Underrated Gems: 2010: The year we make contact
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And now it’s time for another edition of Underrated Gems. The review series that celebrates great movies that didn’t get the love they deserved. And this time we’re delving back into the realm of sci-fi with another film by writer and director Peter Hyams. And oh boy this film is a real doozy!
For this edition of Underrated Gems, the movie up for review is 2010: The year we make contact. This movie is a sequel to one of the most classic movies of the 1960’s. That movie being 2001: A Space Odyssey. This film picks up nine years after the crazy events of the first film. What makes 2010 an underrated gem will get discussed at the end of this review.
But meanwhile it’s time to delve into an underappreciated sci-fi classic.
The movie starts off with the report of events from 1999 with the Tycho monolith on the moon. Then it shifts to the events of near Jupiter in 2001. Now no disrespect intended towards 2001: A Space Odyssey. But the fact the events of the first film got summed up at the opening of 2010 shows how little story there was. Again, this is no insult towards the first film.
After the intro to the movie things pick up. In this version of 2010 tensions are brewing between the United States and the Soviet Union. Amidst the chaos and tension, we’re introduced to Heywood Floyd, last scene in 2001: A Space Odyssey. This time though legendary actor Roy Scheider takes on the role of the character.
It's of note whoever cast this movie did an excellent job in doing so. Because the entire cast of this movie are actors who know exactly what they’re doing. Scheider is no exception to that observation. He proves an excellent leading man in this movie. He brings a marvelous depth of believability to Heywood Floyd’s character.
A scientist from the Soviet Union shows up as Floyd is working on some equipment. Said scientist is Dimitri Maisevitch, as played by actor Dana Elcar. After the disaster of Discovery One Floyd got blamed for what happened. So, he resigned from the National Council of Astronautics. He’s now a chancellor at a university because in his words, “It pays better.”
The Russians like the Americans are planning to go to Jupiter to recover the Discovery. The two men in their discussion realize they need each other. The Russians and their craft the Leonov are going to get to Jupiter first. But the U.S. scientists have the means to make the trip work. The Russian admits they don't want to see what happened to Discovery happen to them.
The Russian then makes the subtle suggestion that Floyd check Discovery’s orbit. The former head of the National Council of Astronautics does so. And he makes quite the shocking find. Discovery is getting pushed towards Io or pushed away from Europa. Floyd takes this information to the current head of the Council.
The two men hypothesize on how things have changed with Discovery. Floyd suspects it has something to do with the monolith found at Jupiter. It’s also clear tensions are very high with the bad situation between the U.S. and The Soviet Union down in Honduras. Floyd suggests that three men go on the Leonov flight.
The first suggestion is Walter Curnow who’s building Discovery Two. He knows more about the original ship design than anyone. The second person to go is himself. In Floyd’s words, “We lost some brave men up there, and I sent them. I have to go.”
The third person is R. Chandra the man who created Hal 9000. He's the only one capable of reactivating HAL and finding out what caused him to malfunction. It takes some doing but he convinces the current head of the Council to convince the President to allow them to go.
Meanwhile, in another part of the U.S. Dr. Chandra arrives at his office. He has a conversation with his computer SAL 9000. They speak about HAL’s anomalous behavior. Scientist and A.I. realize that to understand what happened Chandra needs to go to Discovery. And the scientist notes that's going to happen sooner than he and SAL anticipated.
Later that day Heywood is having dinner with his wife Caroline and their son Christopher. Caroline Floyd is a marine biologist who studies Dolphins. The part of Caroline Floyd got played by Madolyn Smith. Caroline explains she doesn’t want her husband coming to the lecture as she’d be nervous. But it’s clear Floyd's distracted by other things.
After a brief conversation Heywood admits that he’s going on the flight in 4 months. Christopher doesn’t quite understand what’s going on as he’s only a child. But it’s clear Caroline's scared to death. She later admits she’s afraid her husband is going to get himself killed. An understandable fear as in space there are always risks and hazards.
Floyd tries to assure her by saying, “I’ll be scared enough for both of us.
