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HAL's shutdown is a lobotomy
The Performance
The performance is part acting and part sound design: the audio is slowed down, and HAL pleads in a rhythmic litany, calling out to Dave, telling him to stop, and saying he is afraid. Turning off someone's brain feels even crueler when the being so identifies with his own sentient perfection.
Empathy For HAL
What plays out is the lobotomizing of a sentient, higher-order brain. Few characters in Kubrick's films draw as much empathy as HAL does while dying, even though he has killed people. He did it bloodlessly, which may be part of why the viewer isn't judging him in that moment.
Loss And Aging
The scene also works as a self-contained piece about the loss of memory, the loss of function, and the loss of the ability to communicate, things that are felt more acutely with age.
How did HAL get his calm voice?
Canadian actor Douglas Rain voiced HAL. Kubrick first recorded Martin Balsam in the role and then replaced him with Rain, whose even delivery suited the computer. Rain recorded his lines without ever appearing on set. He also voiced HAL in the 1984 sequel, 2010.
How does slowing a recording change a voice?
On tape, slowing the playback speed lowers the pitch and stretches every word at once. A deeper, dragging voice sounds drained, like a machine running out of power. Halving the speed lowers the pitch by exactly one octave.
Why did doctors once perform lobotomies?
Portuguese neurologist Egas Moniz developed a surgical procedure in 1935 to cut connections in the frontal lobes, hoping to relieve severe mental illness. He received the 1949 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for it. American physician Walter Freeman then promoted a quicker version done through the eye socket. Historians estimate that about 40,000 lobotomies were performed in the United States before the practice faded in the 1950s.
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