“Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant at Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January, 1992.”
Happy birthday to my favorite homicidal AI! I still love you, buddy.
I’m sorry dive, I’m afraid I can’t do that.
Here’s a song for you, HAL…
Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer, do…
I’m haaalllffff ccccraaaazzyyyyy
Ooooooverrrr the looooooove of youuuuuuuu
Hal is one of my favorite characters ever, and while I loved the voice in the movie, I tend to find that the movie made it less clear as to exactly WHY Hal was doing what he was doing. He wasn’t just a malevolent entity killing people for fun.
Although the movie in general was kind of “WTF” if you hadn’t read the book, in a ton of ways.
I think Clarke actually wrote the novel at the same time as the movie was being made though… both happened way before I actually read and saw them.
It’s been forever since I read the book, but I don’t think the movie presents HAL’s motivation for murdering the crew as “going crazy” necessarily, though I guess a case could be made that the contradictory nature of his programming and the requirements of the mission caused him to act in self-preservation and to reach the conclusion that the humans had to go, which I guess could also be described as “going crazy.” Looked at coldly, from the point of view of an AI lacking empathy, it almost makes sense. But the best villain’s motivations always do.
It was my great-grandfather’s favorite song in the 1890s.
Like everything else in that movie, the simplest explanation for HAL’s actions is that they never came up with a script that made any damn sense. I don’t care who made the movie/game/whatever, “it’s all explained in the book” isn’t good enough.
I’ve vowed to never use a phone AI (think Siri or Hey Google) or one of the Home models (Alexa or whatever) until I can name it Hal and have it talk in the Hal 9000 voice. Come on Google/Amazon…make it happen!
Tony
I ruminate on this mystery a bit in my blog about 2001!
2001’s elliptical style is one of its strengths IMO.
I like that blog post but man do you get some weird comments. I choose to believe you offended a bunch of rogue AIs that didn’t really know how to communicate their displeasure.
Last I checked it was mostly about selling shoes or something. Stamping out spam is one of the less fun parts of having a blog.
I don’t believe the movie ever really explains why Hal does what he does, other than a vague suggestion that he’s “broken”.
In the book, it’s made clear that all of this stemmed from the fact that Hal was ordered to lie about the mission, which created internal conflicts that he was trying to resolve.
At least that’s what I recall, but it’s been decades since I read the book, and years since I watched the whole movie beginning to end.
I’ve always felt that Hal was a more sympathetic character than other folks might perceive him, I guess. It likely had something to do with me going into AI. If this is perhaps less so in 2001, it’s definitely the case in 2010, when the humans are all plotting to ditch him, and his creator finally breaks down and tells him the plan… and Hal understands, and agrees to voluntarily sacrifice himself to save everyone.
Because Hal is awesome.
Then maybe it’s been too long since I last saw the movie too, since I thought the movie implied that requiring HAL to lie about the mission and keep secrets from the crew exceeded his programming and caused the results we saw. Maybe that was just me merging details from the book and movie together though.
Ya, that’s from the book. I don’t THINK it was ever really explained in the movie.
Like you though, I may just be forgetting.
I love you, too, divedivedive.
Honestly, I was hoping you would turn up. I’ll have a drink in your honor tonight.
This wins the Interweb for today.
No doubt about it, this has been a productive thread. Wumpus would be proud.
Thanks for that link. An enjoyable read. Never read the book, and it’s been years since I’ve seen the film.
Dad took me to see it in the theater when it came out in 1968. I would have been 8 years old. I still remember how I felt when I heard this:
I think I was too young to see this movie, as I very nearly ran out of the theater, completely terrified by that music. My heart was racing, and I couldn’t explain it to Dad, who asked me what was wrong when he saw the look on my face as I tensed in my seat, getting ready to flee. This is the shit, right here. Also,
I’d never thought about this before, but you’re right. So many of my memories of this film are tied to the score.
Did you come up with that? I like it.
I haven’t seen that word used about acting, so maybe I did!
Hahaha. Missed that. Hope it was great! [-:|