2001: A Space Odyssey...huh?

Question

I just watched the movie and I have no clue about the ending or what happens after HAL is unplugged. I have poured all of my mind and reason into this. Please give me something!!! And what about that monolith? Somebody must know what I am talking about.

Answer 1

I felt the same way about it when I saw it for the first time back in the 60s! So, I got the book (novelization of the movie by Arthur C Clarke) and read it. The monolith is the key; it's effectively a machine that can do ANYTHING that it needs to be able to do - including open an inter-dimensional gateway/wormhole. That's what David Bowman gets pulled into; in it, he ages, and then regresses; his "self" is stored, and he is sent back to earth as the "space baby" (great model made for that, btw). The story continues in Clarke's 2010 (the book - the movie was VERY different); I highly recommend reading both. Clarke has been writing sci-fi since the 40s, and even his old pre-space stuff is excellent reading if you accept it for what it is. Enjoy!

Answer 2

Eegah hits the nail on the head. Or he at least hit it. Ha!!!
Many people say, "If man evolved from an ape, why are apes not still evolving" 2001 uses the approach that only certain apes received the ability to comprehend from the monolith. This why after they were run off from the water hole and touched the monolith the ape was hitting the bone on the ground and thought, hey? Let's go get our water hole back!!
The monolith was then waiting until man reached the intellect to space travel and the next step in the evolution process is started.

Answer 3

It's OK, we've all been there. Some people see this movie and can think of nothing else for years at a time. Others, embarrassed about being confused by it, convince themselves that it is an awesome movie, possibly the best ever. There are however those lucky few, the people who can see this movie and think: “That was stupid, and I want my $1.50 back.” Supposedly the movie is about the evolution of the species, from ape to man to AI, and the struggle between the new and old. Something like that anyway. The whole movie is vastly overrated. If anybody can *intelligently* argue their way around that, feel free to try.

Answer 4

For more information or insight on the topic of this movie than you could ever want or need go to
Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia - here are a couple of excerpts:

Kubrick encouraged people to explore their own interpretations of the film, and refused to offer an explanation of "what really happened" in the movie, preferring instead to let audiences embrace their own ideas and theories. In a 1968 interview with Playboy magazine, Kubrick stated:

"You're free to speculate as you wish about the philosophical and allegorical meaning of the film—and such speculation is one indication that it has succeeded in gripping the audience at a deep level—but I don't want to spell out a verbal road map for 2001 that every viewer will feel obligated to pursue or else fear he's missed the point."

Judging by the film's strive for realism, the "fictional" devices depicted in 2001: A Space Odyssey can be interpreted as the authors' forecast for technological advancement to the year 2001.


One of the more accurate predictions made in the film: small, portable, flat-screen televisions.Some of those forecasts were successful:

Flat-screen computer monitors (simulated by rear projection in the film).
Small, portable, flat-screen television sets.
In-flight television screens with a wide aspect.
Glass cockpits in spacecraft.
The proliferation of TV stations (the BBC's channels numbering at least 12).
Telephone numbers with more digits than in the 1960s.
The endurance of corporations like IBM, Aeroflot, and Hilton Hotels to the year 2001.
The use of credit cards with data stripes. (The card Heywood Floyd inserts into the telephone is of American Express; a close-up photo of the prop reveals that it contained a barcode rather than a magnetic strip, but the principle is the same.)
Biometric identification. The film shows voice print identification on arrival at the space station.
The basic design of the 213 ft Orion III Pan Am Orbital Clipper can be seen in the form of the smaller Orbital Sciences X-34, which is being prepared as a plane-launched test orbiter.

The Aries 1B Transfer Vehicle landing. This vision of an underground moonbase is among the film's unsuccessful predictions.Some of the film's forecasts have failed:

Good-quality, high-resolution visiophones are common.
Space travel is commonplace by 2000. In the film,
colonies (at least 2) have been established on the moon,
manned missions to Jupiter are feasible,
hotels in orbit, part of a revolving 2000ft Space Station,
commercial space flight is routine,
Technology is available to put humans in suspended animation.
HAL's artificial intelligence exceeds even modern state of the art by orders of magnitude.
The endurance of Pan American Airlines and the Bell System to the year 2000.
The endurance of the Soviet Union to the year 2000; the hammer and sickle is incorporated into the Aeroflot logo on a flight bag visible during the "Russian conversation" scene on the space station. (Though Aeroflot still includes the hammer and sickle in their logo today, its inclusion in the film in 1968 makes clear the existence of the USSR.)

Answer 5

The monoliths are supposed to have driven human development from the apes at the beginning of the movie - so they could have direct psychic influence beyond the very good explanations in the first answer. But there is also the physics of sound transmission that even in space, if two helmets are in contact through a hard point the sound transmitted in the air inside one will vibrate the two and reach the ears through the air of the other. Whether this will also work with the insulated space suits worn on the moon, etc., is another technical question, but the air in the suits makes them quite hard and requires special joints to function.

Answer 6

Yes Arthur C. Clark made that one a little hard to follow, Watch 2010 and some Q's will be answered inluding you're monolith Question

Answer 7

Watch the movie 2010! All questions answered one hint the monolith was just one of billions building blocks of the universe!

Answer 8

I get you. It is baffling. The book even more so. I think taking acid in 1967 and going to see it might have enlightened some about its meaning. Bowie was inspired to record Space Oddity by it.

Answer 9

2010 was better

Answer 10

i have watched it more than once and i still don't have a clue...i thought it was just me ..lol .....good movie but confusing ,yes...!