Visible crew/equipment: In both EVA scenes, first when Dave retrieves the AE-35 Unit, and when Frank goes to re-install it, there are shots of Discovery in the background, the pod in the foreground and the astronaut floating between. And in both of these shots, the pod rotates 180 degrees. In the front window of the pod, we can see reflected images of the film set and equipment as the pod rotates.
Continuity mistake: As Bowman enters B-pod to retrieve the AE-35 Unit, he lifts his left foot into the pod first. But as Poole is watching him do so on a monitor, Bowman lifts his right foot into the pod first. (01:12:45)
Continuity mistake: In several scenes, we are given HAL's visual perspective as if seeing through his lens. This is done with an overlayed image of the lens on whatever area is in sight of the lens. As Dave is entering HAL's memory circuit room (red lighting), one shot again suggests we are again seeing what HAL sees, but there is no HAL lens located and oriented to provide the angle we see. A lens would need to be mounted on the narrow wall directly opposite the circular doorway, yet HAL's lens in this room is mounted on the 'ceiling'. (01:51:25)
Continuity mistake: In a sequence in the cockpit of the space ship approaching docking, the shot shows the two pilots and 3 monitor screens between them. The right-hand screen changes from a data display to a blank showing only the letters "GDE" (possibly "GOE"). The next shot is a close-up of the three monitors, and the right-hand one now shows its earlier data display. The other two do not show this behaviour. (00:25:00)
Continuity mistake: During Heywood's meeting with Elena and Dr Smyslov, he is introduced to their colleagues, including Dr Kalinan who is the women in the olive dress/suit. When they shake hands her coat is folded neatly over her seat, but before she sits down again with the camera now facing Heywood, the coat disappears. In an earlier shot prior to the introduction, the majority of Kalinan's coat is off the seat and when she stood the first time it probably fell, suggesting the handshake sequence was re-filmed after the actual meeting. (00:28:45)
Answer: As author Arthur C. Clarke explained it, the first Monolith (the one seen at the beginning of the film and then buried on the Moon) was a space probe from an incomprehensibly more advanced alien intelligence that resided inside a star elsewhere in the cosmos. The Monolith's objective was to seek out lifeforms that had potential and "tweak" their neural evolution, causing them to evolve toward intelligence. In the case of Mankind on Earth, once the modification was made, the Monolith probe retreated to the Moon and waited 4 million years for Mankind to reach it. When Mankind reached the Moon, the Monolith sent a signal to the next phase of the experiment, which was another Monolith in orbit of Jupiter. When Mankind reached the Jupiter Monolith in a matter of months, the Monolith acted as an interdimensional portal to the other side of the universe, transporting the evolved human specimen to its creator (that resided within a star). The creator intelligence found the specimen (Dave Bowman) to be of acceptable quality and rapidly evolved him to the next level, a Star Child. The Star Child is a "godly" evolution of Mankind. The Star Child chooses to instantaneously return to its home planet (Earth), where it stops a nuclear war.
Charles Austin Miller