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?
Charles Austin Miller
9th Jun 2018
2010 (1984)
6th Jun 2018
Grumpy Old Men (1993)
Question: Did John Gustafson's ex wife die or did they just get divorced?
Answer: John Gustafson and his wife, May, were divorced after 20 years of marriage.
20th Feb 2009
Jaws (1975)
Question: When the swimmers are running out of the water, why does Brody shout: "No whistles?"
Answer: Brody didn't want to panic all the beach goers and cause a splashing commotion which would excite the shark.
Answer: When the shark attacks fist began, Brody began reading up on shark behavior. It is believed that vibrating sounds can attract sharks. Brody believes that multiple people blowing loud whistles could bring the shark closer into shore.
On the contrary, high frequency noises (such as those produced by whistles) barely penetrate into the water and seem to have no effect on sharks or any other fish. Low-frequency noises (such as concussive splashing) travel a great distance in water and are a definite attraction for marine predators. Ultra-low-frequency noises (such as the songs of whales) can travel hundreds of miles through water. The U.S. Navy even uses extremely-low-frequency (ELF) transmissions for communicating with submarines far out at sea. So, no, there is no documented scientific reason for Brody to think that high-frequency noise would attract sharks. Either the movie's screenwriters were badly mistaken in their assumption that whistles attract sharks, or the character of Chief Brody was deliberately written to be mistaken in that assumption.
In a study, sharks were attracted to low-frequency pulsed sounds resembling those of struggling fish. Sharks appearing in close to wounded or struggling fish has often been observed by fishermen and scuba divers. That type of shark behavior is probably what Brody read about, though his scientific knowledge or understanding about it was limited. He was just reacting in an excited manner.
12th Jan 2004
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: Maybe I need to read the book, but can someone explain the whole ending sequence to me. Why all the flashy over dramatized pictures? It's artistic but is there some other meaning to it?
Chosen answer: All the flashing images are supposed to represent Bowman travelling past far and distant galaxies, this is what happens in the book, where he travels to that white house place.
Answer: At the end, in the Arthur C. Clarke's story, both Dave Bowman and Frank Poole (who survived) went to a moon of Saturn to investigate the second Monolith. Dave Bowman tried to touch the Monolith with his space pod and was sucked into a wormhole that transported him to a star on the other side of the universe - at which point, Dave's last transmission is "My God, it's full of stars!" All of the "slit-scan" visual effects by Doug Trumbull (based on effects created by John Whitney years earlier) represent an almost instant voyage to the other side of the universe. Whether this is supposed to be a quantum-jump is not explained, but it's millions of times faster than anything ever depicted in Star Trek or other space fantasy knockoffs.
Frank does not survive in the book; he is killed by HAL just as in the film.
6th Feb 2004
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: What was the ultimate destination of the Jupiter mission? The giant planet is made of gas, it has no solid surface to land on. Theoretically a spacecraft could land on one of Jupiter's moons, but they lie within the lethal radiation belt.
Answer: The ultimate goal was to orbit Jupiter to study the Monolith also in orbit around it.
Answer: The objective of the Discovery (Jupiter) mission was to locate the recipient of the powerful radio signal that was transmitted from the Moon earlier in the movie. Interestingly, the destination of the Discovery mission changed between Jupiter to Saturn and back to Jupiter during the production of the film. The Jupiter visual effects had already been shot ("in the can" as it were) when Stanley Kubrick decided to change to Saturn. It was the protest of the visual effects team, who had already spent much time and money on the Jupiter effects, that convinced Kubrick to stay with Jupiter. In the meantime, author Arthur C. Clarke went ahead and changed the destination to Saturn in his written treatment of the movie.
24th Jul 2010
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: Why did HAL go berserk? I thought it was because HAL knew the real reason for the mission (as Dr. Floyd reveals in the pre-recorded briefing), and was suspicious or curious of whether or not Dave and Frank knew. So when Dave is showing his drawings to HAL, HAL uses this opportunity to discuss the "rumours" with Dave. HAL of course is thinking as a computer in a chess game, and assumes to know what Dave will say next. But Dave thinks HAL is doing some psychology report on the crew and asks HAL that question. HAL did not expect this response, and quickly responds, "Of course I am." Now HAL is caught in a lie and does not know what Dave's next question might be, so he diverts the conversation by creating the AE-35 unit crisis. This, of course, sends the astronauts down a path that he cannot control, and he ultimately must terminate the crew to protect himself. 2010, however, went down some other path that did not make any sense to me. Hence the question. I would love the opportunity to discuss.
