A 1968 science-fiction film, written and directed by Stanley Kubrick, with help from Arthur C. Clarke (who also wrote a novel version in tandem with the film's production), and inspired in part by Clarke's short story "The Sentinel". Long-term human evolution is influenced by unseen Precursors, an ill-fated expedition is dispatched to Jupiter, and minds are generally blown.Still one of the "hardest" sci-fi films ever made. Features perhaps the most famous Match Cut ever to appear in American popular culture. It is also known for its very slow pacing and enigmatic plot.Clarke went on to write several sequel novels (Titled 2010, 2061, and 3001) which mostly followed the film's continuity, and one of them was made into a movie as well (2010: The Year We Make Contact).
This film provides examples of:
Adaptation Expansion / The Film of the Book: Clarke's original short story, "The Sentinel", dealt only with the part about the Monolith on the Moon. Kubrick and Clarke then expanded the story into a film and book that were released simultaneously. Clarke stated the book should be credited as "Clarke and Kubrick", with "Kubrick and Clarke" credited for the screenplay.
Unlike a Novelization, there are distinct differences between the two; for starters, Clarke's Discovery travels to one of Saturn's moons, while Kubrick's Dicovery goes to Jupiter. The reason for this change was the Rule Of Cool: the film crew couldn't build a model of Saturn that Kubrick liked, so he changed it.
A.I. Is a Crapshoot: Not the first example, but one of the most famous, and also justified.
Alien Geometries: The moving, floating tesseracts from the "beyond the infinite" sequence.
Aliens Steal Cable: In the novel, the "hotel" area constructed by the Firstborn to receive Bowman is based on TV broadcasts received by the Monolith. The hotel room is supposed to give Bowman an environment he's comfortable with, but in the movie the aliens clearly did not research things very well, because a room with lights in the floor looks intensely disturbing. (They also put the bathroom mirror over the tub instead of the sink.)
They didn't really do their research in the novel either; or at least, they did, but there are still gaps in their knowledge. For instance, the cover of a phone book, while passable from a distance, is blurry when viewed up close because the aliens never got a good enough look at one to reproduce it exactly. Also, the beer cans contain, not beer, but the macaroon-like purple foodstuffs that the aliens provide Dave with to sustain him.
Also Sprach Zarathustra: The use of this composition as a leitmotif is so famous that almost every use since then is a reference to 2001.
And I Must Scream: The flash-cuts of Bowman's horror as he's taken Beyond The Infinite. The journey reduces him to a quivering wreck — then he appears in the alien hotel room. It appears that that will turn out to be Bowman's purgatory, but it's ultimately averted as Bowman Ascends To A Higher Plane Of Existence.
HAL never deviates from his calm, unaffected delivery. He can't. Even when he's begging for his life.
Artificial Gravity: Of the realistic "rotation provides centrifugal force" variety.
Ascend to a Higher Plane of Existence: The purpose of the Monolith's "trap", set for the first human to stumble upon it. Also the "evolution" of the Firstborn.
There are plenty that do use the actual term. A 2009 commercial by jewelry chain Jared uses it correctly.
"My god, it's full of stars!" — This line appears in 2001 the book, but not in the movie. Ne'ertheless, in 2010the movie, it's claimed Bowman said this before entering the star gate.
Benevolent Precursors: The Firstborn helped the human race to evolve in the first place.
Big Brother Is Watching: HAL has cameras in every compartment of the Discovery that we see — except the emergency airlock.
He possibly has one there too. The big difference is that it's the only entry point NOT under HAL's control.
Cosmic Horror Story: This was the real reason for Kubrick's use of Leave the Camera Running and Mind Screw: to convey that space is an immense and hostile place in which humans are insignificant by comparison, where if we encounter aliens they'd be incomprehensibly advanced, refuse to explain themselves to us, and be interested only in using us as tools.
Lampshaded in the out-takes book The Lost Worlds of 2001, which covers parts of the astronauts' pre-mission training. They are told simply to take lots of pictures and not to try too hard to make sense of what they see... and to hope their hosts (if any) are aware of their limitations.
Creepy Monotone: Inverted. HAL's voice isn't a monotone at all; while calm and unemotional, his voice is actually much more expressive than any other character. That's precisely why it's so damn creepy.
Anthony Hopkins claimed it was his inspiration for the voice of Hannibal Lecter.
Cryonics Failure: HAL intentionally kills the three hibernating astronauts by forcing a malfunction in the coldsleep system; in the novel, he depressurizes the ship as Bowman attempts to wake all three of them.
Cukoloris: 2001 was the first movie to show computer monitors projecting their images onto the user's face. This is pure Rule Of Cool, because in order to get this effect in real life you'd have to be staring straight into the bulb of a projector. There were 16mm projectors behind all the flatscreens on the sets, so all Kubrick had to do was take the screens off.