After four months the day of destiny comes, and Floyd takes one last look at his sleeping son before taking off.
The next scene takes place many months later. Dr. Floyd gets brought out of cryogenic sleep by the crew of the Leonov. He finds out that the ship is two days away from Jupiter. He got brought out of sleep at the behest of the United States Government. The reasoning will become clear soon enough.
In this movie Helen Mirren plays the role of Tanya Kirbuk. The Commander of the Leonov is more than a little touchy. The situation in Central America between the U.S. and the Soviet Union has worsened. Leading to some serious tension between the American and the Russian crew. Ah politics, always fun times and laughs for everyone.
Savely Kramarov plays Doctor Vladimir Rudenko. He’s found some strange readings coming from Europa. In the meeting session Floyd finds out how tense things have become…much to his chagrin. Commander Kirbuk makes it clear the Americans job is to reactivate the Discovery. In all other aspects of the mission, they can only observe.
The Leonov sends a probe down where they find the presence of chlorophyl. But then a blast of energy destroys the probe and erases the data. This leaves the Russians befuddled. Floyd suspects this has a connection with the monolith. He also suspects that what happened was a warning for them to stay away from Europa.
This keeps getting more and more interesting.
It should be of note over the course of the movie Floyd explains to various people what’s going on. He does so in a style like Captain’s logs. It’s a good way to explain what’s going on without having to explain things all while keeping the immersion. Very well played on the part of the people who made this movie.
What follows is an attempt at air braking using the atmosphere of Jupiter and a device called a baloot. It's meant to slow the ship down and conserve fuel. Everyone's scared due to the fact it's never gotten used before. Floyd and one of the female members of the crew huddle in his compartment. The maneuver goes off with no issue and everyone's relieved.
Soon afterward Curnow and Chandra get revived from cryo sleep. The role of Walter Curnow gets played by John Lithgow. Bob Balaban takes on the role of Chandra.
The Leonov reaches the Discovery. Curnow along with Maxim Bralovsky played by Elya Baskin float over to reach the ship. In the process Curnow's terrified of what's going on. One of the things I liked about this movie is the characters had a lot more depth and quirks. In Curnow’s case he’s afraid of heights, something that a lot of people can relate to.
Curnow suffers an attack of hyperventilation due to his fear of heights. But Max and he manage to reach the opening to Discovery. Soon they're inside and begin to explore the ship. Maxim or Max for short tests the atmosphere. It turns up there’s oxygen here and he can breathe.
Though it’s too cold to work there without environment suits. Then Max smells a strange odor. At first, he thinks that somehow Bowman managed to get back to the Discovery and died there. But Floyd explains he never came back. Curnow then notes it’s the galley some meat that went bad before Discovery froze.
The two men then reactivate the Discovery at least part way and tow it out of its decaying orbit around Io. The Leonov then links up with the Discovery. Chandra then enters the American spacecraft. He manages to reactivate Hal after some effort. Later that day Floyd and Curnow have a private meeting.
They decide to plant a device in some of HAL’s power systems in case something should happen. The key to triggering it is a red calculator and a special code. Curnow points out Chandra would be quite unhappy if he found out. So, both agree to keep their mouths shut on the matter.
The crew then head off to a rendezvous with the monolith. They decide to send a probe down to look at it. Max volunteers to man the pod and check out the strange object. Floyd and Curnow both think this is not a good idea. Max seems a little too eager and confident.
This is not going to end well!
Max goes down to investigate the strange object. But without warning the pod and Max get blasted by a strange bolt of power from the monolith. It was sad to see Max die like that as he was a likable character. But to be fair he knew the risks and was willing to accept them. That takes a lot of guts.
The beam meanwhile heads to Earth. David Bowman’s former wife now Betty Fernandez gets a message. The part of Betty got played by Mary Jo Deschannel. The message comes from the now transformed Dave Bowman. He’s there to say goodbye because something big is going to happen.
