Deliberate mistake: Dr. Chandra returns to the Leonov at the end of the film with the device that Dr. Floyd designed to cut HAL's memory circuits. He hands the device back to Dr. Floyd, who tosses it in the air and catches it when it falls back into his hand. One problem - there was no gravity on the ship at the time. (01:44:00)
2010 (1984)
1 deliberate mistake
Directed by: Peter Hyams
Starring: Helen Mirren, John Lithgow, Roy Scheider, Bob Balaban
Continuity mistake: All the monitors aboard Discovery-1 are standard CRT screens of 1980s vintage (curved face), yet in "2001", they were all flat screens. and there's been no upgrading between the events of the two films.
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.
Answer: If they didn't, any further manoeuvring would require much more fuel. They would be moving the mass of two ships.