Chosen answer: This is explained in the sequel, 2010. In that film, Doctor Chandra explains that Hal was given orders that directly contracted each other. He was informed about the monolith and instructed to complete the mission should the humans become unable to, but was also programmed not to deceive, and to relay information without distortion. This caused a "mental" breakdown in his programming. He decided the only course of action was to incapacitate/eliminate the crew and then complete the mission.
Answer: The HAL 9000 was designed to replicate almost every aspect of human mental processes, faster and with perfect recall. It was, essentially, artificial intelligence, but not nearly as complex as human intelligence (because nothing is as complex as human intelligence, that we know of). In carrying out the Jupiter Mission, HAL was instructed to deceive the standing crew (Frank Poole and Dave Bowman) regarding the mission objectives; however, HAL was not so sophisticated that it knew how to deceive. As it turned out, HAL was "human" enough that it felt guilt and even paranoia for deliberately lying to Frank and Dave. But HAL had no contingency for guilt or paranoia responses, and it drove the machine quite mad. Homicidally insane.
22nd Jan 2005
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: I don't understand the significance of the monolith or the starbaby. Can someone explain it to me?
Answer: As author Arthur C. Clarke explained it, the first Monolith (the one seen at the beginning of the film and then buried on the Moon) was a space probe from an incomprehensibly more advanced alien intelligence that resided inside a star elsewhere in the cosmos. The Monolith's objective was to seek out lifeforms that had potential and "tweak" their neural evolution, causing them to evolve toward intelligence. In the case of Mankind on Earth, once the modification was made, the Monolith probe retreated to the Moon and waited 4 million years for Mankind to reach it. When Mankind reached the Moon, the Monolith sent a signal to the next phase of the experiment, which was another Monolith in orbit of Jupiter. When Mankind reached the Jupiter Monolith in a matter of months, the Monolith acted as an interdimensional portal to the other side of the universe, transporting the evolved human specimen to its creator (that resided within a star). The creator intelligence found the specimen (Dave Bowman) to be of acceptable quality and rapidly evolved him to the next level, a Star Child. The Star Child is a "godly" evolution of Mankind. The Star Child chooses to instantaneously return to its home planet (Earth), where it stops a nuclear war.
Answer: The monolith is a monitor placed by the aliens to track the progress of developing civilizations. When humanity found the monolith on the Moon, that signaled a certain level of technological advancement. The starbaby is the evolution of the astronaut, as the symbol of humanity, from "Earth-bound" to a true child of the universe, turning his back on the Earth and looking toward the stars.
In both the Arthur C. Clarke story and in the movie, the Star Child does not "turn his back on Earth"; quite the contrary, as soon as Bowman transforms into the Star Child, his first impulse is to instantaneously return to Earth, which he does just in time to stop a nuclear war. In essence, Bowman becomes the guardian of Earth.
Answer: In 3001: The Final Odyssey, Clarke makes clear what many already suspected: The Monolith was malfunctioning by the time it tweaked human evolution. It increased human aggression in order to assure human survival, but this was a hasty move, which saddled humanity with a never ending series of destructive conflicts. Kubrick also hinted at this in a later movie. The Monolith appears in Full Metal Jacket, presumably inspiring the soldiers in the Vietnamese War to solve their problems by killing, just as it had inspired the fighting hominids millions of years before.
The monolith from 2001 does not appear in Full Metal Jacket. There is a tall burning building in the background during Cowboy's death scene but it takes a hell of a stretch of the imagination to see it as a monolith. It's just a ruined building. Kubrick himself confirmed this in an interview with Rolling Stone magazine - it's combination of coincidence and wishful thinking.
22nd May 2014
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
Question: Is the "singing" by the monolith heard by the characters or just the movie audience?
Answer: As is the case with all non-diegetic sound in films, the characters do not hear it.
