Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban
Revealing mistake: When the Russian pod is launched, a wide shot shows the Monolith at top/right with Jupiter in the background and both the Leonov and Discovery at bottom/right with the pod nearby. Just before this shot ends, all three spacecraft vanish, leaving only Jupiter and the Monolith for a very short but obvious moment. (01:04:35)
Factual error: In the scene where the crew members are doing a simultaneous countdown in Russian and in English, the Russian crewmember skips the number four (chetiri). She goes straight from 5 (pyat) to three (tree). (01:44:14)
HAL-9000: What is going to happen?
Dave: Something wonderful.
HAL-9000: I'm afraid.
Dave: Don't be. We'll be together.
HAL-9000: Where will we be?
Dave: Where I am now.
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.