I saw "2001" for the first time Saturday- Answer me anything!

[Beware the Beast Man]

Other than being real trippy at the end, I pose this question:

[Q3JR4]

1. If you pull out the

2001 book and read it, you wouldn't have to ask any questions.

[Beware the Beast Man]

2. Thank you. (spoiler)

My main question is: that trippy light montage at the end of the film, is that the monolith showing Dave the mysteries of the universe? That's the only thing I got out of it.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

It's a trip. Literally.

He's whisked off by the aliens to that room (far away somewhere) where he spends the rest of his life, alone, the end of which he is transformed into a starchild and sent back to earth with all the knowledge of the universe etc... So you are more or less right.

[Guaranteed]

26. And then they

shoot missiles and stuff at him and he just laughs at them.

[Guaranteed]

27. I think he's just

going light speed or something like that.

Hell if I know exactly what happens to him at the end. It's some kind of space-time folding where he's looking at himself in the future and stuff.

And then of course his glorious evolution/transformation into a monstrous Baby hell bent on destroying the Earth. It's great.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

33. No. The starchild was benevolent.

It was sent to render man's weapons impotent, ending the possiblility of man's self annihilation.

Read this: http://www.sacredmysteries.com/kubrick4.htm

[LifeDuringWartime]

32. that is kubrick's interpretation of the stargate

in the novel, bowman goes out in a pod to Big Brother (no, not that big brother) when the top of it seems to open. "my god, its full of stars!" is because it is a portal to another place in the universe.

the book is really quite amazing, go to the library and pick it up! 2010 isnt bad either, makes alot of things in 2001 clearer

[MallRat]

3. It is an essay on the human condition...

...and the benefits and hazards of innovation and technology.

A caveman wielding a large bone: astronauts relying on HAL 9000.

They're one and the same.

-MR

[Westegg]

14. Sure, because the famous "edit" in the film shows...

...the primitive-man's thrown bone (man's discovery of lethal weaponry) turned into the orbiting space station.

One of my favorite cinematic "cuts."

[Richardo]

16. Someone also pointed out here that the conversation over drinks

...in the space station between the American and Russians mirrored the apes' tribal confrontation over the watering hole. Neat, that.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

20. Actually an orbiting nuclear weapons platform

but you'd have to read some of the film trivia to know that.
It's a literal transition to a higher form of weapon.

[Westegg]

4. See it in a theater? Or at home...

...I was fortunate enough to see it in a great theater my first time. The Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, where I got to experience 2001 in all its huge wide-screen glory.

Watching it on DVD after that just isn't the same...

I loved how so many of the "brand-name" instantly-identifiable products Kubrick placed in the film did not in fact survive to 2001: Pan-Am, Howard-Johnson's etc.

[Beware the Beast Man]

5. Don't forget Bell

Which, in name anyway, doesn't exist either.

[Westegg]

9. Right! I knew I was forgetting a big one.. Ha ha ha!...

Not to mention the entire absence of anything like the Internet in the film. I'm not dissing Kubrick here (I never read the novel). Stanley never claimed to be a futurist or anything. Still, the way the film had dated by 2001 amuses me.

Can anyone think of a film or a book that actually predicted the Internet, home computers, email, etc. well ahead of time? I recently re-read two Michael Chricton books---Andromeda Strain from the '60s and The Terminal Man from the early '70s----and their "cutting edge" descriptions of the latest computer technology at the time seem laughably antique by today's standards.

[Beware the Beast Man]

10. Time Machine- the talking rings

I saw the movie a few years back. Remember those spinning rings that showed images? I interpreted them as CD-ROMs/DVDs.

[Westegg]

11. Wow, I think you may be right! I'll watch it again---on DVD.

[Richardo]

21. ...or the Soviet Union

Didn't see THAT coming in 1968...

[Beware the Beast Man]

30. Yes..that pretty much kills "2010" on arrival.

nt

[Westegg]

37. VERY good point. I should watch it again and note all such things... (n/t

[Sandpiper]

6. Lousy adaptation of CLARKE's book

On Edit: oops

[Richardo]

22. ??

Arthur C. Clarke.

[Guaranteed]

23. Arthur Miller?

[Sandpiper]

25. Duh, Clarke

Excuse me. It's still early here on the West Coast.
lol

[Aristus]

7. Did you view HAL as the hero of the story? I did.

He was lied to, misprogrammed, given contradictory orders, taken for granted. No wonder he went berserk. I always thought that during the 'lobotomy' scene where Dave Bowman shuts down HAL's higher brain functions, when HAL is begging him to stop, that Bowman should have been silently weeping. That he didn't is proof that HAL was more human that the humans.

[Beware the Beast Man]

8. A tragic hero

But I see what you mean.

[Guaranteed]

19. HAL was an asshole.

[Aristus]

28. He was polite, though, wasn't he?

He beat Frank six ways from Sunday in what must have been a boring chess match, but HAL courteously thanked Frank for a very enjoyable game. That's manners.

[Richardo]

29. ...and then murdered him and sent the body hurtling toward Jupiter

...all without unseemly histrionics!

WTG, Hal!

[phillybri]

35. That's a funny damn post!

What a shitty way to die, huh?

Tell me this, did HAL just make the pod ram into Frank, or did he use the pod to actually pull out his breathing line?

[NewYorkerfromMass]

36. Rammed.

I believe.... and Richardo's on a roll today:
see his response no. 1

[fudge stripe cookays]

12. Did you fall asleep like I did?

I freaking HATE that movie!

Just long slow shots of space. Over and over and over again!!!! Bleeping DOOO something already!

Gah. Shit movie. Absolute crap. Never read the book, never want to. Hate sci-fi, was made to watch it, and will never watch it again.

FSC

[Richardo]

13. You're so ambiguous, FSC...what is it you're trying to say?

BTW: It's one of my favorites of all time, but I was a teen-age space program, sci-fi fan/geek when it came out so that may explain some stuff.

[Guaranteed]

17. The book was even better.

[Guaranteed]

15. What do you think happened to the guy at the end?

I've heard all kinds of different interpretations.

[Richardo]

18. He becomes the dancing old guy in the Six Flags commercials...

[fudge stripe cookays]

24. da da da da da DUH DUH....

Hee hee.

Hey everybody look! It's a sci fi geek!! Hey! Sci-fi geek!

[bif]

31. One of mny favorite movies of all time!

I'll bet I've seen it 25 times.

[zbdent]

34. "2001"? Don't remember all that stuff happening

What I seem to remember is Will Smith telling me to look at his fancy new pen, and then there was this flash . . .