Peter Hyams’ “2010: The Yr We Make Contact” (1984) was the primary time a director dared to make a sequel to a Stanley Kubrick movie.
In fact, immediately that is commonplace, with Mike Flanagan’s glorious “Physician Sleep” and that shaky portion of “Prepared Participant One” (making Jack Torrance a online game character – good one, Steven) some apparent examples.
Any day now, we’ll most likely hear a couple of sequel, prequel or “world constructing” spinoff of “A Clockwork Orange” or “Dr. Strangelove.” Nothing is sacred anymore.
The primary (and unlikely to be final) sequel to Kubrick’s “2001: A House Odyssey” (1968), Hyams needed to do greater than show himself a worthy inheritor to the narrative created by Arthur C. Clarke’s 1951 quick story, “The Sentinel,” and the staggering strategy offered by Clarke’s richly-layered sci-fi narrative.
Word: Clarke’s novelization of “2001: A House Odyssey” coincided with the movie’s launch.
There’s additionally Kubrick, whose type is as recognizable and spectacular as it’s practically not possible to duplicate, not to mention with feeling and goal.
Hyams’ movie begins with an eerie prologue, during which we hear a light, bone-chilling recording of astronaut David Bowman (Keir Dullea) utter, “My God, it’s filled with stars). A wordless, dread-inducing sequence of pictures from the primary movie and a knowledge studying fill in newcomers on what has occurred because the occasions of “2001.”
The united statesS. Discovery stays in orbit, the hibernating crew is useless, astronaut Frank Poole is useless, and Bowman encountered a Monolith, which continues to be current, whereas he himself has gone lacking.
The story then jumps to 2009, the place Heywood Floyd (performed beforehand by William Sylvester, now portrayed by Roy Scheider) is approached by a Russian scientist about becoming a member of a mission to analyze what occurred on the united statesS. Discovery. Floyd joins the robotic creator of HAL (Bob Balaban) and an oddly afraid-of-heights astronaut (John Lithgow).
Alongside a tense Russian crew, led by an amazing Helen Mirren, Floyd makes direct contact with Bowman, or no matter it’s he has develop into after merging with the Monolith.
The primary new line of dialogue is “Neatness is an effective high quality.” The identical may be stated of Hyams’ route and strategy to staging and filming scenes. Whereas nowhere close to Kubrick’s famously painstaking framing and intention for visible perfection, Hyams’ alternative of pictures smacks of precision.
Virtually all of Hyams’ subsequent movies, a lot of which I like lots, have been criticized for being underlit or mendacity too closely on “pure mild.” Right here, there’s a magnificence and fastidiousness that doesn’t match Kubrick however definitely creates splendid visuals and a continuity between the movies.
No matter Hyams’ movie lacks within the comparable mental discovery or poetry of Kubrick’s movie, the dimensions, sense of surprise and prospects stay intact.
The sci-fi movie “2010: The Yr We Make Contact” was launched in theatres immediately in 1984. #80s #80smovies pic.twitter.com/aUUVDl40F4
— LandOfThe80s (@landofthe80s) December 7, 2022
“2010” is wise, adult-minded sci-fi, possessing a seriousness and grandeur that matches the unique. It additionally lacks the chilly presentation, gradual pacing and sometimes difficult narrative of the unique, which, nonetheless, I nonetheless favor.
Hyams’ movie is attractive but in addition compassionate.
The visible results are principally breathtaking, at the same time as it is a house opera set within the age of Atari. A few of the blue display results are dated, however the Oscar-nominated visions are principally spectacular. The antiquated touches embody a visible telling us that OMNI Journal, PAN AM Airways and tape cassettes would nonetheless be round within the twenty first century.
Extra importantly, there’s a really feel of pre-perestroika Nineteen Eighties, notably within the scenes with the Russian/American astronaut collaborations. This makes Scheider an attention-grabbing alternative for the lead, since he has that nice monologue about Glasnost in “The Russia Home” (1990).
