20 Things You Somehow Missed In Avatar

Revisiting James Cameron's mesmerising classic reveals some fascinating details.

By Jack Pooley /

It sure doesn't feel like a whole 13 years have passed since the release of James Cameron's Avatar, which defied enormous skepticism to win over critics, nab Oscars, and become the highest-grossing film of all time.

Advertisement

And with long-awaited sequel Avatar: The Way of Water now mere months away from release, Cameron decided to recently release a 4K remaster of the original film in cinemas, serving as a potent reminder of just how gorgeous and expertly crafted it is.

Whether you've caught the movie in cinemas again or not, there's no denying that many are going to revisit the original Avatar before the sequel releases in December, and in doing so will surely uncover a wealth of sneaky details they'd totally missed before.

Avatar may be many things, but critiques about its apparent lack of originality aside, it is one of the most detail-dense blockbuster films ever made, with Cameron slavishly agonising over every minor facet of Pandora and all the living things within it.

And returning to the movie today, it's stunningly clear that the majority of viewers will take so many of these flourishes for granted...

20. All The Animals On Pandora Have Six Limbs

The diverse and brilliantly designed creatures on Pandora are so awe-striking that you'd be forgiven for failing to notice one commonality among their biology: they've all got six limbs.

Advertisement

This makes Pandora's wildlife all hexapods, though scientists have pointed out that it probably wouldn't make much sense in reality for all the planet's animals to have six limbs - a characteristic typically afforded to insects instead.

Fun fact: it's widely speculated among fans that the lemur-like creature we briefly catch sight of on Pandora at the start of the film might well be the evolutionary "missing link" between the planet's animals and the Na'vi, given that its characteristics seem to split the difference between the two.

Advertisement