
88* BigDamnHeroes: [[spoiler:The Na'vi army is easily defeated by the humans, Neytiri is cornered, Jake is outnumbered and the Tree of Souls is vulnerable... and then a gargantuan stampede of Titanotheres, Viperwolves and Mountain Banshees suddenly charge towards the humans, turning the tide of the battle and overpowering the invaders just as they did to the Na'vi.]]
89-->'''Neytiri:''' Jake, Eywa has heard you... EYWA HAS HEARD YOU!!!
90* BioluminescenceIsCool: Every piece of plant life responds to touch with bioluminescent bloom.
91* BittersweetEnding: Sure, the RDA have left, but a lot of Humans are dead. The Omatikaya are homeless and the Na'vi lost even more of their members in the fight as well.
92* BloodlessCarnage: Toyed with, likely to keep a PG-13 rating. Though characters get battered and bloody, and wounds are shown after the fact, when characters are actively seen being shot/arrowed/sliced in battle, there's little, if any, blood shown. Also, they seem to have no problem showing humans being killed pretty brutally (but again, without blood), but the Na'vi simply drop in most instances. Particularly noticeable in the final battle where [[spoiler:dozens of Na'vi are gunned down, and simply drop like it's an old western]]. On the other hand, the level of realism does make the InstantDeathBullet unlikely.
93* BodyPaint: Jake is covered in this during his initiation ceremony, and almost all Na'vi use warpaint during the FinalBattle. Also, PlayedForLaughs with [[spoiler:Trudy and her gunship]]. [[JustifiedTrope Possibly sensible on their part]], as it provided a way to quickly say "[[FriendOrFoe this one is not a target]]". (It ''would'' equally quickly say "this one IS a target" to the enemy, but as a high-tech force they have Identify-Friend-Or-Foe transponders anyway.)
94* BoldlyComing: Jake is sent out as a spy/diplomat. After three months, he's mated to Neytiri.
95* BondCreatures: The Na'vi have a rite of passage where they must sneak into the aviaries of the banshee and bond with one of them. They can do something similar with the direhorse, but with multiple people, as they do not bond with a person for life like with the banshee.
96* {{Bookends}}: The opening flying dream over the credits and Jake opening his eye is repeated at the end when Jake opens the eyes in his avatar body and the same flying shot as in the opening is used for the closing credits.
97* BornInTheSaddle: The "Horse Clans of the Plain" who provide the initial cavalry charge in the FinalBattle seem to be so.
98* {{Bowdlerise}}:
99** The extended edition DVD/Blu-Ray has an additional audio track with "all objectionable language removed".
100** Promotional standees for ''Avatar'' add a rear panel to Jake's Avatar loincloth (wherein in the actual movie there is merely a woven thong up the back).
101* BrownNote: Several people walked out with motion sickness from watching it in 3D, and [[http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583351,00.html one man died, apparently from over-excitement]]. As might have been expected, the film prompted many people LongingForFictionland, although most mentions of this were [[http://www.cnn.com/2010/SHOWBIZ/Movies/01/11/avatar.movie.blues/index.html rather sensationalist]], to say the least.
102[[/folder]]
103
104[[folder:C-E]]
105* CallARabbitASmeerp: There are several creatures which have Earthlike equivalents -- [[HorseOfADifferentColor horses]], humanoids, and [[http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/597194/titanothere titanotheres]]. Many of the land critters also have an extra pair of legs, a few also having an extra pair of eyes, and for most, breathing is performed through operculum-like openings rather than the nose and mouth.
106* CallASmeerpARabbit:
107** Humans have forgone the smeerp route and given the animals names compliant with the earth creatures they resemble --hammerhead titanotheres, viperwolves, etc. The Na'vi have their own names for them, as would be expected. Some of the more common: Humans have given the Ikran the name "Banshees" and the Toruk was given the name "Great Leonopteryx".
108** One of the more frequently-seen Pandoran animals has four eyes, six legs, hairless blue skin, a snout like an anteater, and nostrils in its chest. It's known by the Na'vi as Pa'li, but humans call it a direhorse. Fair enough, it is kind of like a horse, it acts and is used an awful lot like a horse, but still... No one else looked at those horses and thought Odin's eight-legged steed, Sleipnir? Humans aren't very original with names for alien creatures in THIS universe, it seems.
109* CasualInterstellarTravel: Averted. Space travel is [[FasterThanLightTravel Slower Than Light]], and so witheringly expensive that absolutely nothing that can be made or synthesized on Pandora is brought from Earth -- and per WordOfGod, personnel who develop medical problems that cannot be treated on Pandora [[spoiler:are euthanized]].
110* CategoryTraitor: When Jake betrays the human colony, every antagonistic person working for the RDA marks him a traitor. Even Colonel Quaritch questions him on being one of the Na'vi.
111* TheCavalry: [[spoiler:In the form of stampeding six-legged titanotheres the size of houses, no less]].
112* CentrifugalGravity: ''Venture Star'' has a pair of centrifuge modules which house the crews.
113* ChekhovsArmoury: Eytukan's bow, the 'angtsik' (titanotheres), viperwolves, toruk, the neural network itself, breaking your fall with leaves, and the fact that it's [[BrickJoke mentioned in passing]] as being a ''mobile'' link station.
114* ChewingTheScenery: Neytiri. '''"EYWA HAS HEARD YOOOOUUUUU!!!!!"'''
115* TheChosenOne: Jake is chosen by Eywa and becomes the first human accepted into the tribe, eventually leading them to victory over the humans.
116* CloseOnTitle: The title doesn't show up until right before the credits.
117* ColonelBadass: At one point Quaritch charges outside (the atmosphere on Pandora is largely inhospitable to humans) to unload a full magazine at the deserters, then, after his assistant has shown up, finally slips on his breathing mask.
118* ColorContrast: It emphasizes the purple part of the green/purple contrast a lot more than most forest settings.
119* ConfessionTriggersConsummation: Jake becomes closer and closer to TheChiefsDaughter, Neytiri. Though at first annoyed at his helplessness, Jake's gradual growth on Pandora has her side-eyed glares turning into longing looks. Jake is finally initiated into the Na'vi tribe, after which he and Neytiri take a walk through one of their sacred forests. Neytiri suggests he pick one of the Na'vi girls as his mate, but Jake makes it clear she's the only one for him—very, very clear. [[spoiler:Unfortunately, Jake fails to mention the impending attack on said forest beforehand.]]
120* ConLang: The Na'vi language, which was commissioned to be both learnable and pronounceable while not resembling any existing language. Its creator even published a grammar.
121* ContemplateOurNavels: "When I was lying there in the VA hospital, with a big hole blown through the middle of my life, I started having these dreams of flying. Sooner or later though, you always have to wake up..."
122* ConvenientCranny: When Jake flees from the creature near the beginning of the film he ends up ducking in the root system of a tree, but his hiding place is not that effective; the beast still manages to claw at him fairly decently.
123* CoolAirship: The C-21 Dragon Gunship. Also doubles as an AwesomePersonnelCarrier, ferrying a squad of [[MiniMecha AMP suits]] into battle.
124* CoolStarship: The ''[[http://www.projectrho.com/rocket/realdesigns.php#id--Avatar_ISV_Venture_Star ISV Venture Star]]''is so realistic, that it even feature ''radiators'', something that even other hard sci-fi spaceships forget.
125* CoolVersusAwesome: Most of the battles, given that one side is armed with helicopter gunships and {{Mini Mecha}}s and the other is an army of 10-foot {{Noble Savage}}s riding the pterosaur-like banshees and six-legged horses.
126* TheCoup: Quaritch effectively pulls this on Selfridge, usurping command of the RDA operation right before their all-out assault on the Tree of Souls. Emphasized in a deleted scene where Selfridge tries to use his authority as administrator to call off the attack, only for Quaritch to physically threaten him and remind Selfridge how vulnerable his position really is, with Quaritch in full control of Security Operations and its personnel.
127-->'''Quaritch:''' You're a long way from Earth.
128* CrapsackWorld:
129** Earth in 2154 has become this. Wars, terrorism, and accidents kill many people every day, the entire planet's landmass and its moon are covered in immense, massively polluted cities where twenty billion people live in unbelievably crowded and depressing conditions, the oceans have half the animal life they used to have and are used for farming [[FutureFoodIsArtificial spirulina for food]]. It is said that the people on Earth in the original script are greyish and sickly due to their diet of cheap carbohydrates and synthetic proteins, and that the atmosphere is so polluted the exopacks used on Pandora are also necessary for human life ''on Earth''.
130** There's also Pandora. The moon is so dangerous to humans, they call their colony "Hell's Gate". The moon is covered with lethal animals and vegetation, and even the atmosphere is ''naturally'' poisonous to humans, without the need for pollution. Colonel Quaritch, a career military veteran, who had been on the front lines of wars for decades without a scratch, got a scarring head wound on his very first day planetside.
131* CurbStompBattle:
132** The first major fight is this, with [[spoiler: RDA wiping out the Na'vi Hometree]] (and, unbeknownst to them, [[spoiler:killing their leader]] in the process) causing hundreds of Na'vi deaths. Indeed the only downside to that fight for them is, beyond seriously pissing off the Na'vi, is causing a couple of [[spoiler:HeelFaceTurn[=s=] in their own troops]].
