[In 2001, these bolts fulfill a "positive" function; in DR. STRANGELOVE,
the bolts fulfill a "negative" function. Note how the cinematic echoes
the literal in the following piece of history . . .]
While searching for SK's face reflected in Bowman's helmet glass . . .
in 2001, I started to ponder the "CAUTION: EXPLOSIVE BOLTS" cuts of the
pod doors. There are two full-frame cuts in the pod scenes. Now, for
almost any other director, one could say that the cuts were simple
foreshadowing but, IMHO, that would be far too heavy-handed for SK.
Now, here's my thought -- not a theory, just a thought: I believe NASA
personnel had some advisory input to the film. If so, SK might have
gotten wind of the sad tale of explosive bolts in manned U.S. space
flight.
After the splashdown of the second Mercury capsule, Astronaut Gus
Grissom almost drowned after explosive bolt circuitry accidentally
fired, ejecting the hatch (and never mind about the movie "The Right
Stuff". That whole damned thing was apocryphal) and sinking the
spacecraft. NASA was very keen on eliminating failures of this
magnitude, which failed to reflect elegant engineering. So keen, in
fact, that the first series of Apollo command modules (i.e., "capsules")
had non-explosive bolts securing the hatch. It took about 15 minutes to
open a buttoned-up Apollo Block I spacecraft.
During a countdown test in 1967, Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chafee
were killed when a flash fire spread through their buttoned-up Apollo
spacecraft. Had the craft been equipped with explosive bolts . . .
(J.G.)
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