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2010: The Year We Make Contact

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2010
Directed byPeter Hyams
Written byPeter Hyams, based on the novel by Arthur C. Clarke
Produced byPeter Hyams
StarringRoy Scheider
John Lithgow
Helen Mirren
Bob Balaban
Keir Dullea
Douglas Rain
CinematographyPeter Hyams
Music byDavid Shire
Distributed byMGM
Release date
December 7, 1984 (USA)
Running time
116 minutes
CountryTemplate:FilmUS
LanguageEnglish

2010 is a 1984 science fiction film released by MGM and directed by Peter Hyams. Its full title is given on posters and DVD releases as 2010: The Year We Make Contact, although the subtitle does not appear in the film itself. It is based on the novel 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke. The film, like the novel, is a sequel to the 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey.

Plot

The film is set nine years after the mysterious failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter, depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey, in which four astronauts died and another mysteriously disappeared while investigating an alien monolith orbiting Jupiter. Dr. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider, taking over from William Sylvester who played the role in 2001) - who was Director of the National Council on Astronautics during the Discovery mission - has been made the scapegoat, and has since left the NCA to become a university chancellor.

Amid growing friction between the U.S. and the Soviet Union, both nations are preparing to send missions to Jupiter to determine what happened. The Soviets suggest a joint mission: their ship Leonov will be ready one year ahead of the American ship, Discovery 2, but they need Americans to help investigate the HAL 9000's American-made computer systems. The U.S. government reluctantly agrees, as recent data shows Discovery is slated to crash into Jupiter's moon Io within years because its orbit is decaying.

Floyd feels responsible for the failure of the mission and volunteers for the mission himself. He recruits two colleagues: Dr. Walter Curnow (John Lithgow), an engineer and the original designer of Discovery, and Dr. Chandra (Bob Balaban), creator of the HAL 9000 computer. Their mission is threefold: to find the reason for the Discovery mission's failure, to investigate the Monolith in orbit around the planet, and to find answers for David Bowman's disappearance. They hypothesize that much of this information is locked away on the now-abandoned Discovery craft.

On arrival in the Jupiter system, Floyd is awakened from hibernation 2 days early by the Russians, because they have detected chemical signatures of life on one of Jupiter's moons, Europa. They send an unmanned probe to explore the surface of the icy moon; it glimpses something suggestive of life, but is inexplicably destroyed in a burst of light before photographs can be taken. The Russians blame this on electrostatic build-up, but Floyd believes it's a warning from someone—or something—to stay away from Europa.

Discovery is found abandoned but undamaged in a decaying orbit around Jupiter's moon Io. Space walking over from Leonov, Curnow reactivates its on-board systems, and the two spacecraft rendezvous with the monolith. Dr. Chandra then restarts HAL (voiced by Douglas Rain), but learns only that HAL had been deactivated before the monolith was found. The huge black monolith is then discovered in the Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io. Commander Kirbuk (Helen Mirren) sends cosmonaut Max Brailovsky (Elya Baskin), in for a closer look via space pod. But a huge burst of energy from the monolith destroys Max's pod and then heads towards Earth.

A series of scenes follows the explorations of David Bowman, who has been transformed into an incorporeal entity. The avatar of Bowman travels to Earth, making contact with significant individuals from his human past: he appears on his widow's television screen and has a conversation with her, and he brushes his ailing mother's hair.

After tests, Chandra discovers why HAL malfunctioned: the National Security Council had decided that neither Bowman nor Poole were to be informed of the true objective behind the Jupiter mission. HAL knew the truth, but had been told not to tell Bowman or Poole. HAL became paranoid because the order to keep quiet was in direct conflict with HAL's basic design: accurate processing of information without concealment or distortion. Floyd is disgusted with what the NSC did and denies any knowledge of the secret directive.

Meanwhile, political tensions between the U.S. and the Soviet Union have become "technically a state of war". Floyd, Curnow and Chandra are all ordered by their government to leave the Leonov and move to the Discovery, which still belongs to the U.S.

On the Discovery, an apparition of Bowman appears to Floyd, warning him that they must leave Jupiter within two days because "Something wonderful" will happen. The huge black monolith suddenly disappears, and a black, growing spot appears on Jupiter's surface. Telescope observations reveal that the Great Black Spot is in fact a vast population of black monoliths, increasing in number at an exponential rate, shrinking Jupiter's volume, increasing its density, and modifying chemical properties of its atmosphere with each passing minute. Since neither ship can reach Earth with an early departure, the two crews work together to use Discovery as a booster rocket for the Leonov. HAL is not told that Discovery will be left stranded in space, and Chandra worries that this may cause his neuroses to return. During the countdown Dr. Chandra tells HAL the whole truth, and, much to everyone's collective relief, HAL understands that he must sacrifice himself for the good of the mission.

