April 2, 1968. The first 160-minute cut of 2001: A Space Odyssey was released to a limited audience at the Uptown Theater in Washington D.C. Reactions at first were mixed, most disliking the stilted characters, tedious scenes, and slow pacing. But some saw the beauty in the film, recognizing the majestic space scenes as ships dock with stations and the Discovery speeding towards Jupiter as revolutionary. The movie is still to this day divisive, but largely called one of the greatest films to ever be committed to cinema.

Its main stars include Keir Dullea as David Bowman and Douglas Rain as the daunting supercomputer HAL 9000, HAL being the antagonist of a desperate and determined Dave as he attempts to escape the hold of the “malfunctioning” machine. It was directed and produced by Stanley Kubrick, and co-written by both him and Arthur C. Clarke, famed sci-fi and futurist author. This led to not only a movie being released based on the story, but a book too. Both take inspiration from each other, the book adding needed context to the background, while the movie has a layer of mystery and illusion.

2001’s plot is sectioned into three chapters: The Dawn of Man, Jupiter Mission, & Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite. Each gives an insight into different periods of humanity, the first being our past, the second, our present, and the last presenting our future.

The story begins four million years ago, reaching back to the dawn of humanity. We witness early ape-like creatures struggling to survive, competing for food and resources. This struggle takes a dramatic turn when one group encounters the monolith—a tall, dark, metallic structure completely alien to their primitive world. After touching it, they gain a new understanding: the ability to use tools, symbolized by picking up bones as weapons. Armed with this newfound knowledge, they triumph in their next battle for survival. What follows is one of the most iconic moments in cinema history: an ape throws a bone into the air, and as it spins upward, the scene abruptly transitions millions of years into the future, replacing the bone with a nuclear satellite—marking the leap from primal survival to human technological innovation.

This all leads to what is essentially The Dawn of Man part two in 1999, as Dr. Haywood Floyd (played by William Sylvester) travels to the Hilton Space Station V via a Pan American flight (nothing gets more 1960s than that). From there, he goes to The Moon to address an unknown discovery made there earlier in the year. After arriving, we watch as he makes a speech discussing the current cover story, an epidemic, and explains the true reasoning why he is there: to investigate the anomaly that was dug up and ensure complete and total secrecy of what it is. And after all of that, Floyd yet again has to travel, but this time to exactly what he was looking for. TMA-1, or Tycho Magnetic Anomaly-1, is what the humans named another mysterious monolith that they found under The Moon. It appeared to have been deliberately buried, but by whom, they don’t know. The structure sent out a radio emission to Jupiter, leading the National Council Of Astronautics to send out Discovery One, a mission to explore Jupiter and its moons to discover what exactly is out there.

Then the story jumps to the Jupiter Mission, eighteen months later (we're finally in 2001). A shot of the Discovery follows, letting us take in the sheer size and beauty of the model. Inside the craft, we watch Frank Poole, played by Gary Lockwood, running around the cylindrical body of the interior. From there, we are slowly introduced to the other two characters on the Discovery: Dave Bowman and HAL. There are also 3 other crew members in cryosleep. Between a mixture of BBC interviews, birthday transmissions, and artistry, we learn the daily lives of the two astronauts. And HAL is there to monitor it all, handling a chunk of the load when it comes to piloting the ship toward its destination. This all soon comes to a halt when the perfect and incorruptible HAL seemingly makes a mistake, registering a working antenna as faulty. This shows the first crack in his integrity, the first crack towards the finale, as his flawless track record is tainted. Our two men are suspicious of HAL’s abilities, and they question in “private” whether or not they should shut him down or continue to follow orders. The thing is, when Dave and Frank thought they were having a discreet discussion, it turns out that HAL was reading their lips, and knew exactly what they were going to do to him. What they were going to do was put back the broken part, detect the failure, and then disconnect HAL, taking manual control of the mission. However, due to him hearing Dave and Frank’s plan, when Frank goes out in the pod to reinstall the broken part, HAL attacks, using the pod against him and cutting off his oxygen supply, slowly killing him. Dave gets word of this action, scrambles into a pod, and tracks down the body of his now-dead crewmate. Unfortunately, while Dave is gone, HAL pulls the life support systems of the other three crew members on board in cryosleep, killing them too. This leaves Dave all alone, fighting against a rogue supercomputer with conflicting orders. But there’s more for him to still discover.

