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!

HAL 9000 replica - version 2

Some time ago, I built my first HAL 9000 replica. In addition to the famous faceplate (on the right), it also had four displays, a webcam, a IR motion sensor, and some push buttons. The build is documented in a previous blog post. 

A little later, I wanted to build a few for friends. My first version had plenty of "bells and whistles" and it would not be feasible to reproduce all of this. So, for HAL 9000 version #2, I reduced it to the main functionality: Just the faceplate, but keeping the infrared motion sensor which triggers HAL's sound clips from the movie - this is what brings it to life and makes it a perfect office companion (provided, that there is a limit, how often audio clips are played).

Improvements

HAL v2 is built in a very similar way, however, with a few smaller improvements. Again, the design was based on the idea from Adafruit of using a 100 mm arcade button for the eye. This time, however, I decided to go with the clear button (instead of the red one recommended by Adarfuit, that I also used in my first version). The reasoning is that the original HAL had a fisheye lens which is made of clear glass - and the red color came from an internal filter. So, I decided to go with the clear button, and operate it with a red LED (instead of red button with white LED). And I'm glad, I did that - the result look really better! I keep the additional flat marble (which looks like a small internal lens) and the black cardboard.

The second big difference, is that this one is built using a laser cutter. With the laser cutter at hand, I decided to use it also for the speaker grille (which is now also made of plywood) to achieve the original spacing of the holes.

Here are the holders for the clear, red-colored 8mm straw hat LEDs.

At first, I was a little skeptical how the wooden speaker grille would look like. However, after applying the aluminum spray paint, it looks great.

And here comes the enclosure on which the face plate is mounted.

I admit, I was a little lazy regarding the box. I should have spent a little more time filling and sanding the slits and edges... 

Here are the 8mm straw hat LEDs, mounted on their holders.

The PIRs (infrared motion sensors) come with white covers. But at AliExpress, But I found a seller who offered black covers. They cost as much as the sensors, but it's a real improvement for HAL's black case. The sensor is mounted at the bottom of the enclosure, and a white plastic piece wouldn't look good.

Here is the PCB with the Arduino pro mini and the DFPLayer mini.

And a view from the backside with the electronics.

And here is the final HAL 9000 v2. At the bottom, it has three elements:

• a 2.1mm socket for 5V power (e.g. from a USB charger)
• the PIR (infrared motion sensor) with a black cover
• a switch with three positions

The eye LED is constantly at low intensity. When the PIR senses motion, the eye LED goes to high intensity for 3-5 seconds (randomly) and HAL plays a sound clip from the movie (sound clips are not played more than every 1-5 minutes (the time interval increases when there is too much activity) in order not to make it too annoying. The three positions of the switch are: higher volume, lower volume, and sound off. If during operation, the switch is set to "off", HAL 9000 plays all sound clips from the "disable-sequence" in the movie, ending with "Daisy".

Related Blog Posts

• Building a HAL 9000 Replica on a Budget
• "I'm sorry, Dave" - all HAL 9000 Quotes from the Movie
• 2001: A Space Odyssey - Instructions for the Zero Gravity Space Toilet
• Playing sounds from the Arduino with DFPlayer