Above left: Character Susan Blue (near center, wearing red shirt) appears to die in this scene from Lynch's Inland Empire. However, the scene is revealed to be a 'movie within a movie' when we see camera equipment (far right of photo) coming into view. Susan Blue is 'played' by character Nikki Grace, who is in turn played by real-life actress Laura Dern (i.e., Dern plays both Nikki and Susan). The movie being filmed within Inland Empire is called On High in Blue Tomorrows. This scene constitutes a hint from Lynch that A Space Odyssey itself contains a movie within a movie, implying that some aspect of 2001 is 'faked'; for example, what we see as the Jupiter mission, or some part of it, is actually a movie being filmed (or a program being broadcast) within A Space Odyssey, designed to fool some group of persons who will be viewing it. Above right: Although there should be zero gravity in the pod bay, while Poole and Bowman are working on the AE-35 unit, the two men are leaning on the table in a manner suggesting that they are being held down by gravity, while they examine the (supposedly) faulty unit. We do know the unit has something to do with the communications antenna; this antenna must be what is being used to communicate the aforementioned broadcast. We also know that HAL's camera 'eyes' are installed at various places throughout the ship; it's these very camera eyes that are being used to record the film, and/or to convey the broadcast, of the mission.
