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From: Neely.pa@PARC-MAXC.ARPA@sri-unix.UUCP
Newsgroups: net.movies
Subject: Re: 2001: A Space Odyssey. . .
Message-ID: <12524@sri-arpa.UUCP>
Date: Wed, 12-Oct-83 22:24:53 EDT
Article-I.D.: sri-arpa.12524
Posted: Wed Oct 12 22:24:53 1983
Date-Received: Mon, 17-Oct-83 22:41:59 EDT
Lines: 111

I loved the movie.  Saw it four times the year it came out.  Twice
before reading the book and twice after reading the book.  Haven't seen
it in a decade and still remember it almost scene by scene.

I waited to read the book so that I could "figure it ALL out" on my own.
Considered that a enjoyable intellectual challenge.  Not too
surprisingly(I had read a lot of science fiction including much by
Clarke) my interpretation was consistent with the book, except that I
hadn't been able to deduce a reason for the computer failure.

One of the things I loved about the movie was that it was one of the
first science fiction movies that didn't stop and explain what was going
on.  Now this is fairly common but, then, ... magnificent!

Actually, the movie and the book are different.  The movie is delibertly
more ambiguous than the book to allow alternative interpretations.
Kubric(sp?) is really in to that.  I've heard some pretty wild
interpretations which were consistent with the movie.  The book can be
considered the "most probable" interpretation of the movie.

Following the spoiler warning is a interpretation of the MOVIE
consistent with the book.

**** SPOILER WARNING ****  Remainder contains plot details.
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2001 is about extra-terrestrial intervention(interference?) in man's
evolution.

Four million years ago an extra-terrestrial object causes an
evolutionary jump in one group of premen who thereby become our
ancesters.  This is accomplished, at least in part, by stimulating in
the minds of the premen the idea of tool-use.  There's a popular notion,
less so now than in the 50's, that tool-use preceeded and stimulated the
evolutionary changes leading to man.  Ironically they first use tools as
weapons. Converting animal threat behavior into murder.  Arghh!

Skip ahead to 2001AD when man, having discovered a strange magnetic
anomoly(MA1) on the moon, excavates a superficially similar device.
Being solar activated, it generates a "radio" signal at lunar sunrise.
Because the men near the device were wearing space suits with radio
communications, they collapsed in pain from the resultant sound produced
by their suit radios.

We, watching the movie, may presume that the device on the moon was
planted at the time of the original intervention(~ 4 million BC) with
the intention of triggering the next stage of intervention as soon as
man had progressed to the point of space travel.  The original story
that had attracted Kubrik was a short story by Clarke called The
Sentinel which covered just the lunar sequence leaving the purpose of
the "Alarm" on the moon to the reader's speculation.

The radio signal was directional and humans tracked it to Jupiter.  So
astronaughts were sent toward Jupiter with the infamous computer HAL at
the controls.  The scientific members of the expedition were maintained
in hypo-thermal "hibernation" to conserve supplies during the long trip.

The mishap of Hal's failure was just a mishap.  It was not caused by the
aliens.  Considering HAL a hardware-assisted AI program, we find in the
book that the failure was a caused by a combination of user error and
program bug. The user error was that the project bigshots decided to (1)
keep the real purpose of the mission from the astronaughts (2) tell Hal
AND order HAL to keep it a secret and (3) charge HAL with responsibility
for a successful mission.  The incompatibility of keeping secrets from
the crew AND having a successful mission caused HAL to go insane.  This
is indicated in the movie only by Hal asking Dave if he's "noticed
anything strange about the mission?" just before falsely anouncing the
failure of a part and setting out to kill the crew.

After the death of all the crew except himself, Dave disables HAL and
continues to Jupiter where he discovers another alien device in orbit
around Jupiter.  This one's a "Star Gate"(i.e. a space-warp transporter)
that transports Dave to a planet in a Galaxy Far Far Away.  There he is
"made comfortable" by being surrounded by familiar things while
undergoing a process of personal transformation(as opposed to the
evolutionary transformation used in the first stage intervention).

The movie ends with Dave, transformed into a fetal Homo Superior,
crossing the lunar orbit on his way to Earth.  Notice that HIS EYES ARE
OPEN.

PS. Take Newman's advice and "Read the book." then see the movie again!

ev.