atenolol wrote:
2. One question I had--HAL eliminated the crew because they would jeopardize the mission. After the crew was dead, who was going to do the mission? Was he just that nuts?

Danny Peary suggested the possibility that HAL's malfunction was instigated by the alien intelligence as a test of Bowman's humanity, that he passes by taking control from HAL and showing emotion (for the first time in the film) as he shuts the computer down. Therefore, he worthy of entering the portal and evolving into the Star Child. Peary's essay on 2001 (in his book Cult Movies) is terrific; he analyzes just about every major scene and provides his interpretations of them. In four pages.


James