Tuesday, February 21, 2012
2001 analysis - part 9: More from Mann: Bowman goes into a trance
Continuing from the previous post with hints from Michael Mann - from Thief: Above left: Frank enters Leo's abode through the kitchen, with gun in hand and with the intention of shooting and killing Leo. Above right: A woman watching TV in an adjacent room clearly looks right at Frank, but his presence doesn't really register on her conscious. The point is that Mann is depicting the woman as being in some sort of trance state.
Top left and center: Late in A Space Odyssey, after Bowman has disconnected HAL, he watches Heywood Floyd giving what is a pre-recorded message, with Floyd visible on this video screen. We note that the screen is flashing. Top right: Bowman goes into a trance-like state while he is watching Floyd, due to the flashing of the screen; the effects of Bowman's brain injury make him more susceptible to this.
Shortly after this, we see the pod bay doors of Discovery One open (below left), then a few moments later, we see an EVA pod moving in space (below right). Bowman must have heard Floyd say something, that made him want to approach Jupiter or the monolith in the pod.
The blurring of Bowman's face (above left) at the beginning of the stargate sequence (above right), is caused by the pod shaking as it accelerates. This confirms that Bowman has, in fact, physically exited Discovery One, and is aboard the pod.
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