The Leonov makes a hasty retreat from Jupiter's orbit just in time to witness the swarm of monoliths engulf Jupiter. The monoliths eventually increase Jupiter's density to the point that the planet achieves the high temperatures and pressures necessary for nuclear fusion, becoming a small star; a ball of burning gas erupts from the body, destroying the Discovery, and nearly destroying the Leonov.

As the Leonov left Jupiter's orbit, HAL had been commanded by Bowman to repeatedly broadcast the message:

"ALL THESE WORLDS
ARE YOURS EXCEPT
EUROPA
ATTEMPT NO
LANDING THERE
USE THEM TOGETHER
USE THEM IN PEACE"

The film concludes with images of two suns in the sky of Earth, and Floyd, in voice-over, explains that this miraculous occurrence inspired both the U.S. and Soviet leaders to end their standoff. On Europa, the satellite gradually transforms from an icy wasteland to a humid jungle crawling with plant life (and likely animal life as well, given the primordial sounds emanating from the trees). As the camera pans across the jungle, it settles upon a lagoon... and a Monolith standing upright, implicitly waiting for intelligent life forms to evolve.

Cast

Principal actors and their roles

Cameos

Arthur C. Clarke appears as a man on a park bench outside the White House (which is out-of-frame in the pan-and-scan version, but visible in the letter-boxed version). In addition, a Time magazine cover about the American-Soviet tensions is briefly shown, in which the President of the United States is portrayed by Clarke and the Soviet Premier by the 2001 producer, writer, and director, Stanley Kubrick.

Production notes

  • Clarke's e-mail correspondence with Peter Hyams, director of 2010, was published in 1984.[1][2] Entitled The Odyssey File: The Making of 2010, it illustrates Clarke's fascination with the then-pioneering medium of e-mail and his use of it to communicate with Hyams on an almost daily basis during the planning and production of the film. (Clarke was living in Sri Lanka while the production was taking place in California.) This book also includes Clarke's list of the top science fiction films ever made. Unfortunately, in order to give the publishers enough lead-time to have it available for the release of the movie, the book terminates while the movie is still in pre-production. At the point of the last e-mail, Clarke had not yet read the script, and Roy Scheider was the only actor who had been cast.
  • Several things have become anachronisms in the years following this film's release. The Soviet Union ceased to exist in 1991. Pan American World Airways went out of business in 1991. The Houston Astrodome's final pro sports team, the Houston Astros, moved to its new home (Enron Field, later renamed Minute Maid Park) after the 1999 season. The old Yankee Stadium (1923) also is no longer the home baseball games and was scheduled for demolition after the 2008 baseball season. However, since that stadium's replacement is also known as Yankee Stadium, it is possible that this is the one that Floyd refers to. The closing sequence of the film briefly depicts the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C., as seen from a small installation of fountains that was subsequently replaced by the National World War II Memorial. The most obvious anachronism in this film is the end of the Cold War. In addition, a scene where Dr. Floyd is using a laptop computer with a green LCD screen while reading a copy of OMNI Magazine is a little odd. Omni went out of print in the mid 1990s, but old copied of it are still available on the Internet.
  • Early in the production of this movie, Hyams found out that the original 50-foot model of the "Discovery One" that had been built for 2001 had also been destroyed following the filming, as had all of the model-makers' plans for building it. The model makers at Richard Edlund's EEG had to use frame-by-frame enlargements from a 70 mm copy of the original film to recreate the "Discovery One".
  • In order to maintain the realism of the lighting in outer space, in which light would usually come from a single light source (in this case, the Sun), Edlund and Hyams decided that blue-screen photography would not be used for shooting the space scenes. Instead, a process known as front-light/back-light filming was used. The models were filmed as they would appear in space, then a white background was placed behind the model. This isolated the model's outlines so that proper traveling mattes could be made. All of this processing doubled the amount of time that it took to film these sequences, due to the first motion-control pass that was needed to generate the matte. This process also eliminated the problem of "blue spill", which is the main disadvantage of blue-screen photography. In this, photographed models would often have blue outlines surrounding them because a crisp matte was not always possible to make.
  • Blue-screen photography was used in the scene in which Floyd demonstrates his plan to use the two spaceships to achieve the the change in momentum needed to leave Jovian orbit before the opening of the launch window. In this scene, Floyd uses two fountain pens to demonstrate his plans. Roy Scheider performed this scene without the pens actually being present, and the pens were filmed separately against a blue screen - using an "Oxberry" animation stand that was programmed to match Scheider's movements. (The intial sequence of Floyd's making the pens float was carried out by simply attaching them to a polished piece of oscillating glass that was placed between him and the camera.)
  • 2010 was the first film production for the "Entertainment Effects Group" under the charge of Edlund, who took over the special-effects house from its founder, Douglas Trumbull, following Trumbull's departure from the Industrial Light and Magic company. Trumbull left that company following his movie Brainstorm in 1983, moving on to found his new company, "Showscan".

