"2001" style helmets in "War in Space", "Titan Find" and other TV and movies

**phase pistol** · Apr 9, 2008

The 1977 Japanese film "War in Space" used helmet designs that are near exact copies of the "2001" helmets! This is years before Peter Hyams' "2010 The Year We Make Contact" or "Titan Find".

The "War in Space" helmets even have the computer modules around the back!

The "War in Space" helmets are wider and more bulbous than the 2001 originals, but many replicas (such as the Twinch Squad sixth scale figures) make this same mistake.

Even the chest pack is a simplified and stylized version of the "2001" Discovery suit pack.

Many more recent film and TV space suits would feature similar designs such as the suits from "Mission To Mars", "Star Trek Enterprise", and most recently the Viper Pilot flight suits from "Battlestar Galactica". Even a couple of episodes of "Babylon 5" featured a "2001"-inspired design.

2001

Mission to Mars

Star Trek Enterprise

Battlestar Galactica flight suits

"Titan Find" was sort of a legend in the '80s, because the film books and magazines always repeated, in hushed tones, how the film had "reused the spacesuits from 2001". This of course is obviously not true. The suits are INSPIRED by 2001 (the helmets specifically). But they are quite different.

link removed due to nudity

Klaus Kinski's character wears a suit of different design. The helmet kind of reminds me of an old James Olson/Catherine Schell film called Moon Zero Two.

The character "Bryce" wears a leather racing jacket reminiscent of the film "Planet of the Vampires", which is one of the spiritual ancenstors of "Titan FInd" (aka they also ripped it off in addition to "Alien"

)

**RPF Support**

**tk1780** · Apr 9, 2008

Wow nice screen captures. You namedoff some good old film clasics. I loved the old space vampire movie, with the alien spaceship with the giant skeltons. A pre curser to Aliens ...? 10 years or more later ?

I could not recall the name of the movie with the 2001 design space suits but saw it back in like 1985 on video. Could have been a lot better but ...um...had some interesting moments

May have to find it now to watch just for fun

Thanks for posting this up.

**jackkillian** · Apr 9, 2008

I actually really liked this movie one of my good bad movies...Its a bad movie but I think it shows good elements and yet I own the dvd...hehehehe Love the suits as well.

Andrew

**phase pistol** · Apr 9, 2008

tk1780 said:

I loved the old space vampire movie, with the alien spaceship with the giant skeltons. A pre curser to Aliens ...? 10 years or more later ?

Well that would be Planet of the Vampires, whch was made in 1965. Directed by Mario Bava (!), it has an amazing meld of Star Trek visuals with Italian Horror plot and pacing.

The US version is of course badly dubbed. It seems like every character is named "Mark", and one of the voice actors is the same guy who did the voice of Speed Racer!

He is a demon on wheels.

**phase pistol** · Nov 28, 2008

UPDATED first post with "War in Space" helmet designs... a near exact copy of the 2001 helmets!

**TMP** · Nov 28, 2008

Remove Nudity? Why? We can have Chopped of heads, torn out eyes, visible brain... But something natural. ...

I am glad i live in scandinavian. Nudity.. Is not dangerouse. Not everything is sexual

**TMP** · Nov 28, 2008

Tomorrow i will pose naked with only the ironman helmet. hehe.
Reffering to the prop.

**phase pistol** · Nov 28, 2008

Yeah the mods take a dim view of nekkidness round here...

I would remind you all that you are all naked under your clothing.

Hence the need for space suits!

**CB2001** · Jan 18, 2010

Though one can draw similarities between them, I have to say the flight helmets from "Battlestar Galactica" are not influenced by "2001" in its design. The only thing that the helmets have in common is the fact that both were designed to make sure you could see the actor's face. That's as far design wise they have in common. Even earlier designs and sketches of the flight helmets from the show (as seen in the companion book called "Downloaded" and the design sketches seen within the catalog for the auction) do not even invoke a "2001" design and appearance.

So, like I said, other than the fact both were purposefully designed to actually show the actor's face and their performance in the scene, there is no similarity I see between them.

**Funky Jedi** · Jan 18, 2010

Well, what is a space helmet by defenition? A bucket big enough to protect your head that supplies life support and communications with a large veiwing area to see where your going. With that, wouldn't they all look pretty similar?

**phase pistol** · Jan 18, 2010

No, not at all. These helmets I showed above are all descended from the unique 2001 helmets, which are of a design that had never appeared before.