The only real U.S./U.S.S.R tensions are conveyed within the harsh exchanges between Scheider and Mirren, glorious enjoying the pinnacle of the Russian aspect of the operation.
The actors aren’t there merely reacting to the particular results, as Scheider is commanding and Lithgow, notably throughout his large scene, acts because the viewers surrogate. Scheider and Lithgow have a second the place they focus on one of the best place on Earth to get a sizzling canine, which could be probably the most relatable a part of the movie.
There are wondrous moments all through: SAL 9000, the feminine model of HAL (voiced by an uncredited Candice Bergen) asks her creator earlier than being shut down, “Will I dream?” An exquisite query.
Floyd lives in a house with dolphins as home pets, a visible that has stayed with me, at the same time as I query the practicality of the thought.
I cherished the half the place Floyd comforts a frightened Russian astronaut, a wordless, sentimental second that I doubt Kubrick would have included.
It’s wild seeing Balaban (ideally forged because the human equal of his creation) floating round inside HAL and never Dullea – after some fantastic tuning, we hear Douglas Rain’s voice as soon as once more and it made me catch my breath.
Mary Jo Deschanel (sure, Zoey’s mom) performs Bowman’s widow and has a tragic and eerie second the place she will discuss to no matter her husband has develop into; Hyams caps the scene along with her sitting alone and defeated, a visible that also haunts me.
FAST FACT: Roger Ebert gave “2010” a constructive evaluation however referred to as it a film of its time, missing poetry. “it’s a triumph of {hardware}, of particular results, of slick, thrilling filmmaking. This can be a film that owes extra to George Lucas than to Stanley Kubrick, extra to “Star Wars” than to Additionally sprach Zarathustra.”
Floyd’s encounter with the Star Youngster-embodied Bowman is mesmerizing; Bowman modifications to varied kinds and ages throughout their dialogue. As a lifelong “2001” fan, that is the scene that left me probably the most awestruck.
Much less efficient is the bit the place an invisible Bowman brushes the hair of his hospitalized mom, a sentimental and goofy bit that the movie didn’t want.
Ultimately, HAL and Bowman make good on their promise of presenting humankind with “one thing fantastic” and go away us with an optimistic message, giving the movie an upbeat, completely satisfied ending. I want it weren’t so, because it’s simply too pat.
What nearly redeems this misstep is that last shot, going full circle again to the surprise and prospects of the Monolith. “Thus Spoke Zarathrusta” replays and it ends on a near-perfect word.
Scheider’s narration and far of the dialogue inform us of each plot flip eliminating the thriller and chilly human void of Kubrick’s strategy. Steven Spielberg’s “A.I. Synthetic Intelligence” (2001) recreated a Kubrickian atmosphere and really feel the place the characters, synthetic and in any other case, categorical emotions for each other.
Clarke writes like Michael Crichton, in that generally his characters discuss an excessive amount of. Search for Clarke’s cameo: within the early vast shot of the benches in entrance of The White Home, Clarke is sitting to the far left, feeding birds alone.
Additionally, hit the pause button and check out the Time Journal cowl that’s being handed round for an amazing Easter Egg hidden in plain sight.
Launched through the yr everybody assumed George Orwell’s worst fears could be realized, Hyams movie is a trustworthy adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke’s 1982 novel, “2010: Odyssey Two.”
Clarke’s subsequent novels within the sequence are underrated, as I’ve a delicate spot for “2061: Odyssey Three” (printed in 1987), which predicted long-distance cellphone calls could be extinct by that yr.
Regardless of a long-past-due curiosity from David Fincher and Morgan Freeman, I nonetheless need to see Clarke’s “Rendezvous With Rama” made into a movie. For now, we are able to revisit “2010,” which was a mid-size hit in 1984 however, due to what got here earlier than it, stays a controversial sequel.
Taken by itself phrases and inventive objectives, it isn’t on the extent of Kubrick but it surely will get midway there, which is outstanding. Hyams’ movie is oddly underrated but it surely holds up higher than many bear in mind.
Throughout its finest, most majestic passages, the film is, certainly, one thing fantastic.