133** The final battle was definitely turning into this (especially for the ground forces) for the Na'vi, even with the surprise factor on their side. And then Eywa itself decided to intervene, and the people doing the curbstomp got stomped back in the curb.
134* {{Cyberpunk}}:
135** Pandora, despite the pre-stone-age level of the natives, have a world-spanning network. Every native plant is part of a natural internet, every animal has a natural brain implant, and every sapient native has a brain implant that overpowers the will of any native creature, allowing them to be controlled and allowing the Na'vi to tap into their moon's natural plant internet.
136** The many images of Earth in the Avatar universe show smoggy and futuristic landscapes with countless lights, city streets flowing with people, entire "skies" of advertisements serving as ceilings for lower levels in the cities, elevated trains and immense sky-scrapers, and even a Hive-city structure covered in advertisement screens that has an uncanny resemblance to the Hometree. The air pollution has gotten to the point that everybody has to wear a dust mask outside on the streets. Not unlike other cyberpunk settings, large corporate bodies like the RDA are [[MegaCorp incredibly powerful]] and their presence seen everywhere. Computer technology is also shown to have progressed greatly in the movie, with interactive holograms and an incredible interface which allows for easy blueprint making and construction as long as the required materials are present, and of course, there are advertisement screens and lights everywhere.
137* DangerouslyGarishEnvironment: Pandora's beautiful biofluorescent flora and fauna sometimes make you forget that the atmosphere will kill you in minutes and the fauna can shrug off 30mm autocannon rounds.
138* DarkestHour: Home Tree is destroyed, so many Omaticaya tribesman are dead in the process (not the least of which is Chief Eytukan), Jake has earned the enmity of Neytiri and the rest of the tribe (except perhaps Mo'at), the Avatar program members are captured, and Grace is shot in the process of escape. The upswing from that begins when Jake's bold plan of becoming a Toruk Makto succeeds.
139* DataPad: Transparent ones onto which info can be dragged from computer terminals.
140* DavidVersusGoliath: Generally subverted, as vast differences between size and power are respected.
141** Trudy's Samson vs. Quaritch's Dragon. [[spoiler:Trudy is able to put up a valiant battle with her skillful piloting and using the floating islands as cover, but she is quickly blown out of the open sky once the Dragon's sheer firepower is able to flush her out.]]
142** Quaritch in his 14-foot AMP suit VS Jake in his 10-foot Avatar body. [[spoiler:Quaritch is killed by two Na'vi arrows (which are the size of Olympic javelins) through the chest courtesy of Neytiri.]]
143** The 10-foot-tall Na'vi versus any human NOT in an AMP suit, which guns aside tends to go very poorly for the humans. And the 14-foot AMP suits [[spoiler:are literally trampled into the mud by stampeding Titanotheres, which are twice the size of bull elephants.]]
144* DeadpanSnarker: Various characters are candidates for foul verbal sarcasm, but Grace and Jake are probably the most apparent early in the film.
145-->'''Grace:''' Yeah, yeah, I know who you are and I don't need you. I need your brother. You know, the [=PhD=] who trained for 3 years for this mission?\
146'''Jake:''' He’s dead. I know it’s a big inconvenience for everyone.
147* 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). It's implied that the reason for this is because whereas the Na'vi are natural parts of the ecosystem, having evolved and developed on Pandora, the humans are alien to this world, and thus completely unsuited to be there.
148* DesolationShot: When Jake is back in his avatar’s body after [[spoiler: escaping from the RDA confinement, he wakes up to see what has become of the Hometree area after the RDA’s assault. What was once a place the Na’vi called home is now barren, gray, and filled with ash. ]]
149* DepthOfField: This is the first film to exploit depth-of-field in the 3D effects, evolving them from a mere gimmick to a sure way to bump the visuals. Not only do the CGI-generated characters look more realistic (as they are better focused) but they also stand in sharp contrast against the non-3D background.
150* DeusExMachina: The Na'vi are starting to get hammered by the forces of humanity, when suddenly a herd of titanotheres and banshees come out of ''nowhere'' and rush the humans, destroying almost all of them. The implied explanation is that Jake's pre-battle talk with [[GeniusLoci Eywa]] made an impression, considering if they lost, the sky people would destroy ''everything'' living in the name of expansion.
151* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler: Grace Augustine]] gets mortally wounded, but they bring her body to the Tree of Souls in an attempt to save her mind by plugging it into the neural network. [[spoiler: [[SubvertedTrope It fails.]] ]]
152* DoesThisRemindYouOfAnything: [[spoiler:Jake and the rest of the Na'vi leadership task the Horse Clan with intercepting Quaritch's ground troops. Quaritch's ground troops are armed with a wide array of nasty weapons including 30mm automatic cannons. The Horse Clan might have been more effective if they hadn't attacked head on and tried flanking tactics. As it happened... UsefulNotes/WorldWarI anyone?]]
153** More specifically, while many have cited that the tactics used by the Na'vi are idiotic despite being led by a Marine, let's not forget that despite ''his'' training and experience, he's still leading a force of what amounts to be conscripts who know nothing of 'modern' combat as they themselves hadn't reached that technological age yet. In order to break the tribes of their old tactics, he'd have needed weeks, months, even 'years' to train them sufficiently. The only saving grace was that the Na'vi were fighting on their home turf, and had [[spoiler:[[DeusExMachina the will of their gods on their side]]]].
154* DragonInChief: At first [[CorruptCorporateExecutive Selfridge]] seems to be the BigBad of the movie, but by the time Quaritch [[spoiler: [[MoralEventHorizon blows up Hometree]] ]] it's become ''very'' clear who's really calling the shots.
155* DramaticallyMissingThePoint:
156** Selfridge completely misses the point when Grace tries to explain to him how the Na'vi use trees to communicate...
157--->'''Dr. Grace Augustine:''' What we think we know -- is that there's some kind of electrochemical communication between the roots of the trees. Like the synapses between neurons. Each tree has ten to the fourth connections to the trees around it, and there are ten to the twelfth trees on Pandora...\
158'''Selfridge:''' That's a lot, I'm guessing.\
159'''Dr. Grace Augustine:''' That's more connections than the human brain. You get it? It's a network -- a global network. And the Na'vi can access it -- they can upload and download data -- memories -- at sites like the one you just destroyed.\
160'''Selfridge:''' What the HELL have you people been smoking out there? They're just goddamn trees!
161** Jake completely misses the point when first introduced to Eytukan.
162--->'''Jake:''' What's he saying?\
163'''Neytiri:''' My father is deciding whether to kill you.\
164'''Jake:''' Your father... It's nice to meet you, sir! (''cue every weapon getting aimed at Jake's throat'')
165%%* {{Dropship}}s
166* EcocidalAntagonist: The villains are the RDA MegaCorp and its PrivateMilitaryContractors, who plan to strip-mine Pandora for {{Unobtanium}}, and destroy countless acres of forest in the process.
167* ElvesVsDwarves: Na'vi vs. Humans. A race of tall and slender beastmen who are skilled archers and live in a forest idyll with a strong spiritual connection to their home and other creatures, versus a race of short creatures who are brilliant builders and engineers and possess a lot of technology, but also materialistic and willing to destroy the Na'vi and even murder their own over mineral deposits.
168* EnhanceButton: Used when [[spoiler:Jake smashes the camera]] on the bulldozer thing. Less JustForFun/{{egregious}} than most examples, as it doesn't actually enhance the image very much, and mostly just gets rid of motion blurring. It also helps that there's hardly any distance between the camera and [[spoiler:Jake]].
169* EpicMovie: It cost a fortune and took years to make, and it shows, by showing an alien world with plenty of strange creatures, along with impressive battle sequences.
170* EvenEvilHasStandards: Selfridge looks visibly uncomfortable at Quaritch's [[spoiler: MoralEventHorizon destruction of Hometree]], but never so much as lifts a finger to stop him. Not that he could, but still.
171* EverythingTryingToKillYou: Pretty much a given with Pandora.
172-->'''Quaritch:''' If there is a Hell, you might wanna go there for some R&R after a tour on Pandora. Out there beyond that fence, every living thing that crawls, flies, or squats in the mud wants to kill you and eat your eyes for jujubees.
173* ExaggeratedTrope: The whole ''Film/DancesWithWolves''/''Film/TheLastSamurai'' plotline is cranked up to eleven, and, thanks to AppliedPhlebotinum, [[spoiler:the protagonist not only goes to live with the natives and adopts their culture and identity -- he ''bodily'' becomes one of them. WordOfGod [[http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/herocomplex/2009/08/james-cameron-the-new-trek-rocks-but-transformers-is-gimcrackery.html states]] this was kinda intentional.]]
174* ExpandedUniverse: Creator/JamesCameron wants to flesh out the universe of ''Avatar'' in several books and even other films. The official wiki is a great example. Yet aside from ''Avatar: The Game'' the same month as the movie, the franchise only started to expand in 2015 (''Theatre/TorukTheFirstFlight'') and 2017 (''Ride/PandoraTheWorldOfAvatar'').
175* ExpansionPackWorld: There are other moons around Polyphemus. Possibly with life on them. Cameron has announced that after the ''Avatar'' sequels, which will be focused on Pandora, there may be others exploring other moons and planets in the Alpha Centauri system -- including planets orbiting Alpha Centauri B.