Original design sketch for 2001 spacesuit

Previously most space helmets had been based on diving suit or pressurized jet fighter pilot helmets, which were shaped like a sphere (which is actually the most efficient shape if the interior is pressurized and the outside is a vacuum)

The inspiration for the 2001 helmets appears to have been the "newsboy cap" which had been popular earlier in the 20th century.. it has a similar shape to the top of the helmet

I don't know of any helmets shaped like the newsboy-cap 2001 helmet which had been seen before the film came out. Any which appeared afterwards, are obviously derived from the film.

k

**phase pistol** · Jan 18, 2010

You're welcome to disagree. I suppose only the designer of the BSG helmets could say for sure. There were several designs of flight suit helmet as the series progressed.

Anyway I didn't mean to imply "BSG ripped off 2001!" in the same sense that "War in Space" certainly did. I'm just saying that the design was influenced.

I suppose it's possible that by NOW though, one could argue that the, let's call them, "bean-shaped" space helmet is so ingrained in the popular imagination, that it's its own thing now, and nobody has to reference all the way back to 2001 to design one. Hell, it appears that some folks aren't aware that 2001 was the first time a non-spherical or non-cylindrical helmet was used.

I would not say for example that the "HALO" game helmets are 2001-inspired, and HALO will no doubt inspire other people for decades to come.

CB2001 said:

Though one can draw similarities between them, I have to say the flight helmets from "Battlestar Galactica" are not influenced by "2001" in its design. The only thing that the helmets have in common is the fact that both were designed to make sure you could see the actor's face. That's as far design wise they have in common. Even earlier designs and sketches of the flight helmets from the show (as seen in the companion book called "Downloaded" and the design sketches seen within the catalog for the auction) do not even invoke a "2001" design and appearance.

So, like I said, other than the fact both were purposefully designed to actually show the actor's face and their performance in the scene, there is no similarity I see between them.

**Larry Young** · Jan 18, 2010

I like the ones that come after that are made so obviously "design-y" as to say "Hey, look; we're not based on real pressure suits and we're not influenced by 2001, either!" like the ones in Armageddon, say:

**phase pistol** · Jan 18, 2010

Yeah as a connoisseur of space suit design I am more often disappointed than not.

**Larry Young** · Jan 19, 2010

As much as I enjoy the film, I am really quite repulsed by the ones in SUNSHINE. Dang, those are hang-dog suits. I think the last ones I really liked were the EVENT HORIZON suits.

**phase pistol** · Jan 19, 2010

Wow, "repulsed". That's big.

Not my photo. But if anyone has one of these maquettes and really hates it, I'd love to have it.

I rather liked the SUNSHINE suits! (loved the film BTW with a few nitpicks). Reminded me of the Invader from the Twilight Zone.

"Race of giants! Race of giants here!"

But the SUNSHINE suits were a completely new idea and they FELT right even if they might not have made a lot of sense scientifically.

"Event Horizon"... ugh. I hated the film so much it's hard to concentrate on any given element of it. All I can remember is that idiotic meat grinder engine corridor. Senseless.

The space suit from that film doesn't make me tingle either.

**lmgill** · Jan 19, 2010

This was an interesting choice
http://www.scribd.com/doc/124610/200...rnaut-Brochure
Given IBM's pull out of the original film.
It was because IBM"s ad agency didn't do their homework on IBM's history.

**DivineHeresy** · Jan 19, 2010

Great topic, Karl

I'm not really a fan of the "Sunshine" suit either. The helmet is just ugly

Enjoyed the movie though

**Larry Young** · Jan 19, 2010

DivineHeresy said:

Great topic, Karl

I'm not really a fan of the "Sunshine" suit either. The helmet is just ugly

Enjoyed the movie though

Yeah, I should have made it more plain that I'm just talking about the suit designs themselves. I loved SUNSHINE as a film <spoiler>Nobody learns anything! Everybody dies!</spoiler> but those helmets are just deep-fried fertilizer. And I'm not sure I could tell you anything about EVENT HORIZON other than I thought the suits looked cool and functional.

My favorite from the last ten years has to be the MISSION TO MARS suits, though.

**phase pistol** · Jan 19, 2010

The IBM codernaut suits are not bad, but of course it's frustrating because they are SO close to the actual 2001 suits, but not quite.

The IBM suit has features, such as the chest pack, similar to the suits worn on the Moon early in the film

...but has the allover blue color like the unused spacesuit that is stored in the Pod bay on Discovery

Did IBM really "drop out" of participation in 2001? I know there are IBM logos visible on the control console of one of the spacecraft early in the film (Orion spaceplane, Aries Lunar Shuttle, or Moonbus).

If they did drop out I'm guessing it's either because HAL is not explicitly said to be an IBM product, or else they are afraid people will assume HAL is an IBM product and the company didn't care for how the character is depicted in the film (ie HAL kills everybody).

