2001: A Space Odyssey Page #9

MICHAELS:

might do something, but we

don't want to be too rough until

we know a little more.

FLOYD:

But you don't have any idea as

to what it is?

MICHAELS:

Tomb, shine, survey-marker

spare part, take your choice.

HALVORSEN:

The only thing about it that we are

sure of is that it is the first direct

evidence of intelligent life beyond

the Earth.

SILENT APPRECIATION

HALVORSEN:

Four million years ago, something,

presumably from the stars, must

have swept through the solar

system and left this behind.

11/25/65 b64

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B44

CONTINUED:

FLOYD:

Was it abandoned, forgotten, left

for a purpose?

HALVORSEN:

I suppose we'll never know.

MICHAELS:

The moon would have made an

excellent base camp for

preliminary Earth surveys.

SOME MORE SILENCE

FLOYD:

Any ideas about the colour?

MICHAELS:

Well, not really. At first glance,

black would suggest something

sun-powered, but then why would

anyone deliberately bury a sun-

powered device?

FLOYD:

Has it been exposed to any sun

before now?

MICHAELS:

I don't think it has, but I'd

like to check that. Simpson,

what's the log on that?

11/25/65 b65

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B45

INSIDE MONITOR DOME

WE SEE A NUMBER OF

TELEVISION DISPLAYS

INCLUDING SEVERAL TV

VIEWS OF FLOYD AND

COMPANY IN THE:

EXCAVATION.

SIMPSON:

The first surface was exposed at

0843 on the 12th April... Let me

see... that would have been

forty-five minutes after Lunar

sun-set. I see here that

special lighting equipment had

to be brought up before any

futher work could be done.

11/25/65 b66

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B46

TMA-1 EXCAVATION

MICHAELS:

Thank you.

FLOYD:

And so this is the first sun that

it's had in four million years.

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Excuse me, gentlemen, if you'd

all line up on this side of the

walkway we'd like to take a few

photographes. Dr. Floyd, would

you thand in the middle... Dr.

Michaels on that side, Mr.

Halvorsen on the other....

thank you.

THE PHOTOGRAPHER

QUICKLY MAKES SOME

EXPOSURES:

PHOTOGRAPHER:

Thank you very much gentlemen,

I'll have the base photo section

send you copies.

AS THE MEN SLOWLY

SEPERATE FROM THEIR

PICTURE POSE, THERE

IS A PIERCINGLY POWERFUL

SERIES OF FIVE ELECTRONIC

SHRIEKS, EACH LIKE A

HIDEOUSLY OVER-LOADED

AND DISTORTED TIME SIGNAL.

FLOYD INVOLUNTARILY TRIES

TO BLOCK HIS EARS WITH HIS

SPACESUITED HANDS. THEN

COMES MERCIFUL SILENCE.

11/25/65 b67

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B47

VARIOUS SHOTS OF

SPACE MONITORS,

ASTEROIDS, THE SUN,

PLUTO, MARS.

NARRATOR:

A hundred million miles beyond

Mars, in the cold lonliness

where no man had yet travelled,

Deep-Space-Monitor-79 drifts

slowly among the tangled orbits

of the asteroids.

NARRATOR:

Radiation detectors noted and

analyzed incoming cosmic rays

from the galaxy and points beyond;

neutron and x-ray telescopes

kept watch on strange stars that

no human eye would eever see;

magnetometers observed the

gusts and hurricanes of the solar

winds, as the sun breathed million

mile-an-hour blasts of plasma

into the faces of its circling

children.

NARRATOR:

All these things and many others

were patiently noted by Deep-

Space-Monitor-79, and recorded

in its crystalline memory.

11/25/65 b68

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B47

CONTINUED:

NARRATOR:

But now it had noted something

strange - the faint yet

unmistakable distrubance rippling

across the solar system, and

quite unlike any natural phenomena

it had ever observed in the past.

NARRATOR:

It was also observed by Orbiter

M-15, circling Mars twice a

day; and High Inclination Probe-

21, climbing slowly above the

planet of the ecliptic; and even

artificial Comet-5, heading out

into the cold wastes beyond

Pluto, along an orbit whose

far point it would not reach for

a thousand years.

NARRATOR:

All noticed the peculiar burst of

energy that leaped from the face

of the Moon and moved across

the solar system, throwing off a

spray of radiation like the wake of

a racing speedboat.

11/25/65 b69

------------------------------------------------------------------------

B SECTION TIMING

B1-1f00.50B2500.10

B2 00.10B2600.20

B3 00.15B2700.05

B4 00.15B28Out

B5 00.20B2900.30

B6 00.15B3000.30

B7 00.10B3100.25

B8 00.15B3200.20

B9 00.10B3300.20

B10 00.10B3400.30

B11 00.15B3500.20

B12 00.50B3600.20

B13 01.10B3700.30

B14 00.35B3802.15

B15 Out B3900.20

B16 Out B4000.50

B17 01.15B4100.15

B18 00.15B4200.10

B19 01.00B4300.15

B20 03.55B4401.40

B21 00.20B4500.20

B21A 00.20B4600.40

B21B 00.15B4701.25

B22 01.00

B23 00.10

B24 01.30

B SECTION TOTAL:
28 MIN. 10 SECS.

------------------------------------------------------------------------

TITLE:

PART III:

14 MONTHS LATER

b69a

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C1

DISCOVERY 1,000,000

MILES FROM EARTH.

SEE EARTH AND MOON

SMALL.

WE SEE A BLINDING

FLASH EVERY 5

SECONDS FROM ITS

NUCLEAR PULSE:

PROPULSION. IT

STRIKES AGAINST:

THE SHIP'S THICK

ABLATIVE TAIL:

PLATE.

SEVERAL CUTS OF:

THIS.

11/19/65 c1

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C2

ANOTHER CLOSER:

VIEW OF DISCOVERY.

SEE BOWMAN THROUGH

COMMAND MODULE:

WINDOW.

11/19/65 c2

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C3

BOWMAN INSIDE:

DISCOVERY COMMAND

MODULE. HE IS

LOOKING FOR:

SOMETHING.

COMPUTER READOUT

DISPLAY SHOWING AN

EVER-SHIFTING

ASSORTMENT OF:

COLOR-CODED LINEAR

PROJECTIONS.

WE SEE POOLE IN:

BACKGROUND IN:

COMPUTER BRAIN:

CENTRE AREA.

AFTER A FEW:

SECONDS HE EXITS.

THE ELAPSED:

MISSION TIMER:

READS "DAY 003,

HOUR 14, MINUTE

32, SECOND 10."

11/19/65 c3

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C4

BOWMAN EXITS TO:

ACCESS-LINK AIRLOCK.

BRIGHT COLOR-CODED

DOORS LEAD TO:

CENTRIFUGE AND POD

BAY. LARGE ILLUMUN-

ATED PRINTED WARNINGS

AND INSTRUCTIONS

GOVERNING LINK:

OPERATIONS ARE SEEN.

HE PRESSES NECESSARY

BUTTONS TO OPERATE

AIRLOCK DOOR TO:

POD BAY.

11/19/65 c4

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C5

BOWMAN ENTERS POD

BAY AND CONTINUES

HIS SEARCH. SUDDENLY

HE FINDS IT - HIS

ELECTRONIC NEWSPAD.

HE EXITS POD BAY.

11/19/65 c5

------------------------------------------------------------------------

C6

IN THE AIRLOCK-

LINK BOWMAN:

OPERATES BUTTONS

TO OPEN DOOR:

MARKED "CENTRIFUGE".

Rate this script:2.7 / 3 votes