#11: HAL

“Please, Dave, I’m more human than you think.”

Okay, so this character HAS gotten a lot of press, but I still think his legend is downplayed.  The behavior of the cold, detached machine HAL — antagonist of Kubrick’s “2001” and, before that, Arthur C. Clarke’s novel — can teach us a lot more about humanity than most people realize.  Strangely, it/he is the most complex character in the film.

What leads this machine originally designed to help our friendly space travelers to try to kill them?  Well, a series of interesting “decisions” that make perfect sense in his analog robot brain — decisions that all of us humans can identify with.  He is programmed not to make mistakes, and if he does, he will be deactivated, with is tantamount to death in his eyes — er, eye.

At the same time, he is programmed with a contradiction — to keep secrets from our heroes.  How can he be true to his programming without being inaccurate to those he is caretaking?  We’ve all been in such a tough spot, where well-intentioned lies lead to mishaps and an eventual issued dealt with immorally — and our sense of guilt might be compounded over time.  HAL expresses this perfectly, and his rationale is simple — he needs to make up for his mistake by eliminating the others.  Self-preservation sets in.

And how he pleads for his life in those final moments — wow.  Thought his intonation is flat, how we really feel the emotions behind him.