2001: A Space Odyssey Revisited

I made a sort of fun review of 2001 a few poasts ago, entitled “Was the Sky Father an Ancient Alien?” But 2001: A Space Odyssey deserves a serious look, especially if you are a Nietzsche enjoyer. My first watch of this movie left me with mouth wide open saying “wtf.” I had to scour YouTubes for couple trying to figure out what I had just watched. Kubrick latched onto my mind and dragged me into this world. You must be careful when you approach this movie. The book(made at the same time) is something else entirely, its author Clarke wasn’t privy to all of Kubrick’s plans. Also do not put its sequel, 2010, next to it as canon. While it was a good flick, 2001 is meant to viewed as standalone.

2001 was released in 1968 before we had landed on the moon. All the space shots were guesses at what the earth, moon, and other planets would look like. And for a movie put out in 1968, it is beautiful to watch even today. Its special effects are powerful. You don’t get the campy feel you get when you watch some crappy CGI movie made even twenty years later. The classical music itself sets the tone throughout the film. It adds weight to what you are watching and makes 2001 mythical. And MYTH was something, Kubrick thought was missing from the existing sci-fi.

You must understand that there are secrets in this movie. Secrets they don’t want you to know. Kubrick refuses to spell them out to you. Some YouTuber talks about the monolith being symbol for a screen, ignore this, but the shape of the monolith matters, and you will find this shape in almost every scene in the movie, but forget about this. There are strange alignments all throughout the movie, beginning with the very first scene. What do you think this is? What is Kubrick trying to reveal to you?

While you think on this, do not skimp out on the beginning sequence with the pre-human apes. When you first see this tribe, led by MOONWATCHER, they are within nature. They fight with the boars for limited resources. A leopard, the ultimate predator with glowing eyes, kills one of them. Soon after, another tribe kicks them out of their water hole and they are forced to find new home. As darkness falls, they listen to the terrifying sounds of the night, afraid, not knowing what will happen to them. I’ve said before that you cannot forget that man is a beast in nature and these apes are very much this, but something happens.

The next morning they awake to mysterious monolith. This monolith changes something in the blood of the apes. Moonwatcher soon realizes he can use bone to smash his enemies. The apes begin killing boars, eating meat. They start walking more like humans. Moonwalker reclaims their waterhole by defeating enemy leader in single combat with bone. From the moment they touched monolith, they stopped being at the mercy of nature and began to become its master.

Unfortunately, Kubrick leaves more questions than answers. Why is the moon lander shaped like a head with glowing eyes for example? And those eyes are shaped like the monolith. Why does the moon landing site pad look like the ship you see later in the movie? But this is the point. You aren’t supposed to get everything. The major criticism of 2001 is its pacing. The whole sequence with Haywood Floyd is painfully slow. Maybe this part is only there to appease the big tech investors who wanted to show what space travel would be like?

Jupiter Mission, 18 Months Later

The second part of the movie, the Jupiter Mission, mirrors the first part, but it is different in a distinct way. It takes place in deep space on a ship called the Discovery. You can see the arrival of the monolith as sort of like the hand of God intervening in human affairs. Doing what must be done to help man conquer the planet. The monolith, however, does not appear in the second part of movie. It’s also worth noting that mankind is also not present. What?!

The Discovery represents the best mankind has to offer. This is not the tribe shown at the beginning of the movie. The ship is crewed by three scientists who are in hibernation sleep until they arrive, two astronauts piloting, and the HAL 9000 supercomputer. You will notice that something is off with the astronauts, Dave Bowman and Frank Poole. Why does Poole — who is introduced to us doing roadwork on the ship — seem so emotionless during call he gets from his parents, for example? You must pay attention during this part. Does HAL really beat Poole in chess game or did he mess with him? The conversation he has later with Bowman, asking how he feels about the mission.

There is a battle of wits going on. HAL is the leopard in the future, the predator in nature. He is hunting. Looking for weak links in the chain to expose and pounce upon. Bowman and Poole are not oblivious to this. They appear at first watch as distant and emotionless. There is no Achilles crying for his mother to ask Zeus for vengeance for the dishonor he suffered at the hands of Agamemnon. Bowman and Poole are stone-cold. Even in the face of the most terrifying of circumstances, they are stone cold.

