Heywood R. Floyd
| Dr. Heywood R. Floyd | |
|---|---|
 Dr. Heywood Floyd as portrayed by William Sylvester in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) | |
| Created by |
Stanley Kubrick Arthur C. Clarke |
| Portrayed by |
William Sylvester (2001: A Space Odyssey) Roy Scheider (2010: The Year We Make Contact) |
| Information | |
| Species | Human |
| Gender | Male |
| Occupation |
Scientist Astronaut |
| Title | Doctor |
| Spouse(s) |
Marion Floyd (deceased) Caroline Floyd (divorced) |
| Nationality | American |
Dr. Heywood R. Floyd is a fictional character in the Space Odyssey series by Arthur C. Clarke. He first appears in 2001: A Space Odyssey as one of the astronauts on the mission to track the source of an alien artifact found on the moon. After the events that took place in 2001: A Space Odyssey, he is the protagonist of 2010: Odyssey Two and 2061: Odyssey Three. He is portrayed by William Sylvester in the first film and Roy Scheider in the second film.
Heywood Floyd was born in 1956 in the USA. By 1999, he is chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, in charge of overseeing all American spaceflight operations. He has two daughters (only one in the movies, born 1994) and was widowed when his wife Marion died in a plane crash (this is not mentioned in the movie adaptations and Marion is still alive, though never seen, during the events depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey).
2001: A Space Odyssey
As chairman of the National Council of Astronautics, Floyd was called up to Clavius Base on the Moon after a large rectangular black monolith dubbed TMA-1 (Tycho Magnetic Anomaly 1) had been uncovered there. He was present when the monolith began emitting a signal when first exposed to sunlight. He authorized the Discovery One mission to Jupiter (Saturn in the first novel) to investigate the presumed destination of the signals that were emitted by TMA-1.
2010: Odyssey Two
After the mysterious failure of the Discovery mission with the malfunction of the HAL 9000 computer and the disappearance of David Bowman, Heywood Floyd was scapegoated. He was forced to resign from the National Council of Astronautics, to be replaced by Victor Millson. He then moved to Hawaii, where he became the Chancellor of the University. He married a woman named Caroline and together they had a son named Christopher, born in 2008 (2006 in the movie).
Floyd was one of the three American experts who were posted aboard the USSR vessel Alexei Leonov in the joint US-USSR mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery. He went along with the designer of Discovery, Walter Curnow, and the creator of HAL, Dr. Sivasubramanian Chandrasegarampillai, or Dr. Chandra for short. Once Discovery had been reached and HAL reactivated, Floyd was warned by David Bowman (who was now an incorporeal being) to leave the Jovian system in preparation for the transformation of Jupiter into a mini-sun. The sun, dubbed Lucifer, was the catalyst for the warring nations of Earth to seek peace and also assisted in the evolution of the microscopic lifeforms living in the subterranean oceans of Europa.
In the novels, Floyd's marriage to Caroline broke apart as a result of the Leonov mission.
2061: Odyssey Three
Following his return to Earth, Floyd became estranged from his son Christopher. After an accident in which he fell off a second-story balcony, Floyd was taken to the orbital station Pasteur for medical treatment. By the time he had healed properly his body had adjusted to one-sixth gravity and he could no longer handle Earth gravity, and so was forced to stay as a permanent resident of Pasteur.
Floyd spent almost fifty years living in the Pasteur, up until 2061 at the age of 103 at which time he only appeared to be around 65 (his aging had been halted twice in his lifetime due to cryogenic hibernation on the Leonov mission). His son Chris had married and had a son, Chris II, before being killed in the "Copernicus Disaster".
Floyd was one of six celebrities brought aboard the Tsung Spacelines ship Universe for its historic landing on Halley's Comet, and became one of the first people to walk on the comet's surface. It was also jokingly rumored that he was having an affair with former famous actress Yva Merlin. When news was heard that Universe's sister ship Galaxy, of which Chris Floyd II was a crew member, had crash-landed on Europa, Floyd found himself on a rescue mission to save Galaxy. He helped convince the crew to attempt Second Officer Jolson's plan of taking water fuel from a geyser on Halley's Comet called "Old Faithful" rather than returning to the Moon first. That plan turned out to be successful.
At Yva Merlin's suggestion, Floyd called David Bowman on the radio asking for permission to land on Europa. That night he woke up to find a tiny version of the monolith floating inside his quarters. At that point, Heywood Floyd was split into two people: one was a human the same as he always was, and the other was an incorporeal being, similar to David Bowman. On Europa, the incorporeal Floyd appeared to his grandson Chris, making him think that Floyd was dead and he'd seen his ghost. Chris soon discovered that Floyd was not dead when they were reunited, and they became closer following these events. The incorporeal Floyd also became reacquainted with the incorporeal forms of Bowman and HAL. It was revealed that they "recruited" him to help them develop the Europans to further intelligence within the life-span of the Lucifer sun. It is not known what became of the original Floyd, but due to his age it is fair to assume that he died some time after. Floyd does not feature in any form in 3001: The Final Odyssey.
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