2010: The Year We Make Contact

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2010: The Year We Make Contact
Directed by	Peter Hyams
Produced by	Peter Hyams
Written by	Arthur C. Clarke (novel) Peter Hyams (screenplay)
Starring	Roy Scheider John Lithgow Helen Mirren Bob Balaban Keir Dullea Douglas Rain
Music by	David Shire
Distributed by	MGM/UA Entertainment Co.
Release date(s)	December 7, 1984 (USA)
Running time	116 min.
Language	English
IMDb profile

2010: The Year We Make Contact, also known as 2010, is a science fiction film released in 1984 directed by Peter Hyams. It was based on the novel 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke. The film, like the novel, is a sequel to 2001: A Space Odyssey.

[edit] Cast

Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain reprise their roles from the original film as David Bowman and the voice of HAL 9000, respectively. Roy Scheider plays Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester declined the role because he was semi-retired). The film also stars John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, and Bob Balaban, along with several Russian actors who play cosmonauts. Credited under the name Olga Mallsnerd, Candice Bergen provided the voice of the SAL 9000 computer at Dr. Chandra's laboratory in the film. [1] Arthur C. Clarke himself makes a cameo appearance in the film as a man on a park bench outside the White House (out of frame in the pan-and-scan version). Pictures of Clarke (as the US President) and 2001 director Stanley Kubrick (as the Soviet Premier) also appear on a magazine cover seen in the film.

[edit] Synopsis

The film is set nine years after the mysterious failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter. The Soviets have developed an advanced new engine that will beat any American ship to Jupiter, so a joint Soviet-American crew travels to Jupiter on the Soviet spaceship Alexei Leonov. The crew includes Heywood Floyd from 2001, Dr. Chandra, creator of Discovery's HAL 9000 computer, and Walter Curnow, an American space engineer. Their mission is to discover what went wrong with the earlier mission, to investigate the Monolith in orbit around the planet, and to explain the disappearance of David Bowman. They hypothesize that much of this information is locked away on the now-abandoned Discovery craft.

On arrival at the Jupiter system, the Leonov crew send a robot probe to explore the surface of the icy moon Europa. The probe glimpses what appears to be a large moving life form beneath the ice, but before it can be photographed, the probe is inexplicably destroyed in a burst of light.

Discovery is found abandoned in orbit around Jupiter's moon Io. The Discovery is found to be covered in sulphur due to the erupting volcanoes of Io. The Leonov makes a rendezvous with the Discovery, and after Curnow restores the Discovery to operational condition, the two giant spacecraft rendezvous with the monolith. Dr. Chandra restarts the HAL 9000 computer to determine whether it has any information about the incidents of 2001.

The Leonov finds Discovery orbiting between Jupiter (above) and Io (below)

The huge black monolith is discovered in orbit around Jupiter. Remote observations fail to answer their questions, so a cosmonaut, Maxim Brailovsky (Elya Baskin), flies a space pod over it for a close-up look, just as Bowman had done just before he disappeared. As Max approaches the monolith, a huge burst of energy erupts from it and destroys Max and his space pod. The energy burst heads towards Earth.

A sequence 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 brushes his ailing mother's hair, and he appears on his widow's television screen and has a conversation with her.

Meanwhile political tensions between the US and the Soviet Union escalate. The US astronauts are ordered to leave the Leonov, as it is Soviet territory, and move to the Discovery, which still belongs to the United States.

On the Discovery, an apparition of Bowman appears before Floyd, warning him that they must leave Jupiter within two days. Floyd asks what will happen at that time and Bowman replies, "Something wonderful." Floyd has difficulty convincing the rest of the crew at first, but then a dark spot on Jupiter begins to form and starts growing. HAL's telescope observations reveal that the Great Dark Spot is in fact a vast population of black monoliths, increasing in number at an exponential rate.

Leonov's telescope observations reveal that the Great Black Spot is in fact a vast population of monoliths, increasing at an exponential rate.

Neither ship by itself is capable of reaching Earth if an early departure is factored in, so Floyd and the Leonov's crew devise a plan to use the Discovery as a booster. Unfortunately, HAL and the Discovery will be stranded in Jovian orbit with insufficient fuel to escape. Floyd and Chandra are worried that HAL will develop the same neuroses on discovering that he will be abandoned yet again, and Dr. Chandra must convince HAL that the human crew is in danger. Once HAL understands, he agrees that he must sacrifice himself, if necessary, to save all the humans aboard the Leonov.

The Leonov crew makes a hasty exit 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.

As the Leonov leaves Jupiter's orbit, HAL is commanded by Bowman to repeatedly broadcast the message "ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA. ATTEMPT NO LANDINGS THERE. USE THEM TOGETHER. USE THEM IN PEACE." The film concludes with images of famous landmarks on Earth with two suns in the sky, and Floyd in voice-over explains that this miraculous occurrence inspired the leaders of the superpowers to end their standoff. Finally, we see Europa gradually transforming from an icy wasteland to a humid jungle. The final image is of the Monolith standing in a lake, implicitly waiting for intelligent life forms to evolve.