176* ExposedExtraterrestrials: Lampshaded by Jake when he first walks into the village wearing nothing but what is basically a thong; he even uncomfortably fiddles with the string running down the back.
177* ExtinctInTheFuture: [[AllThereInTheScript The script and an extended cut for the opening]] showed life on [[CrapsackWorld Earth]]. All whales and nearly half of all fish species have been wiped out and the last lion living outside of captivity has died in Kenya. [[SubvertedTrope However]], the Bengal tiger was successfully rescued from extinction via cloning.
178* EyeAwaken: ''Avatar'' loves this one, use multiple times, from the opening shot to once Jake is able to [[spoiler:reoccupy his Avatar body after the destruction of Hometree]], to [[BookEnds the very last shot of the movie]].
179[[/folder]]
180
181[[folder:F-J]]
182* FantasticAesop: Live in harmony with nature. On a moon where there is apparently next to no disease and a global sentient mind that provides for your every natural need, something that could never happen on Earth.
183* FantasticFaunaCounterpart: Pandora's wildlife has a number of species that have a clear counterpart on Earth. The Na'vi are humans, of course, but the thanator is essentially a panther, the titanothere is a rhinoceros, the prolemuris are monkeys, the direhorses are horses, the viperwolves are wolves or hyenas, etc.
184* FantasticRacism: The film is a perfect example of this. The interactions between the alien Na'vi and the humans parallels indigenous cultures meeting Western explorers and colonists. Most humans see the Na'vi as primitive savages to be exploited for their land's natural resources, while a few scientists genuinely want to communicate with and educate them, while studying their way of life. The Na'vi are distrustful toward the humans, whom they see as physically-inferior warriors. The only reason Jake was able to get them to trust him was because he wasn't a intellectual or a diplomat, neither of which they see as worthwhile roles.
185* FantasticRomance: Made possible by the eponymous "Avatar" project.
186* FantasticShipPrefix: The ''Venture Star'' has the prefix ISV (Interstellar Vehicle).
187* FeetFirstIntroduction: There's a shot of Quaritch's boots as he walks up to give his briefing to the new arrivals.
188* FertileFeet: Reconstructed. Nothing grows as a result of Na'vi passage, but any plants or ground coverings they interact with react with [[HollywoodDarkness bioluminescence]]. Mainly just for RuleOfCool and SceneryPorn.
189* FetalPositionRebirth: Whenever the Tree of Souls is being asked to [[spoiler:permanently transfer a human into their Avatar body]], both the human and Avatar bodies are in this position. On the other hand, there otherwise wouldn't be place for both bodies, with the Na'vi being almost twice a human's height.
190* FictionalAccent: James Cameron had a team create an entire language for the Na'vi of Pandora. He allowed lead actress Creator/ZoeSaldana to create the accent in English for the Na'vi, which she described as being difficult since in her words "[she] barely speak[s] English as it is".
191* FloatingContinent: In fact, this is the reason why humans are there. There's also the [[http://www.flickr.com/photos/officialavatarmovie/4054823306/sizes/l/ Hallelujah Mountains]], large mountainous rocks that float in midair. Justified as [[AllThereInTheManual Superconductors]], like the Unobtainium in the Hallelujah Mountians do float in magnetic fields such as the flux vortex.
192* {{Foreshadowing}}: A couple of times, mixed with TemptingFate:
193-->'''Dr. Grace Augustine (to [[BigBad Quaritch]]):''' What are you gonna do, [[spoiler: shoot me?]]\
194'''Quaritch:''' I can [[AxCrazy do that.]]\
195'''Trudy:''' Damn, I was hoping for a plan that didn't involve [[spoiler: [[VasquezAlwaysDies martyrdom]] ]].
196** Also, Quaritch makes it very clear in his opening speech to the new meat that Pandora's wildlife are ''extremely'' dangerous. This is borne out at the end, when Eywa decides to send in ''all'' Pandora's wildlife to attack the Marine force. What was a rout by the Marines quickly turns into the wildlife showing them what it feels like to be on the receiving end of a CurbStompBattle. An armored battlesuit doesn't help much when you've got a ten-ton, pissed off, bulletproof creature the size of an elephant stomping on you...
197* AFormYouAreComfortableWith: The purpose of the Avatar project was to improve relations with the Na'vi by having the ambassadors who look like the Na'vi. Unfortunately, the Na'vi found it insulting, like black-face. Also, some Na'vi link the avatars to demonic possession.
198* FunnyBackgroundEvent: When Jake is approaching the colony of ikran searching for one of his own, you can see Tsu'tey in the background shooing away an ikran approaching him and swatting it away.
199* FutureCopter: Several different models, all used by the RDA. It ''is'' a James Cameron movie, after all.
200* GaiasLament: Earth has little to no plant or animal life left, warfare and terrorism grip the populace and resources are running out, the entire human race lives in massive polluted cities, the moon's darkside has even been fully developed, most food has been reduced to artificially processed algae. Jake specifically evokes this when communicating with Eywa, telling her to look at Grace's memories of Earth to see evidence of what human capitalism does to a planet.
201* 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. Neytiri makes it clear this is a ''very'' rare occurrence.]]
202* GasMaskMooks:
203** Humans need to wear exopacks when outside their structures. A subversion in that they are designed to leave the face clearly visible.
204** Subverted in the official game, where some RDA soldiers wear masks which hide their lower faces.
205* GeniusLoci: The entire moon, shown both when [[spoiler:the animals suddenly gain enough intelligence and work together to massacre the Marine strike force, and in Jake's memory transfer]].
206* GiantFlyer: Pandora is full of these. Even an ikran is HUGE compared to a human.
207* GiantsKnifeHumansGreatsword: Na'vi are much bigger than humans, resulting in many examples of this when the two species use each other's weapons. A {{BFG}} for a human, for instance, is downright dainty in Na'vi hands.
208* GivingThemTheStrip: Jake's backpack is grabbed by the Thanator, so he unfastens its straps to escape.
209* GlowingFlora: The alien jungles of Pandora contain an enormous variety of bioluminescent plants, with almost every form of plant life giving off some blue or purple glow. This results in some very surreal forests, and the nighttime experience is as such rather different from nights on Earth — it's a whole lot less dark, to begin with.
210* GoingNative: Thanks to [[ChekhovsGun Chekhov's]] [[spoiler:moss-mediated brain transfer]] technology.
211* GondorCallsForAid:
212** You may think [[spoiler:Jake appealing to Eywa for help against the humans' final assault]] to be cheesy or perhaps Narm. And then you see the [[spoiler:Na'vi getting their asses handed to them]]. And ''then'' you see [[spoiler:every animal and its mother]] ripping the assault force a new one. Good planning indeed.
213** A more traditional version of the trope is the "Toruk Makto unites the clans" montage where Jake calls for every single Na'vi clan to fight the humans.
214* GoodEyesEvilEyes: The Na'vi have enormous eyes, the Avatars' eyes are smaller but still much larger than a human's.
215* GoryDiscretionShot:
216** 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.
217** Quaritch's second-in-command getting crushed by a titanothere. It's only shown crushing his AMP suit but we can still hear him scream.
218** The additional scenes in the special edition show a few more nasty deaths of humans. We can see the aftermath of a raid against mining bulldozers, with one shot showing a soldier impaled by arrows and another one a burned out AMP suit, with pilot being implied to have been burned alive in it. Also an additional scene of a sturmbeest crushing an AMP against a tree (and impaling it straight through the cockpit in the process, no less).
219** Same with a soldier being crushed by an crate full of explosives.
220* GreatBow: Played with. Na'vi war bows are only modestly sized compared to their wielders, but they're impossibly huge and devastating by human standards. A trained Na'vi archer is easily capable of taking out lightly-armoured vehicles like [=VTOLs=] and MiniMecha with a single arrow by shooting through their cockpits and other vulnerable spots.
221* GreaterScopeVillain: The RDA board of Directors and-or the world-spanning neural network of Pandora.
222* GreenAesop: The whole point -- to the point where it has been compared to every other story with a Green Aesop.
223* GreenSkinnedSpaceBabe: Specifically invoked. Creator/JamesCameron wanted a species that a human protagonist could believably find attractive.
224* GreetingGestureConfusion: When Jake hears that Neytiri's father is debating whether or not to have him killed, Jake thrusts a hand at him, past the guards... to offer him a handshake.
225* HandCannon: Quaritch always carries a [[RevolversAreJustBetter massive revolver]] with a laser sight and high-powered scope.
226* HandyFeet: Na'vi have them, at least those who are not serving as avatars to humans anyway.
227* HeavenlyConcentricCircles: The Tree of Souls is regarded as sacred by the Na'vi because it lets them connect to their [[MotherNature goddess, Eywa]], through neural queues. It's also the place where the Flux Vortex is at its strongest. The Tree of Souls can be found in a ravine shelled by coaxial arcs of humongous fallen trees.
228* HeelFaceTurn: Jake eventually siding with the Na'vi over the RDA.
229* HeliCritter: The fan lizard's wings resemble Da Vinci's helicopter which allow it to spin like a helicopter's rotor blades.
230* HiveQueen: Eywa, an overmind-like, super-intelligent being made of alien trees, which is linked to most advanced life forms on Pandora and has a form of internet (i.e. instant global communication) built of its roots and seeds.
