2010: The Year We Make Contact

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COMPUTERIZED VOICE:

My God, it's full of stars.

BOWMAN:

My God. It's full of stars.

Neatness. It's a good quality.

You'll make someone a fine wife.

You are Dr. Heywood Floyd?

-Who the hell are you?

-I'm Moisevitch.

-I'm here to talk about your problem.

-Really?

What problem's that?

MOISEVITCH:
You were chairman

of the National Council on Astronautics.

Now you are a schoolteacher.

This was by your own choice?

FLOYD:
Chancellor of the university.

It pays better. What do you care?

MOISEVITCH:
You were responsible

for the Discovery mission.

It was a failure.

Someone had to be blamed,

so it was you.

-You like being a teacher?

-I don't think I like you.

Heh, heh. I just read your final report

on what happened to Discovery.

You left a good number of loose edges.

-Ends.

-Loose ends, yes. Thank you.

A good number of questions

have remained unanswered.

You just read that report?

Took you this long to steal our secrets?

MOISEVITCH:
How long does it take

for your people to steal ours?

FLOYD:

Same amount of time.

MOISEVITCH:

This is very bad for my asthma.

-You think you could meet me halfway?

FLOYD:
Maybe.

MOISEVITCH:

It doesn't take a very smart man...

...to appreciate the risk that I'm taking

by being here with you, Dr. Floyd.

And you are a smart man.

This is a very bad business

in Central America. Very bad.

Ships, other planes buzzing around

each other like angry hornets.

-Very bad.

-We didn't start it.

We are scientists, you and I, Dr. Floyd.

Our governments are enemies.

We are not.

Why don't you just try saying

what's on your mind?

I want to play a game with you,

Dr. Floyd.

-I don't have any time for games.

-This is a good game.

It's called The Truth.

For two minutes, I will tell only the truth.

And so will you.

-Two minutes?

-Two minutes.

FLOYD:
Make it a minute and a half.

-One minute and three quarters.

You start.

We know you are building

the Discovery 2...

...to go back to Jupiter to find out

what happened to your men up there.

Also to examine the large monolith.

You know that we are building

the Alexei Leonov to also go up there.

-I thought you were gonna call it the Titov.

-We changed last month.

People fall out of favor.

The Leonov will reach Discovery

almost a year before you people are ready.

My government feels it's very important

that we should get there first.

It's a distinction that will look splendid

on the front page of Pravda.

-What other value it has, I don't know.

-One minute 10.

Why are you telling me this?

Because there are things

we need to know.

Otherwise, the same thing that

you let happen to your people up there...

...could happen to ours,

and we would accomplish nothing.

-I have about one minute left?

-About.

The small monolith you people

brought back from the moon...

...your government has been very selfish

and stupid in keeping it to yourselves.

You never let us examine it.

What have you found out about it?

Nothing. It's impenetrable.

We've tried lasers, nuclear detonators.

Nothing worked.

-Forty-five seconds.

-The monolith near Jupiter, it is the same?

It's even larger.

And the computer onboard the Discovery,

the HAL 9000, can it be reactivated?

Yes.

-By us?

-By you?

It'd take three to four months.

You're not familiar with the system.

And longer than that

to comprehend the data.

I thought so.

Thirty seconds.

Here we have our quandary.

We are going to get there first...

...yet you have the knowledge

to make the trip work.

How much more time do I have?

You just got yourself an extension.

How could you convince your people

to allow Americans to go on the flight?

It won't be easy.

However, I'm pretty good.

A Russian craft flown by Russians...

...carrying a few poor Americans

who need our help.

That also doesn't look too bad

on the front page of Pravda.

I don't

know if I could convince our people.

They wouldn't mind seeing you go and fail.

They wouldn't mind that at all.

But carrying Americans?

I don't think they would allow that

if they didn't have to.

They don't have to.

Have you checked

Discovery's orbit lately?

-What?

-Have you checked the orbit?

What about it?

Now it's getting chilly here.

This is very bad for my asthma.

You know damn well

we've been checking it.

-I have enjoyed our little chat.

-What is it you're not telling me?

You are a smart man, Dr. Floyd.

You will know what to do.

[CHUCKLING]

MILSON:
You've double-checked this?

Please say you haven't.

You aren't saying anything, Floyd.

FLOYD:
Something incredible

is happening up there.

Discovery's being pulled towards lo.

Or pushed away from Jupiter. Whichever.

Sometimes it seems to be accelerating,

and other times it just seems to stop.

I've never seen anything like it.

How long before it impacts on lo?

Two, two and a half years.

How could we be so goddamn wrong

about the orbit?

Because we weren't wrong.

We weren't wrong, then terrific.

Why in the hell is it gonna crash?

I don't know. It's bizarre.

Unless it's got something to do

with that monolith.

MILSON:

Do you see that building behind us?

I'm supposed to go in there

and have lunch in a half an hour.

There's one good thing

about a reactionary president:

He's not into health foods.

The last one, we didn't lunch, we grazed.

Wanna know what lunch is about?

I'll tell you.

We've got two aircraft carriers

off the coast of Honduras.

The Russians are moving

some of their big stuff.

You got the Joint Chiefs screaming about

Russian satellites with antimissile lasers.

So we gotta send up our laser satellites

to counteract theirs.

The president has come to the conclusion

that the NCA should be...

...under the jurisdiction of Defense.

Enough with the crazy scientists spending

all this money trying to talk to Martians.

So here we are on your actual brink.

My agency's gonna become

part of the military...

...got a president with his finger on the

button, and you want me to tell him...

...we wanna hitch a ride

with those Russians.

Have I missed anything?

-That's about it.

-I didn't want your job, you know.

I'm not the one that forced you out.

I didn't blame you.

So if this is your plan to try to get me killed,

heh, heh, you got the wrong guy.

Three men.

I figure we need three men.

Russians must be laughing

their asses off.

Curnow.

He's building Discovery 2 right now.

So he knows more about the original

than anyone.

He's the only one that can start Discovery

in a short time.

And I suppose you'll wanna go?

How the hell am I gonna sell it?

The Russians are gonna go

aboard Discovery with or without us.

Ask him if he wants them

to have all the answers.

Not bad.

We lost some good men up there,

and I sent them.

I have to go.

-Who's the third?

-Chandra.

He designed HAL. He can reactivate him.

-I think he is HAL.

-I know.

-Yeah, but can you trust him?

-No.

But I have to.

We have to know why HAL malfunctioned.

I got an idea.

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