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)
2010 (1984)
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Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban
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2010 is the direct sequel to the Science Fiction drama 2001: A Space Odyssey where a mysterious alien Monolith has lead humanity to Jupiter's moon Io to discover the origins of life. A joint Soviet/American team goes out to investigate this as well as the "malfunction" of HAL, which caused the deaths of the prior crew, minus David Bowman. Less cerebral than its predecessor, 2010 adds a cold war edge to the discovery of the derelict ship, its contents and the fate of Mankind.
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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: In the original film, the Discovery's onboard computer states: "I am a HAL 9000 Computer, Production Number 3. I became operational at the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, on the 12th of January, 1992." So, "HAL" was a manufacturer identification prefix (standing for Heuristically-programmed ALgorithmic Computers), "9000" was its model number, and "No.3" was its production lineage. In this sequel, however, Dr. Chandra is chatting with one of HAL's earth-based twin computers which has a feminine voice and is called "SAL"; but how can they arbitrarily change its manufacturer identification prefix? Being produced by the HAL plant in Urbana, Illinois, and being identical to the computer aboard the Discovery, the twin's name should have a different production number, but it should still be called "HAL," should it not?
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Answer: The most likely reason the name was changed was probably a literary one. It makes it easier for the audience to differentiate SAL from HAL, showing how they are two distinct computers playing different roles in the film. It may also just be a feminine nickname being that SAL has a female voice.
raywest ★
I thought perhaps "SAL" was a nickname, also, until I saw that the computer's maker nameplate reads "SAL 9000" (visible in close-ups of SAL's glowing eye).
Charles Austin Miller