231* HoistByHisOwnPetard:
232** Jake's intel gives the marines the info needed to [[spoiler:destroy Hometree]]. By the end of the movie... well, let's just say it doesn't work out for the bad guys.
233** Toruk hunts by diving with the sun behind its back as cover, earning the nickname "last shadow" because that's the last thing its prey tends to see before it snags them seconds later. Jake later uses the same tactic to ambush and tame one, as its skull structure means it can't look up.
234* HollywoodTactics: The Na'vi attempt an unsupported, unarmored cavalry charge against a prepared line of space marines armed with machine guns. This tactical error could be excused by the Na'vi's lack of knowledge about human weaponry, except that in this particular battle the Na'vi are actually being LED by an ex-space marine. Norm's Avatar is also killed when he faces said marines head-on without taking cover thanks to being a scientist, not a soldier, but still.[[note]] The closest thing they have to an excuse is the fact that the marine in question wasn't with the troop doing the charge at the time. The group he actually is with, leading directly, does much better.[[/note]]
235* HorseOfADifferentColor: The direhorse is basically a horse but blue and with six legs.
236* HughMann: Averted -- the Na'vi are well aware that the avatars are not actual Na'vi and are remotely controlled by humans.
237* HumanityIsInsane: Seems to be a common opinion of humans among the Na'vi. During his first encounter with the natives, Jake learns that he is "stupid like baby" and must be "cured" of his "insanity".
238* 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 militaries 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.
239** Another complication is the state of Earth itself, according to the backstory: war-torn, exhausted, and polluted almost to being uninhabitable with companies like RDA having an iron grip on the populace. The only chance for humanity to survive seems to be colonizing other planets, but the catch is that it requires Unobtanium, which is vital to building the starships needed for colonization, hence why the metal is so valuable. In short, humanity isn't just acting out of malice or some sort of misguided Manifest Destiny, they're on the brink of extinction and ''desperate'' for a solution.
240** The film inadvertently provides a rather disturbing meta-example. The human characters in the film are unwilling to resort to outright genocidal war against the Na'vi or [[NukeEm using weapons of mass destruction]], out of PragmaticVillainy (a line suggests that the media and general public back on Earth are largely sympathetic to the Na'vi and violence against the natives is avoided to prevent bad PR for the operation). Yet such suggestions arise in reviews and discussions with alarming frequency.
241* HungryJungle: This is how Colonel Miles Quaritch describes Pandora's jungles to Jake when he first meets him. This is also how Pandora's jungles are initially depicted when Jake finds himself stranded in them during one of his first few nights on the moon.
242* ImmuneToBullets:
243** The Hammerhead Titanotheres. Claimed to be so by Dr. Grace Augustine and how! Despite not being fully armored all-over these beasties can withstand explosive, armor-piercing and incendiary 30mm GAU rounds without a hitch.
244** Shooting thanators isn't very productive either, not because they're armored, but because they get ''seriously annoyed'' by it and take your gun away from you.
245* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Those Na'vi arrows are HUGE. [[spoiler:Quaritch in particular, who gets two straight through the chest, pinning him to the interior of his AMP suit]].
246* ImprobableAimingSkills: Exhibited in a deleted scene where the Na'vi are hunting sturmbeest on horseback and with air support. Both Tsu'tey and Jake manage to land arrows ''in the nostril'', '''from the air''' (after which Jake yells "Hell yeah!" and Neytiri repeats it). [[JustifiedTrope Justified]] by the sight of [[{{Mook}} other (lesser) warriors]] failing to get arrows through the beasts' armor plating; either you AttackItsWeakPoint or the projectile bounces off.
247* ImproperlyPlacedFirearms: The machine guns the humans (and a few Avatars) use looks suspiciously like a German [=MG3=] with extra plastic parts. Note the outdated drum magazine at the side, and an internal ShoutOut to the ''Aliens'' Smart Guns. AllThereInTheManual that it is actually an M60 variant with a heatshield/grip and drum magazine, which is around the right size that while being impractical for a human to carry, it is just about assault rifle size for a Na'vi, who are also strong enough to handle the weight and recoil without a problem. They're also using outdated variants on purpose - importing weapons and ammo from Earth is extremely time-and-resource consuming and would malfunction in Pandora's harsh environment. And, as mentioned below, Pandora's very strong magnetic field and thick atmosphere would make the railguns, coilguns, and other such things common on Earth unreliable at best and useless at worst.
248* InCaseYouForgotWhoWroteIt: The film is referred to as ''James Cameron's Avatar'' by third parties (probably to avoid confusion with the other ''[[Film/TheLastAirbender Avatar]]''), though this is rare for the film itself.
249* InSpaceEveryoneCanSeeYourFace: The exopacks show a lot more face than your typical oxygen mask, though this is justified by the setting - A. most people there spend so much time with a mask on that it makes sense to have them big enough for you to see who it is you're talking to, and B. it gives you a wider field of view, which is important in a setting where needing to see what's coming after you to kill and eat you is an ever-present concern.
250* InstantAwesomeJustAddMecha: The humans have plenty of impressive machines at hand, but the one most featured is their AMP Suit, a robotic mech suit which possesses durable features which allow their operators to traverse through the Pandoran environment and live. Of note if Quaritch's one, which he equipped with a huge knife.
251* IntelligentForest: The Ewya of Pandora is described as a vast network of fibre optic like branches and roots. Na'vi are able to hook themselves into this network and upload or download information.
252* IronicEcho: Grace mentions that she would die for a chance to have access to the Tree of Souls so she could take samples. After being mortally wounded, she is brought to the Tree of Souls in an attempt to use it to save her life. Despite being in too much pain to move, she still manages to express her desire to take samples.
253** Also the various uses of "time to"/"have to wake up" throughout the film in concurrence with the film's real world/dream state theme.
254--->'''Trudy:''' Damn, I was hoping for a plan that didn't involve martyrdom.\
255'''Grace:''' What are you gonna do, shoot me?\
256'''Quaritch:''' Oh, I can do that.\
257'''Jake:''' One life ends, another begins.\
258'''Jake:''' Everything is backwards now, like out there is the true world, and in here's the dream.\
259'''Jake:''' Sooner or later, you always gotta wake up.
260* JerkassHasAPoint: Selfridge in regards to Jake as a replacement for his brother. Grace's annoyance over losing Tommy is understandable, but it could hardly be helped, and the RDA's attempt to salvage the situation by substituting the only one compatible with an otherwise-useless (and extremely expensive) avatar body seems completely reasonable. Perhaps the one and only point a viewer might side with the resident CorruptCorporateExecutive in this film.
261* JerkWithAHeartOfGold: Grace comes across as condescending and rude earlier on in the film, but later on is shown to be more compassionate and understanding than most other human characters.
262* JungleOpera: The whole film is set on a planet with a thick, lush jungle inhabited by blue-skinned alien natives whose culture references those of the real-life Amazonian tribes. The protagonist is also shown trying to survive in the wild before siding with the natives. Basically, the whole film is a jungle story [[RecycledInSpace IN SPAAAaaace]]!
263* JustPlaneWrong: The SA-2 Samson twin-rotor helicopter is described as being built by the Aerospatiale company, which stopped trading under that name in 2001, before the movie was even released.
264[[/folder]]
265
266[[folder:K-O]]
267* KillItWithFire: Human soldiers favor incendiary missiles and flamethrowers. [[JustifiedTrope Makes sense]] in a HungryJungle.
268* KineticWeaponsAreJustBetter: The small arms used by the humans aren't that dissimilar to ours -- in fact, in the background, the machine gun is an [=M60=] variant, although [[AllThereInTheManual other sources state]] that forces back on Earth have more advanced weapons, such as railguns, it's just that the weapons used on Pandora are cheaper and easier to make and maintain, plus Pandora's very strong magnetic field and thick atmosphere make many weapons unreliable at best and useless at worst.
269* TheLifestream: Kinda played with. Eywa acts as this, kinda. It doesn't happen automatically, they [[BrainUploading Brain Upload]] just before they die.
270* {{Lightworlder}}: Much of the reason the 10-foot-tall humanoid Na'vi can live very well on Pandora is because of the 20% weaker gravity putting far less strain on their bodies. While humans are stronger on Pandora than Earth thanks to decreased gravity, they are still weaker than native animals both proportionally and totally. The Colonel mentions the need for constant exercise to prevent muscle atrophy.
271* LimbSensationFascination: One of the things Jake loves about his avatar body is that it is whole. When he first "wakes up" in it, there is focus on his exploring new things he can do, like running and jumping.
272* LineageLadder: A particularly old ancestor is simplified to Neytiri's "grandfather's grandfather" both to describe his position on the family tree and also convey how rare it is for a Na'vi to ride a Toruk.
273-->'''Jake''': Our guys call it a Great Leonopteryx.
274-->'''Neytiri''': It is Toruk. Last Shadow.
275-->'''Jake''': Yeah right. [[DeathFromAbove Last one you'll ever see]].
276-->'''Neytiri''': My grandfather's grandfather was Toruk Makto. Rider of Last Shadow.
277-->'''Jake''': He rode this?
278-->'''Neytiri''': Toruk chose him. It has happened only five times since the time of the first songs.
279-->'''Jake''': That's a very long time.
