Unobtainium Why?

[Blatherscythe]

If you've seen Avatar you know that the corporation was their to mine for a shiny substance, unobtanium. The thing is that it is never explained (in the movie) why this shiny metal is so damn valuable. So I ask you, what do you think unobtanium does to make it so valuable? I personally think it's a cure to some form of disease, or maybe cancer.

Edit: Unobtanium is worth 20 million dollars a kilogram.

It's a joke on you. [http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unobtainium] Also, you've lost.

I know it's fuel, I put in that I thought it was a medicine of some kind when I first saw it. I wanted other peoples opinions on what they thought it was at first.

 

[ma55ter_fett]

Because it is un-obtainable (Pun! Hur! Hur!), and forbidden fruit is the sweetest.

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Or the craziest idea, what if it's a monopole? That would be CRAZY AWESOME!

Maybe that'll go towards explaining those floating mountains. Seriously WTF?

 

[LiquidGrape]

It's the one thing in this universe which could possibly expand Cameron's already bloated ego.

 

[Plurralbles]

people are still talking about avatar!?

Myabe it's like a super heavy Uranium like thing that magically stays stable even when its weight is 500g/mole or something. used to produce power I guess.
Or maybe after doing some weird stuff to it, it can become very strong and humanity decides that it needs to be able to drill to the core of hte earth to gain resources that they can't reach any otehr way because they've used it all in the crust.

It's kind of irrelevant to the hippy message the director wanted.

 

[Pingieking]

Or the craziest idea, what if it's a monopole? That would be CRAZY AWESOME!

Maybe that'll go towards explaining those floating mountains. Seriously WTF?

Actually, that would be one of the sweetest explanations in cinema history! The mountains are floating because they're basically giant monopole magnets! It would also kind-of explain why their electronics go crazy when they're flying around the floating mountains.

 

[sagacious]

actually unobtainium is an inside joke from the movie industry and shows just how lazy the writing was in avatar: Don't get me wrong it was very pretty, well acted, well designed & had a lot of emotional resonance, but it was really really really badly written. By now 2 out of every 3 readers of this statement have jumped on the respond button to tell me how wrong i am... but before you do, go back and watch the movie again. This time take in the actual writing rather then the pretty pictures.

Back to my main point. Unobtainium is an inside joke from the movie industry & is a term used to describe any plot breaking substance that a movies base concept is built around. Consider it to be the furry little critter in gremlins (because those rules did not make sense), the microchips in small soldiers or the crystal growing crystal in Superman Returns. all these are examples of unobtainium.

-M

I think you'll find that "Unobtainium" is an Aerospace engineering term, not a movie term. It is Engineer slang for any material required by a design that doesn't exist, is too expensive, or is not available in high enough quantities.

 

[cheese_wizington]

I just don't understand why they named it unobtanium. That's hardly a positive outlook.

 

[cheese_wizington]

Or the craziest idea, what if it's a monopole? That would be CRAZY AWESOME!

Maybe that'll go towards explaining those floating mountains. Seriously WTF?

My theory is that the huge gas giant that pandora orbits is pulling the mountains up with it's gravity.

 

[gigastrike]

http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Unobtainium
If I had to guess based upon what I've seen and that isn't mentioned on any website, I'd say it drives women wild.
That's reason enough for most Earth Men to go to any lengths to get their hands on something, even what no person can rightly grasp.
They search for flowers from Elysium if they thought that it would instantly earn them any woman's favor!

So "unobtanium" is just a general term used to describe any material that is too perfect to exist? That's really lazy on the writer's part. Not only did they not come up with a use for it, they didn't even give it an original name.

 

[ribonuge]

Perhaps it's a bit like Spice?

Yeah it's basically the same metaphor I think.

Perhaps it is an extremely rare form of marmalade?

They kill for some good toast with marmalade in the morning.

 

[KDBTV]

They were super lazy on how to explain about what it does
So they cut it out
Wait until the director's cut comes out and maybe they might tell about it

 

[thenumberthirteen]

Or the craziest idea, what if it's a monopole? That would be CRAZY AWESOME!

Maybe that'll go towards explaining those floating mountains. Seriously WTF?

My theory is that the huge gas giant that pandora orbits is pulling the mountains up with it's gravity.

And yet leaves everything else?

 

[TheDoctor455]

A fossil fuel of sorts I guess, or at least a metaphor for a fossil fuel.

No, more likely a metaphor for one of the several gold rushes.

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

Its like Tiberium.

Except less Brotherhood of Nod and Scrin.

And C&C didnt have giant Blue hippies.

yeah, too bad there wasn't the ammount of Vehicles and Warmech there were in Tiberian Sun...

 

[Piorn]

Some kind of Superconductor, maybe?

 

[Orcus The Ultimate]

BECAUSE IT FLIES! IT'S FUEL! how did they get to this forsaken planet then?

 

[thiosk]

Because the designers are lazy?

But also I would surmise that unobtanium would be part of the theoretical G-block elements, an island of elemental superheavy stability far out beyond the transuraniums, where no truly stable isomers exist.

 

[Pegghead]

Well that says it right there, unobtainium is unobtainable. Back on Earth it's probably just used as jewellery or metal but it's so expensive because it's so rare.