Factual error: While the Leonov has a centrifugal section to simulate gravity, the ship's bridge is not part of it (evidenced by the stationary views outside its portholes). Yet in various scenes, including the one when Floyd rushes in to discuss his plan to return to Earth sooner with Tanya, gravity seems quite evident. Floyd marches across the compartment onto the raised pilot area's floor, then steps down from it, his foot landing audibly. Tanya's open jacket also hangs down normally as she moves about. Yet when Floyd demonstrates his plan using two pens, they float in mid air. (01:26:50)
2010 (1984)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban
Bowman appears to Floyd (Roy Scheider) and tells him that they must leave Jupiter immediately. They do so by using the Discovery to boost the Leonov away, then the Leonov disconnects and gets to a safe distance. Jupiter explodes and turns into a sun and the Discovery and HAL are vaporized by the shock wave. The family of monoliths send a message to Earth, a message that speaks of hope and peace for humanity and a warning that all other worlds can be explored except for Europa. This message ends the war between Russia and the United States. Floyd sends a message to his son saying that there will come a time when two generations will meet: those who were born when there was one sun and those born after the birth of the new sun. The final scene is the moon Europa fully changed because the chlorophyll that started to appear earlier in the film has now grown to vegetation. Europa is now full of life and there's a monolith standing tall...
DaveJB
More mistakes in 2010
HAL-9000: What is going to happen?
Dave: Something wonderful.
HAL-9000: I'm afraid.
Dave: Don't be. We'll be together.
HAL-9000: Where will we be?
Dave: Where I am now.
Trivia: In the nursing home scene, the nurse at the desk is reading Time magazine. The cover concerns the US/Soviet conflict integral to the plot. If you look closely, the US President's picture is a colored drawing of Arthur C. Clarke and the Soviet Premier's picture is a colored drawing of the director of 2001, Stanley Kubrick. (01:17:18)
Question: One thing that always confused me is why was it necessary to jettison Discovery after it was used as a booster rocket? Why couldn't they just keep it attached to the Leonov as they made their escape?
Answer: They needed to lighten their load, to make it go faster. In Back to the Future Part III, after hijacking the train, the Doc and Marty unhooked the passenger cars to lighten the load.
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Answer: If they didn't, any further manoeuvring would require much more fuel. They would be moving the mass of two ships.