Deliberate mistake: Dr. Chandra returns to the Leonov at the end of the film with the device that Dr. Floyd designed to cut HAL's memory circuits. He hands the device back to Dr. Floyd, who tosses it in the air and catches it when it falls back into his hand. One problem - there was no gravity on the ship at the time. (01:44:00)
2010 (1984)
1 deliberate mistake - chronological order
Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban
Factual error: While the Leonov has a centrifugal section to simulate gravity, the ship's bridge is not part of it (evidenced by the stationary views outside its portholes). Yet in various scenes, including the one when Floyd rushes in to discuss his plan to return to Earth sooner with Tanya, gravity seems quite evident. Floyd marches across the compartment onto the raised pilot area's floor, then steps down from it, his foot landing audibly. Tanya's open jacket also hangs down normally as she moves about. Yet when Floyd demonstrates his plan using two pens, they float in mid air. (01:26:50)
HAL-9000: Dr. Chandra, will I dream?
Dr. Chandra: I don't know.
Trivia: In the nursing home scene, the nurse at the desk is reading Time magazine. The cover concerns the US/Soviet conflict integral to the plot. If you look closely, the US President's picture is a colored drawing of Arthur C. Clarke and the Soviet Premier's picture is a colored drawing of the director of 2001, Stanley Kubrick. (01:17:18)
Question: One thing that always confused me is why was it necessary to jettison Discovery after it was used as a booster rocket? Why couldn't they just keep it attached to the Leonov as they made their escape?
Answer: They needed to lighten their load, to make it go faster. In Back to the Future Part III, after hijacking the train, the Doc and Marty unhooked the passenger cars to lighten the load.
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Answer: If they didn't, any further manoeuvring would require much more fuel. They would be moving the mass of two ships.