2001: A Space Odyssey

A few million years ago, in Africa's Olduvai Gorge, our ancestors were starving, defenseless prey to predators, and on the verge of extinction. An advanced civilization from the stars (never shown) spots our potential and gives our brains a boost by means of a monolith. (Symbolic dimensions 1x4x9 --the squares of 1, 2 and 3) In 2001 a monolith is found buried on the moon. When sunlight hits it, it sends a radio message to a Jupiter monolith-relay, telling the aliens that we have arrived. A space craft is sent to Jupiter on a secret mission to check it out. One member of the crew is HAL -- a sentient, self-aware computer. Unfortunately HAL has been instructed to lie -- something contrary to his very nature. This drives him to desperate measures.

2001: A Space Odyssey mistake picture

Continuity mistake: When Dave gets his supper, the order of the slop from right to left is yellow, light brown, light brown, dark brown. Later when he's eating, the order is yellow, orange brown, dark brown, light brown. (00:59:00 - 00:59:50)

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Dave Bowman: Open the pod bay doors, HAL.
HAL: I'm sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that.

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Trivia: As HAL loses his mind, he begins to sing "Daisy." In 1961, "Daisy" was the first song ever to be reproduced with a nonhuman voice - a computer.

Phoenix

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Question: What was the ultimate destination of the Jupiter mission? The giant planet is made of gas, it has no solid surface to land on. Theoretically a spacecraft could land on one of Jupiter's moons, but they lie within the lethal radiation belt.

Answer: The ultimate goal was to orbit Jupiter to study the Monolith also in orbit around it.

Grumpy Scot

Answer: The objective of the Discovery (Jupiter) mission was to locate the recipient of the powerful radio signal that was transmitted from the Moon earlier in the movie. Interestingly, the destination of the Discovery mission changed between Jupiter to Saturn and back to Jupiter during the production of the film. The Jupiter visual effects had already been shot ("in the can" as it were) when Stanley Kubrick decided to change to Saturn. It was the protest of the visual effects team, who had already spent much time and money on the Jupiter effects, that convinced Kubrick to stay with Jupiter. In the meantime, author Arthur C. Clarke went ahead and changed the destination to Saturn in his written treatment of the movie.

Charles Austin Miller

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