Avatar: A Massively Obsessive, Sci-Fi Nerd Look at Pandora — Weapons of the Humans » 30ninjas

Avatar: A Massively Obsessive, Sci-Fi Nerd Look at Pandora — Weapons of the Humans

Share on Facebook posted 12-10-09 by Angelo D'Argenio

For the longest time no one knew anything about James Cameron’s Avatar other than it was going to be a huge 3-D spectacular and … OK, actually that’s all anyone knew. However, in recent months we have had a flood of new information about the setting and plot, and from our POV, it’s about damn time. Unfortunately, all this information is coming at fans so fast that it would take some sort of massively obsessive supercomputing sci-fi nerd to organize every detail. Luckily enough, we here at 30 Ninjas only employ the best in massively obsessive supercomputing sci-fi nerds. So here is a rundown of what we know of the setting and tech of Avatar.

The good ole, tried and true, non-blue, homo-sapiens in Avatar use weapons, vehicles, and technology that you can’t just pick up at any corner store. This is true partly because the equipment came to Cameron in a dream, 10 years ago, and partly it’s just logical that if you’re on a planet with weird magnetic pulls and blue people, you have to give your regular boring humans some cool stuff as well to balance out the storytelling.

Human Technology

Because of the massive magnetic fields present on Pandora, human technology has had to take a bit of a hit. Any sort of sophisticated computerized equipment simply doesn’t work in the huge magnetic vortexes of the planet. That means human civilization is actually way more advanced than the technology we see on Pandora. Because of the strong magnetic fields, much of the humans’ technology must be made of plastic or other materials that are immune or only minimally affected by magnetic fields. Engines will be plain old fuel burners that power up rockets and propellers, reminiscent of those our helicopters and jets use today. Most aircraft must be piloted by dead reckoning — good old-fashioned eyeballs — without the aid of sophisticated instruments.

Still, even with these limitations, futuristic humans have come a long way.

Samson Helicopters: These use a dual rotor system that allows them to easily maneuver and land in a jungle environment.
Scorpion Gunship: A craft much like the Samson with a smaller cockpit and increased artillery.
Dragon Assault Ship: A behemoth of a warship that is something akin to a flying aircraft carrier.
Swan All-Terrain Vehicles: If they really need to traverse the ground, they can board these SATVs, which use a six-wheeled design, reminiscent of Pandoran wildlife, to easily traverse the landscape.
Personal air supplies and filters, which they keep on them at all times. The atmosphere of Pandora is toxic to humans, and death can occur in a matter of minutes in the absence of a steady supply of oxygen. This is yet another reason why mining unobtainium (ugh) is so expensive.

To accurately see how far human technology has come, you need look no further than:

The Venture Star: This is a vehicle capable of traveling 130,200 miles per second, a mere 55,800 miles per second slower than the speed of light. Due to the strange effect that near light-speed travel has on individuals, and the sheer length (5+ years) of the journey from Earth to Pandora, passengers are kept asleep in a sophisticated state of stasis during the whole trip. The Venture Star never actually lands on Pandora, as its equipment would immediately fail due to Pandora’s heavy magnetic fields. Instead, it stays in orbit and sends smaller Valkyrie ships down to Pandora’s surface whenever something has to be transported to or from the planet.

Human Weapons

Sometimes the old ways are the best ways. The weapons in Avatar don’t use energy beams, lasers, or anything like that. As James Cameron puts it, “These are old-fashioned chemical-powered weapons that throw a lot of brass and make a lot of noise.” Bullets are still the order of the day, and aside from some gun casing modifications to allow firearms to be more lightweight and able to be operated in powerful magnetic fields, these are the same guns you see us using today. We have shotguns, assault rifles, flamethrowers, and heck, even grenades and grenade launchers. Our aircraft also work the same way they do in current times. They fire missiles powered by plain old fuel, with plain old warheads on them. They feature mounted chain guns and turrets that can fill the enemy with lead. They drop dumb bombs like those that we have seen used in our contemporary wars. It’s all stuff we are familiar with.

Perhaps the most advanced piece of human technology on Pandora is the Amp Suit. Amp Suits are 16 foot tall humanoid fighting machines. Instead of being controlled with an intricate interface, however, Amp Suits are strapped directly to the pilot’s body. The pilot then moves naturally and the giant fighting robot he is encased in follows suit. To walk, the pilot simply walks. To punch, the pilot simply punches. To fire a gun, the pilot simply fires a gun. It is pretty awesome, because everything is made better with giant robots.

Avatars and The Conflict

Human technology, even when dialed back to cope with Pandora’s magnetic fields, can easily overpower the Na’vi in any confrontation. Unfortunately, what human technology is having a hard time with is the environment itself. As stated before, the toxic atmosphere of Pandora will kill a human being if he is exposed to it for only a few minutes. That means that small cracks in the cockpits of aircrafts, or a small tear in a survival mask’s oxygen supply hose, could spell death for any human. Not only that, but the loud fuel-burning technology tends to upset the powerful primordial wildlife of the planet, and a Thanator can easily go up against an Amp Suit or even a fully armored transport.

To help rectify this, the Avatar program was created. By splicing the DNA of a human being with that of the indigenous Na’vi, humans have been able to grow surrogate bodies for themselves. These bodies, which look remarkably like the Na’vi themselves — aside from a different number of fingers (avatars have five, indigenous Na’vi have four) — can live and survive on the surface of Pandora as comfortably as their natural Na’vi brethren. The only difference is that these Avatars are basically grown to have blank minds that can be inhabited by a human via psionic technology. Essentially, the minds and thought patterns of human volunteers are transferred to the brains of the avatar. The avatars are then controlled by these human’s as naturally as if they were the human’s own body.

The Avatar program has several applications. First and foremost, it allows humans to walk on the surface of Pandora without survival gear. Avatars still have opposable thumbs and walk and move almost exactly like humans do so very little training is needed to allow a human in an avatar body to fully operate human equipment. In addition, avatars will also be used for diplomatic purposes. Specifically, avatars can infiltrate tribes of Na’vi and hopefully learn their ways of life. Through this, or so goes the theory, the human race can improve relations with the Na’vi and eventually create a peaceful understanding between the two races that will allow us to mine unobtainium without harming the indigenous races … or we could just blow them all right the hell up. That works too.