280-->'''Neytiri''': Yes. Toruk Makto was mighty. He brought together the clans in a time of great sorrow. All Na'vi people know this story.
281* {{Loincloth}}: All the Na'vi.
282* LoveAcrossBattlelines: The protagonist is a human soldier falling in love with a warrior of the clan he's hired to defend the human colony against.
283* LuddWasRight: Debatable, the humans are seen as bad and they use technology. But the technology is not ''why'' they are doing what they do, and the hero needed that technology to join the Na'vi in the first place.
284* MachineWorship: [[spoiler: The neural network that spans Pandora is worshipped by the Na'vi as a Goddess. In the climactic battle, the invading RDA forces strike the nearest datahub-tree. Unfortunately for them, this seems to convince the world-mind to fight back, with all the dangerous creatures attacking the marines but leaving alone the Na'vi.]]
285* 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 essentially flying behind her, giving the audience an eyeful, but they instead stick tight to her chest.
286* MajorInjuryUnderreaction:
287** Grace just goes "this is gonna ruin my whole day" after being shot. For bonus points, the only time she goes "ouch" after that is from a ''syringe'', and it's rather flat. On the other hand, receiving such an injury can actually have this effect as the body dumps a load of adrenaline into the system to try and cope, plus the potential for shock.
288** At one point, Colonel Quaritch ignores that he is ''on fire.'' He triages the problem of first and second degree burns to his arm to focus on a complex bailout from a crashing aircraft. Then he puts the fire out.
289* ManlyTears: In the original script when Jake first gets to use the legs of his avatar body, he cries.
290* MatchstickWeapon: When he finds himself surrounded by viperwolves in the Pandoran jungle, Jake is surrounded by tries fighting them off with a burning torch.
291%% * TheMetricSystemIsHereToStay
292* MeaningfulName:
293** The Pandoran compound Unobtainium is only found on Pandora. The humans don't get much of it, hence it is unobtainable on planets not called Pandora. This is an in-joke relating to something that has incredible properties. See {{Unobtainium}}.
294** Jake, or Jacob, is the name of one of the great Patriarchs of Literature/TheBible; his brother Thomas' name means simply "[[MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe the twin]]." Grace Augustine is named after both a heavenly gift and the great Doctor of the church... it goes on.
295** Some people think Eywa sounds like Yahweh, the Hebrew name for God. --and 'Selfridge' sounds a ''lot'' like 'selfish'.
296** Though best known for opening the box, the Pandora of Myth/ClassicalMythology was created to be the perfect woman, and her name literally means "All-Gifted". The namesake moon is everything that the earth of the time is not: Lovely, with a rich ecology and massive natural resources.
297* AMechByAnyOtherName: The [[MiniMecha combat AMP suits]] used by the military, which are pretty much the descendants of the Power Loader from ''Film/{{Aliens}}'', or [[VideoGame/StarCraft Terran Goliaths]]. They ''were'' originally developed as the equivalent of power loaders, but modified to carry armament and having been used on Earth in this capacity as well, particularly in environments dangerous/toxic to unprotected humans. At least their large cabin, with excellent view but poor protection, and lack of in-built weaponry heavily suggests this. Quaritch's suit is seen to have ''[[{{BFS}} a combat knife]]''. The manual, on the other hand, states that they are purpose-built for combat and that several armies back on Earth use them.
298* MechVsBeast: The fight between Quaritch in his MiniMecha and Neytiri's thanator.
299* MegaCorp: The RDA, which is stated to be better funded than most world governments.
300* MenOfSherwood:
301** The bowmen of the combined Na’vi clans are pretty formidable in the climax. They do take casualties, but not gratuitously, and not without inflicting a good amount of damage on their enemies.
302** In a DeletedScene, Max and a bunch of other scientists take over the [=RDA=] command post in a CurbStompBattle, using a mix of weapons and machinery, without taking a single loss.
303* MightyWhitey: Jake Sully, a white male, leads the primitive Na'vi to victory against seemingly hopeless odds in their battle with the marines.
304* MineralMacguffin: Obviously, this is {{Unobtainium}} again. Despite the backstory provided, we only see one TINY piece of it twice during the movie, which is somewhat justified -- even a sliver of it is enormously valuable.
305* MiniMecha: The AMP suits straddle the line between PowerArmor and HumongousMecha. Though it also states that AMP suits are normally equipped with armored cover which is placed over the cockpit. However because of the electronic problems on Pandora this had to be removed in order to give the pilots a better field of vision.
306* MixAndMatchCritters: Quite a few:
307** The Na'vi themselves are HumanoidAliens but also incorporite quite a lot of features from cats and lemurs.
308** The Toruk resembles a pterosaur or dragon with the hooked bill, grasping feet and eyebrow ridges of an eagle and a black-and-orange color scheme somewhat evoking a monarch butterfly.
309** Direhorses, while looking mostly horse-like, have a snout and tongue like an anteater and a "mane" resembling a cetacean dorsal fin.
310** Titanotheres look a lot like the extinct rhinoceros-like mammal ''Megacerops'', but with a feather-like fan on its head resembling a peacock's tail.
311** Ikran are mostly lizard-like, but have a facial structure reminiscent of certain carnivorous fish like barracudas, as well as having hind legs modified into wings, similar to the ''Microraptor''.
312* MoreDakka: The Tie-in guide says that AMP Suits have a [[KillItWithFire flamethrower]] and (auto)cannon built in, for self-defense and defoliation. In the movie, the actual weapons are more "Interchangable", the ammo system is the "built in" part. The Dragon Gunship has [[MacrossMissileMassacre about 300 missiles]], 10 grenade launchers, and four [[GatlingGood Miniguns]]. More or less every ranged weapon trope besides Kill It With Fire (though that would depend on whether the commander decided to spring for incendiaries) on a heavy-duty flying platform.
313* MotherlyScientist: Dr. Grace claims that Na'vi children she taught at her school called her "mother".
314* MultipleDemographicAppeal: A flashy sci-fi action with an emotional love story, hence having an appeal broad enough to become the highest-grossing film ever.
315* MyselfMyAvatar: The eponymous Avatars are "Na'vi" clone bodies controlled by humans, allowing them to explore Pandora's environment and try to negotiate with the local Na'vi to end the conflict between them without having to do it themselves due to the planet's toxic atmosphere. Jake, a paraplegic, controls one to "regain" his ability to walk, however short-lived it may be.
316* MySiblingWillLiveThroughMe: Tom Sully's Avatar was created to work with his DNA; when he is killed, only someone with identical DNA, in this case his twin brother Jake, can operate the Avatar. So he does.
317* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast:
318** The thanator. "Thanatos" is the Greek word for "death," and also the name of its personification. It's very appropriate in this case.
319** Then there's the Toruk, which in Na'vi means "[[ShadowOfImpendingDoom Last Shadow]]".
320* NatureVersusTechnology: Puts the indigenous and sentient life of Pandora against the resource-exploitative technological humans. Eywa, the [[MotherNature supreme being]] of Pandora, comes to the Na'vi peoples' aid when they go up against the humans.
321* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The "flux vortex" of the moon's strong magnetic field makes a lot of instruments, such as mapping and targeting systems, completely useless. Things like thermal scans, communications, and motion sensors still work, though they get statics.
322* NeutralNoLonger: When Jake asks for Eywa's help in the coming battle, Neytiri says that Eywa "does not take sides, she only protects the balance of life." However, when the Na'vi are about to be overrun, the Pandoran fauna, including animals who are normally natural enemies, suddenly attacks the human forces en masse.
323-->'''Neytiri''': Jake, Eywa has heard you! EYWA HAS HEARD YOU!
324* NiceJobBreakingItHero: Jake Sully provides all the intel that the RDA needs to successfully take down Hometree. Not only that but he completely neglects to mention that they only want a small rock from ''underneath'' their land. He goes so far as to sleep with Neytiri without ever actually passing on the message that the entire Avatar program was intended for.
325* NoBiochemicalBarriers: Averted and done straight. The air is unbreathable to humans thanks to its concentration of CO[[subscript:2]] and H[[subscript:2]]S, causing a coma in a matter of seconds, and death in minutes. Pandoran plants are loaded to the brim with toxins, as far as humans are concerned. However the namesake Avatars are created by the improbable working combination of human and Na'vi DNA. Which is another can of worms in itself, because the Na'vi, according to Pandorapedia, do not ''have'' DNA.
326* NoKillLikeOverkill: The Na'vi arrows are the size of boar spears, and laced with a deadly neurotoxin. The bows they are shot from are about ten feet long and powerful enough to send the arrow clean through an armored human torso. One of these arrows is complete overkill for a human target, but after Quaritch destroys her home, kills her father and God knows how many of her other family and friends, leads an assault against the cultural center of her people, and tries to directly kill her and her mate, Neytiri decides to go ahead and shoot him twice.
327* NobleSavage: The Na'vi way of life is depicted in the film as noble.
328* NonMammalMammaries: Despite being aliens, the Na'vi women have breasts used to nurse their newborns like placental mammals. James Cameron commented in an interview that right from the beginning that the Na'vi'' design "got to have tits", [[RuleOfSexy even if it didn't make sense]].
329* NoseArt: For the film's climax, Trudy has a white and blue cheatline painted on her chopper, presumably to [[spoiler:help the Na'vi tell her apart from the other aircraft flying around.]]
