2001, directed by the legendary filmmaker Stanley Kubrick, is probably the most mysterious film ever made. In short its not a movie, it’s a life experience. Fully understanding all its themes, narrative and ideologies, is probably impossible because Kubrick has clearly hidden at least one of these in the movie to keep us guessing. But that’s not to say understanding some of the film’s ideologies is impossible, because if there weren’t any then why would Kubrick make thing in the first place?
One of these ideologies is very clear when the Jupiter Mission starts, and that is AI/Technology is in control of us instead of us in control of it. The reason for this is because of the movies main villain, that being the HAL 9000. It is very obvious at the start of the Jupiter mission that the astronauts lives are in HAL’s hands because the 2 astronauts that are conscious aren’t doing any jobs: they’re eating food, relaxing, doing training, and playing friendly board games against HAL. The 3 other unnamed astronauts, who are all in hibernation, all rely on HAL’s programs in order to stay alive. So we have 5 astronauts on a giant ship being ran by a programmed robot who can decide at any time if it wants to kill the astronauts. In this case this is what happens later on in the Jupiter mission when HAL overhears David and Frank saying how they have a bad feeling about HAL, and sneakily ends up killing Frank when he is tasked in repairing a part of the ship by cutting his Oxygen tank. When HAL overhears the 2 astronauts in the space pod, one of them tells HAL to “rotate the pod”, so that HAL can not see them through the window. We suspect that HAlL can’t lip-read if he doesn’t can’t hear them, but unfortunately HAL doesn’t just lip-read when they talk about how HAL is suspicious, It lip-reads when they tell HAL to rotate the Pod. This reveals how sinister HAL is and that even before this scene he was always one step ahead of the humans.
Another Ideology in 2001 is that our universe and planets should not be explored and exploited. As I said before 2001 is and experience, and it’s like that with the characters in the film, not just the audience. They’re constantly looking for adventure on other planets like Mars and Jupiter to find something new and unique in this world but end up suffering horrible consequences as a result. There is even camera shots that are hand-held P.O.V.’s which put us right in the situation that the astronauts are experiencing. Nowhere is this clear than with the Monolith. Whenever the monolith appears in the movie there is always a voice in the back of your head telling you to get out of the scene, the reason this happens is because the Monolith is in pretty much every single shot. It first appears at the end of the Ape sequence looking down on you; no music, no words, just a hard stair from a basic object. When the group of astronauts find the monolith on the moon, as soon as that scene starts there is a sense of danger and uncertainty; foreshadowing the monolith’s appearance. It is like a demon watching over you telling you to “go away” before it’s strikes, which is what it eventually does. It creates this screeching sound that makes the astronauts attempt to cover their ears (through their space helmets). When the Monolith appears for the 3rd and last time at the end in the movie, it appears out of nowhere at the end of David’s life, only in P.O.V. shots so that the only reaction with have to monolith is our own. Since it only appears in these 3 parts, in my opinion the monolith represents the experiences in life that we cannot fully explain. It represents our birth, our miracles in life, and our deaths, since these experiences should never be explained.
Overall, 2001 A Space Odyssey is too complex for anyone to explain, but I think that was the point. The ideologies this movie poses are both minimal but insane to understand and I think that’s why it’s still remembered more the 50 years after it’s release.
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