[edit] Differences from the novel

• A subplot in the novel about a Chinese spacecraft, Tsien, landing on Europa before the Leonov's arrival is omitted from the film.
• A subplot in the novel about David Bowman exploring the Jupiter system, encountering life forms in Europa's oceans and in Jupiter's atmosphere, is omitted.
• In the novel, Dr. Chandra is of Sri Lankan heritage: his full name is Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai. 'Chandra' is the word for the Moon in Sanskrit, Hindi, and some other Indian languages. In the film, the character is referred to only as 'Dr. Chandra', and is played by a white American (Bob Balaban).
• In the novel, Discovery's tumbling motion is the result of the inertia of spacecraft's centrifuge being transferred over time to the ship's superstructure. The book explains that the spin is stopped by re-starting the spacecraft's centrifuge, which mops up the excess rotation in a "series of wild precessions." The film does not mention this, and only shows the resulting stabilization of Discovery One as Curnow and Maxim Brailovsky reactivate the ship's systems.
• 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."
• In the novel, a crew member called Irina Yakunina suffers an injury prior to launch and is replaced by Zenia Marchenko - in the film, Irina Yakunina is one of the crew but has Zenia's character traits.
• In the novel, Dr Rudenko is a woman named Katerina rather than a man named Vladimir. Also, Tanya's surname in the novel is Orlova and she is married to crewman Vasili Orlov (in the film, her name is Tanya Kirbuk and is not married to anyone in her crew).
• In the novel, Maxim is not killed and there is never a manned expedition to the monolith.
• In the novel, several of the crew enter into relationships: Walter Curnow and Maxim Brailovsky (possible, although never stated), Maxim Brailovsky and Zenia Marchenko (who end up marrying), and Katerina Rudenko and Walter Curnow (who also end up marrying). In the film, there are no romantic relationships aboard the Leonov.
• In the novel, Dr. Floyd splits from his much younger wife left on Earth; the film omits this.
• The reason for Discovery drifting towards Io is left a mystery in the movie. In the novel once the Leonov crew reaches Jupiter they are able to determine the Jupiter-Io flux tube was responsible.
• In the novel Bowman left the Discovery at a Lagrange Point between Io and Jupiter; in the movie it appears to be in orbit around Io, although the introductory text at the beginning of the film also states that the ship is at a Lagrange Point.
• The novel includes a brief epilogue titled "20,001" which details the evolution of the Europans. The film shows this in montage.
• In the novel, the reason for Floyd being on the Discovery and receiving a message from David Bowman is simply that Floyd is performing chores on the ship, not because of escalating tensions between the United States and the Soviet Union.

[edit] 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. Clarke's decision to follow the film 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 made.
• 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.)
• A problem concerns the number of space pods in Discovery. In 2001 there are three space pods. Frank Poole's space pod is shown tumbling off into space after striking him, Dave Bowman's first pod is rendered useless when the door is blown off to allow him access back into the ship, and the third is used to fly off into the monolith. Yet, in 2010, there is still one spacepod in Discovery's hangar. It is conceivable that Bowman remotely returned his pod after he disconnected HAL (it must be Bowman's because the pod shown does not have a hatch). In the novel Bowman retrieves the hatchless pod by remote control. It is eventually refitted by the Leonov crew and used as a probe.

Arthur C. Clarke as the US President and Stanley Kubrick as the Soviet Premier

• In the film of 2010, Dr. Floyd protests that he never authorised anyone to inform HAL of the TMA-1 monolith prior to the Discovery's mission to Jupiter. However, in the film version of 2001, Bowman - while attempting to disable HAL - sees a pre-recorded message from Dr. Floyd informing the crew of the Monolith and the true purpose of the mission. In this message, Dr. Floyd clearly states that HAL had been briefed on the TMA-1 before the Discovery left Earth. There are explanations for this discontinuity, however:
• Floyd's message as seen in 2001 might have been faked by the government. This is borne out by a scene in 2010 where we learn that HAL was told about the monolith on orders from the National Security Council.
  • On the other hand, when Floyd says that he didn't allow HAL to be told about the monolith, he may not have been telling the truth - he could have been hiding his complicity in the situation in order to avoid a blowup with Dr. Chandra and the rest of the crews.
• 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.

[edit] Further reading

Clarke's e-mail correspondence with Peter Hyams, director of 2010, was published in 1984. 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. The 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 preproduction. 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.

[edit] DVD release

The cover of the DVD released in 2000.

2010: The Year We Make Contact 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.)

[edit] Features (Region 1)

• Available Subtitles: English, Spanish, French
• Available Audio Tracks: English (Dolby Digital 5.1), French (Unknown Format)
• "Making Of" featurette

[edit] 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)

[edit] 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)

[edit] External link

• 2010 at the Internet Movie Database
• Sir Arthur C. Clarke at MysteryVisits.com