[net.movies] 2001 & HAL's Breakdown

larry@ihuxf.UUCP (Larry Marek) (10/17/83)

	As I recall from the 2001 book, HAL went "crazy" because of a lie that
was enbedded in his memory.  It seems that when Discovery was first heading
out, from earth the monilith on the moon had been discovered and the radio
beam that it emitted (remember the guys clutching their helmets?) had lead
them to the 3rd monilith orbitting Jupiter (or Saturn movie/book).  So, since
Discovery was already headed there, the mining expedition was scrubbed and the
search for the monilith was inserted --- BUT --- only HAL was informed of the
change, remember that nobody on earth knew of the monilith on the moon, and it
was hushed up to keep mass panic from the "public".  HAL now had to behave as
tho the mining expedition was on, but he had his own mission - thus the lie. 
The first "crack" of HAL's sanity was seen when he thought that antenna was
about to malfunction - when the earth version could not duplicate the problem,
HAL went of the the "deep end".  The real mission was played for Dave as he
was disabling HAL's upper memory banks.

	2001 is one of my favorite movies - and it contains one of my favorite
lines - just as Dave is disabling HAL's memory (after HAL has killed all the
crew) HAL's pleasing voice come out with: "I'm feeling MUCH better now, Dave."
-- 


		Larry Marek
		 ihnp4!ihuxf!larry

rjnoe@ihlts.UUCP (10/18/83)

I think the Jupiter mission was already planned when TMA-1 was uncovered,
but got quickly moved up because of that.  And the helmet Dave had on
on his way to lobotomize HAL was shown in the airlock (along with a spare
suit).  What good is an emergency airlock without a space suit?  But are
they one size fits all?
-- 
		Roger Noe		...ihnp4!ihlts!rjnoe