“2001: A Space Odyssey” raised more questions than answers, and the film’s ambiguous, metaphysical final scene subsequently sparked more than half a century of debate. But 40 years ago, in December 1984, a movie sequel did a great job of explaining some of the mysteries left behind by Stanley Kubrick’s sci-fi classic – with its psychedelic imagery and giant space babies.
“2010” (subtitled “The Year We Made Contact”) is written and directed by Peter Hyams, who established himself with the 1978 conspiracy thriller “Capricorn One.” However, when he was approached about a sequel to A Space Odyssey, he was reluctant to follow in the footsteps of one of the greatest directors of the 20th century.
“When I was asked to do this movie, I said absolutely not,” Hyams told SFX Magazine in 2006. “I didn’t want to go anywhere near it. Stanley Kubrick was not a filmmaker, he was an icon. I said I would only do it if Kubrick gave me permission to do it. (He did.)
“I decided that the worst thing I could do, for better or worse, or it didn’t matter, was try to copy 2001, so I set out to make a movie that was so different in attitude, look, pace, sound – This film is more emotional and visceral, so you can’t really compare them.
“2010” begins, in effect, with a laundry list of audience questions, as reports of the failure of the Jupiter Discovery mission highlight a bewildering number of “unknowns.” Where did those weird black boulders come from? unknown. Why did the creepy computer HAL 9000 malfunction severely and kill most of the crew? unknown. Why did Dave Bowman send that strange final message—“Oh my God, it’s full of stars!”—and where is he now? Yes, you guessed it, unknown.
Starring former NCA president Haywood Floyd (Roy Scheidel in “Jaws,” the character played by William Sylvester in “2001”). For some reason (another unknown), Discovery was pulled toward Io and will crash into the moon within a few years. Time passed by, Freud and several other experts-Discovery designer Walter Curnow (played by John Lithgow) and HAL founder R. Chandra (Bob Barra)… Ben)—formulates a plan to reach their destination aboard a Soviet spaceship.
However, there is an additional problem. In “2001” author Arthur C. Clarke’s sequel novel “2010: Odyssey Two” (published in 1982), Americans and Soviets work together. But with Clark’s approval (the two corresponded regularly via a precursor to email in the early 1980s), Himes saw an opportunity to escalate tensions by pitting the two Cold War superpowers against each other. The military standoff in Central America means that World War III could break out at any time.
The change would prove to be indicative of Hyams’ approach. Where Kubrick’s film was cool, emotionally distant, and explored ambitious themes about the evolution of our species, “2010” is more interested in individual humans than humanity as a whole. Freud and his Soviet counterpart Tanya Kobuk (Helen Mirren) care as much about their family back home as they do about finding chlorophyll on the Europa moon. In one memorable scene, as Leonov performs a dangerous braking maneuver, a young Soviet cosmonaut turns to Freud for comfort.
Hyams clearly paid close attention to the sci-fi films that came out after Kubrick’s Odyssey. The interior of the Leonov and the dressing style of the characters drew heavily on “alien“, while the visual effects were supervised by Richard Edlund, one of the pioneers of Industrial Light and Magic who participated in the original film”Star WarsHyams also chose to create audible sounds in outer space – galaxies much further away than the eerie, scientifically accurate silence of “2001”.
Not that he gave up on physics entirely… In a 1984 interview with a film critic John C. TibbettsHyams noted that “this is not a movie about the distant future” and that “it was done using a lot of knowledge from the Jet Propulsion Laboratory, Boeing Aerospace and Arthur C. The technology is very close.
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Although the predictions about interstellar exploration in the movie turned out to be completely wrong, the continuation of the HAL 9000 story still has practical significance. After a daring retcon, it turns out that Discovery’s digital villain isn’t evil after all – which may be disappointing for those who elevated Red Eye Computer to the pantheon of sci-fi villains.
Instead, we learn that the U.S. government went over Floyd’s head and fed HAL information about the Jupiter monolith, forcing him to lie to the humans in his care. This inconsistency in his programming caused him to act irrationally, ultimately resulting in the deaths of four crew members before Bowman terminated the program. lesson? Even the most powerful artificial intelligence in the solar system is only as good as humans giving orders.
But HAL was the least of Freud’s worries. The escalation of U.S.-Soviet hostilities not only resulted in the American being expelled from the Leonov, he also received a cryptic warning imploring him to leave Jupiter within two days. Sender? A being who calls himself Dave Bowman.
Having Keir Dullea reprise his role as Bowman, and Douglas Rain voicing HAL, is arguably Hyams’ greatest masterpiece. He’s the connective tissue between the two films, and – regardless of his current plane of existence – provides a human face to the “wonderful things” going on out there.
When Bowman convinced Kilbook to disobey government orders by enacting a joint escape plan – sacrificing Discovery and HAL in the process – monoliths appeared on the surface of Jupiter and began to multiply at an exponential rate. The planet then collapses and is reborn as a new star, and Hal broadcasts a new message dictated by Bowman: “All these worlds are yours except Europa. Don’t try to land there. Use them together. Peace.” use them appropriately.
You can enjoy “2001” and “2010” on their own, but there’s no doubt they also enhance each other. With its bold ambition and technical excellence, 2001 remains one of the most seminal works in science fiction history. The sequel won’t repeat this, but by taking a more traditional approach to telling a wide-ranging story, “2010” proves to be an ideal companion piece.
It does not and should not have all the answers. The origin of these monoliths remains unknown (you’ll need to read Clark’s novel to find out more about this), however, although it’s never explicitly stated on screen, it’s clear that they played an important role in the development of life on Earth… and elsewhere .
Finally, the final shot of a giant rock on Europa now filled with life – backed by familiar notes from Richard Strauss’s “Thus Spoke Zarathustra” – feels like The perfect ending to the story. That’s probably a good thing, since Himes “never considered” adapting Clark’s other sequels, 2061 and 3001. “I did ‘2010,’ and I felt like I got away with it,” he said. empire 2014. “If you fall off a building and you land on your feet and you’re fine, you don’t necessarily want to try it again.”
“2010: The Year We Touched” is available Watch movies for free on YouTube. You can also rent and purchase the unit on Apple, Amazon and other VOD services in the US and UK.