Awards

2010 was nominated for five Academy Awards:[3]

winning in none of these categories

2010 did win the Hugo Award for Best Dramatic Presentation in 1985.

Music for 2010

At one time, Tony Banks, a "Genesis" keyboardist, was commissioned to do the soundtrack for 2010.[4]

However, David Shire was the one who was selected to compose the soundtrack for 2010, which he co-produced along with Craig Huxley. Besides being used for the film, the soundtrack music was also published by the A&M Records company in the United States.

Andy Summers, a guitarist for The Police, performed in the soundtrack composition, "2010".

Unlike many movie soundtracks of the first half of the 1980s and before, the soundtrack for 2010 was composed for and played mainly using digital synthesizers. These included the "Synclavier" by the New England Digital company, a Yamaha "DX1" synthesizer, and a "Jupiter-8" by the Roland Corporation.

Only two compositions on the soundtrack album feature a symphony orchestra. Mr. Shire and Mr. Huxley were so impressed by the realistic sound of the "Synclavier" that they placed a disclaimer in the album's liner notes: "No re-synthesis or sampling was employed on the Synclavier."

Kubrick and 2010

When Sir Arthur C. Clarke published his novel 2010: Odyssey Two in 1982, he telephoned Stanley Kubrick, and jokingly said, "Your job is to stop anybody [from] making it [into a movie] so I won't be bothered."[5]

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer company (MGM) worked out a contract to make a film version of Clarke's novel, but Mr. Kubrick said that he had no interest in directing this film. However, the movie director Peter Hyams was interested in making a film out of 2010, and he contacted both Clarke and Kubrick for their blessings:

"I had a long conversation with Stanley and told him what was going on. If it met with his approval, I would do the film; and if it didn't, I wouldn't. I certainly would not have thought of doing the film if I had not gotten the blessing of Kubrick. He's one of my idols; simply one of the greatest talents that's ever walked the Earth. He more or less said, 'Sure. Go do it. I don't care.' And another time he said, 'Don't be afraid. Just go do your own movie.'"[5]

Differences from the novel

  • The film omits the landing of a Chinese spacecraft, Tsien, on Europa before the Leonov's arrival, and its destruction by the life there, and Dave Bowman's exploration of the Jupiter system, where he encounters life forms in Europa's oceans and in Jupiter's atmosphere.
  • The film also removes all the romantic/physical relationships between the astronauts (the novel's version of Tanya Kirbuk is married to navigator Vasili Orlov and is surnamed Orlova; in the novel Walter Curnow is bisexual and has a relationship with Maxim Brailovsky, breaking it off when he learns that Zenia Marchenko is in love with Maxim. At the end of the book we learn that Maxim marries Zenia and Curnow marries Katerina Rudenko). Also omitted is the dissolution of Floyd's marriage while he is on the Leonov mission, due to his wife's resentment of his placing the mission before his family. The voice-recorded "letters" to his family featured in the film replace moments in the novel where Floyd instead corresponds with an old friend.
  • The film adds subplots not present in the novel. A manned expedition to the monolith is inserted in which Maxim is killed (he does not die in the novel). The film also adds political tension between the USA and the USSR that results in the American astronauts being expelled from Leonov and forced to inhabit Discovery (in the novel, the Cold War is a thing of the past).
  • Some characters are altered. In the novel, Dr. Chandra is of Indian heritage: his full name is Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai. In the film, the character is referred to only as "Dr. Chandra", and he is played by Bob Balaban, whose ancestry is Russian Jewish. In the novel, Dr. Rudenko is a woman named Katerina; in the film, a man named Vladimir. In the novel, a crew member called Irina Yakunina suffers an injury prior to launch and is replaced by Zenia Marchenko; in the film, there is a crew member called Irina Yakunina who has Zenia's character traits. In the novel, the idea of using Discovery as a booster is Curnow's idea, not Floyd's, and Curnow's character is much more expansive and ebullient than in the film.
  • The film simplifies some of the novel's scientific details: Discovery's tumbling motion and its drift toward Io are left unexplained (in the novel these are caused by the inertia of its centrifuge being transferred over time to the ship's superstructure, and by the Jupiter-Io flux tube).
  • In the novel, Bowman's warning indicated that the Leonov and its crew had to leave Jupiter space within fifteen days. The film shortened the deadline to only two days.
  • In the novel, HAL is commanded to repeatedly broadcast the message "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS - EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE." The movie adds the words "USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE."
  • The novel includes a brief epilogue titled "20,001", which details the evolution of the Europans. The film simplifies this to a single scene of Europa gradually being transformed into a jungle planet.
  • In the novel, Chandra never reveals to HAL the real reason behind their hurried departure from Jupiter. In the film version, Chandra finally breaks down and tells HAL the truth, knowing that there is a possibility that he might defy orders. HAL, however, follows the orders exactly and thanks Chandra for telling him the truth, to which he replies, "You deserve it."

