Even before it saw widespread commercial release, “Avatar” held the spot of being one of the most awaited films in decades. It focuses on a marine expedition to an alien planet in the far future and explores the consequences of environmental destruction. Though written by the director James Cameron in the early to mid-1990s, it took another two decades, a team of dozens of effects artists, and hundreds of millions of dollars to bring to fruition. Given the breadth of knowledge and expertise required to make “Avatar,” there are many facts that you may not know.
A decade since its release, it’s honestly hard to rank “Avatar” among other sci-fi and fantasy epics. While it remained the highest-grossing movie of all time for a while, it seemed to fade from the public imagination just as quickly. Whatever the case, “Avatar” remains one of the most well-researched, carefully crafted, and expensive films ever made. In this article, we will explore 25 facts you may not know about “Avatar.” Some of this trivia may surprise you.
To compile a list of the 25 facts you may not know about “Avatar,” 24/7 Tempo consulted a range of entertainment and movie sources including Cinemablend, Popular Mechanics, and IMDB.com. Next, we selected facts and trivia that seemed the most interesting, unique or provided the best insight into the film’s production process. After that, we confirmed aspects of each fact using IMDB.com and Rottentomatoes.com. (For trivia about another sci-fi epic, discover 25 facts you may not know about “The Matrix.”)
The Na’vi language
One of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the language the aliens speak. For a believable language, director James Cameron hired linguist, Dr. Paul R. Frommer, to create an entire language from scratch. Cameron wanted a language that sounded utterly inhuman yet simultaneously “nice” to the ears.
Furthermore, he wanted a language that could be spoken by the actors without any editing in post-production. To accomplish this, Frommer created a language devoid of “ch”, “th”, and “sh” sounds. After that, Frommer created an entirely new syntax for the Pandora language, resulting in a tongue that sounds both foreign and familiar.
Recycled Sounds
While “Avatar may be one of the most expensive and involved movies ever made, that didn’t stop the crew from using older sounds to create intended effects. One of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves the use of previous movies. To create the sounds of animals on the planet Pandora, the crew used sound effects from dinosaurs in the “Jurassic Park” movies, most notably from the T-Rex and Velicoraptors.
Animal Magnetism
Not all of the sounds used in “Avatar,” came from older movies, however. The wolf-like predators that populate the planet of Pandora emit strange cackling and whooping sounds at various points in the film. These sounds are actually taken from real recordings of spotted hyena calls.
Hollywood Vagabond
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns lead actor Sam Worthington. Before the movie, he ran into a string of bad luck. First, he auditioned for the role of James Bond in “Casino Royale,” but lost the part to Daniel Craig. After that, at the age of 30, Worthington sold the majority of possessions. With the proceeds, he bought a car. He lived in the car at the time he scored the lead role in “Avatar.” It was a bold move, to be sure, but it paid off in the long run.
Tough Boss
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves the director James Cameron’s on-set reputation. Known for running a tight ship, Cameron leaned into his reputation while making “Avatar.” He reportedly wore a hat emblazoned with the letters HMFIC (Head Motherfucker in Charge). Furthermore, Cameron kept a nail gun at the ready. He used it to nail cell phones to a wall above an exit sign if they happened to ring during filming.
Kind of Blue
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” is the symbolism behind the color blue. In the film, the Na’vi aliens have blue skin. James Cameron picked this color, not only because he liked it, but because it created conceptual parallels with Hindu depictions of the god Vishnu. That isn’t the only ancient reference either. The word avatar comes from the Sanskrit word for reincarnation. Even stranger, Cameron favored blue because of a dream his mother once had. In the dream, “there was a ten-foot-tall blue woman with six breasts. Cool image,” Cameron said, adding, “I drew her, but the six breasts thing didn’t come out looking as good as it sounds, plus would mess with the rating. So, anyway blue.”
Method Acting
To help the actors prepare for filming, director James Cameron took the cast and crew to Hawaii. There, the team hiked through various forests and jungles to get a better sense of what an on-the-ground adventure would feel like on an alien planet. Actress Zoe Saldana even dressed up as a warrior for these hikes, complete with the alien tail she would wear in the movie. It wasn’t all hard work, however, as the team spent their days hiking before retiring each night at the luxurious Four Seasons Hotel.
Long time coming
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves just how much time James Cameron spent developing the idea. While being interviewed on “The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien,” Cameron revealed that he began working on preliminary drafts for the film way back in the early to mid-90s. His visual ideas for “Avatar” were so intense, however, he had to wait for technology to catch up before he could bring the film to fruition.
Facing the music
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the soundtrack, and moreover, the difficulty involved in its creation. According to composer James Horner, it was the most difficult and time-consuming soundtrack he ever worked on. To create the “Avatar” soundtrack, Horner worked from 4 am to 10 pm daily for a year and a half. How he had time to do anything else, remains to be seen.
A big payoff
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” is just how successful it turned out to be. Though the film company and director James Cameron sunk hundreds of millions of dollars and countless man-hours into the film’s creation, it paid off in a big way. Upon release, “Avatar” became the highest-grossing film in history. Furthermore, it was the first film to cross the $2 billion mark worldwide. That’s a pretty good return, considering “Avatar” is one of the most expensive movies ever made, costing at least $280 million to put on the silver screen.
A Pirate’s Life
While “Avatar” became the highest-grossing film of all time, surreptitious copying of the film sure seemed to maintain a steady pace congruent to legal ticket sales. In 2010, less than a year after the film’s worldwide release, “Avatar” was the most pirated film with 16.58 million downloads through BitTorrent. In second place came the comic book film, “Kick-Ass” with 11.4 million downloads, followed by the mind-melting “Inception” with 9.72 million illegal downloads.