Then there's that whole "H-A-L is one letter ahead of I-B-M" thing...

k

**DivineHeresy** · Jan 19, 2010

There are also IBM logos on the key-pads of the space suits.

phase pistol said:

I know there are IBM logos visible on the control console of one of the spacecraft early in the film (Orion spaceplane, Aries Lunar Shuttle, or Moonbus).

**Birdie** · Jan 19, 2010

The Sunshine suit designs served the plot, inasmuch as their bulkiness/lack of manoevreability allowed the script-writer to introduce moments of tension (notably the fixing of the shields and Capa's escape from Icarus 2 after decompression and his near failiure to right himself after falling in the suit)

I thought the design was kind of cool, they could have just wrapped a standard pressure suit in gold foil and called it a day. The 'workshop on legs' design was interesting.

BTW, I think the Nostromo helmet designs from Alien have been liberally 'borrowed' from over the years, too.

**lmgill** · Jan 19, 2010

phase pistol said:

The IBM codernaut suits are not bad, but of course it's frustrating because they are SO close to the actual 2001 suits, but not quite.

Did IBM really "drop out" of participation in 2001? I know there are IBM logos visible on the control console of one of the spacecraft early in the film (Orion spaceplane, Aries Lunar Shuttle, or Moonbus).

If they did drop out I'm guessing it's either because HAL is not explicitly said to be an IBM product, or else they are afraid people will assume HAL is an IBM product and the company didn't care for how the character is depicted in the film (ie HAL kills everybody).

Then there's that whole "H-A-L is one letter ahead of I-B-M" thing...

k

[FONT=Verdana]The IBM suits for the ad campain where to be exact replicas and are exact in basic details, in fact they where pain stakenly copied and pieces where even patterned off of surviving pieces to insure their accuracy.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]But, at the last minute they (someone who didn't do their due diligence at the ad agency) realized they needed clearance from the Kubrick estate to use the 2001 suits, so these suits where changed. The chestpack was completely changed, the back pack had it's jets hacked off and side "scoops" lights and a padded panel where added to the helmet to make the suit "15%" different.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]As for IBM and the film;[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]During the writing of the 2001 movie, IBM was a technical advisor in regards to advanced computers.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]They were also THE computer company of the era and Kubrick and Clarke where using IBM this way. As was done with Pan Am and Bell telephone and Hilton hotels. This was not “product placement” as is common today. But was a way to tie in present day (1968) business icons with the future of 2001.When the treatment or script was completed IBM pulled out because the “IBM 9000” kills people. Kubrick and Clarke where supposedly quite upset by this, as IBM was synonymous with state of the art computers in the 1960’s and they felt they just lost “credibility” of their “Star actor” , the computer. I believe this is why the name plate for the HAL 9000 looks very close to the Honeywell logo of the late 60’s, a sort of Jab at IBM. This pull out was so late in production that the IBM logo was already on some items and did not get removed, as in the Moon bus on the control panel and the large black button on the suit control panel. The IBM on the suit panel can be clearly seen in the first spacewalk over the Discovery. I think this was the PTT for the 9000 computer.[/FONT] edit: see above photo
[FONT=Verdana] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]I have been told by Keir Dulleha and Gary Lockwood that the H.A.L. being one letter in front of IBM was a coincidence. But I find it hard to believe it was not thought of at the time.[/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana] [/FONT]
[FONT=Verdana]This is why it was so surprising IBM wanted to use replicas of the 2001 suits for a worldwide ad campaign in 2001. The ad agency thought the blue color was another difference between their suit and the 2001 suits. No one told them there was an almost identical blue suit hanging in the pod bay. And of course they didn’t look.[/FONT]
[FONT=Calibri][/FONT]
BTW: the Discovery suits were the moon suits painted. They just painted the moon suit for the later scenes. Then painted them back for a pick up shot on the moon. (The survey team shot as the moon bus goes by) The chest & back packs changed and the panels on the backs of the helmet changed as well.

**johnnyappleseed** · Jan 19, 2010

space suits with open cuffs really make me question a filmmakers resolve to convince somebody that the suit is indeed intended for space wear.

**DivineHeresy** · Jan 19, 2010

lmgill said:

BTW: the Discovery suits were the moon suits painted. They just painted the moon suit for the later scenes. Then painted them back for a pick up shot on the moon. (The survey team shot as the moon bus goes by) The chest & back packs changed and the panels on the backs of the helmet changed as well.

Not heard that before.
If they made the 6 (or so) suits for the moon sequence it wouldn't have been much more trouble to create a few more for the discovery scenes.

The moon suits are also missing some details you've already mentioned but some other details are missing aswell, the key-pad and other little things.

"2001" style helmets in "War in Space", "Titan Find" and other TV and movies

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