About: 2001: A Space Odyssey
Taken from the 2001: A Space Odyssey Collectible Exhibit, 1999.

2—18 MONTHS LATER

The second stage is "18 Months Later"—it takes place in the first manned ship to Jupiter, called Discovery. A superintelligent talking computer called the HAL 9000 computer is on board, as well as two astronauts and three other crewmembers, who are all in deep sleep until they arrive to Jupiter. The purpose of the mission is to reach Jupiter and its moons for scientific study, but unknown to its crew, the real mission is to see why the black monolith on the moon is aiming radio signals at Jupiter.

During the mission, the HAL 9000 computer is slipping by while giving false alarms. This concerns the two crew members, who alert mission control. Mission control reports that they are probably experiencing a computer glitch.

Discovery's commander decides to disconnect the computer and replace it with ground control. While the Discovery astronauts make disconnection preparations and fix a failing device on their radar dish outside the ship, the HAL 9000 discovers the plans for disconnection. HAL murders one of the astronauts with his space pod while the astronaut is replacing a failing device from the radar dish and then disconnects the sleeping crewmembers from their life-support systems. The only survivor is the commander, who manages to get in the ship while stranded in space in his space pod, after an unsuccessful attempt to rescue his crewmate. The commander disconnects HAL and discovers a prerecorded message from the executive, and hears the real mission for the Discovery astronauts. Next page