Ominous Latin Chanting: György Ligeti's "Requiem" and "Lux Aeterna" are so ominous, you can't even tell they're in Latin anymore. (Or Greek, in the case of the Kyrie from the "Requiem"!)
Electronic Speech Impediment: When Bowman disassembles HAL's neural circuitry, it reverts to demo mode and sings "Daisy Bell" in an increasingly slow, distorted manner before finally shutting down.
Escape Pod: Technically, the EVA pods, although they are not used for this, and there would be no way to rescue them anyway, save sending another pod from the same vessel. They're more like Maintenance Pods, really.
Everything Is an iPod in the Future: Ur Example — the iPod was named after the space pods in this movie, and the white surfaces and black control panels on all of Discovery's equipment were an inspiration for its design.
The novel describes something so close to a Kindle or iPad that it could be their inspiration: a flat 'Newspad' the size of a sheet of paper on which you can read the news, zoom in and out, easily toggle between different pages and newspapers...
In fact in the various lawsuits where Apple is suing Google and others for infringement of the iPod and iPad with various smartphone and tablet devices, 2001 has been cited as a source of prior art thus negating Apple's copywright claim.
Evolutionary Levels: Self-evolution, but still mentioned - the Firstborn's status as Energy Beings is stated to be the ultimate stage in physical evolution.
From the novel: "And if there was anything beyond that, its name could only be God." Given how incredibly powerful the Firstborn are, this is quite justified.
This is what the opening "Dawn of Man" sequence is about.
Explosions In Space: In an aversion of the typical trope, the explosive bolts that decompress Bowman's EVA pod go off silently with just a puff of gas.
Extreme Graphical Representation: The Discovery's displays, which are rather fancy for the amount of data they apparently contain.
Faster-than-Light Travel: It is not clear whether this really takes place in the movie or not. For the vast majority of the film, space travel is shown in a very realistic manner, and the point where FTL may be taking place could be interpreted in other ways. It quite explicitly does take place in the novel version (and the first sequel), but is subsequently retconned in later novels, with the Word Of God explanation that each of the four is in its own "universe," with just enough continuity overlap for it to make sense as a series.
First Contact Math: In the novel, Bowman tries unsuccessfully to communicate with the Iapetus monolith by broadcasting primes at it.
While size can differ wildly, all monoliths in the Space Odyssey universe share the same proportions - 1x4x9 - the first three integers squared. They are also all the same size: as large as necessary.
Flip Flop of God: What exactly the orbital platforms are for. Originally they were intended to be nuclear delivery systems, but this was later retconned to leave their purpose ambiguous.
Food Pills: With one notable exception, every meal depicted is in some way deeply unappetizing. While the food in the movie appears to be much like a TV dinner, the book goes to mention that the food on Discovery is designed to be just like "real" food, including fresh baked bread, in order to help make the years long space trip tolerable.
The notable exception is of course the raw tapir meat, which looks mouth-watering.
HAL: "Let me put it this way, Mr. Amor. The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error."
In the sequel (for those who didn't read the original novel), the previous and following statements were proven true, making the foreshadowing truly epic, although the fate tempting loses a little credence.
HAL: "It can only be attributable to human error. This sort of thing has cropped up before, and it has always been due to human error."
Fun with Acronyms: The whole (apparently unintentional) HAL/IBM thing.
Gainax Ending: Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite, far more so in the film than the book, where it's explained in a fair bit of detail.
Government Conspiracy: The U.S. government tries to cover up the discovery of the Monolith by cutting off all communication to Clavius Base, spreading rumors about an epidemic, and concealing the Monolith's existence from Dave and Frank.
On the other hand, relations between the US and USSR are remarkably amicable, from the PoV of the 1960s. (Kubrick's previous film wasDoctor Strangelove.) They have built a huge space station together, and are generally cooperating in the exploration of the moon. (The Russians being suddenly shut out of the Clavius moon base is seen as a very unusual event.)
Hemisphere Bias: Although the Earth as seen from the moon looks unrealistically washed out (see Science Marches On), North America is always visible every time we see it.
In Space Everyone Can See Your Face: Mostly averted. The shot of Dave pushing a button to tint his spacesuit visor serves to hide the face of the stuntman used in the rest of the scene.
I Want My Jetpack: In 2001 we have manned interplanetary spaceflight, permanent bases on the Moon, suspended animation and sentient computers. (Contrast with Zeerust below.)
Keeping Secrets Sucks: For HAL, and for everyone else when HAL starts having problems with it.
Kubrick Stare: Dave Bowman does it when he runs the diagnostic on the AE-35 unit, goes up to disconnect HAL, and arrives in the alien hotel room at the end.
