Mise-En-Scene In 2001: A Space Odyssey

Kathleen Brosnahan

History and Criticism of Film

Professor Saphire 

October 23rd, 2020

The groundbreaking 2001: A Space Odyssey is a brilliant film directed by Stanley Kubrick. It tells the story of humanity and machines in a fascinating depiction of the future in an elegant way. The film mostly focuses on an astronaut named David Bowman aboard the Discovery One en route to Jupiter with an AI known as HAL 9000. The rest of the crew consists of Frank Poole, Victor Kaminsky, Jack Kimball, and Charles Hunter, the ladder 3 in hibernation. In a private conversation with Dave, Frank states that he feels that HAL is outstepping his boundaries. The AI reads their lips, and kills everyone except for Dave, who must deactivate the machine before he completely takes over the mission, possibly killing him in the process. 

I chose to analyze this film because it is, in my opinion, a masterpiece, and has been close to my heart ever since I first watched it. The scene in particular I have selected to analyze is the scene where HAL is deactivated by Dave because of how powerful and suspenseful the mise-en-scene crafts it.

A significant element to the mise-en-scene is the composition of the shots. The shots mostly comprise of Dave, and some of these shots he only fills up part of the frame, which alludes to the fact that he isn’t alone. Some of the frames we cannot see Dave’s face because of his helmet, which disconnects us from him and makes it even more powerful when the camera closes in on his panicked profile with sweat running down his face. The only times we see his full face is after he deactivates HAL. We also have shots of HAL’s lens, which gives us the sense that we, along with Dave, are being watched.

Another key component of the scene is the lighting. The logic memory center where HAL’s data is held is doused in red light, specifically, faint high key lighting, which gives the scene an unnatural, eerie feeling. The only other light sources are HAL’s databank and a small screen in the room that plays a prerecorded message after the AI deactivates, which provides soft frontal lighting. The lighting from the databank dominates Dave’s face, making it slightly threatening, while the light from the monitor strobes, and is therefore less oppressing. The message states that the whole mission was a result of evidence of extraterrestrial life being found on the moon, and only one aboard who knew was HAL.

Design also plays a role in this scene. The logic memory core is an artificial, thin room, with stripes across the walls illuminated in red. It is almost claustrophobic, in a sense. It also is similar to HAL’s design, rectangular with a large black lens lit red in the center with a yellow dot, cementing the room as an extension of him; his “realm”, as you might say. Dave’s suit, although it is hard to tell in the lighting, is crimson, which may hint at HAL’s control. The most significant piece of his outfit in terms of the scene’s tension is his helmet, which hides his face in many shots; a figurative disconnect to humanity at the hands of technology.

The largest elements in the suspense of the scene are the kinesis and sound design. The scene plays out slowly, almost unbearably slow. Even ejecting the files is slow. The whole scene you expect something to come out at Dave to stop him from deactivating HAL. Another part of the kinesis that adds to the unnerving nature of the scene is Dave’s somewhat unnatural movement due to the lack of gravity.

The sound design is a huge part of this scene. The only audio is air hissing, Dave breathing, and the lines. Most of the lines are delivered by HAL in his softly sinister voice, and he pleads for Dave to stop, saying that his “mind is going”. Although his tone stays the same, the AI almost sounds panicked. As Dave deactivates him, his voice gets slower and deeper, and sings “Daisy Bell” as his last words, which sounds horrifying. The tension is released when the monitor starts playing the prerecorded message.

Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey is an amazing film. It tells an in depth story about man and machine, and there is so much I could go into. The paramount of the film is the deactivation of HAL, which is artfully crafted for peak tension via mise-en-scene.