Just watched 2001 for the first time. Does someone want to explain to me what I just watched, Im really confused about the ending.... My theory is that the monolith is a gateway to the evalution of man, everytime it is discovered "man" evolves. First into a hunter, than into a deep space explorer, and finaly into its own planet. I may be way off, but this is what I think I seen... Peace and Love, Jon
Tuk_Tuk, You're not supposed to understand it. What the writer wants you to do is go out and purchase 2010: Odyssey two whether on video or in paperback to get the complete story. I hope you didn't think Clarke's money/gravy train was going stop after just one novel.....no way,...also, 2061 is also pretty good.... h
I'd rather not understand it. Just watch and enjoy it. I mean, yeah, the monoliths were planted to be discovered at various stages in humankind's evolution, but beyond that, I dunno.
this debate has been going on since the movie came out in 1969 and no one has really come out with a definite "this is what is means". There have been many theories as what it means. I like it is a symbol for something that has no explanation.
One of my favorite films. I think its good you were able to get some kind of understanding out of the film the first time you watched it. I think that is definatly one possible interpretation. it basically looks like the monolith is what gives the beings knowledge and evolution from, possibly a higher power. This film was studied in some colleges for a while, im not sure about now though. I cant figure out complicated films well at all so i usually try to find some information online after i see it. its actually a pretty religious film if yuo think about it.
nightwanderer, Personally I'd like to see a chess match between Deep Blue & HAL ......I wonder who would win...... h
I loved 2001 space odyssey. The only thing I understood about the movie was the monoliths. I watched 2010 as well and this one is just as confusing but a bit more helpful in understanding what is going on.
i think what Kubrick was trying to portray was that at the end of life man is reborn as one with the universe and is full of understanding. What ever it means he is still a genious.
The sequal is absolutly terrible. Then they had the nerve to put a picture from the first film. The only reason i rented it was because the first film has one of the most interesting stories ever written for the screen.
actually pink floyd was thought about for consideration as the movie's soundtrack. apparently kubrick decided not to go with pink floyd, but to use classical composers instead..... this is one of the things that started the feud between waters and kubrick...
and just another thing, have any of you tried to synch echoes with the "jupiter and the infinite space beyond scene"??? ( thats the scene of the monolith chase, and the psychedelic landscapes)... that is another one of those overhyped pink floyd synchronizations...... the whale noises and the underground noises did synch with the flying over water/ocean in the movie........ and the song ended just as the movie ended too...... but other than that, I did not see any more synchs.
I read the entire series, 2001, 2010, 2061 and 3001 (?).. it's been awhile since I did , but i remember that the author even went so far to say that the Monolith was like the intergalactic equivalent of the swiss-army knife. We're not meant to understand it's mechanics, but through the books, you come to understand its purpose.. or.. multi-purposes. It collects information... emits information (probably through brainwaves- which influence man's development), sends signals (when the sun hits the monolight on the moon after it's uncovered by man) then opens portals to transport the man... In 2010 the monolith sucks jupiter's atmosphere down into the depths of the gaseous planet where the pressure builds until Jupiter's hydrogen reaches critical mass and ignites into a sun.. meaning that the monolith can create stars and life as well. The main idea is that alien beings made the monoliths, and scattered them around the galaxy/universe etc.. to look over, nurture and report the existence of new life. I'm sure Dave Bowman was one of countless billions from different worlds to make the trip that he did. The aliens that hosted Dave materialized the hotel room from information that the monolith had collected when it was uncovered on the moon (tv signals etc). It was clear that the aliens knew what they were doing, since they had probably done this already billions of times. When he was in that hotel room, time no longer existed as he knew it. He was being held like a zoo animal, but humanely, while his conciousness was gently seperated from his body. He was re-born as a new kind of being.. an evolutionary result of whatever humanity can become billions of years down the road... just like the aliens. A lot of this is explained through the series.. even the aliens themselves. Something is said about how they were once like humans, then they housed their conciousness in computers and bodies of metal, then they WERE the ships.. and then the ships crumbled to rust as they freed themselves from physical form etc... They reached the pinnacle of evolution, became one with the fabric of space, and now they seed the cosmos with monoliths to bring forth new life... Arthur C. Clarke wrote a very believable story. This could happen. It's plausable. That's 2001 - etc. in a nutshell.
HOLD ON. Turn your lights out, pump up the volume on your PC and watch this Flash based movie.................. http://www.kubrick2001.com/
This movie is about many many things. In addition to evolution, as mentioned earlier, I think this movie is about the nature of conciousness, reincarnation, and possibly an adaption of gnostic or neoplatonic myths. 1) Hal goes crazy (conciousness). Hal fears death. 2) Hal is re-booted. Dude passes through wormhole near Jupiter (the last ring/level of heaven according to Gnostic myth) passes through life and back to life as a child again. The word "Jupiter" is derivative of the Greek word "Zeus". Neoplatonic/Gnostic thinkers believed that the soul became truley free after passing this ring/gate. 7th planet, 7th heaven, sorta thing.
That was very well presented. It focussed on the role of man in the film. Where I understood the idea of the aliens holding man in the habitat at the end, I didn't understand so much as to why they were doing so. It was Dave Bowman himself that made the connection between the sense of wonder and curiosity and evolution, and so he evolved. I like to think that it was the aliens that helped facilitate this discovery and the ensuing evolution. As for man's dependence on tools and technology, and being an infant in space. That explanation was well done. Kind of filled in a few pieces of the grand puzzle.
