Dr. Heywood Floyd authored a report on the Discovery mission to Jupiter in the wake of its failure. Years later, the US is preparing a new ship to find out what happened. However, the Russians also have a ship that will go to Jupiter; they will arrive a year earlier. Despite rising tensions between the US and the USSR in Central America, Dimitri Moisevitch (Dana Elcar) suggests a joint operation. Three Americans - Floyd, Curnow (John Lithgow), and Chandra (Bob Balaban) - travel to Jupiter with the Russian crew. By the time they arrive, tensions between the US and the USSR are on the brink of war. This makes cooperation between the Americans and the Russians difficult. While flying near Europa, they send a probe and are on the brink of seeing something when the probe is destroyed. Hmm. Later, they airbrake in the Jovian atmosphere before rendevousing in orbit around Io with the Discovery. Doctor Chandra reactivates HAL and investigates what went wrong. Meanwhile, strange events are happening. Visions of Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) abound and the massive monolith destroys another Russian probe.
The movie's big failure is that it takes place in a future that never came. The USSR was gone less than 10 years after the film was made. The inclusion of Cold War politics was a mistake and adds very little. Also, despite being made 15 years after the original, the special effects are less impressive. Though there are lots of Russian cosmonauts on the Leonov, only two get much development. There is Tanya Kirbuk (Helen Mirren) as the commander and Max (Elya Baskin). Baskin and Lithgow have good chemistry during the spacewalk transit between the Leonov and the Discovery. Baskin proves to be a very likable character, which was doubtless intentional considering his fate.
A sequel that is very different from the original. Just okay.
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