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

[phase pistol]

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" :lol)

 

[tk1780]

Re: "Titan Find" (aka "Creature") spacesuits: son of 2001, father of Viper Pilot

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 :love May have to find it now to watch just for fun :lol Thanks for posting this up. :thumbsup

 

[jackkillian]

Re: "Titan Find" (aka "Creature") spacesuits: son of 2001, father of Viper Pilot

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]

Re: "Titan Find" (aka "Creature") spacesuits: son of 2001, father of Viper Pilot

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! :lol

He is a demon on wheels. :sleep

 

[phase pistol]

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

 

[TMP]

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

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

 

[TMP]

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

 

[phase pistol]

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

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

Hence the need for space suits! :love

 

[CB2001]

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]

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]

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]

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. :lol

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.

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]

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]

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

 

[Larry Young]

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]

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. :lol

"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. :lol

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

 

[lmgill]

This was an interesting choice
http://www.scribd.com/doc/124610/2001-IBM-Codernaut-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]

Great topic, Karl :thumbsup

I'm not really a fan of the "Sunshine" suit either. The helmet is just ugly :confused
Enjoyed the movie though

 

[Larry Young]

Great topic, Karl :thumbsup

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

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. :rolleyes

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). :lol

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

k