2001 Space Odyssey Notes

2001 Space Odyssey: 

• End of the 1960s, beginning of the 1970s
• Everyone was high on hallucinogens
• Extremely long introduction to the movie with music; comparable to the opera
• THE DAWN OF MAN:
• Enters on a desert dry area with warm color tones and bones
• The apes and antelopes seem like be cohabitating a shared space, but the apes are superior, until the cheetah comes along
• There are different groups of apes that seem to be fighting over resources
• A perfectly geometrical shape in nature; the background music seems to start as humming then turned into a type of chanting as the apes surrounded the shape
• After seeing the shape, the apes’ characteristics changed because they were not longer afraid and began using objects to hit things (the animal bones); they had an imagination
• Could represent how the beginning of humankind was foreseeing the destructions of life (they were eating other animals instead of just plants)
• The apes are now standing on two feet, but still fighting over the water. They are physically hurting each other  
• The animal bone that was technology at the time (used as a tool for fighting, power, food, resources) turned into a space satellite (true modern) technology 
• For this film, they imagined technology to be flying airplanes outside of Earth in space at zero gravity 
• For this film, they imagined technology to be flying airplanes outside of Earth in space at zero gravity
• ON THE SPACESHIP:
• There is facial and voice recognition
• The spaceship is extremely high technology
• Americans are meeting with Russians in space in the middle of the cold war During the meeting, the Russians inquire about an epidemic at Clavius, but Heywood says he is not at liberty to discuss that
• The Americans and Russians are comparable to the two groups of apes at The Dawn of Man
• ON THE SPACESHIP TO CLAVIUS:
• Also extremely high-tech and food is served as drinks to avoid the zero gravity 
• CLAVIUS: 
• Everyone at the meeting is Caucasian
• There is a cover story that is being continued for what is truly happening at Clavius 
• THE SPACESHIP BACK FROM CLAVIUS:
• The men say they are behind Heywood’s decision
• There is a discovery that was unburied over a million years ago, but they have no clue what it is
• Was it hidden to not be found? Or what whoever hid it waited until someone with advanced enough technology would find it?
• The same humming and chanting and the same shape from the shape in The Dawn of Man is heard
• The discovery was the shape There is an extremely loud high-pitch noise that rings
• JUPITER 18 MONTHS LATER:
• The red light (HAL) symbolizes the red sun from the other dawn of time, potentially representing a new one
• New, better technology (sleeping capsules, puree food, hibernation, vitamin D services, HAL 9000)
• Three of the men were put into hibernation before departure to Jupiter to save resources such as food
• The HAL 9000 Computer can mimic most activities of the human brain
• HAL can speed in human voice and spoke to Heywood
• HAL said it is “foolproof and incapable of error”
• The humans are relying heavily on HAL (technology) for survival
• HAL believes he is conscious and maybe has genuine emotions
• Frank, one of the awake crew members, does not respond to his parents, but responds to HAL
• HAL → IBM (International Business Machines)
• HEL → HAL could be to symbolize technology creating misery
• HAL has concerns; HAL notices suspicions about the mission; HAL thinks Dave has similar concerns; HAL questions the discovery on the moon, the hibernation of the three other travelers, the questions circulating before the mission, the true reason for the mission HAL is generating his own thoughts
• Focus on sound – how everything from the chirping to the breathing is very loud and prevalent
• The breathing picks up and the chirping becomes faster as he descends to the satellite
• The technology system allowing them to perform all of these actions is extremely advanced 
• There was a screen inside his helmet that HAL could see HAL has never seen this problem, but created a recommendation (he said to let the system fail so they can see the cause and fix it)
• HAL is blaming humans for the discrepancy in his recommendation (that is wrong)
• HAL is like an eye
• Frank and Dave are skeptical of HAL’s conclusion , but HAL controls the entire ship
• HAL shot Frank into space (there was no noise during these scenes) representing how Frank is now lost in space
• The computer (HAL) malfunctions are kills the sleeping astronauts
• HAL would not let Dave back into the spacecraft, but he found a way in. Dave was inside HAL’s brain and turned HAL off; HAL said he was “afraid” and how he can “feel” his mind going
• Dave is told there were life forms found outside of Earth 
• JUPITER AND BEYOND THE INFINITE:
• Opens with the same humming and chanting from the black shape
• Dave is seen traveling through space through pixels and patterns of changing, glowing lights
• Many graphics within this scene look similar to eyeballs Jupiter glows an ultraviolet blue color with reds, greens, and seems to have every terrain as well
• Dave lands in what looks like a luxury bedroom
• There are many close ups of his eyes and he seems to have aged; Dave is much older and is at this place on Jupiter alone. He witnesses different time periods of his own life, including is death (“The Dusk of Man”) 
• The black shape appears once again 
• The baby in the glowing ball is giant in side and is approaching Earth