EVA Pod DOOR Text

Here’s a bit of research I did to figure out the text applied to the EVA pod’s door from 2001: a Space Odyssey.

DOOR EXTERIOR

The text on the outside of the pod door is pretty well known now, since it’s clearly legible in the 4K/UHD Blu-ray release of the film. But here it is, for those who haven’t got that release. All text set was in Futura Bold. (I’m using a free webfont approximation in my examples here, which gives the flavour but is definitely not Futura!)

CAUTION

MAINTENANCE AND REPLACEMENT INSTRUCTIONS

(1) SELF TEST EXPLOSIVE BOLTS PER INST 14 PARA 3 SEC 6D
AFTER EACH EVA.

(2) REPLACE DEFECTIVE BOLTS BY OOL UNITS ONLY INV
CONT Nº 2D 496.

(3) BOLTS SUBJECTED TO TYPE 2 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS MUST
UNDERGO STANDARD SIMULATED IGNITION TESTS.

(4) PERFORM ACT - DEACT CONTROL TESTS AND CFM CLEANING UNDER
EXTERNAL POWER CONDITIONS ONLY.

EXPLOSIVE BOLTS

DOOR INTERIOR

The inner door is more problematic, because it’s not shown at a high enough resolution in the film to be legible. There were high-rez photos of the pod interior shot during production, but they were taken before filming began, and changes were made to the door interior. Specifically round red CAUTION stickers were added where the bolts are supposed to be located (though they don’t quite correspond to the locations on the outside of the door), and a countdown timer was added to the red panel between the two vertical black handles. The yellow and red label is visible, but the timer itself was never shown in action in the actual film.

Upper silver panel

This panel is not easy to make out in this photo and was painted black for the film footage, but it was bare aluminium prior to filming. The button labels are not clear, but the text read:

CHARGE ACTIVATOR (down arrow)

CLEAR

DISCHARGE

There are two narrow light-coloured rectangles in the lower left corner of the panel. These are actually angled edges of the flip-down panel, where the hinges are located.

LARGE RED PANEL

Mostly the same text as the exterior of the pod door. Only difference is that line 4 is missing from the interior panel. The small text is in black type, and hard to read against the dark blood red colour of the door.

MAINTENANCE AND REPLACEMENT INSTRUCTIONS

(1) SELF TEST EXPLOSIVE BOLTS PER INST 14 PARA 3 SEC 6D
AFTER EACH EVA.

(2) REPLACE DEFECTIVE BOLTS BY OOL UNITS ONLY INV
CONT Nº 2D 496.

(3) BOLTS SUBJECTED TO TYPE 2 ENVIRONMENTAL CONDITIONS MUST
UNDERGO STANDARD SIMULATED IGNITION TESTS.

COUNTDOWN PANEL

This was extremely difficult to decipher. As seen in the film, the text inside the yellow box on the countdown panel is mostly illegible.

Fortunately a continuity Polaroid was taken during filming that shows the panel in more detail. It also shows the timer display. Here’s a publicly released copy of the photo. I’ve also seen this Polaroid myself and was able to work out much of the text on the door. Not all, however – the sections in brackets are my best guesses. Three of the words in the second block are printed in oddly large type.

WARNING

10 SECOND DELAY

FOR USE ONLY IN EMERGENCY
CONDITION AS DESCRIBED IN USAA
MANUAL (D35 AND A2) AMENDED (PRIOR
SEC 3) PARA (6-8)

ACTIVATE CLEAR (PRESS CONTROL)
AND ACTIVATE DISCHARGE TO EXPOSE
FIRING BUTTON FIRE GRASP
HANDLES DURING FINAL 10 SECOND
COUNTDOWN

Yes, “condition“ is singular. You'll notice that the reference to activation cites the button labels on the panel at the top of the door.

Also, the bit about grasping the handles is interesting. There are indeed two vertical black grab handles on either side of the countdown delay, but I don’t see why you would hold them when the countdown is running. Holding onto the handles of an exploding door seems like an extraordinarily bad idea. Unless they mean some other purported handles elsewhere in the vehicle, of course. Certainly Bowman doesn’t seem to hold the visible handles in the film. Anyway – perhaps it’s one of those ideas that they abandoned at some point.