Answer: Aside from the piercing radio signal transmitted on the Moon, the Monolith makes no sounds or "singing" whatsoever. Intending this film to be as scientifically-accurate as possible, director Stanley Kubrick deliberately and correctly opted for total silence (no sound effects) in the vacuum of space. He knew, of course, that dead silence is a sure way to lose audience attention, so he commissioned an original musical soundtrack (but never used it). Instead, Kubrick chose to use an eclectic variety of classical symphonic and more modern choral compositions as his "guide music" during production and then as the actual soundtrack of the film. Interestingly, there's no music at all in scenes with dialogue, and no dialogue in scenes with music. As for the "singing" that you mention, you're probably thinking of composer György Ligeti's "Atmosphères" and "Lux Aeterna," which Kubrick used to achieve a mournful, eerie, otherworldly feeling in some scenes. To be clear, this music was not supposed to represent the Monolith "singing"; no characters in the film heard the musical soundtrack, as it was intended solely to set the mood for the audience.
27th May 2018
Psycho (1998)
Question: When private investigator Milton Arbogast is attacked on the stairway, this film inserts two non sequitur pieces of footage right in the middle of the attack sequence: Just as Arbogast's face is slashed twice, a shot of a virtually-nude woman wearing a sleep-mask is inserted for a split-second, followed a moment later by a split-second insert of what appears to be a small calf standing in the middle of a road in a rainstorm. What is the meaning of those two inserts?
Answer: His life flashing before his eyes? Snapshots of Norman's fractured psyche? The director's vision?
Those are just more questions.
Answer: I'm sorry. There are no answers to your question. Or. The inserts were added to make the movie, which I liked, even more horrible.
26th May 2018
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Question: When Kirk and McCoy try to rescue Chekov at Mercy Hospital, Kirk removes the 20th Century medical team into an adjacent room and uses his phaser to instantly fuse the metal door lock. The medical team cannot directly see Kirk do this, as they are visibly several feet away on the other side of the door. It's also safe to say that the medical team has never seen a phaser and can't comprehend its function or capabilities. As Kirk turns away from the door to rejoin McCoy, the trapped medical team only then rushes up to the door, and the trauma surgeon exclaims, "He melted the lock!" However, it seems that you'd have to laboriously dismantle the doorknob to determine that the lock's internal components were fused. So, how did a 20th Century surgeon deduce at a glance that Kirk had somehow melted the lock?
Answer: The lock, and the area around it, would have become hot as a result of melting the lock. The hospital staff would then jump to the conclusion that the lock was melted. The real reason they mention it, however, is so the audience knows what he did to the lock.
But you would think, if the doorknob was still searing hot two seconds after being fused, that the first thing out of the surgeon's mouth would be a scream of pain, rather than "He melted the lock!"
Answer: The doctors were watching through the window the entire time. There was a visible red laser beam from the phaser, culminating with a puff of smoke or vapor emanating from the knob. It wouldn't be a huge leap for anyone to surmise that the knob had likely been melted.
Try watching the scene. No doctors are looking through the window when Kirk phasers the door lock.
Answer: Or perhaps the part of lock on the doctors' side is visibility melted.
Answer: The knob would have been super-heated by the phaser blast. Enough that it could be felt without touching, and he simply could have come to the conclusion that a metal object that hot would likely have its internal components melted without a systematic analysis of the doorknob. He's also a surgeon and needs his hands. He wouldn't last long at the job if he was someone who went around putting his hand on glowing-hot doorknobs.
He could've also been guessing as it appears he tries opening the door. Why they don't break the glass is beyond me, but that's a character mistake, and not up for debate here.
