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Avatar (film)/Trivia (view source)

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* [[The Red Stapler]]/[[Defictionalization]]: The Chinese [http://www2.chinadaily.com.cn/life/2010-01/26/content_9375209.htm renamed one of their national park mountains as Avatar Hallelujah Mountain] ''because'' of this film. Of course, according to [[Word of God|James Cameron]], the design of the mountains in the film are inspired by the mountains around southern China. In particular, Huangshan.
* [[Shout-Out]]:
*** The Marine colonel swigs from his coffee mug in the middle of a gunship attack, like Colonel Kilgore in ''[[Apocalypse Now]]''.
*** Also, there are oodles of ''[[Aliens]]'' Shout Outs. Let's just mention that Sigourney Weaver's first appearance on-screen is inside a capsule and leave it there, although to prevent one accidental similarity Cameron changed her character's surname to Augustine rather than the original Shipley, which he decided was too similar to Ripley. Believe it or not. Also, RDA company man Parker Selfridge is a bit more sympathetic than [[Alien|Weyland-Yutani]] company man Carter Burke.
*** Wainfleet acts as a door gunner in one scene, can't wait to kill some innocent civilians, and says "Get some!" several times throughout the movie, just like the door gunner in ''[[Full Metal Jacket]]''.
** The original Avatar Project leader (before Grace and before its focus on the Na'vi) was [[H.P. Lovecraft|Dr. Cordell Lovecraft]], and the project was called "[[Cthulhu Mythos|Dark Dreamer]]". (Fun fact: Lovecraft was awarded several Nobel Peace Prizes, only to be withdrawn by protests from several groups... one of them being the UN.)
*** The burning direhorse is drawn from [[Real Life|The Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki]]. Many thought it was a shout out to various films, but it actually drew from real life. [[Reality Is Unrealistic]] strikes again.
*** The biggest deposit of [[Unobtanium]] within 200 klicks is coincidentally buried right underneath the Na'Vi village. So the whole job of the Avatars is to help relocate them to another location. Sounds ''exactly'' like several squabbles between Native Americans and the United States, particularly the Black Hills region (which the Supreme Court in 1980 found to have been ''illegally'' taken from the Sioux, but they weren't willing to give it back because it had had over a century of private development and South Dakota's second largest city on it).
**** Then you get to the Na'vi fleeing the tree, which looks just like Trail of Tears depictions.
*** Helicopters firing toxic gas on tropical natives? Marines with [[Kill It with Fire|flamethrowers]] "securing" a village? Did we just [[Vietnam War|smell napalm in the morning]]?
** There's also the Colonel referring to the Na'vi as [[The War on Terror|"terrorists", and saying they'll use "shock and awe" tactics]].
** The ritual Neytiri does when she saves Jake from the Viperwolves (and kills one) is reminiscent of Ohlone (and probably some other Native American tribes) praying for forgiveness to a killed animal for [[Department of Redundancy Department|killing them]]. Depending on how many hundreds of years you go back, similar rituals and beliefs were prevalent pretty much everywhere.
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