2001: A Space Odyssey (1968): Classic Movies Review

How will rapid advancements in technology affect the human mind? 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) suggests a radical possibility: the posthuman. According to transhumanist thinkers, the posthuman is a future being whose characteristics are fundamentally different from the people of today. For instance, if nanotechnology can replace human brain cells, such a person may no longer be human, but instead more of a cyborg. But this idea of the posthuman is based on speculation that human-created technology will allow this. 2001: A Space Odyssey creates a science fiction (SF) version of the posthuman as a being partially created by a non-Earthly intelligence. The result is an extremely influential film which has made a generation of science fiction films possible by its special effects and futuristic vision.

However, leave it up to director Stanley Kubrick establish bounds for SF that may never be exceeded. 2001 centers on the plot element that evolution occurs in sudden leaps due to mysterious black obelisks. SF writer Arthur C. Clarke, who co-wrote the film's script with Kubrick, had an idea that if there was intelligent extraterrestrial life, these beings would be profoundly lonely, and perhaps would create a process for a new race's integration to higher intelligence. This evolutionary concept gives the film its four sections, each with an evolutionary leap coming after human contact with those mysterious black obelisks.

The first section gives us pre-humans from three million years ago. They are ape-like, tribal, and are at the mercy of predators and weather. But when one tribe comes into contact with an obelisk, they create an essential object we now take for granted: a tool. This gives them the power to hunt instead of forage and also to kill their enemies -- essentially, evolve. In one of the most famous transitions in the history of film, when a tossed bone turns into a spacecraft, we move to humans of our era.

Today, we take things like cellular phones for granted, but 2001 foresees much of our current consumer technology with delightful accuracy. The second section dwells on consumer space travel, as we follow Dr. Heywood Floyd as he leads an excavation on the moon which has found another obelisk purposefully buried in a moon mountain. The discovery prompts a space mission to Jupiter, in search of another obelisk.

The third section might be the most memorable because it has the film's most expressive actor, actually the HAL 9000 supercomputer voiced by Douglas Rain. Scientists Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) slowly travel toward Jupiter in a vessel under the control of HAL 9000, but they do not know exactly what they are searching for. Although the HAL series has "a perfect operational record," he identifies a malfunction in error. More than likely, the supercomputer has taken on its own artificial intelligence and takes the mission into his own hands.

In the fourth and final section, we see the process of becoming posthuman in psychedelic fashion, as Bowman reaches the Jupiter obelisk. In what might be one of film's most perplexing scenes, in a futuristic living chamber, his character rapidly ages, and near death, Bowman points to the final obelisk. At this point, the "space baby" appears -- the next evolutionary step for humankind. The maddening conclusion shows the encapsulated superhuman staring at our blue planet, considering the next step to take.

More than almost any film, 2001: A Space Odyssey demands much of its viewer because of its slowness, minimal dialogue, and lack of a conventional plot. But in the place of these are beautiful special-effects visuals which create a sense of awe entirely appropriate to the ideas, scope, and vision of the film. In the same way that 2001 predicts a future posthuman, the film creates a new mode for cinematic storytelling. Some may need to seek out lighter fare, but this is your film if you seek a sense of awe that will make you think, "My God, what if...."