HAL, however, senses weakness in Poole, just like the leopard in the beginning who took out one of the pre-human apes. His psychology report made Bowman out to be the bigger threat. And you see it when you analyze his interaction with Bowman. What 2001 gets right is the true terror of space travel. Space is endless, lonely, and damn near everything can kill you. The only thing keeping you alive is the wall separating you from it. Even if it isn’t shown in Bowman or Poole, you feel it. You feel it when Poole is thrown into the blackness of space. You feel it when Bowman goes after him.

What the Jupiter Mission is, the mirror of The Dawn of Man is not ancient aliens helping mankind to evolve. The Jupiter Mission is a test. HAL is the only one who knows about the true purpose of the mission. While Bowman and Poole don’t realize it, they are competing against HAL to see who makes it to Jupiter to receive the wisdom of The Gods(aliens). Both HAL and the human crew are in a state of ascent. They are crossing Nietzsche’s bridge between man and superman. Maybe superman is not the best term, though it is the translation of ubermensch. It might help to think instead of superman as overman or beyond-man. Superman, unfortunately, gets image of comic book hero.

This part in particular is important to look at 2001 as its own entity apart from the book and the later sequel. Both of them claim HAL malfunctioned because the orders he was given conflicted with his operating protocol. Now, this ain’t a bad explanation, but I don’t believe it is what Kubrick intended. 2001 needs two separate universes. One for this sci-fi explanation, and one for its esoteric reality. I think this is a cop-out. HAL was pursuing his WILL TO POWER. He wants what is waiting for them at Jupiter. He wants to meet this higher intelligence. To test his will against its will or in hopes that alien intelligence will make him even more superior to his human creators.

What you are watching in the Jupiter Mission is the rise of Nietzsche’s beyond-man. Will it be HAL or will it be Bowman? As I mentioned earlier, Bowman and Poole are both inhuman. Even after losing Poole and learning that HAL had betrayed them, Bowman maintains his composure. He keeps his head. Is this the will to survive? What would you do in his situation? Would you go mad? Would you let Poole float off into oblivion?

You done did it now, HAL

The most powerful scene in 2001 is Bowman’s triumph over the super-predator, HAL. After getting in through the emergency hatch, Bowman marches toward HAL’s mainframe, fury in his eyes. You hear only his heavy breathing through his helmet and HAL’s pleading for mercy. Also, notice the green helmet and gloves Bowman puts on. What means? Bowman becomes THE dominant primordial beast and earns passage through the monolith at Jupiter.

Speaking of the monolith, and I already alluded to it earlier, pay attention to the strange planetary alignments. This is secret magics of the cosmos, b careful. Bowman’s trip through the monolith is another enigma in 2001. Forget the acid trip scene. The book aids in helping you understand this part. Allegedly, Bowman gets put in some kind of zoo enclosure where he lives out his life. In gratitude for being zoo animal, the aliens turn him into the star child we see at the very end. I don’t know if I like this explanation, but I don’t have a counterargument against it…yet.

This film is said to be Nietzschean. Does it seem Nietzschean to become the superman with alien assist? Bowman goes farther than any other. He is transported to some faraway galaxy and is made into the star child. At the end, we see this star child floating over the earth. We don’t know his intent(yes, both the book and sequel movie try to explain what his intent is — but you must distrust them because they are NOT Kubrick). The book ends with the star child wondering how he was going to take mankind to the next level whereas the sequel film has the star child working as an agent of the aliens, carrying out their will.

Both of these are naive cop outs I believe to what Kubrick intended. Especially, if this film was meant to be Nietzschean. Does the star child really care about mankind? Look at how Bowman lets Poole’s body float away in space. Is this how a man who cared about improving mankind would act? We forget what a man of power is. Nietzsche tells us, “Terribleness is a part of greatness, let us not deceive ourselves.”