Category: Movies

On a young planet called Earth, an alien intelligence – in the form of a large black monolith – tests the intelligence of a primitive race of primates. It also influences their development into a more ambitious and potentially more dangerous species. The monolith vanishes, having completed its task.

Millennia later, a primitive race of primates living on the planet Earth has developed the technology necessary to make short range space travel commonplace, and has discovered another monolith buried under the surface of Earth’s moon. Faced with the first solid evidence of extraterrestrial life, humankind launches a mission to Jupiter, the planet toward which the newly discovered monolith transmitted a brief signal. Astronauts Dave Bowman and Frank Poole pilot the spaceship Discovery, carrying a cargo of three trained scientists in cryogenically-induced hibernation, though Bowman and Poole – along with most of the rest of the human race – have not been told about the monolith on the moon, and their fellow travelers were frozen prior to the mission to avoid that information leaking out. The Discovery’s onboard computer, the artificially intelligent HAL 9000, begins to show signs of unreliable decision-making, and when Bowman and Poole take steps to shut HAL down, it kills Poole during a spacewalk and tries to shut Bowman out of the ship when he goes to retrieve his fallen comrade. HAL also deactivates the three frozen scientists’ life support units, killing them as well. Bowman manages to get back aboard Discovery and shuts down HAL’s higher logic centers. But when Discovery finally reaches Jupiter as planned – with only one surviving crewmember – no amount of astronaut training, nor even the sum total of human experience, has prepared David Bowman for what he will find there, for the monolith has returned.

screenplay by Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke
directed by Stanley Kubrick
music by

Cast: Keir Dullea (David Bowman), Gary Lockwood (Frank Poole), William Sylvester (Heywood Floyd), Douglas Rain (HAL 9000), Daniel Richter (Moon-Watcher), Leonard Rossiter (Dr. Andrei Smyslov), Margaret Tyzack (Elena), Robert Beatty (Dr. Ralph Halvorsen), Sean Sullivan (Dr. Bill Michaels), Frank Miller (Mission Controller), Bill Weston (Astronaut), Edward Bishop (Aries-1B Lunar Shuttle Captain), Glenn Beck (Astronaut), Alan Gifford (Poole’s Father), Ann Gillis (Poole’s Mother), Edwina Carroll (Aries-1B Stewardess), Penny Brahms (Aries-1B Stewardess), Heather Downham (Aries-1B Stewardess), Mike Lovell (Astronaut), John Ashley (Ape), Peter Delmar (Ape), David Hines (Ape), Darryl Faes (Ape), Timmy Bell (Ape), Terry Duggan (Ape), Tony Jackson (Ape), Joe Refalo (Ape), David Charkham (Ape), David Fleetwood (Ape), John Jordan (Ape), Andy Wallace (Ape), Simon Davis (Ape), Danny Grover (Ape), Scott Mackee (Ape), Bob Wilyman (Ape), Jonathan Daw (Ape), Brian Hawley (Ape), Laurence Marchant (Ape), Richard Wood (Ape), Kenneth Kendall (BBC Newsreader)

Notes: Actor Ed Bishop lent his voice to many genre animated series, including Gerry Anderson’s Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons and an episode of the animated Star Trek series. He later appeared in the flesh in Anderson’s cult classic ’70s live-action series UFO as Commander Ed Straker, and appeared in the Big Finish Doctor Who Unbound audio story Full Fathom Five. Kenneth Kendall was a BBC newsreader in real life – the first person to do so on camera in the BBC’s history, in 1955. He parlayed that unique historical footnote into appearances – more or less as himself in his familiar job – on The Morecambe & Wise Show, Adam Adamant Lives! and numerous British-made B-movies. The only actors to appear in both this movie and its 1984 sequel are Keir Dullea and Douglas Rain. Director Stanley Kubrick had the elaborate sets built for 2001 destroyed immediately after production to make sure that they wouldn’t be reused in later films (such reuse being a common practice that he felt would cheapen 2001).

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Electrical worker Roy Neary encounters the bright lights of a UFO as he investigates a town-wide power outage. He, like hundreds of other such witnesses, becomes fascinated to the point of obsession with the visitors, unable to shake visions of a towering mountain from his mind. Despite the government’s public insistence that nothing unusual has occurred, and his family’s embarrassment and discomfort at his behavior, Roy insists that aliens are trying to tell him – and humanity – something important.