Back on the Leonov Kirbuk and Doctor Floyd have a round of bonding over some brandy Floyd brought aboard. The two talk about their lives back on Earth. It ends with them looking out on the mysterious object before them.
Back on Earth Dave Bowman’s mother whose beqn in a comatose state for some time receives a visit from her son. He then proceeds to brush his mother’s hair like he used to. Dave’s mother ends up dying a peaceful death in the hospital. And she’s holding the brush Dave Bowman used.
Back at Jupiter things are about to get ugly. Chandra discovers the reason why HAL malfunctioned. He was under orders to lie to the crew. That is, he concealed the true purpose of Discovery’s mission. The National Security Council AKA The White House were responsible.
Thus, it conflicted with HAL’s basic function to not lie to the crew. The reason HAL killed the crew was so he wouldn’t have to lie to them anymore and could carry out the mission. The orders have Heywood Floyd’s signature…but he never authorized it. Oh lovely, when politics gets involved disaster always ensues. Good grief Charlie Brown!
Next the Americans and the Russians head to the Leonov's meeting room. There they learn that tensions have come to a head back on Earth. A Soviet destroyer challenged the blockade…and it didn’t end well. In response the Soviets destroyed an American spy satellite. As a result, Floyd, Curnow, and Chandra must leave the Leonov.
Likewise, no Russian may set foot on the Discovery. Only communications of an emergency nature can occur between the two crafts. Oof this is an ugly situation the crews of both ships find themselves in.
Chandra spends the days that follow programming HAL for a 28-month journey back to Earth. Curnow lounges around the ship. Floyd spends his days looking over Discovery’s systems and talking with HAL. But things are about to get very interesting.
During one conversation a message comes to Floyd. The message states that it’s dangerous to remain around Jupiter and they need to leave in 2 days. At first Floyd's flustered about who is sending it. But then he gets thrown for a loop when the person sending the message explains, “I was David Bowman.”
At first Floyd thinks Curnow is playing a prank. But it turns up he’s not, he’s in accessway two. Floyd then responds with he can’t accept that identification without proof. And in response the now transformed David Bowman appears. Floyd is very much freaked by this.
No surprise at all with that reaction. Consider that for the last 9 years people have thought Dave Bowman dead. And then out of the blue he reappears without warning. That would freak out even the most stoic of people.
Floyd and the now transformed Dave Bowman have a short but enigmatic conversation. Bowman explains something is going to happen. In his words it’s, “Something wonderful.”
With this information Floyd defies the orders of his government and heads over to the Leonov. Kirbuk and he have a conversation about what's going on. Despite her conflicts she agrees to go along with him based on a leap of faith. That's a testament to the friendship the two have forged over the course of the mission.
Can the Americans and Russians set aside their differences to escape from Jupiter? What is this wonderful event mentioned by the bowman/Star Child creature? And what has this to do with Europa and the monolith?
Now what makes 2010: The year we make contact an underrated gem? There are many reasons for this. Now don’t get me wrong 2001: A Space Odyssey was a great movie. But it’s often accused of being way too long and disjointed. 2001 seems more like a celebration of cinema than anything else.
2010 is a solid and well-done sci-fi movie. The plot of the movie is far more approachable than 2001. The ensemble cast does a great job of giving life to the characters. Since the original sets got destroyed Peter Hyams had to have them reconstructed. The best way to describe the results are a labor of love. The originals sets get reconstructed in a loving way true to the original movie.
2010 has some great visual and special effects. But it doesn’t have quite the grandeur that 2001 had nor does it break any new ground. But that’s fine it doesn’t need to do that.
Peter Hyams did a great job with this movie in directing and creating this wonderful film. So great acting by the ensemble cast, a great well written story, and great directing. This movie is a fine sequel to 2001, and more people should know about it. And that’s why 2010: The year we make contact is an underrated gem.
Thanks for reading this review of 2010: The year we make contact. I hope you found this review enlightening or at least entertaining. Also, do you have any movie requests for Underrated Gems or was it really that bad? If you do let me know in the comments section. Also let me know your thoughts on this review there as well.
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