Kubrick chose some 140 frame blow-ups from his film to accompany the continuity script published by Knopf upon release in 1987 (three are below). As a film that followed the final shot of The Shining's still photograph, FMJ is unsuprisingly about the camera-age interfacing with an alternate reality in language (and naming conventions). Here the haunting isn't hiding, the parallax of death is in the continuous aim of rifles, lenses and eyes that kill and record. Our identification with these warriors involves copious weaving and staring. HAL's eye devolves to the camera's basic masking (Rafterman's pose below). He seems to suggest on a base-level, the more you can record, the more you're forced to deceive yourself. Two of his protagonists even wear glasses to drum the point home (they're nearsighted). FMJ will be decoded here after 2001.