Meanwhile, a military-sponsored research team does believe that someone is out there, and they are desperately trying to figure out how and where to communicate with them and how to keep the information secret. But when the aliens take the son of one of Roy’s fellow witnesses, they risk everything to find the source of their visions…and to make contact.

screenplay by Steven Spielberg
directed by Steven Spielberg
music by John Williams

/Cast: Richard Dreyfuss (Roy Neary), François Truffaut (Claude Lacombe), Teri Garr (Ronnie Neary), Melinda Dillon (Jillian Guiler), Bob Balaban (David Laughlin), J. Patrick McNamara (Project Leader), Warren J. Kemmerling (Wild Bill), Roberts Blossom (Farmer), Philip Dodds (Jean Claude), Cary Guffey (Barry Guiler), Shawn Bishop (Brad Neary), Adrienne Campbell (Sylvia Neary), Justin Dreyfuss (Toby Neary), Lance Henriksen (Robert), Merrill Connally (Team Leader), George DiCenzo (Major Benchley), Amy Douglass (Implantee), Alexander Lockwood (Implantee), Gene Dynarski (Ike), Mary Gafrey (Mrs. Harris), Norman Bartold (Ohio Tolls), Josef Sommer (Larry Butler), Reverend Michael J. Dyer (Himself), Roger Ernest (Highway Patrolman), Carl Weathers (Military Police), F.J. O’Neil (ARP Project Member), Phil Dodds (ARP Musician), Randy Herman (Returnee #1), Hal Barwood (Returnee #2), Matthew Robbins (Returnee #3), David Anderson (Air Traffic Controller), Richard L. Hawkins (Air Traffic Controller), Craig Shreeve (Air Traffic), Bill Thurman (Air Traffic), Roy E. Richards (Air East Pilot), Gene Rader (Hawker), Eumenio Blanco (Federale), Daniel Núñez (Federale), Chuy Franco (Federale), Luis Contreras (Federale), James Keane (Radio Telescope Team), Dennis McMullen (Radio Telescope Team), Cy Young (Radio Telescope Team), Tom Howard (Radio Telescope Team), Richard Stuart (Truck Dispatcher), Bob Westmoreland (Load Dispatcher), Matt Emery (Special Leader), Galen Thompson (Special Forces), John Dennis Johnston (Special Forces), John Ewing (Dirty Tricks #1), Keith Atkinson (Dirty Tricks #2), Robert Broyles (Dirty Tricks #3), Kirk Raymond (Dirty Tricks #4)

LogBook entry and review by Dave Thomer

In the 22nd century, the crew of the small deep space probe Palomino find themselves dangerously close to an enormous black hole. VINCENT, the ship’s all-purpose robot, spots the silhouette of another space vessel against the enormity of the black hole, identifying it as the U.S.S. Cygnus, the largest American manned deep space mission ever launched, which stopped reporting back home twenty years before. More intriguing than the discovery of the Cygnus is the fact that the enormous ship is holding its own against the black hole’s gravity. Trying to investigate the Cygnus, the Palomino is caught in the gravity field of the black hole and sustains major damage. Forced to seek refuge near the Cygnus, the crew discovers a field of zero gravity around the large ghost ship. An even bigger surprise awaits when the Cygnus lights up without warning, after failing to respond to numerous attempts at communication from the Palomino. Palomino Captain Holland, along with scientists Kate McCrae and Alex Durant and blustery reporter Harry Booth, explore the ship with VINCENT, but it soon becomes apparent that someone – or something – is leading them carefully to the bridge of the ship and keeping them from other parts of the ship. The bridge is populated by robed robots, much to the disappointment of Kate, whose father was part of the original Cygnus crew. An enormous red robot appears and threatens the crew, and VINCENT puts himself between his crewmates and the menacing machine. A voice from the dimly-lit captain’s chair calls the robot off, and welcomes Holland and his crew aboard. It is Dr. Hans Reinhardt, the Cygnus’ legendary eccentric commander. Reinhardt tells the story of the Cygnus encountering a disaster which forced the crew to abandon ship, and caused the death of McCrae’s father. Reinhardt also reveals that he has developed the anti-gravity field that allows the Cygnus to maintain its position to study the black hole, but in the course of further conversation it also becomes apparent that Reinhardt may be mentally unstable. And despite Reinhardt’s order to help the Palomino crew find parts to repair their ship, his robot Maximillian makes no secret of the fact that it would like nothing more than to turn VINCENT into scrap metal.

