Floating mountains?
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Avatar
perrrob — 9 years ago(July 22, 2016 07:10 PM)
What's the deal with the floating mountains? Gravity only works on living things on that planet?
Amazing visuals but the color schemes (and 6 legged animals) just didn't look like something that could exist in the real world.
I know, I know it's just a movie.
7/10Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself. - George Carlin
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sommdude — 9 years ago(July 22, 2016 09:14 PM)
Unobtanium has a unique magnetic field and properties of superconductivity, causing it to levitate in magnetic fields under the Meissner Effect.
On Pandora, the magnetic effect causes huge outcroppings of unobtanium to rip loose from the surface and float in magnetic vortices. These huge "islands", named Hallelujah Mountains by Earth's explorers, are called Thundering Rocks by the Na'vi, who hold them sacred.
I'm a Gunslinger. I deal in hard calibers. -
jbaddock — 9 years ago(August 05, 2016 02:31 PM)
Actually, you see a chunk of unobtainium floating above an ashtray in Selfridge's office early on, so it obviously has some pretty unusual properties in terms of defying gravity. When you have loads of it in the planet's surface, floating mountains would seem a fairly logical consequence.
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wielderofspoons — 9 years ago(August 12, 2016 09:12 AM)
you see a chunk of unobtainium floating above an ashtray in Selfridge's office early on, so it obviously has some pretty unusual properties in terms of defying gravity.
If it isn't specified that the floating mountains are made of unobtainium (I don't recall that it is), I doubt most viewers would make the connection.
And it might be assumed that the tiny chunk's floating was an effect of the device it was stored in/above, rather than anything inherent to it. -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(August 19, 2016 03:58 PM)
I don't know. If we got an explanation for EVERYTHING going on in Avatar, the movie would be an hour more, full of fcking exposition. I hate too much exposition in my movie-going experiences.
How do they get a giant space station, which is the shape of a small moon to float through space at such high speeds? I didn't see any thrusters on that thing. I didn't hear anyone explain that.
Do we need that information or would that info just ruin the experience of watching Star Wars?
For instance, did audiences ever need to know that The Force is actually a bunch of microscopic cells that can be manipulated??
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
wielderofspoons — 9 years ago(August 19, 2016 09:28 PM)
How do they get a giant space station, which is the shape of a small moon to float through space at such high speeds? I didn't see any thrusters on that thing. I didn't hear anyone explain that. Do we need that information or would that info just ruin the experience of watching Star Wars?
We don't need to know technical details because it isn't relevant to the film's story. The availability of unobtainium is, because Avatar's whole story depends on the humans wanting to get unobtainium. It's like the difference between 'how' and 'why'. Selfridge says it's the only reason they're on Pandora. I think it's reasonable to expect an explanation for why they wouldn't bother with the easiest source of it.
For instance, did audiences ever need to know that The Force is actually a bunch of microscopic cells that can be manipulated??
Again not relevant, though I think the problem there was more that a scientific explanation was at odds with the mysterious/religious feel of the Force up to that point. -
actionmanrandell — 9 years ago(August 31, 2016 01:14 PM)
midi-cholorians are not at odds with the mysterious medaphyiscal side of the force. its just a biological explantion. george lucas made a great point when he stated that just because there is a biological side doesn't mean there still isn't mysterious side to it. the midi-cholorians simply allow one to use the force better.
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wielderofspoons — 9 years ago(September 02, 2016 03:13 PM)
I think explaining anything about something mysterious was always going to cause some trouble.
I must also ask, as with the Han or Greedo shooting first matter: whether or not the change works, was it really necessary?
I mean, it's a little odd that midichlorians are never mentioned in the entire OT but no-one ever complained about not knowing exactly how the Force works. -
carpediem2020 — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 02:15 AM)
The floating mountains were a ripoff from a popular game called World of Warcraft. In the game, there is a large area called NAGRAND that also has floating mountains.
James Cameron plays World of Warcraft, and many of the things from this game were in the movie AVATAR. -
perrrob — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 06:25 AM)
"
In the game, there is a large area called NAGRAND that also has floating mountains.
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Really? interesting I certainly have heard of
World of Warcraft
but Role Playing games have never been my thing as I much prefer strategy games.Thou shalt keep thy religion to thyself. - George Carlin
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ibrarules — 9 years ago(July 30, 2016 08:00 AM)
There's hardly anything creative or remotely unique in WoW. Floating mountains is a mainstay in fantasy. Why would you expect him to have grabbed the idea specifically from WoW. He seems too old and certainly not the type to play it to me at least
and even more certainly had come across the concept way before wow since he was a voracious fantasy/sci-fi reader in his youth -
DreTam2000 — 9 years ago(November 09, 2016 04:31 AM)
Absolute nonsense. There's floating mountains in
Final Fantasy 6
, a game that predates
World of Warcraft
by over a decade. Nevermind that it is considered by many to be the greatest game of all time.
Floating mountains do not begin with WoW (or FF6, for that matter).
I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way -
LukeLovesFilm28 — 9 years ago(August 19, 2016 03:53 PM)
If you were paying attention, you would know that only Unobtainium can make things float like that on Pandora. Those floating mountains were probably rich in the metal.
Get off your soapbox while I play you a tune on the tiniest violin. -
CGSailor — 9 years ago(October 08, 2016 03:50 PM)
Not directly but inferred at several points.
Also in other published yet canon materials it is directly stated.
Unobtanium is a superconductor like no other.
The flux vortex is an extremely powerful magnetic field.
The combination of the flux vortex at the site of the floating mountains and rich isolated deposits of the unobtanium meant that as the land eroded, the deposits remained suspended as the rest of the ground was eroded away, thus the floating mountains were formed.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water! -
CGSailor — 9 years ago(October 30, 2016 09:01 PM)
How was the land eroding? I don't remember anything about that from the movie. Was Pandora shrinking?
Seriously?
Just normal geological activity, nothing special. Nothing that needed specific mentioning in the film.
The same processes that erode mountains and create canyons here on earth. Rain, rivers, tectonics. etc
The ground level was much higher there in the ancient past. Over eons of time the ground was eroded away exceot for the Unobtanium deposits, leaving them floating in midair as the rest of the ground around them eroded away.
I joined the Navy to see the world, only to discover the world is 2/3 water!