Viewed today in crisp 1080p high definition, 2010: The Year We Make Contact emerges not as a rival to Kubrick’s masterpiece, but as a fascinating, humanist counterpoint. It is a Cold War thriller wrapped in hard science fiction, and nearly four decades later, it remains one of the most intellectually satisfying follow-ups in genre history.

The mission takes place against a backdrop of escalating Cold War tensions on Earth.

Roy Scheider stars as Heywood Floyd, with John Lithgow, Helen Mirren, and Bob Balaban.

travels to Jupiter. Their goal is to reactivate the HAL 9000 computer and discover why the original mission ended in disaster and what happened to Dave Bowman. The Conflict:

Released 16 years after 2001: A Space Odyssey , 2010 faced the impossible task of following a film that redefined the genre. While Kubrick’s film was a poetic, visual meditation on evolution, Peter Hyams (who also wrote and served as Director of Photography) chose a different path:

When Floyd re-activates HAL near the film’s climax, the computer’s first words are, "Dr. Floyd… will I dream?" It is a heartbreaking moment of machine vulnerability. To hear that line delivered in pristine English, in a high-definition home theater setting, is to understand why this film has endured.