History Film / TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey

The film's iconic artificial intelligence HAL also made an unexpected appearance in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover video game ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions''- developed by Creator/WarnerBros (as a result of the Time Warner/Turner merger of 1996, they own the rights to this movie). He pops up through a rift in the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' level, interacting with - who else? - [=GLaDOS=].

A Character Page is in progress [[Characters/TwoThousandOneASpaceOdyssey here.]]

The film's iconic artificial intelligence HAL also made an unexpected appearance in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover video game ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions''- developed by Creator/WarnerBros (as a result of the Time Warner/Turner merger of 1996, they own the rights to this movie). He pops up through a rift in the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' level, interacting with- who else?- [=GlaDOS=].

* DataCrystal: The hard drives of the HAL 9000 computer are shown as blocks of clear crystal/glass. David Bowman manually ejects them from their drive bays in order to disable HAL.

* ArtisticLicensePhysics:

* AdaptationalNameChange: One of the cryogenically frozen crew is called Jack Kimball in the book, but is named Charles Hunter in the film. The other two astronauts are Peter Whitehead and Victor Kaminski in both versions, so the reason for this change is unknown.

The film's iconic artificial intelligence HAL also made an unexpected appearance in the MassiveMultiplayerCrossover videogame ''VideoGame/LegoDimensions''- developed by Creator/WarnerBros (as a result of the Time Warner/Turner merger of 1996, they own the rights to this movie). He pops up through a rift in the ''VideoGame/{{Portal}}'' level, interacting with- who else?- [=GlaDOS=].

* InCameraEffects: The long shot of astronauts in the lunar excavation used bipacking. In fact most, if not all, of the film's visual effects were composited on the original negative. This sometimes required that a piece of film with one exposed element be placed in a refrigerator for months before the second element was added.
** The Dawn of Man sections were all filmed using 8 ft x 10 ft transparencies of backgrounds shot in Africa by the 2nd Camera Unit (with test shots faxed back to Kubrick for approval). These were front-projected on a screen made out of a 3M-made reflective material, which would wash-out the image projected on actors, making for a more realistic appearance. In addition, a semi-silvered prism was inserted between the screen projector and the camera, to ensure perfect optical alignment and hide actors' shadows on the screen.

The film's story tracks long-term human evolution as it is influenced by unseen [[{{Precursors}} aliens]]. The unearthing of one of their artifacts on UsefulNotes/TheMoon leads to an ill-fated expedition being dispatched to Jupiter, culminating in a famously [[GainaxEnding incomprehensible]] climax. (The novel offers ''an'' if not ''the'' explanation for the latter.)

The film's story tracks long-term human evolution as it is influenced by unseen [[{{Precursors}} aliens]]. The unearthing of one of their artifacts on the moon leads to an ill-fated expedition being dispatched to Jupiter, culminating in a famously [[GainaxEnding incomprehensible]] climax. (The novel offers ''an'' if not ''the'' explanation for the latter.)

** In two scenes of the film, the Tycho monolith excavation and Dave's walking to HAL's brain room towards the end of the film, Kubrick himself shot these scenes handheld...''with a big freaking Ultra Panavision 70mm camera on his shoulder.'' That the scenes didn't end up looking like a 2010s action film cliché is quite remarkable.

** In two scenes of the film, the Tycho monolith excavation and Dave's walking to HAL's brain room towards the end of the film, Kubrick himself shot these scenes handheld...''with a big freaking spherical 70mm camera on his shoulder.'' That the scenes didn't end up looking like a 2010s action film cliché is quite remarkable.

* BookEnds:

** Harlan Ellison's review calls HAL's mannerisms "faintly high CampGay".

* SlidingScaleOfGenderInequality: This is a very male-dominated movie. We do see women working in space, though largely as stewardesses, secretaries, and other stereotypically female professions. Dr. Floyd does speak to two female scientists, but the group conducting the lunar expedition as well as the Discovery crew are both made up entirely of men. Arthur C. Clarke's sequel novels, especially ''2010: Odyssey Two'', incorporate more strong female characters.
* SlidingScaleOfRobotIntelligence: A substantial amount of time is spent in discussions over the intelligence and emotional capacity of the H.A.L. 9000 computer that runs the spaceship USS Discovery. It's generally agreed that HAL is of human-level intelligence, but while he has vastly superior powers of calculation (obviously), his emotional capacity and intellectual maturity are those of a child. This factors heavily into the explanation of the Logic Bomb that causes him to turn on the crew.

* AdaptationalNameChange: One of the cryogenically frozen crew is called Jack Kimball in the book, but is named Charles Hunter in the film. The other two astronauts are Peter Whitehead and Victor Kaminski in both versions, so the reason for this change is unknown.

* AdaptationalVillainy: In the book, HAL-9000 is a sympathetic character who is so human that he develops a psychosis, and his reasons for why he takes the actions he does are explained. [[spoiler: The instructions that he was given from the White House to conceal the monolith clashed with his basic programming not to conceal information from the crew. HAL was working on a non-murderous solution to the problem, but overheard plans from MissionControl to temporarily disconnect him. HAL didn't understand the concept of sleep and thought that this would kill him, so he panicked.]] Kubrick chose to leave HAL's motives more ambiguous in the movie, which makes HAL seem more monstrous. The film is often cited as an example of AIIsACrapshoot.