I sense a disturbance in the force.. (Not star wars related)

[thesrdic]

So, the mineral in Avatar that was worth years of trips to a distant planet to mine was called unobtainium right?

I was just watching an episode of pokemon where team rocket try to capture some gym leaders pokemon and the cages where made of unobtainium!

http://pokemonepisode.org/episode-375-solid-as-a-solrock/#video

So, the corporation in Avatar (I haven't watched it for a while, forgot the name) is shipping the most expensive, unobtainable mineral every to be discovered to a company that makes mechs that capture psychic pokemon?

Something troubling is afoot, or will be in 143 years and on a distant , pokemon planet

 

[Syntax error]

What's more disturbing is the lack of creativity of these writers. Unobtanium has to be laziest name ever. Did James Cameron tell the writer to come up with a name for some mineral that is almost impossible to find and the writers just flipped open the thesaurus?

 

[Minty]

Well to be fair most minerals don't have the most imaginative names.

In real life they'd probably just go with the first thing to pop into their head, which would likely be "unobtanium".

Hell, they've named minerals by only changing one letter because it kind of looks like something else.

Most scientist generally try to pick a name that that has something to do with one or more characteristic of the mineral in question. And given the amount of effort needed to get this stuff I think the name makes sense. It's not creative, but names of minerals generally aren't. Unless they wanted to waste time coming up with what it does, and give a reason why that's important, but being that the movie was already 3:15 I'd rather they didn't.

 

[VEXD]

Personally I'd have gone with:

Itsunderthetreewheretheblueguyslivesokillum.

That's got a much better ring to it.

👍

That's weird, the board won't let me type that without inserting it's own space near the end.
Is that a character limit or something......

 

[F1 fan]

What's more disturbing is the lack of creativity of these writers. Unobtanium has to be laziest name ever. Did James Cameron tell the writer to come up with a name for some mineral that is almost impossible to find and the writers just flipped open the thesaurus?

That was pretty much what made me give up on Avatar.

 

[niky]

"Unobtanium" is a pretty common, jokey, made-up name used by engineers and sci-fi writers to describe rare, exotic or even physically impossible materials. I actually gave a chuckle when they used the word in the movie.

I'm pretty sure Cameron had no intention of linking his movie to Pokemon... he was just giving a little wink-wink to the fans.

 

[prisonermonkeys]

"Unobtanium" is a plot device - it's a MacGuffin. It does not matter what it actually is or actually does, the fact that it exists is enough to drive the plot forward. In AVATAR, earth could have been using Pandora because it had a natural supply of Guiness, and it would not have affected the actual plot. A MacGuffin serves the demands of the plot equally well regardless of what it is.

 

[Syntax error]

Unless they wanted to waste time coming up with what it does, and give a reason why that's important, but being that the movie was already 3:15 I'd rather they didn't.

I don't think giving it a more imaginative would really necessarily require time spent explaining what it is.

"Unobtanium" is a pretty common, jokey, made-up name used by engineers and sci-fi writers to describe rare, exotic or even physically impossible materials. I actually gave a chuckle when they used the word in the movie.

👍 I was not aware. You successfully made Avatar 0.5% more bearable to watch

"Unobtanium" is a plot device - it's a MacGuffin. It does not matter what it actually is or actually does, the fact that it exists is enough to drive the plot forward. In AVATAR, earth could have been using Pandora because it had a natural supply of Guiness, and it would not have affected the actual plot. A MacGuffin serves the demands of the plot equally well regardless of what it is.

Yeah I got that. I fully understand that it's essentially irrelevant whether it's call unobtainium or Berkshire Hathaway shares, it just seemed a little lazy. Now that niky explained that it's actually a nod to engineer nerds, it makes it far more acceptable.

 

[niky]

Want to make it more bearable... don't think of the showdown between Chip Hazard and Archer in "Small Soldiers" when you're watching Jake and the Colonel duke it out in the jungle.

Whoops.

 

[p-coletray]

"Unobtanium" is a pretty common, jokey, made-up name used by engineers and sci-fi writers to describe rare, exotic or even physically impossible materials. I actually gave a chuckle when they used the word in the movie.

I'm pretty sure Cameron had no intention of linking his movie to Pokemon... he was just giving a little wink-wink to the fans.

Also lame unobtanium reference : "The Core". 2003. They make a vessel to drill to the center of the earth, it's made from... "Unobtanium". (dumdumdummmm)