330* NotDisabledInVR: The artificial Na'vi body that Jake Sully uses has working legs.
331* NotWhatISignedOnFor: An odd example when Trudy mutinies.
332-->'''Trudy:''' Screw this. I didn't sign up for this [[PrecisionFStrike shit]]!
333%%* NubileSavage: Neytiri.
334* NuclearTorchRocket: The ''Venture Star'' uses a dual-propulsion method: going from Earth, it uses a SolarSail to get moving, and an antimatter rocket to slow down. Going from Proxima Centauri, it does that in reverse.
335* OminousFog: The otherwise [[SceneryPorn scenery pornographic]] Pandora gets this trait once [[spoiler: Hometree is destroyed]], since the ashes contribute to the fog.
336* OneProductPlanet: Pandora may appear to be this as it is valued for its Unobtainium, but the background mentions genetic development from plants on Pandora. Also, one of the few examples of this trope that uses Slower-Than-Light travel.
337* OnlyAFleshWound: Averted, painfully. One character takes a rifle bullet to the stomach and is in too much pain to move for the next few scenes; the protagonists perform first aid and rush them to a healer, but the wound is too severe, and they arrive too late anyway.
338* OnlyTheChosenMayRide:
339** The Ikran are dragon-like creatures that the Na'vi use as mounts. Every Ikran chooses its own master, and only then if the one they choose can best them in combat and tame them.
340** Worth special mention is the Toruk, a larger apex predator of the Ikran. It is said to be untameable by even the strongest of Na'vi, and only five individuals are known to have tamed one in their history. Jake manages to become the sixth by virtue of being ballsy (and desperate) enough to attack one with the same method it uses to hunt Ikran.
341* OohMeAccentsSlipping: Jake; American character, Australian actor, accent bouncing back and forth as much as it liked.
342* OutRunTheFireball:
343** Quaritch does this to escape the exploding gunship. Granted, he's in a giant robot suit, which should help to protect him from the heat, though it gets some burning fuel on it.
344** Several Na'vi are also shown doing this while Hometree explodes around them.
345[[/folder]]
346
347[[folder:P-S]]
348* PiecesOfGod: [[spoiler:Just about all plantlife on Pandora forms a neural network, and most animal life (including the Na'vi) have the ability to tap directly into that network.]]
349* PinballProtagonist: Until Grace dies, Jake doesn't actually really make any moral decisions, with one key exception -- otherwise, he is just drifting along with the plot. Even afterwards, all he's doing is trying to make up for his errors, and get together with the only people who'd accept him.
350* PlanetaryRomance: It's set on a detailed alien world with a mostly primitive setting involving frequent use of melee weapons and seemingly magical abilities with vague scientific explanations. James Cameron even stated that he was heavily inspired by ''Literature/JohnCarterOfMars'', the first major planetary romance ever written. One might argue that the film is a {{Reconstruction}} of (or a GenreThrowback to) this century-old genre, updating and re-imagining many tropes characteristic of it.
351* PlanetLooters: A peaceful moon is brutally invaded by short, militaristic aliens who want a valuable mineral to make their dying world a little more convenient ''and'' make a shitload of money in the process. To the aliens' credit they ''tried'' to negotiate mining rights first. Kind of subverted in that the natives don't seem to know or care how important the mineral is themselves, and the moon is too remote and [[EverythingTryingToKillYou too dangerous]] for colonization.
352* PostClimaxConfrontation: Immediately following the massive air battle between the invading humans and the native Na'vi, "Papa Dragon" descends down to Pandora's surface and subsequently does battle with Jake Sully personally one final time before ever actually going down for good.
353* PrecisionFStrike: Trudy saying "[[NotWhatISignedOnFor I didn't sign up for this shit]]" when mutineering. Not the only instance of vulgarity in the movie, sure, but probably the most impactful one given the context.
354** Grace's "Oh shit." earlier in the film is another great example.
355* PrivateMilitaryContractors: All the human soldiers are explicitly this, even though most served as army or marines in the past. Most likely a result of how much flak Cameron took for portraying actual marines this way in ''Aliens''.
356* PsychicLink: The link between avatars and their operators, enabled by the link bed.
357* PunctuatedForEmphasis: "They have sent us a message. That they can take whatever they want. Well, we will send them a message. That THIS! THIS IS OUR LAND!"
358* PunnyName: A few human firearms manufacturers have this. Hirte and Fahl? (Hurt and Fall) [[http://james-camerons-avatar.wikia.com/wiki/Wasp Massa-Cirre]]? (Massacre)? Matanza (Slaughter) Arms? '''Subtle'''.
359* PunyEarthlings: Na'vi are much taller, stronger and more agile than humans. They are fighting on their home turf, and they have the ability to neurally connect with other living things on Pandora. [[spoiler:In fact their entire homeworld is connected by a neural Internet that is comparable to the will of a deity.]] Sure, humans have guns and machines, but Na'vi can pick up and use guns too...
360* RailroadPlot: Humans go to Pandora to mine unobtanium. The largest deposit is, unfortunately, under the Na'vi Hometree.
361* RealRobot: The AMP suits have been jury-rigged as heavy weapons platforms by the SpaceMarines.
362* RealityIsUnrealistic: The Na'vi have their palms facing outwards, which is the opposite of real life archers. While InUniverse this is justified by the Na'vi having different biomechanics, there is still the fact that humans were performing that gesture. With enough practice in this grip, it's more than plausible to use it. It's not considered proper by professional archers, but it's far from a useless grip.
363* RecurringExtra: FlatCharacter {{Mook}} Fike, a bald black guy in Selfridge's headquarters, two science team members who play basketball with their Avatars, and the Asian mission control tech on Grace's staff. All of them appear in multiple scenes throughout the film, but have very few lines and little characterization beyond their loyalties to one side or the other.
364* RemoteBody: Jake spends most of the movie as the controller of a synthetic alien. [[spoiler: In the end, he permanently transfers his conscious into the alien body.]]
365* RevelingInTheNewForm: When paraplegic marine Jake Sully first gets to control his Avatar RemoteBody, the first thing he notices is that his new body has functioning legs. So ecstatic is he over this regained mobility that he immediately exits the lab (much to the consternation of the doctors monitoring his first use of the Avatar), leaps and dashes across the nearby garden, and digs his toes into the loamy dirt. [[BigBad Colonel Quaritch]] exploits this glee over the regained mobility, saying that he'll ensure that Jake gets his "real legs" back if he continues reporting on the Na'vi.
366* RockBeatsLaser:
367** [[ZigZaggingTrope Played with]]. In the first battle, the natives' basic weapons do very little damage to human gunships. In the second, after they work on their tactics with advice from Jake, and with much nastier compound bows it's subverted when that's ''still'' not enough to carry the day against the wall of gunfire, despite doing quite well at first. [[spoiler:Then the DeusExMachina kicks in]]. Also, {{Lampshaded}} by Trudy:
368--->'''Trudy:''' You're going up against gunships with bows and arrows.
369** It is also used straight -- a billion-dollar mining machine is blinded and halted by a guy with a ''rock''. {{Justified|Trope}} in that he didn't break the machine, just its camera, blinding its remote operator.
370* RockOfLimitlessWater: The floating islands have waterfalls constantly flowing from out of them, despite not having a source for such water. In this case, there is a [[HandWave somewhat logical reason given]] for the phenomenon that does not quite justify the amount of water created this way.
371* RubberForeheadAliens: Despite being 10 foot tall CGI figures, the Na'vi are amazingly humanlike in their appearance, especially compared with the other wildlife shown on Pandora. This was done so that the audience could identify with them more easily. Lampshaded and discussed in extra material -- a scientist notes that, despite looking and acting very human, we have more in common with garden snails than with them.
372%%* RuleOfCool: The whole movie, basically.
373%%* RuleOfSymbolism: The film, despite taking a lot of flak for its derivative plot, makes judicious use of symbols: dreams, twins/doubles, living inside another body...
374* SavagePiercings: One clan of Na'vi wear nose bones.
375* ScaredOfWhatsBehindYou: One of Jake's early experiences in his avatar found him separated from the group and facing down a strange aggressive creature that he had to try to intimidate. When the creature runs away, Jake jeers at it, until he starts to realize that there's another, much larger creature behind him...
376* SceneryGorn: [[spoiler:When hometree is destroyed, the entire landscape is shown smokey, foggy, smouldering, burning, and laden with ashes all at once, leaving for a very poignant and saddening display]].
377* SceneryPorn: Pandora is beautiful -- especially at night with the bioluminescence. This is arguably the most visually stunning movie ever created.
378%%* ScienceHero: Grace Augustine, Norm, Max, and ultimately Jake, are all part of the Avatar science project and they're all heroes.
379* ScienceIsBad: [[PlayingWithATrope Played with]], as on the surface it looks straight (evil humans with tech versus Noble Savages), but a closer look reveals a subversion -- the most sympathetic humans are all scientists, the only way the protagonist is able to interact with the Na'vi is through science, and the Na'vi forces use some stolen tech themselves in the FinalBattle. Indeed, even the [[spoiler: Na'vi goddess]] is shown as being a scientifically based and verifiable entity. Ultimately it's more "[[ArmiesAreEvil Imperialism is Bad]]", and the imperialists (as is generally true in history) have the more advanced weapons. Science used responsibly is treated as a Good Thing.
