Question: There is a scene where Parker is telling Grace that the piece of ore he is holding, called "unobtainium", is why they are on Pandora. This same ore was used in the 2003 movie, "The Core", to build the manned drilling machine to bore through Earth, to the core. Was the use of the same ore name in Avatar, done with permission from the earlier movie? Or was it a mistake?
Chosen answer: The Core didn't originate the name - it's been used since the 50's and even has its own Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unobtainium. There it's described as "any fictional, extremely rare, costly, or impossible material, or (less commonly) device needed to fulfill a given design for a given application."
Question: Does this movie take place in the same universe as ALIENS?
Answer: No. The Alien franchise, which kicks off in the year 2122, depicts a human civilisation in possession of faster-than-light transport and multiple interstellar colonies. The civilisation seen in Avatar, the majority of which is set in 2154, do not appear to have FTL travel, as they take six years to travel to the Alpha Centauri system, a distance of approximately 4.5 light years.
Question: When the humans are escorted back to their ships at the end, why are there Navi wearing human clothing? (Like those are some big shoes) and why are the guns that the Navi are holding so gigantic? Aren't these guns for humans?
Answer: Those are actually other Avatars being controlled by their human drivers hence the human clothes and military weapons. This was shown in a deleted scene when those in the Avatar program get into their linking pods and start helping the Na'vi.
Answer: The clothing is likely for modesty around humans or as a respectful thing for them. Since most of the Navi are pretty well nude and the humans are not. I could be wrong on that. Then the weapons they are carrying are the ones they picked up from the armored mechs the enemy solders were using which happen to be just the right size for the Navi.
Question: How come Trudi sometimes needs an oxygen mask but mostly doesn't - I can understand her not needing one (apparently, there is a glass partition between her and the rest of the helicopter; so whoever is with her has to wear masks, as they are behind the glass partition. But at one stage, Trudi and Norm are up front and Jake and Grace are behind them, and none of them are wearing masks - is the glass partition movable? And during the battle scene, you can see a bullet hole in Trudi's helicopter glass - shouldn't she need a mask now, as the outside air is getting in? Finally, how come Trudi needs a mask just after the home tree is destroyed and she and Norm and Jake and Grace (who was shot and is dying) escape and head for the Tree of Souls? What makes this time so special?
Chosen answer: The cabin on the Aerospatiale SA-2 Samson is pressurised, and there are two sealed doors with windows separating it from the open cargo area. There are actually four seats in the cabin which is why Jake and Grace don't need masks. The cabin pressure is slightly higher than the atmosphere (+0.3 psi) which means that if there is a small rupture in the hull or canopy (such as a bullet hole) the oxygen will leak out rather than toxic gas leaking in.
Question: What does the mineral the RDA is after do? It's probably a superconductor, but it could also be a catalyst for hydrogen production (explains the floating mountains), or elements from the Island of Stability*, which are super-nuclear-fission fuel. Is it added to other materials to make them stronger and better, like platinum? Does this mineral make practical fusion possible, or even antimatter reactions? Is it an actual anti-gravity mineral? What is it? *http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dilithium_(Star_Trek)Fictional_elements_and_materials.
Answer: It's described as a room-temperature superconductor. That's all we get. Its primary purpose is to drive the plot.
Question: In the many shots of the sky above Pandora, we see a variety of seemingly nearby moons around the planet. I'm no astrophysicist, but it seems to me that many orbiting objects would result in a chaotically unstable situation which could not be expected to long endure. Any astrophysicists out there?
Answer: My bad on the planet/moon thing. You make excellent points, but again, those other moons in Pandora's sky are huge and appear very close. Gravity effects would have to be substantial and disruptive on the entire moon system. Thanks for correcting me.
Answer: Not an astrophysicist, but to be clear, Pandora is not a planet. It's one of 14 moons orbiting a gas giant (Polyphemus). Thus, it would be the planet and the sun's gravitational pull that would most affect Pandora, in terms of tides. Since the other moons aren't in orbit of Pandora, their pull would be significantly less and would have minimal effect, but would presumably cause more eclipses than what we have on Earth. Pandora also has an atmosphere, which helps provide stability and allowed for life to develop. There are moons in our solar system with atmospheres and bodies of water, which in theory could support life. But it's unlikely that the reason life hasn't developed on these moons is because of some chaotically unstable situation.
Question: When the humans are "sleeping" and in their avatar form, if they pass away as a human, do they also die in avatar form, or is their soul transferred to the avatar since there's a connection?
Answer: Only the human would die. The Avatar is nothing more than a vehicle they inhabit and drive. Only by going to the Na'vi ritual do you give up your human body and permanently become a Na'vi.
Question: I've got two questions 1)What Neytiri meant when she said that she mated with Jake before Eywa? 2) How did Tsu'tey know that Jake and Neytiri have mated?
