Wednesday, August 26, 2020

How many HAL 9000 Faceplates are there in "2001: A Space Odyssey"?

 


Yes, I am a big fan of the movie "2001: A Space Odyssey". During the last years, I built two HAL 9000 replicas featuring HAL's voice (by Douglas Rain) which I documented in my build blogs for version#1 and version#2. I also documented all of HAL 9000's quotes from the movie (here), and I made a replica of the Instructions for the Zero Gravity Space Toilet.

Now, I am about to build a third version of a HAL replica. Most people are aware of the fact that the movie shows multiple versions of the HAL faceplate with the red eye, at different places in the spaceship. And I was wondering: how many are actually there? And here is what I found. 

#1 The Main One - above the Console

This is the first one that we see in the movie, and the one where most of the initial communication is happening. It is surrounded by eight screens, four on each side, plus one screen in front of it on the console (where Dave plays chess against HAL).



#2 In the Rotating Corridor

At about 1:11:05 into the movie we see the astronauts walking through the rotating corridor, with the HAL 9000 faceplate at the end.



#3 In the Pod Bay Room

The faceplate in the Pod Bay room plays a major part, when watching the astronauts' mouths move during their conversation.





#4 In a Room with View of the Outside

At 1:15:08, 1:32:34, and 1:41:16 another HAL faceplate is visible in this room that has a view to the outside. This faceplate also has eight screens, four on the left and four on the right side. 




#5 In a Room, next to the Pod Bay Room

At 1:23:03 and again at 1:32:51, we see the astronauts on their way to the Pod Bay room passing through an adjacent room that also has a HAL faceplate with six screens on the right side.


This faceplate is also visible in the window from the Pod Bay room.


#6 At the Entrance to the Logic Memory Center

When Dave enters the Logic Memory Center, we see faceplate number #6 above the door sign.



#7 Inside the Memory Center

At the end of part II ("Jupiter Mission") we see faceplate #7 next to the memory modules which are disabled by Dave.




Two more HAL Eyes

In addition to the HAL faceplates, there are two more occurrences of HAL's eye (without a faceplate).
When Dave enters the Logic Memory Center, we see the following image. It shows a reflection in HAL's eye of the Logic Memory Center with Dave entering from the opposite side. This suggests that HAL observes Dave as he enters the room.


This eye must be an additional HAL eye, as the one next to the memory modules is visible at the bottom. As far as I can tell, there is, however, no camera angle that is showing this eye in the Logic Memory Center.

The last one, I am not completely sure about. But it seems that the Pods also feature a HAL eye.


So, to answer the question from the top: It seems that there are seven HAL 9000 faceplates in the movie, plus two additional HAL eyes. 
If I missed anything, please let me know in the comments!




No comments: