Why is the spaceship in 2001 a space odyssey filled with red lights ? 10 points for first answer?

Question

It looks beautiful, but does it have any function. The brain room of hall, the airlocks ?? They are filled with a beautiful glooming red light. Whats the funcionality of it.

I heard something about red being suiting for eyes. Is that it really. Then why is it only in these small sections of the ship. I heard it has to do with looking out the window, and its a dim colour, but the rooms I refered to have no windows to outside.

So what is it really ? Dont say its just a movie. This movie is well known for getting its facts straight. It was supposed to be realistic, so there must be some practical reason behind it.

Answer 1

digquick is headed in the correct direction on this - the eyes adapt to low light or no light when things are seen in red. This is usually done before a person or persons are about to go out into darkness and want to be able to see as soon as they are 'outside'. Or in the case of Odyssey, into what would be a normally dark room.



The opposite happens when you've been in a dark place and go out into the sun light. You can't see a thing until your eyes adjust to the light. The red helps trick your eyes into thinking it is dark.



Any one know where I can find a model of the Spaceship Odyssey - Would love to build one.

Answer 2

It was probably a nod to modern submarines and surface warships, where red illumination is used because it doesn't hamper low-light vision. This is also the same reason why I use red lights for reading star maps and fussing with telescope assembly while stargazing.



Whether this would be useful in the ships on 2001 is debatable. I could see it PERHAPS being useful in the passenger ship which lands on the Moon, as it initially appears they might be landing during the lunar night (note that there's an error in this scene: two different moon phases which are at least 12 days apart are used, with landmarks confirming it's not just the Moon viewed from different angles). And, the ship seems designed in such a fashion that the final descent is not conducted using the Mk 1 Eyeball. The pilot's compartment seems to face UP while landing, according to the model (leading to other errors where views from inside the pilot's compartment are inconsistent with the craft's orientation when seen from outside).



Oh. Yes. Remember that part where you said it is well-known for getting its facts straight? Yeah. It might be better than average sci-fi in that respect, but it's far from perfect.

Answer 3

Usually red lights are helpful when astronauts need to be able to look out to space, red lighting doesn't reset our eyes' night-sensitivity. But I think in the film the red lighting appears after HAL has already cut the main power and the red lights come on with the emergency generator. It also looks cool!

Answer 4

Because, subconsciously Red signals danger, even in Nature (for decades Tomatoes were thought to be poisonous!) Because Hal-9000 was supposed to go rogue by making the lights red, it added an element of danger and suspense to the movie without doing ANYTHING else! No dialogue was needed, no actors had to comment on it, it was just there in the back of your mind.



Nowadays, most movies use electric blue or green to signal the presence of supercomputers.

Answer 5

Hal told me the answer, but since I've got no chance of getting the ten points, I'm keeping it to myself.



edit (post "first answer sucked")



In that case, Hal says that he was instructed by Stanley Kubrick to use red light illumination in many parts of the ship because it added to the "DANGER" sense that Kubrick wanted to create. Red lighting is viewed by humans as a danger sign, since for the 4 million years since the black monolith tinkered around with Moonwatcher's mind, humans have equated red light with fire, heat and danger. It's genetic and Kubrick, being the genius that he was in telling stories, used red to emphasize "danger" in a number of scenes.

In real life, as many others have said, red lights are used, primarily at night, to prepare humans for going out into the darkness (standing watch in the military, going on night hikes, etc). During my seven months on a Navy ship in the Atlantic and Mediterranean, I was grateful that I seldom had to wait long to achieve my best night vision when I took my binoculars out on deck at night to stargaze. Almost the entire ship was "red lighted" at sundown to enable watchstanders, gunners and flight crews to be ready for duty as soon as they went out on deck or onto the bridge. Though interior spaces, such as crew quarters and mess hall, used white lights after dark, interior passageways used red.

Answer 6

Well, ..., my answer is the same as the last time you asked this question.



Red light, with it's longer wave lengths, gives you maximum visibility under low light conditions without knocking out your night vision. That's why astronomers, military pilots, and submariners use low powered red lighting.

Answer 7

It's just to make the set look good; it's a film.

There is very little computer science in the design of HAL Even the 'character' is unrealistic. If is was sentient enough to go mad is would be sentient enough to understand why it had to hide information from the crew.

It's just a film.

Answer 8

You already asked this.



https://answersrip.com/question/index?qid=20111219085611AAVPEyB



It's a shame you don't like the answers given, but the fact is that the red lights really didn't have a specific function. It was artistic.

Answer 9

Well, I don't think it really had a whole lot to do with the actual Sci-fi of it all. I think it was just a futuristic decoration.

Answer 10

It actually has no purpose. The creators simply did it to make it look more modern. I answerd first btw

Answer 11

It stops you from aging. The ultra red rays do that.

Answer 12

the bathrooms were being used