VINCENT finds an old robot called BOB, a much earlier version of his own design, in charge of the ship’s equipment stores. BOB has been obviously been terrorized and brutalized by Maximillian in the past, but finally reveals some vital information to VINCENT: Reinhardt’s crew mutinied against him when the scientist took it upon himself to rewrite the mission of the Cygnus, and Kate’s father was murdered in retaliation. The rest of the crew is still aboard – their minds wiped and reprogrammed by Reinhardt, they are, in fact, the legions of shrouded “robots” who solemnly attend the ship’s stations. Alex becomes intoxicated by Reinhardt’s misguided genius, and Harry sees nothing less than the story of the century (with his byline, of course). VINCENT warns Holland, Pizer and Kate of the deadly secrets of the Cygnus, and when Kate tells Alex, Maximillian kills him. Reinhardt’s new mission is to defy the laws of nature, drive the Cygnus through the black hole, and find out what – if anything – is on the other side. And he wants his visitors to help him…or die.

screenplay by Jeb Rosebrook and Gerry Day
story by Jeb Rosebrook and Bob Barbash & Richard Landau
directed by Gary Nelson
music by John Barry

Cast: Maximilian Schell (Dr. Hans Reinhardt), Anthony Perkins (Dr. Alex Durant), Robert Forster (Captain Dan Holland), Joseph Bottoms (Lt. Charles Pizer), Yvette Mimieux (Dr. Kate McCrae), Ernest Borgnine (Harry Booth), Roddy McDowall (voice of VINCENT), Slim Pickens (voice of BOB), Tommy McLoughlin (STAR)

Notes: Early in the movie, when VINCENT has to fire a tether out of his back to secure himself to the hull of the Palomino, the sound heard is quite familiar – it’s the sound of the Enterprise’s turbolift doors opening from the original Star Trek.

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Dr. Heywood Floyd, the mission director of the Discovery mission, resigned after the ambiguous conclusion of that flight, a scapegoat for the U.S. government and the press to blame for the disastrous outcome. The Soviet Union offers Floyd a berth on a Jupiter-bound Soviet mission which will get to the derelict Discovery long before an American follow-up mission can be launched. Despite a precarious political standoff taking place between the two superpowers, Floyd talks the U.S. government into allowing him to go on the Soviet flight along with two other Americans – Walter Curnow, the Discovery’s original designer, and Dr. Chandra, the eccentric computer genius who created the HAL 9000 computer.

The Russian spacecraft Leonov arrives in Jupiter’s vicinity three years after leaving Earth, and Dr. Floyd is awakened from cryogenic hibernation prematurely by captain of the Leonov, Commander Kirblik. The Leonov’s instruments have detected unusual chemical reactions occuring on the icy Jovian moon of Europa, and a remote-controlled probe is launched to investigate. The probe is destroyed by an unknown force, but not before it detects chlorophyll, a necessary component of plant life. Upon reaching Jupiter’s volcanic moon Io, Curnow and cosmonaut Bralovsky spacewalk from the Leonov to the Discovery, finding no trace of missing astronauts Bowman or Poole. Reactivating Discovery’s power systems, Curnow gets control of the older spacecraft and follows the Leonov away from the orbit of Io. Chandra manages to restore HAL, and the mission is now underway. The two ships reach the enormous monolith, and very strange things begin happening. Two important discoveries are made: the true motive behind HAL’s murderous behavior, and Earth’s solar system is about to change…forever.

screenplay by Peter Hyams
based on the novel 2010: Odyssey Two by Arthur C. Clarke
directed by Peter Hyams
music by David Shire and Craig Huxley

