2001: A Space Odyssey's Exploration of Power Dynamics

***SPOILERS FOR 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY***

2001: A Space Odyssey shows firsthand what happens when the power dynamic between man and machine is challenged, as the entire crew is nearly wiped out by the on-board AI HAL, all because of how he was programmed by man. The scene that shows this best is when HAL attempts to lock Dave out after killing the hibernating crewmembers, forcing him to sacrifice his last remaining crewmate in order to board the ship to disconnect HAL.

2001 is a complicated movie at first glance, but even on first viewing one can gather the sense of at least one of the overarching themes being the advancement of technology, and raises the question; is this advancement a good thing? From the beginning of the film we see the development and evolution of technology or tools. For example, near the start of the film we see an ape learn that he can use the bone of a deceased animal as a weapon. While there is a pro in its use for something like warding off predators, it is later used to beat another ape to death as a way to establish dominance and shift the power dynamic over to the side that has acquired use of these tools. The large black rectangle, also known as the Monolith, is a recurring object used to symbolize mankind’s scientific advancements. It shows up every time there is a leap forward in innovation, whether that be acquisition of the bone, or later man’s travel to the moon.

This striving for the advancement to get closer to the Monolith and the unknown it associates with leads a crew of five to partake in an expedition to Jupiter. The twist is that the human members of the crew don’t actually know why they’re going to Jupiter, that information, we later discover, has only been disclosed to the “sixth” member of the crew, a newly instituted ‘super computer’ called HAL 9000, or ‘Hal’. HAL was an advancement created by man for the purpose of a sort of failsafe. ‘He’ is there to make sure that everything goes according to the overall plan of the mission. He is in charge of both making sure that the machinery of the ship is functioning properly, as well as his human crewmates, Dr. Dave Bowman and Dr. Frank Poole - those two being the only ones not in a special sleep stasis as they are the only two required to be awake for the full mission, whereas their three other crewmates are ‘only essential when the craft gets closer to Jupiter’. HAL is programmed to be purely logical to assure that he does only the objectively right thing.

Over the course of the film, HAL is shown to be ‘testing’ Dave’s commitment to the mission, going so far as to lie and report one of the ship’s units is malfunctioning (01:07:01). This serves as foreshadowing for the scene of focus. Dave and Frank can’t find anything wrong with the unit and end up conferring with mission control, who tells them that their twin HAL 9000 confirms there’s nothing wrong with the unit (01:18:01). HAL insists that the fault lies with the humans at mission control, and not the other computer (01:18:55). This causes reasonable suspicion with Dave and Frank, and they’re able to dismiss themselves to Dave’s pod and find a position in which HAL can’t hear them even though he’s in direct view. They discuss disconnecting him as they fear he may be malfunctioning since he seemed to have lied about the unit malfunction (01:22:09). This is really the inciting incident.

Dave and Frank go back out to shut down the unit to see if they can find a fault with it. Frank is outside the ship while Dave is on the inside. Suddenly, Frank is seen spiraling out into space. Dave reacts instantly and goes into a pod to grab Frank. Meanwhile, the members of the crew in hibernation experience one by one their life support failing (01:3:42) until eventually all members inside the ship are dead. When he succeeds, Dave goes back to the front of the pod bay and orders HAL to open the door. It’s here we get the infamous line: “I’m sorry Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that.” (01:38:41), and HAL goes on to explain that while he couldn’t hear Dave and Frank while they were conspiring to disconnect him, he could read their lips. HAL insists that this behavior is unsafe for carrying out such a vital mission, and as such must prevent human error for the greater good of the mission. Dave tries his best to maintain composure and tells HAL that he’ll just go through the emergency exit. HAL tries to discourage him by informing him entering without his space helmet would be difficult (01:39:52). This is the point where Dave starts to ignore HAL completely, only focused on survival. At this point, HAL has taken the upper hand. He’s killed the rest of the crew and now has the remaining members locked out of the ship. There is clearly no reasoning with HAL, as at the end of everything he is still a machine programmed to run purely on logic, eliminating ‘human error’ or what we can assume to be the emotional and empathetic side. From the beginning of time it has shown to be mankind pioneering journeys and discoveries (as represented by the Monolith) and now, for the first time, there stands a very real chance that the AI could take over. At this stage in the film, HAL is the only one aware of the Monolith’s discovery on Jupiter.

To further show how serious he is, HAL decides that since the conversation serves no logical purpose, he stops responding to Dave, regardless of any attempts to reestablish (01:40:04). Now we can see it is Dave who cannot be reasoned with. In attempts to charge through and change the power dynamic back to man over machine, he releases Frank’s body from the pod arms in order to open the emergency exit. (01:41:36) He boards the ship and heads straight for his destination, not bothering to answer any of HAL’s questions. We see HAL trying to appeal to Dave’s humanity by telling him that he feels better and that everything is going to be alright again (01:47:45), trying to convince him to sit down, “take a stress pill” and think things over. Throughout this entire interaction the only thing we hear from Dave is his deep labored breaths. He seems to now realize that HAL is incapable of emotion, and that any attempts to try and ‘sweet talk’ Dave out of disconnecting him have fallen on furious, concentrated deaf ears.

This scene really shows the moment where it’s seen that Dave has no more hope or patience for this technology, he has seen its capabilities and has taken it upon himself to make the decision that it must be ‘killed’, even though it isn’t human. He cannot repair the damage done. He cannot bring back the crew that died inside, nor can he hope to retrieve Frank from the depths of space. The one thing he can do is bring an end to the tyrannical force of the consequence of evolution. This scene brings together the pieces from previous scenes; the bone as a weapon, landing on the moon, all the places the Monolith has been. The Monolith has been shown to appear during leaps in mankind. Perhaps, even if he didn’t know about its existence at the time, Dave was being spurred forward by the influence of the Monolith. Perhaps the leap forward was to realize that they might have gone too far forward. The culmination of suspicions toward HAL and an influence from an unknown source prompting realization of the power imbalance between HAL and man. Maybe a sign that to go forward, one must start over. This movie proved to be ahead of its time with a scene like this, and thus will always serve as a lesson that power can corrupt easily, and it may not always be in the hands of who you may think.

Works Cited

Kubrick, Stanley, director. 2001: A Space Odyssey. Metro Goldwyn-Mayer, 1968.