21st Mar 2016
Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home (1986)
Question: Kirk and crew deliberately disclose crucial technological secrets, extend the life of a random stranger, deliver future technology to a primitive military power, abduct a cetacean biologist, and actually contribute to the extinction of a species during their brief stay in 20th Century San Francisco. Specifically: Scotty reveals the secret of Transparent Aluminum 150 years too early; McCoy arbitrarily uses 23rd Century medicine to cure a seriously ill 20th Century woman; and Kirk chooses to remove Gillian from the 20th Century. Perhaps most importantly, Chekov leaves behind a Starfleet Communicator and a Type 2 Phaser in the hands of the U.S. Navy (who would undoubtedly dissect the devices and try to exploit the technology a couple of centuries too soon). Beyond all that, Kirk and crew abduct two breeding humpback whales, one of which is pregnant, and that certainly contributes to humpback extinction in the 21st Century. Given what we think we know about disrupting linear time continuity (many instances are cited in Star Trek canon), how did Kirk and crew return to anything even resembling their own timeline after such blatant and deliberate interference in Earth history?
Chosen answer: This question has been answered a number of times by various individuals, all saying pretty much the same thing. The answers have been most satisfactory given the question revolves around a fictitious situation and the answer (s) need to be accepted as complete for this purpose. Any dispute or non-acceptance should be addressed in a Star Trek forum. Any ignoring of the Prime Directive was done to save the future of Earth, as the probe would have wiped out all life on Earth. Essentially, nothing that was done in the past resulted in major changes that would make Earth 300 years later appear any different, and no major futuristic technologies were revealed. The major one, Chekov's communicator and phaser being left behind did not result in anybody learning secrets. In the film, the phaser didn't function because of the radiation. It's presumed then the radiation permanently damaged the equipment so it appeared to be nothing but a toy or prop. However, in the novel "The Eugenics Wars: The Rise and Fall of Khan Noonien Singh", Roberta Lincoln was sent by Gary Seven to recover the items from Area 51 before any secrets were learned (and as stated before, additional corrections to Earth's timeline could have been done that aren't addressed in the film.) The subsequent loss of a suspicious "ruskie" would have hardly affected the era that was already in the midst of the Cold War. McCoy even questions that giving Dr. Nichols the formula for transparent aluminum could alter history to which Scotty replies what if Dr. Nichols is the one who invents it, to which McCoy agrees (in a later novel it is reveled that Scotty already knew Dr. Nichols invented transparent aluminum, so history was not changed.) The miraculous recovery of the old lady (growing a new kidney) was done by a pill so that any examination of her would not reveal the futuristic method involved. She would be a bewilderment to the medical community at best, and most likely misdiagnosis would be to blame. And just because she got a new kidney does not mean her life would have been extended, she could have died some other way in both timelines. And as stated before, Gillian simply wasn't vital to Earth's history. She could have contributed nothing of importance to society and died alone and childless. And a missing pair of breeding Humpbacks would hardly affect the extinction of their species, however in the future, they are already extinct, so little changes would occur. As for any questions about people seeing the Klingon ship in the past, who would believe them? People have long been claiming to see spaceships and aliens to little or no avail, so why would anyone believe a handful of people who said they saw aliens in a spaceship steal 2 whales? However, as with many time travel situations in films and novels, it's possible the events of the 23rd century as they appear in the beginning of the film are a result of Kirk and company's actions in the 20th century since the events already occurred even though Kirk and company had not yet done it themselves (this is where a discussion forum on the film would be advised, or a discussion forum on the theories of time travel).
Possibly the most convoluted and poorly-reasoned series of answers I've seen on this site. So far.
I think they're pretty logical actually.
I think your opinion would be in the minority. There is nothing exceptionally convoluted, nor poorly reasoned in the response.
Answer: They were extraordinarily lucky. The crew quite often defies all odds and encounters literal miracles. For a period of time this even happened on a roughly weekly basis.
11th May 2018
The Passion of the Christ (2004)
Question: What kind of snake did Jesus step on at the very beginning of the movie?
Answer: There is no gospel that recounts Jesus stepping on a snake, so the snake scene is only a dramatic fabrication for the movie. Presumably, the snake in the film represents temptation, perhaps even the same snake that tempted Eve in the Garden of Eden. As for its species, the snake appears to be a non-venomous constrictor that is not native to the Middle East, possibly a Garden Tree Boa from South America or a Southeast Asian python.
Answer: It is not a boa as it has heat sensing pits. It is either a ball python or reticulated python, I think.
Answer: But the snake was albino and wasn't beefy like a constrictor.