Narrative Filigree: Many scenes, especially the middle. The subplot with HAL, which is the most memorable part of the movie, serves only to leave Bowman as the Sole Survivor, and it doesn't really have any connection to the Monolith plot except as a consequence of the Government Conspiracy.
No New Fashions In The Future: This is most obvious with the very '60s-looking womens' hairstyles, and the matching plaid suit and pants worn by the photographer at the moonbase.
Nobody Poops: Averted by Floyd when he has to read through the entire set of instructions for the Zero Gravity Toilet before he can use it.
Prop Recycling: Deliberately averted. Kubrick had all the sets, special effects models, and design notes destroyed after filming was complete, to prevent them being reused in low-budget B-movies. The production crew for 2010 had to rebuild everything by examining the film itself, frame-by-frame. A deliberate case of No Plans, No Prototype, No Backup.
It didn't work. Several models (rebuilt or maybe the same film clip) have been used. Space1999 used the same rocket landing site on the Moon.
Bowman's spacepod can be seen in the background as Watto shows Qui-Gon Jinn about his scrapyard in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, though this could be a deliberate shout-out. Interestingly, the book Inside the Worlds of Star Wars: Episode I notes it as a "repair and maintenance pod of unknown origin".
There was a soundtrack by Alex North in the works for the movie, but until it was ready they used the classical music as a placeholder. Kubrick ended up liking the classical music version so much he never used North's compositions.
Sapient Ship: HAL, while not the ship but its controlling computer.
Science Marches On: Besides technology progressing slower than the production team anticipated, there are two details of astronomy in this movie that have since become dated. Kubrick insisted that the artists paint the Earth very pale blue because its albedo is 0.38. Only a few years later, photos from the Apollo missions made everybody realize that this figure is averaged over the pure white clouds and the deep blue oceans. Jupiter and its moons were also intentionally depicted vaguely because of the limitations of ground-based telescopes.
The film's depiction of the lunar landscape owes much to the craggy, mountainous terrain that was common in science fiction before the Apollo landings. Nonetheless the film is surprisingly accurate given that the production predated even the Surveyor probes, let alone manned exploration.
Floyd and everyone else on the Moon walk around completely normally. The Apollo landings later revealed that a loping gait was required in the Moon's 1/6 gravity.
The proto-hominids in the opening sequence are all about the same size, but current theories and fossil evidence suggest that the males should've been substantially larger than the females.
Sealed Room in the Middle of Nowhere: The hotel room has no exits. (In the novel, it was specifically a Sealed Room in the Middle of a Red Giant Star.)
During HAL's death scene, he sings a brief snatch of the song "Daisy Bell" ('Daisy, Daisy, give me your answer do...'); this was chosen because Arthur C. Clarke had, a few years previous, visited a Bell Labs demonstration of synthesized speech, which included singing the song in question, and was the first example ever of computer speech. This Shout Out is itself a frequent source of shout-outs in other films.
A wheel-shaped space station and an interplanetary mission jeopardized by Space Madness were previously seen in George Pal's Conquest of Space, released in 1955.
Shrug of God: About the true "meaning" of the film and book.
Silence Is Golden: Long stretches of the film have no dialogue, including the first 22 and last 24 minutes (not counting the overture and end credits/exit music).
Space Is Noisy: An all-too-rare aversion, which arguably adds to the creepiness of certain scenes, such as when Bowman is attempting to reenter Discovery via the airlock.
The moment Poole's spacesuit breather stops as Hal kills him is effectively chilling.
Stay With The Aliens: Spelled out in rather greater detail in the novel; the whole point of the Monolith setup is to "capture" the first human who makes it out that far into space.
Subspace Ansible: Averted, with a plot point in the novel being the length of time it takes the signals from the Monolith to travel around the cosmos. (If the signal had traveled instantaneously, the humans wouldn't have known it was directed at Jupiter.)
In the book, the signal is tracked by the impact of its wake on the probes that detect it.
The signal was arguably a tipoff to humanity to tell it where to look next, if it could.
Also averted in the film, when the BBC announcer mentions that his interview with Bowman and Poole edited out the time lag caused by the transmission from Earth to the Discovery.
Clarke himself relates an anecdote in which he was handed an envelope with a letter of thanks and an assurance that the remaining contents (a white powder) were "the best stuff". He flushed it down the toilet.
What Do You Mean It's Not Awesome?: Inverted. Space travel looks awesome to us, the audience, but to Floyd, Bowman and Poole it's routine and boring.
Zeerust: HAL is a mind-bogglingly advanced, sentient computer, but can't print plain text onto looseleaf paper. Humanity in 2001 can build spectacular space-stations and has mastered interplanetary flight, but people are still using typewriters.
alternative title(s): Two Thousand One A Space Odyssey; Two Thousand One; Two Thousand And One; Two Thousand And One A Space Odyssey; Ptitleh3elkyxdypyw
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