Cast: Roy Scheider (Heywood Floyd), John Lithgow (Walter Curnow), Helen Mirren (Tanya Kirblik), Bob Balaban (R. Chandra), Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman), Douglas Rain (HAL 9000), Madolyn Smith (Caroline Floyd), Dana Elcar (Dimitri Moisevitch), Taliesin Jaffe (Christopher Floyd), James McEaching (Victor Milson), Mary Jo Deschanel (Betty Fernandez), Elva Baskin (Maxim Bralovsky), Savely Kramarov (Vladimir Rudenko), Oleg Rudnik (Vasili Orlov), Natasha Shneider (Irina Yakunina), Vladimir Skomarovsky (Yuri Svetlanov), Victor Steinbach (Mikolai Ternovsky), Jan Triska (Alexander Kiovalev), Larry Carroll (Anchorman), Herta Ware (Jessie Bowman), Cheryl Carter (Nurse), Ron Recasner (Hospital Neurosurgeon), Robert Lesser (Dr. Hirsch), Olga Mallsnerd (SAL 9000), Delana Michaels (Commercial Announcer), Gene McGarr (Commercial Announcer)

Oops: At no point in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001 did Bowman ever say “My God, it’s full of stars” (though he does say it at the end of Clarke’s original novel). Also, 2010‘s more “modern” spacesuits made the replica of the 2001 spacesuit look streamlined and sleek – 2010‘s designs heavily reference the Apollo moon suits, but the 2001 suits seem much more advanced, if a bit less realistic. Also, check out Floyd’s amazing portable Apple IIc “luggable” computer – a 1984 model still in service in 2010 (not entirely impossible, since there’s still a working IIc used for Phosphor Dot Fossils reviews).

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV is on the receiving end of a rare personal visit from a Navigator of the Spice Guild: his longtime hold over the life-extending, interstellar-travel-enabling Spice Melange may be at an end. The Navigators foresee a “problem” involving the son of Duke Leto Atreides, ruler of the planet Caladan, and chief competitor of the spice-mining operation run by Baron Vladimir Harkonnen, ruler of planet Geidi Prime…and personal pick of the Emperor to mine the spice found only on the planet Arrakis, known informally as Dune. The Emperor’s concubine, a member of the telepathic Bene Gesserit sisterhood, sets about trying to learn about Atreides’ son, Paul. As the male child of another Bene Gesserit woman, Paul may indeed pose a great threat to the existing balance of power.

Paul, in the midst of training to accompany his father to Arrakis, begins to experience visions of strange places and events, full of names and faces unknown to him. On Arrakis, Duke Leto Atreides impresses the local spice harvesters with his compassion and non-dictatorial attitudes, a distinct change from the iron-fisted rule of House Harkonnen. But the Harkonnen, eager to regain sole control over the spice, have set traps within traps: Leto’s personal doctor has been swayed against him, and multiple assassintation attempts are hatched. Finally, a brute-force assault puts Paul and his mother on the run, while Leto falls int othe hands of Baron Harkonnen.

Paul and his mother encounter the Fremen, desert warriors native to Arrakis, who defy the planet’s fierce desert climate with hidden stockpiles of water. The Fremen need a leader to fend off the inevitable campaign by the Harkonnen to re-enslave everyone on Arrakis, and in Paul, they find the prophesied leader. Paul must survive numerous challenges and introduce the Fremen to his ways if he is to avenge his father, overthrow the corrupt Emperor, and bring peace to Arrakis.

screenplay by David Lynch (credited in extended edition as Judas Booth)
based on the novel by Frank Herbert
directed by David Lynch (credited in extended edition as Alan Smithee)
music by Toto
Prophecy Theme by Brian Eno, Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno

Cast: Francesca Annis (Lady Jessica), Leonardo Cimino (The Baron’s Doctor), Brad Dourif (Piter De Vries), José Ferrer (Padishah Emperor Shaddam IV), Linda Hunt (Shadout Mapes), Freddie Jones (Thufir Hawat), Richard Jordan (Duncan Idaho), Kyle MacLachlan (Paul Atreides), Virginia Madsen (Princess Irulan), Silvana Mangano (Reverend Mother Ramallo), Everett McGill (Stilgar), Kenneth McMillan (Baron Vladimir Harkonnen), Jack Nance (Captain Iakin Nefud), Sian Phillips (Reverend Mother Gaius Helen Mohiam), Jürgen Prochnow (Duke Leto Atreides), Paul Smith (The Beast Rabban), Patrick Stewart (Gurney Halleck), Sting (Feyd Rautha), Dean Stockwell (Dr. Wellington Yueh), Max von Sydow (Dr. Kynes), Alicia Roanne Witt (Alia Atreides), Sean Young (Chani), Danny Corkill (Orlop), Honorato Magalone (Otheym), Judd Omen (Jamis), Molly Wryn (Harah)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green

