2010: The Year We Make Contact (or simply 2010) is a 1984 American science fiction film written, produced, shot, and directed by Peter Hyams. The film is a sequel to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 film 2001: A Space Odyssey and adapts Arthur C. Clarke's 1982 novel 2010: Odyssey Two. 2010 follows a joint American and Soviet crew that is sent to Jupiter to discover the reason behind the failure of the Discovery One mission. The film stars Roy Scheider, Helen Mirren, Bob Balaban, and John Lithgow, along with Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain, who reprise their roles from the previous film.
The film was released in the United States on December 7, 1984. 2010: The Year We Make Contact received mixed reviews from critics, who praised the special effects but considered the film inferior to its predecessor. It earned $40.4 million at the domestic box office against a budget of $28 million.
Plot
Nine years have passed since the failure of the Discovery mission to Jupiter in 2001, in which commander David Bowman and his crew were lost. Amid international tensions, the United States and Soviet Union each prepare separate missions to Jupiter. The Soviet spacecraft Leonov will be ready a year before the American Discovery Two, but only the Americans can reactivate the ship's sentient computer, HAL 9000, thought to be responsible for the disaster. Because Discovery will crash into Jupiter's moon Io before the Americans can reach it, the Soviets agree to bring along former NCA Director Heywood Floyd, Discovery engineer Walter Curnow, and HAL 9000 creator Dr. Chandra.
Arriving at Jupiter, Leonov detects chlorophyll on Jupiter's icy moon Europa. A probe sent to investigate is destroyed by an energy burst upon reaching the source of the chlorophyll. Floyd suggests that this is a warning to stay away from Europa.
After aerobraking in Jupiter's atmosphere, Leonov enters orbit around Io and encounters Discovery. Curnow and Cosmonaut Max Brailovsky spacewalk to and enter the derelict vessel. Both men suffer panic attacks for different reasons, bonding over the shared experience and becoming friends.
Curnow restores Discoverys power and propulsion, and Chandra reactivates HAL. The ships move to investigate the giant monolith located at the Lagrange point between Jupiter and Io. Brailovsky approaches it in an EVA pod, but is killed when the pod is destroyed by an energy burst.
On Earth, Bowman, now a noncorporeal being, appears through his former wife's television to say goodbye, telling her that "something wonderful" is going to happen. He then visits his comatose mother in a hospital, and she awakens, seemingly aware of her son's presence. The unseen Bowman brushes her hair, and after he departs, she dies peacefully.
Chandra discovers the reasons for HAL's malfunction: the National Security Council ordered HAL to conceal information about the monolith from Discoverys crew. This conflicted with HAL's basic programming, causing the computer equivalent of a paranoid breakdown. When Bowman and co-pilot Frank Poole discussed deactivating the malfunctioning computer, HAL concluded that the human crew was endangering the mission, and terminated them. Chandra blames Floyd, who denies any knowledge of the order, although it bears his signature.
A political crisis on Earth brings the United States and the Soviet Union to the brink of war. The Americans are thus ordered to leave Leonov for Discovery. Both ships plan to leave Jupiter in the coming weeks, but Bowman appears to Floyd to warn him that everyone must leave within two days.
Floyd returns to Leonov to convince Soviet captain Tanya Kirbuk to leave early. Neither ship has the fuel to reach Earth if they leave ahead of schedule, but Floyd proposes using Discovery as a booster rocket, then leaving it behind while both crews escape on Leonov. As they argue, the monolith suddenly disappears. Alarmed, Kirbuk agrees to Floyd's plan.
An ominous black spot appears in Jupiter's atmosphere. HAL determines that the spot is a vast group of monoliths, multiplying exponentially and altering Jupiter's mass and chemical composition. He recommends halting the countdown to study the phenomenon. Floyd worries that HAL will prioritize his mission over the safety of the human crews, but Chandra reveals to HAL that the crew is in danger and that both ships could be destroyed. HAL thanks Chandra for telling him the truth, and proceeds with the escape plan. Once Discoverys fuel is exhausted, Leonov separates and fires its own engines.
Bowman asks HAL to transmit a message to Earth. The monoliths engulf Jupiter, causing it to undergo nuclear fusion, and become a star. Before Discovery is destroyed, HAL sends this message:
Leonov survives the shockwave from Jupiter's ignition, and returns home. Floyd narrates how the new star's miraculous appearance, and the message from a mysterious alien power, inspire the American and Soviet leaders to seek peace. Under its infant sun, icy Europa transforms into a humid jungle, covered with life, and watched over by a monolith.
Cast
In addition, background crew members on the Leonov are played by Victor Steinbach and Jan Triska, while Herta Ware briefly appears as Bowman's mother. Candice Bergen, credited as "Olga Mallsnerd", voices the SAL 9000.
Arthur C. Clarke, author of the novels for 2001 and 2010, appears as a man on a park bench feeding pigeons outside the White House (visible in the letterboxed and widescreen versions). In addition, a Time cover about the American–Soviet tension is briefly shown, in which the President of the United States is portrayed by Clarke and the Soviet Premier by 2001s writer, producer, and director, Stanley Kubrick.
