2001: A Space Odyssey

[Mr. Laser Beam]

I findi it more likely that Kubrick just liked the name "Hal" and invented an acronym after that.

As for @Asbo Zaprudder's interpretation of the film's meaning...well let's just say I don't share it, and leave it at that. Although Kubrick also did say that there is no one right way to interpret the film. So there's that. I guess I'm just more literalist than most!

However...if Dr. Floyd is to be believed when, in 2010, he said he never authorized anyone to tell HAL about the Monolith, it would seem that there is some deception involved, as this would mean that Floyd's final message to the Discovery crew in 2001 (which clearly states that Floyd DID authorize that very thing) was faked by the government!

Although it's probably more likely that in 2010 Floyd was just embarrassed to be called out on it in front of Dr. Chandra.

 

[Nightowl1701]

It could play either way depending on if you saw 2001 or not (and/or whether you believe Floyd or not). Which I guess was Hyams' intention.

Brings that Mr. Incredible 'Those Who Don't Know / Those Who Know' meme to mind...

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

If Kubrick never documented his intentions with regard to how the movie of 2001 should be interpreted, they are unknowable now. I doubt that Peter Hyams was privvy to them and 2010 is a very straightforward SF movie by comparison.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

If Kubrick never documented his intentions with regard to how the movie of 2001 should be interpreted, they are unknowable now. I doubt that Peter Hyams was privvy to them and 2010 is a very straightforward SF movie by comparison.

But that's the thing - when Kubrick made the film, he HAD no intention for how it "should" be interpreted. There's no right or wrong answers. Every viewer is left to interpret the film however they want.

Although you're right that we will never know what he personally was thinking.

Anyhoo, here's my latest:

- When Dave is in the pod and releases Frank's body, why does it go flying off into the distance? Shouldn't it have just hung there, like the earlier bit when Dave was replacing the AE-35 unit? As I see it, the only way Frank's body would have gone sailing away was if it was pushed, and it doesn't like that was the case.

- After Dave forces his way into the emergency airlock, obviously he believes that HAL will have intentionally leaked all the air out of the Discovery, so Dave puts on the green helmet from the emergency suit. But when Dave later leaves the ship in the pod, he's wearing his normal, red helmet. So if he was able to switch, there must have been some air in the ship at that time. Where did the air come from? If HAL did indeed leak all the air out, that should have been the end...

 

[David cgc]

The ship is designed to function while full of air. HAL’s brain room, at the very least, would be vulnerable to overheating without air for an extended period.

I don’t remember the scene specifically enough to know if you could hear sound from outside Dave’s suit after he got on the ship but it’s likely that, unlike in the novel, HAL didn’t pump the air out of the ship, but Dave was just keeping the helmet on as a precaution since removing the air (or venting something toxic into it) would be the easiest way to kill him.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

- When Dave is in the pod and releases Frank's body, why does it go flying off into the distance? Shouldn't it have just hung there, like the earlier bit when Dave was replacing the AE-35 unit? As I see it, the only way Frank's body would have gone sailing away was if it was pushed, and it doesn't like that was the case.

Yes, the impulse should have been negligible. IIRC, in 3001, Clarke describes how Poole's body is recovered in the outer solar system having been slingshotted around Jupiter. Until the Discovery burned to enter orbit around Jupiter, the body should have remained close to the ship.

- After Dave forces his way into the emergency airlock, obviously he believes that HAL will have intentionally leaked all the air out of the Discovery, so Dave puts on the green helmet from the emergency suit. But when Dave later leaves the ship in the pod, he's wearing his normal, red helmet. So if he was able to switch, there must have been some air in the ship at that time. Where did the air come from? If HAL did indeed leak all the air out, that should have been the end...

Let's imagine there were safety mechanisms to prevent HAL doing that. In 2010, the Discovery is repressurised using its own reserves, I think. Pity there weren't safety mechanisms on the sleeping crew members' cryopods. The pod bay can be depressurised but I can't recall where the internal pressure door is, unless its the one giving access to the centrifuge. I though HAL could have made Bowman's re-entry to the ship much more difficult. What would HAL have done if Dave had remembered his helmet?

 

[Forbin]

I always figured the pod was in forward motion when Dave release Frank, giving him a little impetus. Then a little squirt on the reverse thrusters.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

What would HAL have done if Dave had remembered his helmet?

Very little, I think.

Discovery, being a pure science vessel, probably doesn't have much in the way of internal defense mechanisms. So once Dave got on board (helmet or not) there's nothing HAL can do to stop him.

In 2010, the Discovery is repressurised using its own reserves, I think.

No, there was air already in the Discovery when Max and Curnow board. Max even opens up his helmet and breathes it in.

And speaking of Max: At first I thought there's no way that the food that Dave and Frank were eating (in 2001) could have spoiled. But the food was clearly HOT - as you can see from Dave flinching when he takes it out of the slot - and, naturally, any food that's hot can spoil. Also, it seems clear that when Curnow says "The galley...some...meat...went bad before Discovery froze up", he's reaching, trying to come up with a convenient excuse to calm his friend down.

So the bad smell that caused Max to freak out (thinking it was one of the dead crew), might not have actually had anything to do with spoiled food. Could have been something entirely different.