Discontinuities between 2001 and 2010

  • The novel of 2001 locates the climax at Saturn, but the film altered this to Jupiter. Both the novel and the film of 2010 follow the film of 2001 and use the Jupiter setting. In his preface to the novel, Clarke explains that his decision was prompted by discoveries from the Voyager probe flybys, specifically the intense volcanic activity of Io, and the possible presence of liquid water under the ice of Europa, both unknown when 2001 was written.
  • In the 2010 film, the blue spacesuit on the Discovery is missing its helmet, even though the blue suit was never used at all in 2001. (In 2001, when Dave enters the Discovery to disable HAL, he is actually wearing a green helmet - part of a green spacesuit stowed in the emergency airlock.) He changes to wearing the red helmet for his voyage to the monolith.
  • In the film of 2010, Dr. Floyd protests that he never authorized anyone to inform HAL of the TMA-1 monolith prior to the Discovery's launch to Jupiter. However, in the film version of 2001, the recorded message of Dr. Floyd played after HAL's disconnection clearly states that only HAL had full knowledge of the TMA-1 monolith.
  • In one respect, the film and book follow the original novel of 2001 instead of the film. In the book, HAL identifies his teacher as Dr. Chandra. Kubrick's film changes the name to Mr. Langley. Both versions of 2010 use Dr. Chandra, without noting that Chandra and Langley are meant to be the same character.
  • The line "My God... it's full of stars!", quoted at the beginning of the film 2010, was not spoken in the film 2001. It only appears in the novel.
  • In 2001 Kubrick had taken the unusual step of rendering explosions in space as silent, as they would be in a vacuum. In 2010, they are rendered inaccurately as producing noise.
  • In 2001 the informational displays on Discovery are flat panels (realised by the set designers by using rear-projection). In 2010 the displays are CRTs (actual CRTs were used in the set design) with a slightly curved face characteristic of most CRTs.
  • In 2001, Floyd states the monolith found on the Moon was located "near the crater Tycho", hence the designation TMA-1. TMA stood for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly. In his text report at the beginning of 2010, Floyd states that the monolith was discovered at the Moon's Sea of Tranquillity. The two lunar features are hundreds of miles apart.

DVD release

  • 2010 was released on DVD on September 19, 2000. It was presented in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, with the soundtrack remastered in Dolby 5.1 surround sound. A packaging error appears on Warner Home Video's release of the DVD, claiming that the film is presented in anamorphic widescreen when, in reality, it is simply letterboxed, not anamorphic (the MGM version of the DVD makes no such claim).
  • The film was released on Blu-ray Disc on April 7, 2009. The Blu-Ray disc features a BD-25 single-layer presentation with 1080p/VC-1 video and English Dolby TrueHD 5.1 Surround audio. The disc also includes the film's original "making of" promotional featurette and theatrical trailer as extras.
Features (Region 1)
  • Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
  • Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Unknown Format)
  • "Making Of" featurette
Features (Region 2)
  • Available Subtitles: English, French, Italian, Dutch, Arabic, Spanish, Portuguese, German, Romanian, Bulgarian
  • Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)

The 2006 Warner Bros. re-release includes the following subtitles: Finnish, English, German, Spanish, Dutch, Swedish, Norwegian, Danish, Portuguese, Hebrew, Polish, Greek, Czech, Turkish, Hungarian, Icelandic, Croatian, French, Italian, English for hearing-impaired and German for hearing-impaired. The audio tracks are English (Dolby Digital 5.1), German (Dolby Digital 5.1) and Spanish (Dolby Digital 5.1).

Features (Region 4)
  • Available Subtitles: English, French, Italian
  • Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Dolby Digital 5.1), Italian (Dolby Digital 5.1)

References

  1. ^ Arthur C. Clarke and Peter Hyams. The Odyssey File. Ballantine Books, 1984.
  2. ^ Excerpt from The Odyssey File.
  3. ^ "NY Times: 2010". NY Times. Retrieved 2009-01-01.
  4. ^ Tony Banks interview, WorldOfGenesis.com
  5. ^ a b LoBrutto 1997, p. 456.

Bibliography

  • LoBrutto, Vincent. Stanley Kubrick. London: Faber & Faber Limited, 1997.
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