In James Cameron’s 2009 film Avatar, the habitable moon is named Pandora.
Pandora is a fictional moon orbiting the gas giant Polyphemus in the Alpha Centauri star system. It is the main setting of the film, where humans seek unobtanium and encounter the Na’vi, the moon’s indigenous humanoid inhabitants. The name deliberately recalls the mythic Pandora and suggests a world containing both extraordinary resources and serious dangers.
Avatar does not present Pandora as a planet. In the film’s fictional astronomy, it is a moon, although its forests, mountains, atmosphere, and ecosystems dominate the story. This is a common point of confusion because popular descriptions sometimes call the setting “the planet Pandora.”
The 2009 film was directed and co-written by James Cameron. Its world-building, motion-capture performances, and 3D presentation made Pandora one of the most recognizable fictional environments in modern cinema.