 

[Asbo Zaprudder]

Hmm, now I'm wondering who shut the pod bay door and repressurised Discovery when Dave left to investigate the monolith? Dave couldn't previously open the door remotely when HAL wouldn't let him, so it seems unlikely there would be a remote mechanism to close the door and repressurise. I don't recall whether the novelisation of 2010 bothers with such issues, The first novel has the Discovery going to Saturn and Iapetus, not Jupiter and Io, in any case.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Hmm, now I'm wondering who shut the pod bay door and repressurised Discovery when Dave left to investigate the monolith? Dave couldn't previously open the door remotely when HAL wouldn't let him, so it seems unlikely there would be a remote mechanism to close the door and repressurise.

Perhaps Dave managed to find a way to jury-rig just such a system after he shut HAL down.

As the mystery of the monolith grew, Dave must have known he would have to leave Discovery to investigate. So naturally he would take precautions to ensure the safety of the ship if he was ever permanently separated from it.

Dave would have wanted a future expedition to find Discovery and figure out what happened - just like how things played out in 2010.

 

[DarrenTR1970]

It's been ages since I've read the novel, but didn't Dave have to jury-rig several systems after shutting down HAL in order to keep Discovery operational? Didn't Dave also think that it was beneficial to his mental health in that he had to keep busy to keep the ship working and not on how alone he was and that it would be a few years before Discovery 2 came to rescue him.

 

[David cgc]

^The detail I remember is that, without HAL, the gimbals the antenna was on couldn’t be operated, so Dave had to rotate the entire ship to align the dish with Earth.

As for what HAL would’ve done if Dave hadn’t left his helmet, he’d more-or-less succeeded in making Frank’s death look like an accident. Dave forgetting his helmet might have just been an opportunity to kill the entire crew all at once, and if HAL had judged Dave would’ve still be able to get back on the ship no matter what, he might’ve waited to killed the science crew until after he’d had the chance to kill Dave on-board (which is what happened in the novel; HAL let Dave back in without incident, and then a little while later, pumped the air out of the ship after he’d removed his spacesuit). Remember, they just thought HAL had made a mistake. Until he refused to let Dave back in, it wasn’t clear that he was knowingly acting against the crew, so it’s likely Dave wouldn’t have realized he was in immediate danger if HAL let him back in and wouldn’t have immediately helmeted up and gone straight to the computer room.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

making a prehistoric landscape look so authentic without any CGI, and where and how they filmed it.

If I didn't already know that the Dawn of Man sequence was filmed in a studio, with the backgrounds a rear projection...I would never in a million years have guessed it.

And the initial scenes, before we see any apes? Those are all paintings!

 

[JD]

Woah, really? I had always assumed they filmed out in Africa or at least Southern California.

 

[Vger23]

^The detail I remember is that, without HAL, the gimbals the antenna was on couldn’t be operated, so Dave had to rotate the entire ship to align the dish with Earth.

As for what HAL would’ve done if Dave hadn’t left his helmet, he’d more-or-less succeeded in making Frank’s death look like an accident. Dave forgetting his helmet might have just been an opportunity to kill the entire crew all at once, and if HAL had judged Dave would’ve still be able to get back on the ship no matter what, he might’ve waited to killed the science crew until after he’d had the chance to kill Dave on-board (which is what happened in the novel; HAL let Dave back in without incident, and then a little while later, pumped the air out of the ship after he’d removed his spacesuit). Remember, they just thought HAL had made a mistake. Until he refused to let Dave back in, it wasn’t clear that he was knowingly acting against the crew, so it’s likely Dave wouldn’t have realized he was in immediate danger if HAL let him back in and wouldn’t have immediately helmeted up and gone straight to the computer room.

Actually, in the novel, Dave never leaves the Discovery at all.

 

[publiusr]

The first laptop later in this video

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The phone is a Bogen TQ12A intercom handset, modified by Honeywell for the prop.

 

[Oddish]

If I didn't already know that the Dawn of Man sequence was filmed in a studio, with the backgrounds a rear projection...I would never in a million years have guessed it.

If I remember right, "Mary Poppins" was also filmed completely indoors, and in California to boot.

EDIT: Yup, I remembered right.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

Sorry for the bump, but it just hit me:

Why does the monolith on the Moon wait so long before sending out its signal to Jupiter?

I mean, it had to have been uncovered for some time. And I'm sure there were a lot of astronauts hanging around in the area before we see Floyd and his friends go up to it. I wonder, was it waiting for somebody to actually touch it, as Floyd does?

 

[Tallguy]

Sorry for the bump, but it just hit me:

Why does the monolith on the Moon wait so long before sending out its signal to Jupiter?

I mean, it had to have been uncovered for some time. And I'm sure there were a lot of astronauts hanging around in the area before we see Floyd and his friends go up to it. I wonder, was it waiting for somebody to actually touch it, as Floyd does?

It was waiting for the music.

 

[Mr. Laser Beam]

^

And I freaking LOVE that VR tour of Discovery posted upthread. I had no idea that the access tunnel for the centrifuge was halfway up the ladder (from the podbay)!

I also didn't know there was a piano in the centrifuge. Although it makes perfect sense, the crew would need a way to unwind when they're not on duty.

Pity they couldn't do HAL's room, or the cockpit...but maybe one day...