In James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, the story occurs on the alien moon Pandora.
Pandora is depicted as a lush moon orbiting the fictional gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. It is home to the Na’vi, a tall blue-skinned species whose environment and culture are central to the film’s conflict. Human corporations and military forces seek access to Pandora’s resources, especially the valuable mineral unobtanium.
The film’s use of the name Pandora recalls the Greek myth, but its fictional moon is not the jar or character from that story. The shared name suggests a world filled with wonders as well as dangers and consequences.
Avatar was released in 2009, directed and co-written by Cameron. Its extensive use of computer-generated imagery, performance capture, and stereoscopic 3D helped make it a landmark in blockbuster filmmaking. The film’s setting was expanded in later installments of the Avatar series.