380* ScienceIsGood: ScienceIsBad being subverted means this is played straight. The scientists are all good guys and it's through the scientific approach that they realize they shouldn't interfere with Pandora's ecosystem. The Na'vi goddess is also a real being, fully examinable and explainable through science. The bad guys are the military and corporates who misuse technology. The movie does not suggest that humans should shift back to hunter-gatherer culture like some supporters and detractors believe. In fact, the supplementary material is pretty adamant that scientific advancement is the only way to rescue Earth from its miserable state, and that research from Pandora is vital to this progress. The message is that aboriginal peoples should not be forced to adapt modern lifestyle against their will, and that horrible consequences caused by environmental exploitation can't be fixed with more exploitation.
381* SealedCastInAMultipack: The film has the humans spend the long trip between Earth and Pandora in deep sleep.
382* SecondHandStorytelling: We follow Jake Sully's story practically minute-by-minute until he begins to gather the tribes, when we just get narration.
383%%* SentientCosmicForce: A physical one in Eywa.
384* SerkisFolk: The Na'vi (both real and Avatars). Also the direhorses, whose movements were performed by real horses (although the animators had to add an extra pair of legs).
385* ShadesOfConflict: The movie is closer to WhiteAndGreyMorality than a lot of fans and detractors may claim. While the Na'vi just want to be left alone, the humans are willing to disrupt the Na'vi culture in order to get a MacGuffin that can be used to improve the already abysmal quality of life back on Earth, as well as helping with space travel. Whether it would ''actually'' be used to make Earth suck less is a lot less clear; Selfridge seems largely concerned with mining Unobtainium, regardless of environmental impact, and when [[spoiler:Grace tells him Eywa is alive, he brushes her off entirely]]. We don't know if his attitude is the typical one of the RDA administration, but there's a good chance we'll see in the sequel.
386* ShadowOfImpendingDoom: The Na'vi name for the Great Leonopteryx, a flying Apex predator, is Toruk, which translates to "Last Shadow". Toruk's favored method of attack is to dive with the sun behind it so by the time you see its shadow fall on you, it is often already too late.
387* ShakyCam: Used lightly enough that the audience can tell more-or-less what's going on. There may be hope for this trope yet.
388* ShoutOut: There's plenty of other sci-fi films this one makes references to, being a sci-fi film itself. They have their own page [[ShoutOut/{{Avatar}} here]].
389* ShownTheirWork:
390** Per the [[http://www.pandorapedia.com/doku.php/isv_venture_star Pandorapedia]], the starship ''Venture Star'' combines beamed light sail propulsion for the outbound flight and a fusion/antimatter hybrid drive to decelerate at Alpha Centauri. Yes, those are some of the leading ideas for interstellar flight that don't involve new science.
391** The biggest problem a large spaceship will have is getting rid of waste heat; the ''Venture Star'' has huge radiators, and they're red-hot.
392** See also the amount of detail in [[http://www.pandorapedia.com/ Pandorapedia]], such as [[https://www.pandorapedia.com/human_operations/vehicles/scorpion_gunship.html their careful examination]] of [[RockBeatsLaser the Scorpion's vulnerabilities and advantages against the Na'vi]]. [[http://io9.com/5460957/the-complete-history-of-pandora-according-to-avatars-designers?skyline=true&s=i Or this series of articles]].
393** Also regarding the Na'vi language: While James Cameron isn't an expert in language construction, he had the very good sense to hire people who ''were.'' He also had the actors practice their Na'vi lines until everything was perfect.
394* SicklyGreenGlow: All Pandoran organisms, including the Na'vi, possess bioluminescence of many colors which emit light when darkness falls and one of those colors is green. However, [[SubvertedTrope the Pandoran animals are happy to leave anyone alone if no one disturbs them and the Na'vi are not evil]].
395* SignedUpForTheDental: Jake's major motivation to participate in the Avatar program is to get his paralysis fixed. To repeat the line from the CrapsackWorld point:
396-->'''Jake:''' Sure, they can fix a spinal [cord injury] if you have the money, but on veterans' benefits? Not in this economy.
397* SimpleYetOpulent: Although he doesn't draw attention to the implications, Selfridge does keep a fist-sized sample of unobtanium ("20 million per kilo!") unguarded on his desk, [[ShowDontTell which certainly says a lot about how wealthy he is]].
398* SingleBiomePlanet:
399** Fully averted (there is no land mass at either of the poles, so the icecaps are floating with no fixed features), but there's never a location visited where temperatures look like they could drop below freezing (with the POSSIBLE exception of the plains).
400** The sequel will feature [[http://www.nme.com/movies/news/james-cameron-avatar-2-to-explore-pandoras-ocea/171501 Pandora's oceans]], which fits with Cameron's obsession with the ocean.
401* SingleLanguagePlanet: Enforced. On Pandora the native population, despite being split into numerous clans, only has one language, the ''lì'fya leNa'vi''. There's no variance between individual clans. Partly [[JustifiedTrope justified]], because since there is [[SentientCosmicForce a planetary superintelligence]] on Pandora, and since every living being is more or less linked to Eywa, this could be a reason why there's a uniform language on this world.
402* SleeperStarship: Most of the passengers aboard the ''Venture Star'' are cryogenically frozen since it takes about five years to reach Alpha Centauri.
403* SlidingScaleOfIdealismVersusCynicism: Despite the classic HumansAreTheRealMonsters plot, the film falls squarely on the idealistic side: the cynical, war-loving Colonel is defeated by the peaceful scientists, the Na'vi and mother nature, who are bonded by ThePowerOfFriendship via a PsychicLink.
404* SolarSail: The ''Venture Star'' has a large solar sail which is used for accelerating towards Pandora. The sail is shot at by a large laser somewhere in the Solar System to provide enough thrust to reach 70% lightspeed.
405* SoulJar: Not exactly, but when Jake (in Avatar form) is [[spoiler:fighting the colonel]] toward the end of the film, and he makes a move to [[spoiler:attack Jake's unprotected human body]], the effect is similar.
406* SpaceMarine: The corporation's private military contractors fill this role in this movie, although one wonders why Cameron didn't [[CanonWelding just bite the bullet]] and call them the [[Film/{{Aliens}} Colonial Marines]]. With their AMP suits supporting foot-mobile infantry, they're ironically far closer to the Mobile Infantry of ''Literature/StarshipTroopers'' than the so-called film adaptation of that book.
407* SpacePlane: The absolutely ''massive'' "Valkyrie" shuttle is capable of going either to or from space unaided, and can rotate its engines to land without a runway.
408* SpaceWhaleAesop: The [[GreenAesop pro-conservation message]] is conveyed through the world of Pandora, a flawless alien paradise untainted by technology. On Pandora, deforestation is depicted as evil because it nearly leads to the destruction of a sentient organic [[BrainComputerInterface mind-linking supercomputer]] that lets the resident aliens communicate with their dead relatives, and nearly everything that humans had to develop through technological advances--medicine, transportation, shelter, and even ''data storage''--is naturally provided by the [[GeniusLoci living ecosystem]]. It's easy for the Na'vi to preach about respecting the environment when their environment apparently supplies them with all the perks of an industrialized society.
409* SpiritualAntithesis: As much as audiences commented its derivative nature, it took some concepts used previously in different works and done in a polar opposite execution. Past works such as:
410** 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 forest 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.
411** Creator/UrsulaKLeGuin thought the movie as this to her ''The Word for World Is Forest'' where it "reverses the book's moral premise, [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer presenting the central and unsolved problem of the book, mass violence, as a solution.]]"
412* SquareCubeLaw: The lighter gravity of Pandora partly accounts for the huge bodies (though not the great strength) of the Na'vi, Avatars, and wildlife (although the AMP suits may seem to stretch the suspension of disbelief [[note]]From an engineering standpoint there's no reason the AMP suits shouldn't ''work''; most of the problems with HumongousMecha as war machines don't apply in an alien environment where you're more concerned with hacking your way through the underbrush and carrying heavy enough weapons to put down most things short of titanotheres than you are with the enemy spotting you at long range and taking you out with antitank missiles.[[/note]]).
413%%* StandardSciFiArmy: The Resources Development Administration have a defensive army at the ready to defend the people mining for Unobtanium on Pandora, but their nature is more akin to the actual military corps with the infantry with large groups of highly-trained soldiers.
414* StarfishAliens:
415** The creatures of Pandora were supposed to be like this, and they even got Wayne freakin' Barlowe and Neville Page to help out. But eventually they had to tone it down because the creatures looked "too alien". At one point the banshee and Leonopteryx looked like giant flying manta rays. This was part of an overall theme change, as the Na'vi concept art at the time had a reptilian look, which is where all the confusion about their being mammals originated from thanks to out-of-date information.
416** Pretty much all life on Pandora has six limbs, four eyes, and breathes through an operculum on the chest... except the [[HumanAliens Na'vi]], Prolemuris (a clear evolutionary link intended to show the reasoning behind it), and ikran (which have four wings, all of which function as legs on the ground, and no trace of the third pair of limbs).
417** Though there are still some minor creatures in film that are definitely Starfish Aliens, many of the flora and fauna were inspired by deep sea Earth creatures and plants.
418** The creatures on Pandora, while looking [[BuffySpeak vertebrate-y]], are also shown to breathe through an operculum (e.g. ikran, toruk and pa'li).