Before we cut to the third and final section of this film, we watch a disgruntled Dave Bowman enter through the emergency airlock, since HAL refuses to open the pod bay door (“I’m sorry, Dave. I’m afraid I can’t do that”). And once he enters the vehicle, he heads directly to HAL’s main logic room, where Dave proceeds to disconnect him from the ship. But as he is doing that, a message comes up on a monitor from Dr. Floyd. There, he states the true purpose of the mission, which was unknown to the crew. We, along with Dave, discover that the Discovery was really sent out to Jupiter to examine where the radio message from The Moon monolith was really sending to: a third monolith. It appears orbiting Jupiter, this one being much larger than the original two. The point of their mission was to find it; the point of the transmission was to send humans to the monolith; the point was to show them the possible next evolution in our species.

The final section of this remarkable film, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite, brings the story to its most enigmatic and visually stunning moments. Having disconnected HAL 9000 and uncovered the true purpose of his mission, Dave Bowman sets his sights on the colossal monolith orbiting Jupiter. In his pod, he approaches the mysterious structure, mirroring the curiosity of the early humans from the film's opening. As he nears it, a dazzling array of colors and patterns engulfs him—a mesmerizing, ten-minute sequence of kaleidoscopic visuals that feel like strokes of paint on a cosmic canvas. Both horrifying and awe-inspiring, this journey propels Dave into the unknown, as he eventually finds himself in an all-white, otherworldly room where he observes himself aging rapidly until he transforms into the Star Child. Representing the ultimate evolution of intelligent life, the Star Child is a luminous being of pure energy, shaped like a fetus. This transformation signifies humanity’s next step in its cosmic journey, as Dave transcends his physical form and gazes back at Earth, waiting for others to follow in his evolutionary footsteps.

This film poses a profound and timeless question: What is the meaning of life? As humans, we grapple with the mysteries of our existence, pondering why we are here and how we came to be. Whether through science, philosophy, or spirituality, we seek answers, each perspective offering its own interpretation. 2001 explores one possibility—a speculative vision of humanity's origins and future. It suggests that otherworldly beings might have influenced our evolution, symbolized by the enigmatic monoliths, and extends an invitation to imagine our next steps as a species.

The film’s ambiguity leaves room for a variety of interpretations, and that’s part of its enduring appeal. Some might view it as a meditation on technological advancement, others as a spiritual journey, or perhaps even a critique of our search for meaning. While its namesake year didn’t bring monoliths or missions to Jupiter, the film’s exploration of humanity’s potential remains relevant. Ultimately, its open-endedness is a reminder that not knowing all the answers is part of what makes our existence so fascinating.

2001: A Space Odyssey is just plainly a fascinating film, regardless of the realness or actuality of it. It is an adventure to discover the possible origins of mankind, an adventure to discover the possible future of mankind, and should always be held in history as one of the most important movies ever committed to cinema. Its ability to merge cutting-edge visuals, philosophical depth, and an evocative, open-ended narrative ensures its legacy as a cinematic masterpiece. Whether you view it as a profound meditation on humanity’s place in the cosmos or simply an awe-inspiring work of art, 2001 continues to challenge, inspire, and captivate audiences, reminding us of the boundless potential of film to explore the mysteries of existence.

“2001: A Space Odyssey (film).” Wikipedia, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2001:_A_Space_Odyssey_(film). Accessed 20 April 2022.

“Star Child | 2001: A Space Odyssey Wiki | Fandom.” A Space Odyssey Wiki, https://2001.fandom.com/wiki/Star_Child. Accessed 20 April 2022.