Pop culture is full of unsolved mysteries, like "Was Tony Danza the boss?" "What happened to Tony Danza's career?" and "Is Tony Danza even alive?" Some of them are even unrelated to Tony Danza. And some that we thought would never find an answer finally did, but only through the effort of dedicated fans with way too much time on their hands. Like ...

6 Kubrick Fan Settles 2001: A Space Odyssey/IBM Debate

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The Mystery:

The epic cinematic mind trip known as 2001: A Space Odyssey gave rise to some of the greatest mysteries in pop culture history, among them "How could Stanley Kubrick go more than 140 minutes into a film without any nudity or sexual innuendo?"



Unless you count all that ape nudity and suggestive bone groping.

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However, one of the most intriguing questions surrounding the film is whether HAL 9000, the intelligent computer who murders 90 percent of the cast, was meant to represent IBM, the actual computer company (and the pioneers of artificial intelligence). Those who subscribe to this theory point out that the name "HAL" is one letter removed from "IBM" (go back one letter for each), while those who oppose it point out that Kubrick himself specifically said it was bullshit.

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Above: Stanley Kubrick, being Stanley Kubrick.

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But what about Arthur C. Clarke, the guy who co-wrote 2001 with Kubrick and wrote the accompanying novel and its sequels? Clarke has been even more vocal than Kubrick about denying the IBM connection, even going as far as to have HAL's creator in one of the books say it's "utter nonsense." So, that pretty much settles it.

How They Solved It:

Or so we thought, until Kubrick fan and filmmaker Robert Ager took a closer look at the HD version of the film and found this: