2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

2010: The Year We Make Contact (1984)

In Peter Hyam's sequel to Kubrick's classic:

• in this sequel, the film's opening prologue described the 2001 mission report on the circumstances of the failed mission to Jupiter by the USS Discovery One in the previous film; it was discovered that the mission commander David Bowman (Keir Dullea) had no other option but to disconnect the logic circuits of the malfunctioning HAL-9000 computer (voice of Douglas Rain); he also discovered the existence of a mysterious Monolith (2 kilometers long) situated between Jupiter and its moon Io, similar to the one found on the moon, although it was larger (2 kilometers long)
• Bowman's last transmission after leaving Discovery on a shuttle was: "My God, it's full of stars!"; Bowman was presumed dead, and at the time, there seemed to be no explanation for HAL's malfunctioning, or the meaning of Bowman's transmission
• in a joint mission to Jupiter between the US and the Soviets to determine exactly what happened to the Discovery, it was found that the abandoned Discovery was floating in space (orbiting around Io) near Jupiter, as well as a giant alien Monolith; HAL 9000's creator Dr. Chandra (Bob Balaban) reactivated HAL onboard the Discovery
• there was a short scene in which project director Dr. Heywood Floyd (Roy Scheider) and Dr. Walter Kurnow (John Lithgow) discussed ball park hot dogs: ("...Yankee Stadium. September. The hot dogs have been broiling since opening day in April. Now that's a hot dog")
• in a scene on Earth, the ghost of USS Discovery mission commander David Bowman (now an incorporeal being that existed inside the Monolith) visited his former, now-widowed wife Betty Fernandez (Mary Jo Deschanel) - who was remarried; he appeared on her TV screen to check on her and say good-bye for one last time - while predicting that "something wonderful" would soon happen: ("I remember Dave Bowman and everything about him...All Dave Bowman really was is still a part of me...Something's gonna happen and I wanted to say goodbye...something wonderful"); he also paid a visit to his terminally-ill mother in a nursing home before her death
• Dr. Chandra learned that the real reason for the sentient computer HAL-9000's malfunctioning and its deliberate murder of the astronauts onboard (HAL deliberately shut off their life support systems!) was because the NSC had actually ordered HAL to conceal from the Discovery's crew the fact that their mission was not about Jupiter, but was about the mysterious Monolith situated near Jupiter; HAL was unable to properly handle or process the information programmed internally ("He was instructed to lie...he became paranoid"), and literally had a 'mental breakdown' (in the previous film)
• in a tearful scene, Dr. Chandra told HAL the truth about the current mission's immediate departure from Jupiter to escape an imploding Jupiter in the midst of a strange conversion (due to rapidly-multiplying Monoliths and a nuclear fusion reaction) - and their intention to sacrifice HAL on the sabotaged spaceship Discovery One

• it was recognized that the single Monolith suddenly disappeared while a growing black spot appeared on the Jovian surface - the multiplying Monoliths, creating the black spot, engulfed Jupiter (like a virus) and HAL kept insisting that the countdown to the "ignition" of the blast should be terminated (but was overruled)
• due to Dr. Chandra's calm explanation of the fate of Discovery's mission - its destruction - HAL agreed that he must sacrifice himself for the human beings on board Leonov to complete their mission; HAL quietly and in a dignified manner accepted his fate - and gave his thanks to Dr. Chandra: ("I understand now, Dr. Chandra...Thank you for telling me the truth"), and Chandra responded with a farewell: ("You deserve it...Thank you, HAL")
• there was a fond, final exchange between an ethereal David and a doomed HAL (HAL: "I'm afraid." David: "Don't be. We'll be together")
• the planet imploded with a massive explosion due to nuclear fusion and was transformed into a small star, while the Discovery One was destroyed in the incinerating blast; the launch craft the Leonov successfully separated from Discovery and was boosted away toward Earth although it barely survived the explosive vibrations from Jupiter's implosion
• in its final moments, HAL was able to transmit Dave's final "something wonderful" message to Earth on the Discovery's AE35 antenna, that was repeatedly broadcast: ("ALL THESE WORLDS ARE YOURS EXCEPT EUROPA ATTEMPT NO LANDING THERE USE THEM TOGETHER USE THEM IN PEACE")
• project director Dr. Heywood R. Floyd delivered a final transcendent speech and transmission (a letter) to his son Christopher (Taliesin Jaffe) while returning to Earth from Jupiter on the Leonov escape launch, about the miraculous appearance of a second star in the sky (the remains of Jupiter) - he saw it as a sign of his realized dream to restore long-lasting interplanetary friendship and peace between the Soviets and the US: ("My dear Christopher. This is the last time I'll be able to speak to you for a long while. I'm trying to put into words what has happened. Maybe that's for historians to do sometime later. They will record that the next day, the President of the United States looked out of the White House window and the Premier of the Soviet Union looked out of the Kremlin window and saw the new distant sun in the sky. They read the message, and perhaps they learned something because they finally recalled their ships and their planes. I'm going to sleep now. And I will dream of you and your mother. I will sleep knowing that you are both safe, that the fear is over. We have seen the process of life take place. Maybe this is the way it happened on Earth millions of years ago. Maybe it's something completely different. I still don't know really what the Monolith is. I think it's many things. An embassy for an intelligence beyond ours, a shape of some kind for something that has no shape. Your children will be born in a world of two suns. They will never know a sky without them. You can tell them that you remember when there was a pitch black sky with no bright star, and people feared the night. You can tell them when we were alone, when we couldn't point to the light and say to ourselves: 'There is life out there.' Someday the children of the new sun will meet the children of the old. I think they will be our friends. You can tell your children of the day when everyone looked up and realized that we were only tenants of this world. We have been given a new lease -- and a warning -- from the landlord")
• the final evocative shots in the film were of locations around the Earth with two suns (Washington DC, Russia, Egypt, Paris, London, the Coast) and of a Monolith in a primordial, humid jungle (with transformative signs of plant life emerging) on Jupiter's seemingly-barren and icy moon Europa, as Richard Strauss' Thus Spake Zarasthustra played - it was a sign of new intelligent life developing on Europa, that would be gradually transformed from an icy wasteland to a humid jungle covered with plant life