A U.S. Navy nuclear sub, following an unusual sonar echo deep in the Atlantic, suffers an unexplained power loss that leaves it powerless to avoid a collision with the wall of a sub-oceanic trench. The sub plummets into depths it was never meant to descend, takes on water, and the crew is killed. The Navy commandeers a deep-ocean oil exploration rig operated by Benthic Oil, trying to beat a hurricane to the coordinates of the downed sub. Ed “Bud” Brigman, in charge of the Deep Core underwater platform, is less than thrilled when he learns that he and his crew will be taking orders from the Navy for a rescue operation, but he’s even less pleased when his ex-wife Lindsey joins the Navy SEALs who are paying a visit to Deep Core. The cocksure leader of the SEALs, Lt. Coffey, suffers from high-pressure nervousness syndrome as a result of the dive to reach Deep Core, and slowly loses control, growing violent and paranoid. Upon reaching the submarine, Coffey finally reveals that the vessel was carrying hundreds of megatons of nuclear weapons, giving Deep Core’s divers cause for concern – especially when they find that something other than the dead crew inhabits this part of the ocean. Another power loss occurs, and one of Bud’s crew sees something so startling that it renders him comatose. Lindsey also sees something, but she is unable to describe or explain it.

Unknown to Deep Core’s divers, Coffey has been ordered to recover one of the sub’s nuclear warheads, believing that whatever the diving team saw must have been a Soviet submarine. On the surface, international tensions are reaching a boiling point as Soviet and American military forces brave the hurricane to form a line of scrimmage that could explode into World War III. And worse yet, the huge crane which connects Benthic Explorer to Deep Core is torn away from the Explorer and crashes down into the 20,000 foot deep trench, dragging Deep Core right along with it. The platform comes to a shattering stop on a ledge halfway down the trench, out of contact with the surface, short on oxygen and power, and with no hope of rescue. The increasingly delusional Coffey intends to use his salvaged nuclear warhead to attack whatever has been causing the power losses.

When the unknown force proves itself fully capable of boarding Deep Core without harming any of the crew, they begin to wonder which is the greatest threat – an unknown life form buried in the depths of the Atlantic, or the human impulse for violent acts against anything or anyone unfamiliar?

screenplay by James Cameron
story by James Cameron
directed by James Cameron
music by Alan Silvestri / additional music by Robert Garrett

Cast: Ed Harris (Ed Brigman), Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio (Lindsey Brigman), Michael Biehn (Lt. Coffey), Leo Burmester (Catfish De Vries), Todd Graff (Alan “Hippy” Carnes), John Bedford Lloyd (Jammer Willis), J.C. Quinn (“Sonny” Dawson), Kimberly (Lisa “One Night” Standing), Captain Kidd Brewer Jr. (Lew Finler), George Robert Klek (Wihite), Christopher Murphy (Schoenick), Adam Nelson (Ensign Monk), Richard Walock (Dwight Perry), Jimmie Ray Weeks (Leland McBride), J. Kenneth Campbell (DeMarco), Ken Jenkins (Gerard Kirkhill), Chris Elliott (Bendix), Peter Ratray (Captain), Michael Beach (Barnes), Brad Sullivan (Executive), Frank Lloyd (Navigator), Phillip Darlington (Crew Member), Joseph Nemec III (Crew Member), Joe Farago (Anchorman), William Wisher (Bill Tyler), Marcus Mukai (Anchorman #2), Wendy Gordon (Anchorwoman), Paul Cross (Young woman), Thomas Duffy (Construction worker), Chris Anastasio (Truck driver), Emily Yancy (Woman reporter), Michael Chapman (Dr. Berg), Tom Isbell (Wave reporter), Super Sea Rover (Big Geek), Mini Rover Mark II (Little Geek)

LogBook entry and review by Earl Green