Chosen answer: (1) Neytiri means that she has bonded with Jake in the eyes of their deity, that, by Na'vi tradition, they are effectively married. (2) Jake and Neytiri show up holding hands, and it's clear that Tsu'tey, who was already suspicious that they had an affection for each other, spots it. He's not stupid, he can work it out for himself.
Question: All the creatures in Avatar are six-limbed but the Na'vis are four-limbed. Isn't it a fault in an evolutionary point of view?
Chosen answer: Not really. It simply means that the Na'vi split off from the common Pandoran ancestral tree much earlier in their development, before six limbs became a common element. This could also explain why the Na'vi only have one sensory appendage while most of the other life forms have two.
Question: When they get the injured Grace to the Tree of Souls, she's naked, just covered in vines. How did they get those plants to cover her and hold onto her like that? And why use plants, and not common human underwear? And come to think of it, why does she need to be naked in the first place? Sure, the roots need to access her body, but wouldn't it do to just access her head?
Chosen answer: It's a semi-religious ritual being performed by a deeply spiritual alien race. As a result, the answer to any question along the lines of "Why does it have to be like this?" can only be "Because it just does".
Question: Jake's paralyzed legs really look small and thin and weak. How did they make the actor's legs look like that, since he's not really paralyzed? Or did they edit a pair of fake legs in?
Chosen answer: It would have been done with digital effects.
Question: Now for people who have mastered the art of nearly light speed travel, wasn't it odd that they could not have destroyed the tree of souls with missiles launched from a distance? Dropping explosives seems so primitive.
Answer: This is answered in the movie itself. The Flux Vortex area in which the Tree of Souls sits interferes with the instruments of weapons and aircraft, rendering them imprecise or unusable. This is why every time the pilots flew into the Vortex, the had to navigate by sight alone.
Question: At the end when all the forest animals on Pandora join in the fight, they seem to be targeting only humans. Since they can't determine the good ones from the bad ones, wouldn't this have put Norm Spellman (now back in his human form) in extreme danger? Always considered it a plot-hole, but any explanations would be welcome.
Question: Why are humans unable to breathe the air on Pandora? A lack of oxygen seems plausible, but then the fires which erupt during the Hometree bombing wouldn't be sustained.
Answer: Couple of possible reasons. (1) There is oxygen, hence the fires, but it's got something toxic mixed in with it. (2) It's not oxygen, but another gas capable of allowing combustion to occur. Either way, humans couldn't breathe it.
Question: Is it really likely that a main governing body on Earth wouldn't have a say in whether or not humans eradicate a whole species, not just on Earth, but on another planet, and a humanoid species at that? It just seems odd that a mining company owner has the final say on whether a scientifically significant race lives or dies.
Answer: Earth is six years away. The company can do whatever the hell they like, partly because there's nobody there to stop them, but mostly because ultimately what people really care about is results. If they keep up a steady flow of unobtanium, whatever methods they took to get it will be largely ignored. And with nobody around to say otherwise, painting the Na'vi as the aggressors in the situation would be relatively easy, allowing them to claim that they were merely defending themselves and that the Na'vi brought it on themselves by their hostile actions.
Question: Do the Na'vi actually think Jake is one of them from a different "tribe" or do they know he's an Avatar? He shows up speaking English with human clothes, obviously not a native yet they allow him to stay (albeit after some resistance). Why is this?
Answer: Yes, they know he's a human, there were others before him. He said he was there to learn their ways and customs. They felt if he could become one of them, it comes to an understanding and stop the invading machinery. The Tom Cruise movie, "The Last Samurai," has the same plot.
Question: Can someone explain how the link between the human and the Avatar is actually completed? There does not seem to be a physical link. Does it have a range?
Answer: While the precise details are never spelled out, each avatar is created by combining native Pandoran DNA with the DNA of the intended user, hence the avatars resembling their human selves. This allows a neural link to be created, using unspecified technology, between the human brain and the genetically similar brain of the avatar, allowing the user complete access to the senses of and control over the avatar body. If there is a maximum range over which this can be achieved, it is not mentioned at any point in the film, although the fact that all those using the avatars are present on Pandora would seem to rule out the link functioning over interstellar distances.
Question: Why doesn't Jake show any kind of emotion when he watches his brother being cremated at the beginning? I realise that the brother was the higher achiever of the two, but to not show as much as a tear for him seems really odd to me.
Question: I'm assuming that floating rocks are made from Unobtanium - thus able to fly. But where did they get all the water to supply the waterfalls?
Answer: It's never stated that the floating mountains are made from any particular substance. And it's doubtful they're made from unobtanium, otherwise why would they need to mine it from underneath the Na'vi's tree? The mountains float because of some magnetic properties in that area of the planet. As for the water, I imagine it comes from the same place water comes from on mountains on Planet Earth -- melting snow.
This is an incredibly lush place, probably very rainy, therefore the water could have come from there.
Chosen answer: Jake and Neytiri were holding hands and Neytiri had her hair unbraided. It is also possible that when Na'vi mate, their appearance changes slightly in a way that only other Na'vi could see.