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.

Planet of the Apes is about a futuristic planet which is earth-like in all aspects except the fact that humans are enslaved by apes. The film uses the depiction of ape society to attack notions of human superiority. It’s based on a novel by the same name written by Pierre Boulle (author of The Bridge on the River Kwai). It stars one of my all time favourite actors Charlton Heston as Taylor and is directed by Franklin J. Schaffner.

The movie starts with Taylor and company in hibernation (they are astronauts) and their spaceship travelling through space and time. It develops some problems and crash lands in a lake on an unknown planet in 3978 A.D. One of the astronauts dies, and the others escape to the shore. The land is a desert, and the astronauts come to a human-inhabited oasis while wandering through the desert.Here’s where they find that apes have taken over the planet and hunt humans for sport. One of the astronauts is killed by the apes and Taylor is shot in the throat, an injury that prevents him from talking. They are all captured and taken back to the city of the apes, where it emerges that the apes can talk and are divided into 3 categories - police/military, administrative/politicians and intellectuals/workers. Humans cannot talk.

What follows is Taylor’s attempt to escape from captivity, helped by two scientist apes who realise that he can actually talk, and the political leader Dr. Zaius, who wants to put him on trial. But finally Zaius decides that it’s best for everyone if Taylor just disappeared, and so lends him a horse to escape.

The scene towards the end of this movie, is probably one of the most acclaimed scenes in cinema history. I won’t tell you what it is, but the scene turns the viewer’s whole concept of the film completely on its head (it is only retrospectively that the many clues throughout the film as to how it shall end, become apparent). Suddenly Dr Zaius’ motives for keeping the population ignorant of his knowledge and findings turn out to be benign and not malignant. Taylor is shown overwhelmed, his human arrogance and self-assurance shattered. I am getting goose bumps just thinking about the scene.

Get a DVD and watch this movie, and you’ll figure out why I am in love with the scene, the movie and science fiction movies in general. They compel me to think…!!
Beware: There was a sad remake of the movie in 2001. I hated it.

The Matrix needs no introduction, really. I wouldn’t be exaggerating when I say that each one of us has seen the movie. The movie has been directed by the Wachowski brothers and stars Keanu Reeves, Lawrence Fishburne, Carrie-Anne Moss and Hugo Weaving. The visual effects of the movie are mind-blowing. It was the pioneer for the bullet time effect, which is also seen in games like Max Payne.

The film describes a world in which the Matrix is an artificial reality created by sentient machines in order to pacify, subdue and make use of the human population as an energy source by growing them and connecting them to the Matrix with cybernetic implants.

Keanu Reeves portrays the protagonist Neo, who is living in the Matrix trying to find the secret of the Matrix, and Morpheus, who is in the real world, and shows Neo the way. The movie has very close connect to Hindu concept of Maya. Morpheus extracts Neo from the Matrix, and together they decide to invade the Matrix and fight the machines through their own program. The world is just an illusion of reality created in the mind by the sentient machines. The most important concept here is that since the Matrix is a computer program, it has to run according to set rules. And rules can be bent. This is what Morpheus tries to explain to Neo when he shows him the reality. “You think that’s air you’re breathing right now?” is a famous quote by Morpheus.

The Matrix is the first part of a trilogy. The second and third parts are named The Matrix: Reloaded and The Matrix: Revolutions.

This movie is based on the The Time Machine, the 1895 novel by H.G. Wells. It is about Man’s fascination with the fourth dimension - Time.The movie has been directed by George Pal, and stars Rod Taylor as the protagonist George.

George is a scientist who builds a time machine, but his friends refuse to believe him. Finally, on New Year’s eve of 1900, he decides to leave behind the present and wander into the future.

As George passes through time, he witnesses two great wars, and finally a nuclear war, which wipes away most of human civilization. His machine gets trapped under lava, only to re-emerge in the year 802701. The depiction of passing years and centuries through time-lapse photography is beautiful to watch and won the movie an academy award.
In the distant future, mankind has evolved into two species, the beastly Morlock and the mild Eloi. George is caught in their world, and realizes that his intervention is the only way the Eloi can have a future and a civilization.

It’s a must-watch movie. The movie was remade in 2002, but failed to register well with the audience. The remake has a slightly different plot. I would suggest you watch the original, even though it’s a bit difficult to find.

It would be an excuse if I said that I was tied down with work, although it’s true. But an excuse is an excuse. So today I decided to post, come what may.

I have decided to dedicate my next few posts to the genre of sci-fi movies. My dear friend, Kartik Karanth, is going to love this (I am expecting a few comments from him). I remember the day when he went on a prize winning spree in the open-house sci-fi movie quiz in IIT Mumbai Techfest in 2002. The poor quiz masters were left with no choice but to ban him from answering any more questions… hehehe.

For many people science fiction is synonymous with futuristic technology and aliens trying to anihilate human civilization. While the former is true, the latter is not always so. There are many movies that have friendly aliens, the best example being the 1982 movie E.T.
Though the genre is called science fiction, it’s not entirely fiction. Most of the movies have a firm rooting in theoretical science, something that’s fundamentally possible, but is not achievable with today’s technology. And for those of you who believe that Sci-fi is a new genre in movies, here’s a shocker: One of the first sci-fi movies, A Trip to the Moon, was produced in 1902 (Pic above).

So keep coming back to find out what sci-fi movies I’ve liked best.