11th May 2018
Iron Man (2008)
Question: How did Stane's guards round up the ten rings? They didn't appear to have any weapons when they arrived, and the ten rings appeared to outnumber them.
Answer: Given that Stane was carrying (and used) the small, easily-concealed paralysis device, it may be assumed that his entourage were carrying (and using) the devices, also. They simply paralyzed the 10 Rings guards.
The Ten Rings members were shown kneeling with their hands on their heads, though. They wouldn't be able to do that if they had been paralyzed.
That doesn't negate the probability that Stane's entourage used the paralysis device on a few guards to demonstrate the effect, whereupon the other toady guards simply surrendered.
7th May 2018
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: Do we know the human casualties by the end of the war?
Answer: No such numbers are ever discussed in the novel or in the subsequent radio and movie treatments. What we may surmise, however, is that the human casualties were comparatively minor. Once the Martians were exposed to earthly microbes, they were wiped out pretty quickly.
Voiceover by Morgan Freeman at the end of the movie: by the toll of a billion lives.
Morgan Freeman says "By the toll of a billion deaths, man had earned his immunity, his right to survive among this planet's infinite organisms." He is saying that Mankind evolved with microorganisms for countless generations on Earth, making Mankind immune to most of those microorganisms. Perhaps a billion humans or more died of bacterial and viral plagues throughout human history; but, as a species, we gained immunity. Freeman's quote has nothing to do with the number of Martians that died because they had no immunity.
Answer: The ending dialog states a death of 1 billion.
The billion deaths spoken of don't refer to those that died in the alien attack but the billion deaths from the microorganisms that killed the aliens. "By a billion deaths man earned his immunity."
I feel that he meant that the organisms that killed the aliens killed a billion humans first before we got our immunity from them.
They are saying that.
Exactly.
15th Apr 2018
From Hell (2001)
Question: Did Abberline's wife die while giving birth, or after it? And how did the baby die?
Answer: Abberline's wife died while giving birth. It was hinted since she told Abberline (in his vision) that she's expecting a child from him. So she probably died while giving birth. It could have been a stillbirth but we didn't get more information about his wife and child's death.
Answer: Also, the lobotomy was not thought of until 1946 by a Portuguese physician and brought into the public eye by Dr. Walter Freeman, an American. The two received the Nobel prize for medicine in 1949.
Answer: While based on actual events and characters, "From Hell" takes considerable liberty with facts, in addition to leaving much of its convoluted fictional plot unexplained. The real Chief Inspector Frederick Abberline's first wife died of tuberculosis two months after they married (she was not pregnant at the time). Abberline remained married to his second wife for over 50 years, and they never had children. Abberline was never an opium or absinthe user, either, and he died at the ripe old age of 86. The movie fabricated everything except a handful of essential historical facts regarding the Ripper murders.
19th Mar 2009
War of the Worlds (2005)
Question: Is there any indication as to where the aliens come from and what exactly they want?
Chosen answer: In the original George Pal version they were Martians and the reasoning for what they were doing was never explained. In this version, it's never explained where they come from, but their mission is simple, to eradicate human life from Earth, and use our bodies to fertilise the planet, probably so that they can colonise the planet for themselves.
If it was to eradicate us they could have done that millions of years back, why now, so that doesn't add up.
You want to grow the substance (people) that grows your food source before using it. If they waited too much longer, they'd have a harder time because we'd have the technology to fight them back.
The reason which was apparently provided by Wells was that Mars was dying by lack of natural resources and that Martians needed a new home and food source.
They were waiting until the population grew large enough to sustain terraforming efforts. As they used our bodily fluids seemingly as a primary material for their terraforming.
It's an assumption that they could have eradicated us millions of years ago (which by the way would be long before we even existed). Maybe they didn't have the ability to transport themselves, only the machines. Maybe the original aliens all died. Lots of other options why they couldn't have done it.
They probably needed to wait for us to produce enough humans to use as fertilizer. Doesn't make sense to try to use several million bodies as fertilizer back then vs now with billions of people.
Answer: Maybe they were waiting for us to get up to a very high number in population. Before, we didn't have over 7 billion people in the world. More people, more food.