Cameron’s priorities
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns James Cameron’s priorities for the creation of the film’s creatures. Though the creatures on Pandora are decidedly different than Earth’s, being non-placental, Cameron had different ideas. From the outset, he insisted that the main character Neytiri has breasts. That way, she would appear “hot” from a human’s point of view.
Returning the favor
Chuck Comisky was one of the many artists who worked on “Avatar.” Decades before, Comisky gave James Cameron his first job in the film industry as a model maker for the movie “Battle Beyond the Stars.” Years later, once Cameron was an established director, he returned the favor by hiring Comisky as a visual effects artist for “Avatar.”
Real (fake) legs
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the appearance of Sam Worthington’s character in the film, Jake, who is a paraplegic. To create sufficiently realistic atrophied legs, John Rosengrant from the Stan Winston Studio took a mold of a real paraplegic’s legs that were approximately Worthington’s size. From this, he created rubber legs for Worthington to wear. During filming, however, Worthington’s actual legs remained tucked down through his chair. They were subsequently removed digitally in post-production.
Matt Damon’s missed opportunity
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the other actors considered for the lead role of Spacemarine Jake. After the film’s release, A-list actor Matt Damon revealed that he turned down an offer from James Cameron to act in the film’s starring role. If he had accepted the offer, it would have earned him 10% of the movie’s profits, which would come out to about $290 million. Instead, he declined, as he was still working on “The Bourne Ultimatum” at the time of the offer.
Ancient Names
It’s easy to underestimate just how much time and thought was put into “Avatar.” There are many besides the word avatar and its similarity to the Sanskrit word for reincarnation. One example comes to us through the words chosen for various characters and people in the film. The planet Pandora’s spirit is called Eh’wa, which bears resemblance to the Hindi/Aramaic word Hewa, meaning “Eve.” Furthermore, the Pandora’s people are called the Na’vi. This shares similarities with the Arabic word Nabi, which means “prophet.”
(For other ancient references, discover 25 facts you may not know about “Gladiator.”)
Pandoraland
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves the success of later marketing gimmicks well after the film’s release. On May 27th, 2017, the Pandora: World of Avatar exhibit opened at Disney’s Animal Kingdom to good reviews and consumer acclaim. Indeed, even two years later, visitors waited patiently in lines for the exhibit that took between two and four hours to get through.
Assembly Line Visuals
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the visuals appearing in the film’s final cut. Before any drawing could be transferred into Photoshop, it required James Cameron’s approval. Once the rendering was approved, it saw a transfer from a 2D concept to a 3D digital sculpt in ZBrush. Furthermore, some visuals required clay models to be sculpted, both for better visualization and to get a sense of lighting references.
Commercial Secrecy
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves the lengths the production team went to keep the film a secret until its release. Besides the usual Hollywood film set safeguards, “Avatar” saw distribution to movie theaters under the codename “Project 880.” This name comes from the title James Cameron originally used for his 110-page film treatment that later became “Avatar.”
Zoe Saldana’s working relationship
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the relationship lead actress Zoe Saldana cultivated with the director, James Cameron. Though Cameron lost more than one bet on Saldana’s on-set archery skills, the pair seemed to get along well. Saldana said that Cameron was like “your partner in crime. He’s your enabler.” She expressed frustration with the process, however, mostly due to the patience required to wait out the years of post-production before the film’s commercial release.
Time elapsed
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the period in which the film takes place. According to the character Jake’s video logs, the entire film takes place over 96 days. His first log dates to 19 May 2154, and his final log occurs on 24 August 2154. This final date also happens to be Jake’s birthday. Furthermore, the film’s climactic battle occurs in August 2154. This is 200 years from James Cameron’s real-life birth month.
Open, and closure
As mentioned previously in this list, an incredible amount of thought went into the characters, world, and themes of “Avatar.” Besides the real-life name references, and almost mystical thought surrounding the use of colors, the film opens and closes the same way. The first and last character shots show the character Jake Sully opening and closing his eyes. This provides another simple, but effective sense of pacing and completeness for “Avatar.”
The Last Samurai
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns its odd similarities to the movie “The Last Samurai.” While many people criticized “Avatar” upon its release for its similarities to movies like “Dances with Wolves” or “Pocahontas,” most failed to see the more obvious movie connections. Comparing “Avatar” and “The Last Samurai,” both open with soldiers sent to a foreign land to help local authorities deal with hostile natives. The soldiers then live among the natives and embrace their culture, including falling in love with a native female. Then, the soldiers fully embrace the native way of life and fight against the authorities they originally arrived there to help. After that, the soldiers kill their superior officers in battle. After that, the soldiers in both movies decide to stay and live with the natives for good.
Forestry foreshadowing
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” concerns the subtle foreshadowing used in the film. A perfect example comes from the movements and intentions of the character Grace. Early in the film, a scene introduces viewers to the sacred “Tree of Souls.” Grace says that outsiders are forbidden from traveling there, but that “she would die to get samples.” Much later in the film, as Grace is dying, the Na’vi finally allow her to visit the Tree of Souls. Upon arriving, she says, “I need to get samples…”
Revenge of the nerds
Another one of the facts you may not know about “Avatar” involves the diehard dedication of the film’s fanbase. Director James Cameron once likened the world-building of “Avatar” to that of fantasy epics like “The Lord of the Rings.” He remains cautious, however, about approaching his film’s fans. He once remarked, “There was a guy in the Netherlands who just hit 100 times he’s seen it in movie theatres.” After that, Cameron added: “Not sure I want to meet that person. But certainly, anecdotally, many, many people are seeing it two, three, four times.”
(If you think you’re up on your movie knowledge, try to answer these movie trivia questions.)