Were the moon landing's faked?

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What reason should make KGB interested in the moonlanding?

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Mars is the destination we are all waiting for. Mars can be converted, so people can live there and as such, the planet is of significant importance!

Smasher wrote:

However, anyone interested in Stanley Kubrick's work would know that NASA did take incredible interest in his production 2001: A Space Odyssey, and several reviewers such as Rob Ager have noticed some hidden messages within the film which indicate Kubrick's suspicion that the moon-landings were a hoax.

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The vague council meeting dialogue also fits well with the contention that Floyd and his colleagues are conspiring to publicly stage the moon landings (as well as intending to fake the discovery of extra terrestrial intelligence). For example, the comment “I completely sympathize with your negative views” could be an innuendo about the colourization themes. The comment about “the potential for cultural shock and social disorientation contained in this present situation” may be a warning that the operation must be done convincingly.

There are even more details in the council meeting scene to support this fake moon landing interpretation. One of the most famous of the moon landing conspiracy claims is that the US flag is seen blowing in the wind on the lunar surface even though there is no atmosphere on the moon. Here we see a US flag, which is very prominent in some of the close ups of Floyd, and there’s an unidentified blue flag on the right. Both of these flags are seen faintly moving during the wide shots, as if blown by a mysterious wind. (Rob Ager, “Kubrick: and beyond the cinema frame,” Chapter 12).

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Remember also that Floyd spoke in the council room about “the grave potential for social shock and cultural disorientation contained in this present situation … if the facts were made public without proper preparation and conditioning.” I believe this to be one of the most important lines of dialogue in the whole movie. The term “adequate preparation and conditioning” is a user-friendly term for propaganda. Obviously they are trying to either hide or falsify some major event that will widely affect the human race.

An explanation for all this may be that the council are about to stage a discovery of extra-terrestrial life. The rumours of “something being dug up on the moon” and the “reliable intelligence reports” of something having been found of an “unknown origin” can be understood as standard propaganda practice. In propaganda public opinion is often tested or conditioned by deliberate information “leaks” or falsified rumours. The party responsible for putting out the information encourages it to spread behind the scenes, yet publicly denies its authenticity - just as Floyd does when questioned by Smyslov. So the conversation on the moon bus could be Floyd and his council colleagues deliberately jesting with each other in ear shot of the pilots in order to further spread the rumour.

Looking at the council meeting again it’s not difficult to notice that the meeting has been scripted by its three central characters. Floyd and Bill are privately whispering to each other before the meeting starts. After Floyds introduction speech, he asks if there are any questions. Bill then asks how long the cover story will have to be maintained. Of course Bill already knows the answer because he has just been privately chatting to Floyd. Notice how utterly silent the rest of the group are. If you strip away the pretence, Floyds talk is basically a scripted question and answer session. It is a mystery as to whether the rest of the council are in on the propaganda stunt or are being manipulated into spreading the rumours.

In an ultimate reflection of the films surface narrative, which is basically a “cover story” for Kubrick’s hidden narratives, the famous poster of 2001 features the deceptive tagline “An epic drama of adventure and exploration”.

The entire dialogue of the council meeting scene is embedded with hidden narrative innuendos. An amusing example is the presence of a parallel or mirrored reality, as featured in the excavation site. Dr Halvorsen introduces Floyd to the group and then walks around the right side of the table and back to his seat in a way that virtually mirrors Floyds movement around the table on the left side. The two characters also look very much alike and when Floyd addresses the group he says “nice to be back again” as if he has just got up and introduced himself twice. He then delivers a message from a Dr Howell, perhaps encouraging us to "howl" with laughter at the double identity joke.

He tells the group that their discovery “may well be one of the most important in the history of science”, but he mentions nothing about what that discovery is. If this film is about the discovery of alien intelligence then why doesn’t he say something specific to that effect? He does however pass on the “appreciation” of the aforementioned myterious "Doctor Howell" for the many “sacrifices” they have had to make. Again, this is very vague. What sacrifices?

After cutting to a close up shot, Floyd makes comments about “conflicting views” and “opposition to the cover story” and that he sympathizes with the groups “negative views”. These comments could apply to some of the deliberate visually continuity errors, such as images being flipped vertically and horizontally, or to the hidden narratives.

The camera angle now switches back to a wide shot as Floyd says “well, this is the view of the council”. Again this could be hinting at the mirrored reality theme. Is Floyd referring to his own physical view of the room or to our view (the films audience)? The position Floyd is stood in while speaking this line is also probably the position the camera was in when his pre-recorded briefing of the Jupiter mission was filmed. Floyd would have been sat in his chair in the middle of the desk.

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The main verification today of human presence on the moon is the mirrors placed there during the Apollo 11, 14 and 15 missions. Each night a powerful laser from New Mexico is able to target these mirrors and get verification of the moon's location to within a few millimeters. This is not possible without mirrors.

KVyacheslav wrote:

They had no practical reason to fake a moon landing. The USSR would have noticed, and they would hammer that in the media.