Answer: All versions of "War of the Worlds" are based on the novel of the same name written by H.G. Wells and published in 1897. Wells explained that the aliens are from the planet Mars, and they came to Earth for the natural resources.
But that still doesn't answer why did they wait till then to attack when they could have done it years ago with less resistance. The natural resources were still here.
Perhaps the Martians considered the technological advances of Mankind as "resources," also. The prologue states that the Martians had been observing humanity on Earth for a long time before they chose to attack. Why? Possibly observing our advances in engineering (dam building, for one example, mining for another). It could be viewed that the Martians allowed us to perform the hard work of making natural resources more accessible and consolidating those resources. Personally, I always thought the Martians intended to come exploit the fruits of our labor, allowing us to advance as far as we could without becoming a physical threat to them. If the Martians had waited a few decades more, they could be dealing with a technologically-dangerous human species.
Maybe they were still building the tripods, and when they finished, they would bury them in the ground. Then wait for the Earth's population to grow.
Answer: The alien homeland is never described in the film, but is described in the script as a lifeless, barren place, unfit for life.
23rd Apr 2018
General questions
What movie is this? An evil guy wakes up with bandages on his face. he takes them off and looks out the window and destroys a passing passenger plane with his mind.
Answer: Sounds like you're describing elements of a 1978 paranormal thriller called "The Medusa Touch," starring Richard Burton. Most of the movie is told in flashbacks because, from the very beginning, the evil character named John Morlar is in a hospital intensive care unit, his head completely wrapped in bandages (having suffered severe cranial injuries), and the bandages are never removed during the film. As the flashbacks unfold, we learn that John Morlar had incredible telekinetic mental powers all throughout his life and he is responsible for several unexplained tragedies; in one flashback, he does indeed gaze out a window (or terrace) and causes a 747 passenger jet disaster. What you probably recall is a scene with Morlar in bandages followed by the flashback of him causing the passenger jet disaster.
9th Apr 2018
General questions
There was a movie with Jim Carrey in it although he was not the lead. The only scene I remember is that he walks home and knocks on the door, his dad and sister are surprised to see him because they were told he was dead. His sister believes that he's actually a zombie and wants to know what it's like to be one.
Answer: That's the 1984 comedy "Finders Keepers," in which a con-man pretends to be a soldier who is escorting another soldier's body home in a coffin (but the coffin actually contains several million dollars). The con-man claims that the deceased soldier's name is "Lane Biddlecoff," so word quickly spreads that Biddlecoff is dead. However, the real Lane Biddlecoff (played by Jim Carrey) is an immature goofball who was never a soldier, and he is still very much alive. The scene you're describing features Lane Biddlecoff, his uncle and his bubble-headed cousin (not his father and sister), as the cousin repeatedly asks Lane what it's like to be dead and come back to life.
That's it.
9th Apr 2018
General questions
There was a movie that had Keanu Reeves in it. In the movie, he plays a teenager who discovers that he accidentally gave his girlfriend to a pimp and intends on making her into a prostitute. When Keanu finally manages to rescue her, he takes her home and tells her and her dad what he thinks of her, breaks up with her and then walks home.
Answer: That's the 1988 film, "The Night Before," a comedy that is mostly told in flashbacks as Keanu Reeves tries to remember how he lost his dad's car and sold his date to a pimp on prom night.
That's the one.
28th Mar 2018
Magnum Force (1973)
Question: I'm not sure if he already suspected them at the time, but why exactly did Harry want to take Davis and Sweet to arrest the gangster?
Answer: Because Davis and Sweet demonstrated keen interest, skill and knowledge of firearms (particularly of Harry's .44 Magnum) when they first met. They were flattering Harry, probably in anticipation of inviting him to join their death squad. Harry was impressed and asked for them specifically, even though they were rookies, but he didn't suspect them of being the vigilante killers at that point.
Yes, he did suspect them. In fact, he suspected Davis from the moment he found out that Davis was the one who reported Charlie McCoy's death. He confirmed his suspicion about Davis after he compared similarities between bullet that killed one of the victims and the one he purposely misfired from Davis' revolver during shooting competition and retrieved it afterwards. He explained it all to Early Smith right after raid on Palancio (and thus unwittingly sealed his partner's fate).
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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