Considering the costs, I would doubt it. One of the first concerns when the marine got out of the pod the second time (when he was deep in Na’vi territory) was concern for the safety of the body. I’m not sure about it only working on Pandora either - that seems a bit of a stretch.
Perhaps the nasties running the company are the equivalent of Chinese gold-farmers? 
The costs, though, would be for Pandoran/Na’vi avatars. Might be cheaper for plain ol’ Earth/human avatars. No way to know, though.
But Jake – and the scientists – are suspiciously unfamliar with “logging avatar hours” for it to be in wide use on Earth. Which seems odd.
Regardless of your goals or intentions, mickrussom, I think I love you.
It is not remotely complex. Probably one of the most basic, mindless movies I have seen in a long time. As others have pointed out you did not understand it at all, and there are no multiple interpretations. The nature of the movie world is blisterlingly clear.
As to its plausibility, well, it’s a movie. They don’t make movies to appeal to tech and science geeks, they make them to show off cool visuals and tell an emotional human story (even though this particular story has been told 1000 times before). Because that’s what brings in the money, and Avatar is clearly a big success at it.
I admit being kind of curious how Sully can spend what seems to be whole days with the N’avi and not need a catheter for his human body.
Not overly so, mind you. One could easily analyze any of several dozen improbable technical aspects of the Avatar program as presented, for what it’s worth. I found them irrelevant to my (lack of) enjoyment of the film.
He was removed from the tank each night, but I too have to assume he had a catheter we didn’t see. Being handicapped he might have been using one from the beginning of the movie.
Either that or a diaper. We saw him get out of the chamber a couple times and I don’t remember seeing any kind of tube running from his pants. If he was only in for 8-10 hours at a time he might not have needed one. Maybe it’s similar to being asleep, most people can go sleep for that long without wetting the bed.
To those of you who deny the possibility that Avatar has any virtual component, you either underestimate, or do not understand, the possible extent of virtual reality. All computable functions can exist in VR, and all things in the universe are computable in virtue of their existence. This may not have been the intended interpretation of the movie, however, it is fully compatible with it and explains otherwise outlandish plot scenarios, such as apparently physically impossible scenarios.
Is “Pandora was virtual!” slated to become the new “Deckard was a replicant!”, taking up the mantle of utterly pointless imaginary plot twists?
Sure, but then, absolutely every movie ever made could be explained with, “It’s just VR!” Why do exploding Tie Fighters make noise in the vacuum of space? The whole war is really taking place in virtual reality! Why would Nazis care about exit visas in Casablanca? They’re VR nazis! How did the butler over hear Kane’s last words, when in the opening shot, he clearly wasn’t in the room? Xanadu is a simulated construct, and he was using a wall-hack!
I’m not one to tell someone that their interpretation of a work of art is objectively wrong. If viewing the events of the film as existing wholly or partially in a digitally rendered universe increases your enjoyment of the movie, who am I to criticize? But if you want to advocate your view as superior to a simpler, more plain text reading, you’re going to have to address two salient issues. The first is that there is absolutely nothing in the movie to suggest that wholly life-like VR even exists in that universe, much less that it is being employed by any of the characters. And the second is that most of the central events in the plot revolve around interactions that are flatly impossible if we presume that one party of the interaction is a computer construct. There is no way your theory can survive the simple evidence of Sully’s human body being cradled in Neytiri’s inhuman arms. Not unless we assume that everything in the film is VR, which affords us no greater insight into the work than does pointing out that it’s just a movie, and nothing in it really happened.
Hahaha yeah. Exactly.
If you want to look at it that way, ANY movie can be “read” merely as characters interacting in a virtual reality simulation.
Maybe all the events in The Godfather take place in an elaborate gangland MMORPG … . :rolleyes:
Isn’t that what a movie is? The Actors playing out roles in a virtual world?
And those of you who continue to insist that the movie was about something other than what the movie said it was about are clearly not understanding anything they saw on the screen while watching said movie.
There is no “intended interpretation” of this smack-you-in-the-face-with-every-obvious-and-trite-plot-point movie.
The big giveaway is that Weaver’s Avatar’s shirt doesn’t actually say “Stanford.” If you look closely, it’s clearly “Stanfnord.”
Yours and all the other replies to my comment are overly strong. In my comment I admitted it may not have been the intended interpretation. I clearly pointed my comment at those who simply didn’t understand the VR argument and claimed it was incompatible, which is not true.
Don’t you get it yet? Apart from you, none of the posters on this board are real. We are all chatbots.
I’m actually Eliza.
Maybe you are, but I don’t know that I am. 