2001: A Space Odyssey.Info

The Story In the pod bay, Dave is examining the retrieved AE-35 unit with an electronic circuit tester. Frank and Hal watch. Dave appears to be completely absorbed in his examination. Frank is hunched over and appears to be watching Dave but he noticeably moves his eyes and stares at Hal. The testing goes on and all we hear is the sound of the testing equipment against the hum that is always present on board the Discovery. There is a noticeable sigh and then Dave finally breaks the silence with "Well Hal, I'm damned if I can find anything wrong with it." Hal responds "Yes...It's puzzling...I don't think I've seen anything quite like this before." Hal then suggests putting the unit back to let it fail and diagnose it after that. He then mentions that they could afford to be out of communication for the short while. In the centrifuge, Frank and Dave are watching a transmission from Mission Control. They agree with Hal's suggestion of putting the or...

The Story "During the past few weeks, I've wondered if you might be having some second thoughts about the mission." Hal informs this to Dave Bowman. Hal goes on to point out there are some "extremely odd things about this mission". Hal gives specific references to rumors about something being dug up on the Moon, the tight security during training, how the other astronauts (Hunter, Kimble, and Kaminski) were trained separately, and how they were placed aboard Discovery already in hibernation. Dave appears thoughtful during all this and concludes that Hal had opened the conversation in order to work on the crew psychology report. Hal admits that was what he was doing. Before he can say much more, he reports to Dave that he detects a fault in the AE-35 unit. The conversation is forgotten as a faulty AE-35 unit is serious. From the computer displays, we can see it has something to do with the antenna complex that allows communication with Earth. Since the complex is...

The Story The Gayane Ballet Suite resumes as the film focuses on Frank Poole. Frank is lying on a table with protective shades, apparently trying to get a tan. Hal announces that a transmission from his parents has been received. Frank's mother and father appear on the video screen. They briefly talk about finances and other personal stuff. They wish him a happy birthday and quickly sign off. Frank barely stirs through the whole message. He can't respond since, as mentioned before, transmissions take minutes to cross the gulf of space to reach the Discovery and of course, any reply would take just as long. We next see the end of a chess game between Frank and Hal. After an exchange of moves, Hal points out to Frank that his next move will lead to a checkmate. Frank resigns the game. We now focus upon Dave Bowman. He is drawing sketches of the three men in hibernation when Hal calls him. Hal wants to look at his drawings. Upon reviewing them, he wants to ask Dave a personal que...

The Story After being un-nerved by the loud blast of TMA-1, we are treated to the gentle-sounding Gayane Ballet Suite . We are greeted with the title "Jupiter Mission 18 Months Later". We see a large spaceship with a spherical front, a long, spine-like middle, and 6 large exhausts in the rear. There is an antenna complex on top about halfway between the front and the back. There are three round openings in the front and a long slit of windows above them. After a good look at the exterior, we are shown the living area of the interior. It consists of a cylindrical room with a walkway going all the way around. We see a lone man jogging completely around the cylinder. The room is a sort of centrifuge - continuously rotating, thus, creating a simulated gravity along the walkway. This is the same principle the space station used. There are two men. The first one is the one jogging and shadowboxing around the centrifuge. The second comes out of the center hub carefully "down...

The Story The desolate, barren landscape of the Lunar surface provides the background for the next segment of Floyd's journey. Ligeti's Lux Aeterna provides a haunting score. The silent flying vehicle over the jagged, dry surface is on it's way to a major discovery. Something very significant has been discovered in this inhospitable place. The music adds to the mystery. The vehicle is a moon shuttle - designed to go from one place to another on the Moon quickly. As the vehicle moves, we see a gibbous Earth in the background. Unlike the previous two vehicles (Orion, and Aries), no name is given for the shuttle. We do see the pilots using similar controls and displays as in the other two vehicles. There are three scientists inside - Floyd, Halvorsen, and Michaels from the earlier conference. Their first order of business is to eat and then to mutually congratulate each other on how well they've handled the particular circumstances. Michaels then shows Floyd some phot...

The Story With the Blue Danube playing once again, we find ourselves on the Aries spacecraft on its way to the Moon. We follow a flight attendant as she walks (with her special "grip shoes") around the ship. She first comes upon a sleeping Heywood Floyd, then she visits the other attendant, who is watching television. The first flight attendant gives the second one a food tray. Here we see that food must be sucked through a straw in this zero-g environment. The first attendant goes to retrieve more food trays for the pilots. To get to the cockpit, she must perform the amusing task of walking "up" a carousel-like walkway to invert herself, at least from the perspective of the prior part of the ship, not to mention, the audience. She serves meals to the cockpit crew. Later on, we find Floyd awake and "eating" a meal. A pilot appears and he and Floyd have a short conversation. Floyd needs to use the restroom and we see him carefully reading the long list of ...

The Story "Here we are, Sir, main level D" proclaims the pillbox hat - clad flight attendant. We hear the first words of the film. The lone passenger of the Orion spaceflight has arrived at the space station. The next sequence has him going through voice print identification. From this, we learn more about him. His name is Heywood R. Floyd and he is an American heading for the Moon. We can determine that he is a man of some importance as he was greeted by a security guard assigned especially to him. The fact that he was the only passenger on a commercial spacecraft also clues us in that he is a man of significance. As the two men walk through the station, you can see the curved floor serving as a reminder that they are in a space station orbiting the Earth. Floyd stops to make a telephone call. His little girl answers. It is amusing how the telephone is a futuristic video phone and the Earth is seen spinning (due to the station doing the actual spinning). Yet, with this futur...