https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nXgboDb9ucE

Last time, Bowman, who’d been absorbed into some sort of collective alien consciousness, visited Floyd and told him he and his crew needed to leave Jupiter in two days. So, Floyd goes and visits the Russians on their ship, which is against his government’s orders. Obviously, the captain of the ship doesn’t believe Floyd at first, but then something unexpected happens: the monolith disappears. The crew basically takes this as a sign, but they have one major problem. Earth is still too far out of range from them to have enough fuel for the return journey; that is, the Russian ship doesn’t have enough fuel. However, the Discovery One has enough fuel to make the launch, and that would give the Russian ship the extra fuel needed to return to Earth. The American and Russian crews begin working on connecting the two ships without informing their governments, but they still have one potential problem: what if HAL decides to turn homicidal again?

So far, HAL has been a nonfactor in the movie. It appears that Chandra has fixed the problem, but now they are going to need HAL to initiate the launch from the Discovery, and if the robot figures out that he isn’t returning to Earth with the crew, he might object to the plan and decide to continue the mission himself, just like he’d done with Bowman’s crew.

The decision is made to keep all the details from HAL. Chandra has misgivings, but he agrees to go along. While all of this is going on, a massive black spot appears on Jupiter. The crew is given orders to observe the spot, but they don’t pay much attention to it until it’s time to begin to launch. Then when they observe the spot, the reason for Bowman’s warning becomes apparent. The black spot is made of millions of monoliths. These monoliths are referred to as Von Neumann machines. This term has multiple uses, but in the context of the film, a Von Neumann machine (or probe) is a self-replicating device used to accomplish very large tasks, and the monoliths’ task is large indeed.

The black dominoes are eating Jupiter. The book describes these machines splitting apart like cells, self-replicating at an alarming rate. The crew doesn’t know why these machines are eating the planet, but the end result of their meal can’t be good, and, for all they know, the machines might end up eating them in the process. They need to leave, and it’s now apparent that HAL is going to meet a tragic end should he be left behind.

There are no ethical debates about this. HAL is a robot. I’m glad neither the writers of the movie nor the author of the book chose to give Chandra a crying scene over his dilemma. It would’ve been silly, and not having such a scene saved time. The question is how to convince HAL to continue the launch. They know the robot is observing the phenomenon and will want to study it.

When it comes time for the launch, Chandra is sitting in a chair working with HAL, and sure enough the robot begins asking about the situation on Jupiter and insists they should stay behind to study what’s happening. Chandra and the robot go back and forth, and eventually Chandra just decides to tell HAL the truth. Once HAL understands the full situation, including the fact that he will likely perish if he’s left behind, he agrees to go ahead with the launch.

The movie is smart in how it handles this. Chandra makes it very clear that he prioritized honesty when programming HAL. The robot was supposed to be completely open with the crew while working with them. This was why the government’s directive to keep the true nature of the original Discovery mission a secret was so destructive. The robot wasn’t programmed to withhold information, and his homicidal behavior was the result of the robot basically choosing the government’s orders as his primary directive.

Whether HAL’s behavior is believable or not, this was the situation the first book established. The only difference is that Arthur C. Clarke suggested that HAL’s behavior was the result of a fledgling conscience. The movie, however, doesn’t go so far. It basically exploits the fact that Chandra knows how to run his own machine, and he believes that HAL can only function properly when given all the information.

He gambles on this assumption, and the gamble pays off. HAL does not magically become sentimental. The robot is essentially very adept at detecting inconsistencies, and these inconsistencies can include people’s lies. If it suspects it is not being given all the facts, it will assert its own directive, but if the robot knows the full scope of things, it will obey orders. The movie’s interpretation might not be as romantic as sentient circuitry, but it’s more believable, and I appreciated it.

HAL performs the launch as ordered, and everything goes according to plan. When Chandra returns to the ship, he gives Floyd the device that was supposed to short-circuit HAL should it decide to go rogue. He tells Floyd that he figured the government bureaucrat would try something like this and marches away. Floyd, despite being caught, smiles. He’s impressed with Chandra, and it looks like they won’t need the little red calculator after all.

Strictly speaking, Chandra’s actions were terrible. Had he been wrong, he and the entire crew would’ve died. That being said—from a narrative perspective—giving Floyd the device did complete his character arc for the film.

Throughout the movie, Chandra is quiet, anti-social, and seems to enjoy robots instead of people. However, seeing through Floyd’s contingency did establish that he had a far better understanding of humanity than everyone believed. Really, the only supporting character who doesn’t receive a complete arc is Curnow.

The fact that he and Maxim became friends shortly before Maxim died is never addressed. Maxim’s death is used to complete the captain’s arc and establish rapport between her and Floyd just in time for our protagonist to challenge that rapport by telling her about his encounter with Bowman, but Curnow’s feelings about losing his friend are never explored. This is the film’s only loose thread. As the Russian ship is flying away from Jupiter, the giant planet begins to implode. I’ll cover what happens next in the final review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3OlCzxFuV9cChandra’s Bet