HAL 9000’s faceplates

Ah, HAL 9000, the chilling computer from 2001: a Space Odyssey!

He’s one of the best-loved antagonists – it’s hardly fair to call him an actual villain – in screen history. His implacable red gaze, his calm Canadian voice, his memorable dismantling… yet he was simply a handful of metal and glass wall props and the measured tones of actor Douglas Rain.

And it’s that prop that’s the focus of this discussion. What was it, and how was it made? And what freakin’ typeface was the HAL logotype, anyway?

All these questions, and more, are answered in this handcrafted article, which documents more about the HAL 9000 faceplates than has ever been gathered in one place. That I know of.

I: Researching HAL

II: Ingredients of the Faceplate

III: The Nikkor Lens

IV: The Different HALs

V: HAL’s point of view

VI: Replicating HAL

Thanks

Thanks to Karl Tate, Piers Bizony, and Adam K. Johnson for invaluable comments and assistance.

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