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At the end of the film we find out the government has
programmed HAL with a secret mission before the voyage began and this
mission directly conflicts with HAL's other primary
objective.
The idea that the government might accidently sabotage their own mission
is very satirical. The
government has also decided to keep the object found on the moon a
secret not only from the kids
back home but also from many of the lower space workers,
those who do not have the security
clearance. The government creates rumors in order to appease
the curious and does not even let the
people with the inside information contact there families.
HAL is the only one on the ship to Jupiter
who has any information about the object found on the moon,
or it's signaling Jupiter. The men on
the voyage think they are simply on a survey mission.
The fear of government conspericy in the 1960's is reflected in this
sub-plot of the film
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These duel pressures drive HAL, a machine into insanity.
In order to complete both
missions, HAL diagnosis a piece of equipment incorrectly, since the
entire fate of the ship relies on a machine that has possibly mal-functioned
the men discuss turning him off.
This complete trust of a machine, or mis-trust of its abilities
reflect the fear of the coming computer age. Many of the youth during
the 1960's were on a search to find themselves, this also ment going
back to nature. Many people were intimidated by the newer machines
being developed. HAL, smarter then they think realizes
this we find out because he has lip read their conversation. Eventually
all the men on the vessel are murdered by this computer leaving only Dave,
who then attempts to disconnect HAL.
To do this, Dave
my eject his hard drive, and unplug many memory modules.
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When the mission finally does reach Jupiter, the last surviving traveler
goes on a journey through the unconscious mind, until finally he is
reborn as pure consciousness. This scene from the novel is very
difficult to display visually. Unless the view has first read the book,
it is almost impossible to follow the storyline from here on.
The images we see do reflect the psycadelic art and music of the late
1960's. Many people used LSD to try to search for there inner self.
According to Freud we can never communicate truly with our subconsious,
although many have attempted this. Dave in a way is successful in his
journey, the hope that many of the time period also search for. |
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It seems that the superior intelligence which has been leading us, frames
in Dave's mind a reality similar to the ones they have observed on earth.
During this time, step by step he is slowly aging. These scenes are
filmed with mastery, and one easily glides into the next. Each time a
step is taken Dave sees his own image before he is transformed into the
then older man, finally on his death bed we see the paintings on the wall
which represent each stage of his journey, and finally he is re-born into
a child of pure thought.
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