In the 2009 film Avatar, the fictional moon where the story takes place is called Pandora. James Cameron’s science-fiction film follows human researchers and the Na’vi on Pandora, which orbits the fictional gas giant Polyphemus.
Pandora is portrayed as a biologically rich world with interconnected ecosystems, floating mountains, unusual plants, and luminous wildlife. The human mining operation seeks unobtanium, a valuable mineral found beneath the moon’s surface. The conflict centers on the clash between corporate extraction and Na’vi ties to their land and environment.
Avatar’s Pandora is not the same object as Saturn’s real moon Pandora. The film borrows the mythological name but gives it to a habitable fictional satellite with an Earthlike atmosphere for the story’s human characters. The name also supports the film’s theme of a beautiful world whose hidden resources attract dangerous outside forces.