Wandering Soul

2001: A Space Odyssey is my favourite sci-fi movie, for the simple matter that it compels me to think! And because it supports my belief that advanced extra-terrestrial intelligence had a major role to play in human civilization and development.

Directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke, the movie deals with themes of human evolution and technology, artificial intelligence, and extra-terrestrial life. The film is notable for its scientific realism, the pioneering use of special effects, and its reliance upon ambiguous yet provocative imagery and sound in place of traditional techniques of narrative cinema. It is widely recognized today among critics as one of history’s greatest films.

It remains, however, one of the most controversial films among casual viewers. Many people are not able to understand this movie, mainly because of the lack of narrative dialogue. There are absolutely no dialogues for the first half hour and the last half hour of the film. For that matter, most of the sound in the movie is ambient sound, and thus all the space scenes are completely silent. The movie is also quite realistic. It is one of the few science-fiction films to accurately portray space as having no sound and to have spacecraft producing no sound while traveling through space. The space station is shown in the form of a rotating wheel, which due to centrifugal force creates artificial gravity, and this is contrasted with the weightlessness outside the wheel.

Different people interpret this movie differently, and this is exactly what Kubrick wanted when he made the movie. In his 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.

2001: A Space Odyssey revolves around the central theme that extra-terrestrials have been closely monitoring man’s evolution, and have been crucial in man’s evolution. The only reference to alien beings is portrayed through a black monolith, which appears at various instances in the movie, and leads to an evolutionary leap. The movie starts with a breathtaking scene of the alignment of the moon, earth and the sun, which is also the very last scene of the movie.

The movie is divided into segments, the first one being ‘The Dawn of Man’ which is set in the age of man-apes. Here’s where we encounter the monolith for the first time. The appearance of something so artificial, so perfect, in the prehistoric era of the man-apes is one of the greatest shocks of the entire film. The monolith somehow gives the apes the ability to think and use tools. The apes start using bones as tools to hunt, and in one scene, a triumphant ape throws a bone into the air, and as the camera pans into the sky, the bone is replaced by an orbiting space ship, thus transcending 4 million years of human history. It’s arguably one of the greatest scenes in cinema history.

The second monolith appears on the moon, where human exploration has unearthed (or should I say un-mooned) the buried structure. When the astronauts approach it, it suddenly transmits a high-pitched sound into space.

My interpretation: I think it is a signal to the alien gods that the ape, whom they gave the power of technology to, has finally come of age.

The Jupiter mission is where we encounter artificial intelligence in the form of the HAL 9000 computer. HAL 9000 is a computer that knows it is perfect, and thus is quite vain. So when it actually makes an error in predicting a fault, it goes crazy and tries to eliminate the whole team to cover up its mistake.

My interpretation: I think HAL goes crazy because of a nervous breakdown following the realization that it had erred. It is so confident about its perfection that it cannot come to terms with the fact that it had made a mistake. The only way to cover up its mistakes is to eliminate the crew.

Finally one of the astronauts, Dave, kills HAL by removing it’s memory modules, while HAL pleads him not to. As a matter of fact, the whole sequence is quite chilling. In the end, as a final act of faith, HAL reveals the true purpose of the mission. This is the most significant part of the movie.

My interpretation: The Dawn of Man had the ancestors of Man learning to use tools; the journey to the Moon and discovery of the Monolith shows that Man still uses tools, and he is dependent on them for his survival. HAL himself was just another tool; he kept the crew of the space ship alive, and he maintained every facet of the ship’s operations. But these tools have always threatened to destroy Man, as well. The man-apes used their bone weapons to murder other man-apes. And Hal, the most advanced of all Man’s tools, tries to murder his makers. But Dave survives Hal’s attempts to kill him. Man is indeed stronger than his tools. In this film, HAL’s rebellion was Dave’s baptism of fire, his ultimate test of intelligence. He shows that Man is resourceful enough to survive without tools. The man-apes needed tools to survive, but Man does not. He has evolved. He has indeed become an intelligent being, able to exist on his own without any help from tools. Man is ready for the final step. The Aliens have been waiting for this moment for four million years.

The next monolith appears orbiting Jupiter, and Dave goes to find out what it is. He is suddenly transported across space and time, and ends up in a hotel-like room. He is shown to age very fast in this room, and finally he’s on the bed, dying of old age.

My interpretation: The room can be equated to a lab where the aliens are doing an experiment on man’s evolution. The room is so designed to make Dave feel at home. And the fast ageing can be attributed to the fact that Dave has reached the limits of humanity, and outlived his existence. He’s ready for the final transformation.

The monolith appears once again in front of the bed, and Dave raises a hand to touch it, in the same way as the man-ape had raised his hand. The transformation is complete. On the bed there is a glowing, childlike figure. Dave has ceased to exist, but he has not died: The Star Child has been born. The monolith then fills up the screen, followed by the last scene, which is the view of the alignment of moon, earth and sun.

My interpretation: The Star Child may be the final result of Mankind’s evolution, the grand result of the Aliens’ plan. Dave has been taken to the Aliens’ level of existence. But even though he has become so much more than Man, he is still a baby. He has much to learn about his new existence, and his child-like form is simply the physical manifestation of that innocence. As he gains experience and knowledge and fully masters his powers, he will find that he does not require the use of crude tools any longer; he has outgrown them. But now, for the last time, there is one final tool that is necessary to complete his Odyssey: The Monolith. It was the tool that let the man-apes survive extinction, four million years ago; it was also the tool that announced to the Universe that a new race of intelligent beings was leaving its planetary cradle. And it was the tool that brought Dave here, to his new birthplace. Now it has one last purpose: to send the Star Child home. It will be the Star Child’s final reliance on tools.

The last scene is again the view of the alignment of moon, earth and sun, as seen from the eyes of The Star Child. He has come home, back to the place where he was born. The Aliens have sent him back to Earth as the final stage of their experiment. If the opening scene of the film was the point-of-view of the Star Child, then the Odyssey is complete, and we have come a full circle.

Oh what a movie! I suggest you go to the nearby DVD parlour and watch the movie. You might interpret it differently. I’ll be interested to know your interpretation of my favourite sci-fi movie - 2001: A Space Odyssey.