419* StockSoundEffect: The Thanator's roar is identical to that of the ''T. rex'' from ''Film/JurassicPark'', while the Direhorses make honking calls similar to the raptors of the same film.
420* StockStarSystems: Pandora is a moon in the Alpha Centauri A system. This is only implied in the film itself, but confirmed [[AllThereInTheManual in the manual]].
421* StuffBlowingUp:
422** [[spoiler:The Dragon ship and the makeshift bomber go out with huge kabooms that put Creator/MichaelBay to shame. {{Justified|Trope}} in case of the bomber, because it's loaded with [[MadeOfExplodium lots of explosives]]]].
423** The Hometree falls after perhaps several dozen huge explosions.
424* StumblingInTheNewForm: Jake Sully's first use of his [[RemoteBody Avatar]] sees him awkwardly stumble around the medical bay and accidentally give one of the doctors a TailSlap. This is an unusual case where his new form isn't radically different from his real human body (the Na'vi being HumanoidAliens), but Jake had been so out of practice with walking due to his paraplegia that it's as good as a new experience for him.
425* SubLightspeedSetting: Antimatter-powered human starships can only reach a significant fraction of the speed of light, but can't exceed it. The 4.3 light year-voyage from Earth to Pandora takes half a decade.
426* SubspaceAnsible: It never appears in the film itself, but the [[AllThereInTheManual Pandorapedia]] mentions that the ''Venture Star'', the otherwise-realistic starship, has a low-bitrate superluminal communication ability using quantum entangling.
427* SuperPersistentPredator: The thanator scene most obviously, but from the sound of things, pretty much every single piece of wildlife on Pandora. May be justified, if ''everything'' is this vicious, it may be necessary just to land a meal.
428[[/folder]]
429
430[[folder:T-Z]]
431* TaxonomicTermConfusion: The [[AllThereInTheManual tie-in novel to the movie]] lists the scientific name of the Na'vi as ''Homo pandorus''. However, it's justified in this case. Organisms of separate evolutionary origin are allowed to share the same genus name-- plants can have the same genus names as animals, and some do. For example, the genus ''[[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunella Prunella]]'' is occupied by both a flowering plant and a songbird.
432* TechnoBabble: Both played straight and subverted. Played straight when Grace uses a jargon-heavy explanation to describe to [[ObstructiveBureaucrat Selfridge]] why the Na'vi concept of Eywa residing in all of Pandora's plant life is actually a very real fact. Subverted, as the unnecessarily TechnoBabble-heavy explanation goes right over Selfridge's head.
433* TechnologyPorn: The few scenes showing Earth, which were not ever seen in the theatrical release, also show ''endless'' amounts of lights and neon signs, and entire planes of advertisement screens, only matched in real life by cities like Tokyo or Shanghai. Earth may be in a potentially irreversible state of severe environmental decay, but at least its technology is amazing, and its cities bright and lively.
434* TemptingFate: Grace taunts Quaritch over what he's going to do with her, one of which was shoot her. Quaritch tells her he can do exactly that...[[spoiler:and he makes good on that promise when Grace, Jake and company run from the RDA, leaving the lady mortally wounded.]]
435* ThankYourPrey: The Na'vi do some sort of a mercy kill to any wildlife they've hurt, such as Neytiri putting a wounded viperwolf out of its suffering after it got hurt by Jake. Taken from tribal cultures that do the same.
436* ThirdActMisunderstanding: Jake's motives are revealed at the point where he's already past Becoming the Mask, and he tries to explain to his teammates that he's on their side now, but they don't believe him.
437* ThisIsForEmphasisBitch: "You're not the only one with a gun, bitch."
438* ThisMeansWarpaint: The Na'vi [[GoingNative and their allies]], just before the FinalBattle. Trudy even put warpaint [[NoseArt around the cockpit]] of her stolen gunship.[[note]]{{Justified|Trope}}. Since Trudy's on their side, it would be helpful for the Na'vi to know NOT to attack that particular ship.[[/note]]
439* ThrowingOffTheDisability: Achieved by means of transferring his brain/mind into a different body. Jake actually signed up for the program for both a chance at this and the fact RDA would fix his spine as soon as his tenure was over, but decided that it wasn't worth performing genocide for.
440* ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]: using your longbow as a club always works in the movie. {{Justified|Trope}}, as Na'vi bows are at least 8 feet long and would have to be heavy enough to be used as a melee weapon in order to withstand their draw weight.
441* TinManTypist: The MiniMecha carry oversize knives and machine guns rather than having them built into their arms.
442* TinyGuyHugeGirl: Done briefly when [[spoiler:Neytiri cradles Jake's dying human form.]]
443* TrailersAlwaysSpoil: Not a trailer, but the soundtrack album gave away a couple of key plot points in its track titles. Most notably, "[[spoiler:The Destruction of Hometree]]" and "[[spoiler:Shutting Down Grace's Lab]]". The trailer gave away basically the entire plot.
444* TransparentTech: Transparent screens are seen in the avatar labs where Jake Sully's body is usually found, which is the most high-tech room in the film.
445* TreeTopTown: Hometree appears to play this trope straight, except it just consists of [[WorldTree one huge tree]] instead of several.
446* TribalFacePaint:
447** When Jake is inducted into the Na'vi they paint his entire body with a white paint of some sort.
448** Some of the Na'vi (e.g. Neytiri) wear a different kind of paint when going into battle.
449** The bioluminescent spots on the Na'vi can be viewed as a sort of permanent face paint.
450* TrilogyCreep: The number of sequels has been moved up [[http://www.deadline.com/2013/08/fox-james-cameron-set-group-of-writers-to-spearhead-trio-of-avatar-sequels/ from two to three]].
451* UniverseBible: 350 pages of alien language (''Speak Na'vi''), plants and wildlife taxonomy, a scale structure for the alien music, Pandora's physical properties etc., etc.
452* {{Unobtainium}}: They actually [[LampshadeHanging call it that]]. WordOfGod is that it is used in starship drives. Before the discovery of Pandora, interstellar travel was too costly and long.
453* VaporWear: Most female Na'Vi wear a Mr.T level of thin necklaces with nothing securing them to cover their breasts, leading to Neytiri having constant Nip-slips throughout the film.
454* VasquezAlwaysDies: Trudy Chacon explodes with her gunship in the climactic battle.
455-->'''Trudy:''' Damn, I was hoping for a plan that didn't involve martyrdom.
456* VertebrateWithExtraLimbs: Every creature on Pandora, except the Na'vi, ikran and stingbats. WordOfGod explains that this is due to the fact that they evolved from the monkey-like Prolemuris, which as we see in the film has six limbs -- but two of those are two arms that bifurcate into four forearms (each with a two-fingered hand as opposed to the Na'vi four-fingered hand). These forearms fused into two by the time the Na'vi had evolved, leaving them the only ones with four limbs.
457* WarIsGlorious: So much cool hardware and stirring martial prowess, this one's inevitable.
458* WatchingTroyBurn: [[spoiler:The destruction of Hometree]].
459* WaterfallIntoTheAbyss: The Hallelujah Mountains. The floating islands have waterfalls constantly flowing from out of them, despite not having a source for such water.
460* WeakerTwinSavesTheDay: Inverted. Jake is the stronger brother; a marine. However, he still gets to be the hero by virtue of his DNA being similar enough to his dead brother, a scientist.
461* WhatDidYouExpectWhenYouNamedIt: Really, humans? You named this world ''[[Myth/ClassicalMythology Pandora]]''? Even if it does mean "All-Gifted", there is a reason that name has fallen out of use.
462* WhatHappenedToTheMouse: When Jake first exits the RDA Complex, we see dozens of Avatars running around. Apart from Grace, Norm and Jake, none of them are ever shown after this point. A deleted scene from the final battle shows the Avatar Project staff storming the link room, and using the Avatars to take over Main Ops from the RDA and Selfridge.
463* WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Played with VERY strangely. Here we have human characters taking on alien forms, learning to associate with said alien species, etc. and the protagonist taking the side of said aliens over that of his EvilMentor.
464* WheelChairAntics: [[TheSmartGuy Norm]] can briefly be seen messing around with [[TheHero Jake's]] wheelchair, balancing on the back two wheels in the link room.
465* TheWorldIsJustAwesome: Many. Just to name a few:
466** Bioluminescence is a major part of Pandora -- the forest glows at night.
467** The Hallelujah Mountains, which are, er, mountains. That float magnificently, thanks to gravity and magnetic fields.
468** Iknimaya.
469* WorldTree: Hometree, and especially the Tree of Souls.
470* {{Wormsign}}: The Toruk is named ''Last shadow'' by the Na'vi for a reason: its shadow will be the last thing its prey will ever see, with the Toruk swooping on them for the kill after they see its shadow.
471* YouKilledMyFather: Neytiri's father is killed in the attack on Hometree. Sure enough, she gets her revenge, using her father's own bow.
472* ZergRush: Attempted by the Na'vi in the final battle. Didn't work very well, [[spoiler: until Eywa performs a much larger ZergRush -- this time with Titanotheres, who can actually withstand the heavy fire. And Viperwolves. And many many more Banshees. Capped off with a Thanator offering itself to Neytiri as an EpicMount]].
473[[/folder]]
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