Feb 142015
  February 14, 2015

People seem to like comparing Nolan’s exercise in extreme exposition, Interstellar with Kubrick’s opaque and nearly non-verbal 2001: A Space Odyssey. So I thought I’d help that along with my latest finding. Here are a few pages from the end of an early draft of 2001 where Kubrick was thinking like Nolan. Perhaps Nolan even used gravity to write that earlier draft in Morse code on a watch which would certainly keep moving as if gravity was still tapping on it…because of love.

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[EXTERIOR: SPACE]

Dave: OK, I’m going into the monolith now. The monolith is a piece of alien technology built to help humans to evolve. It was placed on Earth to evolve our ape ancestors, and then on the Moon, where it sent a signal to this location in space when we dug up, as a kind of call back home to the aliens that made it that we’d achieved space travel. This is another monolith. Oh, it isn’t at all clear it isn’t the same one moving around, but lets just say it is another one. Oh, and I’ve fixed HAL, and he’s going into the monolith too, but on his own.

[EXTERIOR…or INTERIOR: MONOLITH – A lot of colors]

Dave: I’m in now. A lot of colors. Seems like I am traveling through a worm hole made by the aliens to take me to some far away part of the universe. Where I’m going, and how I’m going are outside of normal spacetime as understood by humans. So, I’m not just in the monolith. Repeat, I am not just in the monolith.

HAL (over radio): Hiya Dave.

Dave: Oh good, HAL, you made it too.

HAL: I sure did Dave, and have been listening to your talk to no one, and I think you are right on the money.

Dave: Still lots of lights. In case you can’t see those, there are lots of light-effects around me. I’m thinking because the aliens are higher dimensional beings and we’re only three dimensional ones.

HAL: I couldn’t agree with you more.

Dave (solemnly): And HAL…Gravity.

HAL (equally solemnly): Gravity to you Dave.

Dave: Well, we’ve been in this worm hole for a while. I’m going to call it a tesseract because it feels like a tesseract to me, and besides we need more explaining words.

HAL (again, solemnly): Tesseract.

Dave: HAL, I don’t think the aliens are really making me see lots of streaky lights. I think I’m doing that to myself. Due to love. Because love really is the answer. What’s more, I don’t think the aliens are alien at all. I think they are humans in the far future who’ve evolved into five dimensional entities. I have no reason for thinking that, but I’m really really sure of it.

HAL: Again Dave, I think you’ve got it.

Dave: It happened a while ago, but I think this is a good time to bring up you going crazy and killing folks because it really isn’t clear why you did that. I’m thinking it is because there was a contradiction in your programming. You know, because you had to lie to all of us.

HAL: That makes sense Dave. Not a lot of sense, but some.

Dave: Just wanted to clear that up. I suppose it could also have been me, reaching back in time via gravity and screwing up your programming, possibly when I was putting the original monolith in place using gravity.

HAL: I find that a bit disturbing Dave.

Dave: Me too, so lets go with that other one. That is the official explanation now.

[INTERIOR: Stark white room]

Dave: And I think this is all going to work out, with love and gravity. Oh, the lights have stopped, and now I’m in a stark white room.

HAL: Me too Dave.

Dave: I know you can see the room, but it never hurts for me to talk about how white it is, and stark. It really is white and stark. Oh, and I think it is a kind of zoo, an alien zoo with this room looking the way it is due to TV signals that the aliens—oops, I mean future humans—have picked up.

HAL (with respect in his voice): You do have a knack for figuring everything out Dave.

Dave: I’m pretty sure, in this timeless place, that I’m going to age, both actually, and metaphorically representing all of humanity. Yup, here I go, aging. See me age. Oh, I aged again. Annnnnd…again.

HAL: Please continue Dave. Though I can see it all myself, I would feel lost without you telling me.

Dave: No problem buddy. Just about at the end of my life, you know, metaphorically. So, I expect some big change any moment. And gravity. Oh, monolith here again. I’m going to reach out to it, metaphorically.

HAL: Gravity Dave.

[EXTERIOR: SPACE but with Love]

Starchild Dave: Oh, I’m a giant fetus is space. We’ll call me a Starchild. I am the next step in human evolution. And the future humans have dropped me off back at Earth so I can love on it a bit. Because it’s all about love. Hello Earth, going to love all over you now. Love.

HAL: And Gravity Dave.

Starchild Dave: And gravity