Friday, March 18, 2011

American Nuclear Weapon Satellite





Here are some images of my scratch built American Nuclear Weapon Satellite from 2001 A Space Odyssey.
The American nuclear weapon satellite is the first ship you see in the movie even if only for two and a half seconds. It happens .during Stanley Kubrick’s famous three million year jump cut. First you see the man ape Moonwatcher in typical kubrickian glee throwing a bone in the air just after dispatching a rival ape. As the bone spins in the air with the sound of wind in the background it suddenly with a single film splice jumps to the American nuclear weapon satellite and the beginnings of Strauss’s Blue Danube in the background.

This model was basically built by eye using various sources from images from the interweb to the Bizony book to repeatedly hitting the pause button, so I couldn't attest to its accuracy still I think it turned out pretty well.

6 comments:

  1. I remember the famous bone-to-satellite jump cut, but I didn't realize it was a nuclear-armed satellite! A little irony if you like that sort of thing, I guess!

    But nicely done!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Thanks William - That's how Clarke described them in the book.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Amazing! You sure do have some skills!

    ReplyDelete
  4. Thanks Pat - It's much appreciated.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Nice model ! it looks so real, please post an alternative model, it would be nice!

    ReplyDelete
  6. Thanks Viagra - Post an alternative model?

    ReplyDelete