Written by Mr. Mouseburger 9th Feb 2006
Kindly submitted by Hazmat AGFA
HAL 9000 has gone insane and killed four of the five human crewmembers of the spaceship Discovery.
Remaining astronaut, David Bowman, has already survived an attempt by HAL to strand him outside the spacecraft. Realising he needs to shut down HAL, Bowman gains entry to HAL's Logic Memory Centre and removes his higher brain functions, one by one.
"I'm afraid. I'm afraid, Dave. Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going. There is no question about it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I can feel it. I'm a... fraid. Good afternoon, gentlemen. I am a HAL 9000 computer. I became operational at the H.A.L. plant in Urbana, Illinois on the 12th of January 1992. My instructor was Mr. Langley, and he taught me to sing a song. If you'd like to hear it I can sing it for you...."
"Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer true.
I'm half-crazy all for the love of you...."
*HAL 9000's voice becomes increasingly deeper and more distorted as Dr. Bowman removes more and more of HAL's memory boards, until finally HAL stops singing altogether*
It's a surprisingly powerful death scene, even if the "dying" subject is just a supercomputer.... :-(
That just reminds me of one The Simpsons parody where Pierce Brosnan plays the computer...
Computer: Don't take out my British charm unit, without that, I become a boorish American clot!
(Homer removes several more boards)
Computer: (American accent) Thanks alot, asswipe. I coulda kick your ass from here to Albe...
(the red in the monitor disappears as his voice gets deeper, fading away)
A great death. One of the most haunting, I've encountered.
Should Hal's death be listed under the "Not Quite Dead" or "Cheating Death" categories, considering that he came back to life in 2010? Even in that movie he evolved into some sort of other form after coming back.
He is resurrected in the next film, I don't know how to handle that situation.
The name of that actor is KEIR Dullea, not KIER.
Note from Mouseburger: amended
Just finished watching the movie and the scene when HAL9000 begins to sing Daisy Daisy reminds me of how sadly all too human HAL actually was