Production Development and filming When Clarke published his novel 2010: Odyssey Two in 1982, he telephoned Stanley Kubrick, and jokingly said, "Your job is to stop anybody [from] making it [into a film] so I won't be bothered." Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer subsequently worked out a contract to make a film adaptation, but Kubrick had no interest in directing it. However, Peter Hyams was interested and contacted both Clarke and Kubrick for their blessings:
While he was writing the screenplay in 1983, Hyams (in Los Angeles) began communicating with Clarke (in Sri Lanka) via the then-pioneering medium of e-mail using Kaypro II computers and direct-dial modems. They discussed the planning and production of the film almost daily using this method, and their informal, often humorous correspondence was published in 1984 as The Odyssey File. As it focuses on the screenwriting and pre-production process, the book terminates on February 7, 1984, just before the movie was about to start filming, though it does include 16 pages of behind-the-scenes photographs from the film. Clarke's preface offers a gleeful, elaborate primer on the use of electronic mail.
Principal photography on the film began in February 1984 for a 71-day schedule. The majority of the film was shot on MGM's soundstages in Culver City, California, with the exception of a week of location work in Washington, DC, Rancho Palos Verdes, California, and at the Very Large Array in New Mexico. Originally, Hyams had intended to film the opening scene at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico, which at the time housed the world's largest radio telescope, but after visiting there in 1983, he told Clarke that the site was unsuitable for filming because it was so filthy. Filming the dolphins described in Clarke's novel was difficult. Hyams nearly used an orangutan in prosthetics to mimic a highland gorilla as a substitute, but Clarke worried it would prompt comparisons to the opening sequence of 2001. The pair discussed using animals like penguins and bees until Hyams finally got MGM to let him build a set around the old Esther Williams tank on the back lot.
Video Image (also known as VIFX), which would go on to work on a number of major pictures and briefly become 20th Century Fox's in-house visual effects studio, did its first work on this film, designing the video screen graphics.
Music Initially, Tony Banks, keyboardist for the band Genesis, was commissioned to do the soundtrack for the film. However, Banks' material was rejected and David Shire was then selected to compose and conduct the score, which he co-produced along with Craig Huxley. The soundtrack album was released by A&M Records.
Unlike many film soundtracks up until then, the soundtrack for 2010: The Year We Make Contact was composed for and played mainly using digital synthesizers. These included the Synclavier by the New England Digital company and a Yamaha DX1. Only two compositions on the soundtrack album feature a symphony orchestra. Shire and Huxley were so impressed by the realistic sound of the Synclavier that they placed a disclaimer in the album's liner notes stating, "No resynthesis or sampling was employed on the Synclavier."2010 Official Soundtrack Album (cat: AMA 5038). Liner notes: All of the original music, with the exception of "New Worlds" and the second half of "New Worlds Theme" was entirely synthesized using the New England Digital Synclavier II, Yamaha DX-1, and Roland Jupiter-8. The Blaster Beam was used on "Reactivating Discovery". No resynthesis or sampling was employed on the Synclavier. All electronic music was recorded with an Amek 3500 mixing desk and Otari MTR 90 24-track recorder and remixed to a Mitsubishi X-80 digital recorder.
The Police's guitarist Andy Summers performed a track entitled "2010", which is a new-wave pop version of Richard Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra (which had been the main theme from 2001: A Space Odyssey). Though Summers' recording was included on the soundtrack album and released as a single, it was not used in the film. For the B-side to the single, Summers recorded another 2010-based track entitled "To Hal and Back", though this appeared in neither the film nor the soundtrack album.Andy Summers "2010" (AM 2704)
Release Box office 2010: The Year We Make Contact debuted at number two at the North American box office, taking $7,393,361 for its opening weekend. It was held off from the top spot by Beverly Hills Cop, which became that year's highest-grossing film in North America. During its second week, the film faced competition from two other new sci-fi films: John Carpenter's Starman and David Lynch's Dune, but ultimately outgrossed both by the end of its domestic theatrical run. It finished with just over $40 million at the domestic box office and was the 17th-highest-grossing film in North America to be released in 1984.
Comic book In 1984, Marvel Comics published a 48-page comic-book adaptation of the film by writer J. M. DeMatteis and artists Joe Barney, Larry Hama, and Tom Palmer. It was published both as a single volume in Marvel Super Special #37 and as a two-issue miniseries.2010 at the Grand Comics Database
Video games A text-based game was also released based on the film, titled 2010: The Text Adventure Game, followed by a graphical version titled 2010: The Graphic Action Game. Both games were developed by Coleco Industries and released for the Coleco Adam.
Home media 2010: The Year We Make Contact was first released on home video and Laserdisc in 1985, and on DVD (R1) in 1998 by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. It was reissued (with different artwork) in September 2000. Both releases are presented with the soundtrack remastered in Dolby 5.1 surround sound and in the original 2.35:1 aspect ratio, though a packaging error appears on the 2000 Warner release, claiming that the film is presented in anamorphic widescreen when, in reality, it is simply 4:3 letterboxed and not anamorphic (the MGM version of the DVD makes no such claim). The R1 and R4 releases also include the film trailer and a 10-minute behind-the-scenes featurette 2010: The Odyssey Continues (made at the time of the film's production), though this is not available in other regions.