“Stanley Kubrick made the ultimate science fiction movie, and it is going to be very hard for someone to come along and make a better movie, as far as I’m concerned. On a technical level, it can be compared, but personally, I think that ‘2001’ is far superior.”
– George Lucas, 1977, Creator of Star Wars
Steven Spielberg calls it his generation’s “big bang” of filmmaking. Sir Ridley Scott claims it to be completely “unbeatable.” William Friedkin refers to it as the “forefather of all science fiction”. Sir Christopher Nolan reflects: “I saw ‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ when I was a teenager, and it changed the way I thought about movies. It showed me that films could be more than just entertainment; they could be art, they could be philosophy, they could be an experience.”
According to Rolling Stone magazine, during one screening, a young man rose as if in a trance at the monolith’s reappearance near the end and ran down the theatre’s aisle shouting, “It’s God! It’s God!” Before the theatre’s management could stop him, he had crashed through the screen.
Many films have attempted to communicate something noteworthy about the meaning of life, but few have succeeded in saying so little and yet conveying so much as 2001: A Space Odyssey. It is hypnotic, incomprehensible, influential, eternal, and beautiful. Despite some labeling it a “sleeping pill,” it made a definite impression on today’s most accomplished filmmakers. What did Christopher Nolan mean by “philosophical experience,” Spielberg by “big bang of his generation,” Scott by “unbeatable,” and Friedkin by “forefather of all science fiction”? Why did the young man shout “It’s God! It’s God!”?
This analysis will attempt the impossible: to decipher what Stanley Kubrick really intended to convey with this radically enigmatic cult film. While breaking down key scenes, we can begin to understand the deeper meanings embedded in this cinematic masterpiece.
A Sci-Fi Journey up the Tree of Life
Scene 0: Primordial Darkness
The first thing we see is darkness. For three minutes, we are enveloped in emptiness, which, in keeping with several mystical traditions, reflects the origin of everything. Persistently observing and perceiving this nothingness awakens our creative force and ignites our spark of life. Lengthy musing over the incomprehensible mystery of everything inspires the mind, akin to a sparkling reflex, to start inventing new solutions for extending and continuing one’s experience of life.
Scene 1: Morning Glow
All of a sudden, we start hearing the eternal tones from Richard Strauss’s tone poem Op. 30, “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” composed in 1896 and inspired by Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical novel of the same name. This is one of Strauss’s most famous compositions, loved for its opening fanfare, “Sunrise.” Featuring a majestic brass theme (C-G-C), it symbolizes the crack of dawn and the awakening of humanity.
Listening to these stirring tunes, we witness a dramatic alignment of celestial bodies: an iconic scene featuring the Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon, with the Sun rising behind the Earth. This alignment, referred to as a conjunction, creates a visually striking imagery that represents the dawn of a new era in human evolution. It aligns with the themes of cosmic substance and the advancement of human consciousness portrayed in the film.
The Sun represents the source of life and enlightenment, the Earth stands for the home of humanity, and the Moon in the foreground provides a mysterious perspective of space and astronomical phenomena. As this interplanetary resonance unfolds, the title of the film appears in Futura typeface, making it a ‘futuristic homage’ to the Greek poet Homer’s epic poem “The Odyssey,” initiating the hero’s journey.
Scene 2: The Dawn of Man
We cut to a prehistoric landscape, the African savanna, set 4.4 million years ago. This sequence shows early human ancestors (apes), representing the origin of mankind, often referred to as the real Garden of Eden, as it is scientifically said that all of humanity emerged from here.
We see a number of animals: apes, antelopes, and tapirs, interacting peacefully. Suddenly, a leopard strikes and kills an ape. The tribe then resorts to their waterhole, their resource for survival. Waterholes have always been key gathering spots for both animals and early hominids, and the control of waterholes often leads to territorial disputes.
A more dominant ape tribe then emerges and takes control of their waterhole, claiming the territory and the source of life. The first ape tribe retreats to a crater, afraid and unsure of what to do. As night falls, they protect themselves in the darkness, some standing guard over their new, insecure location.
When they wake up the next morning, they see something they have never seen before: a big black monolith stands tall in the middle of the crater. The apes are confused, terrified at first, screaming and jumping in astonishment. Eerie music plays, giving depth to the moment. They draw closer to the monolith, touching it in awe and wonder, as if they are starting to worship it, with the sun and the moon in conjunction seen simultaneously above the monolith.
In this dire experience of fear mingled with awe and wonder, one ape suddenly seems to start thinking, reflecting on some animal bones lying before him. He picks up one bone and experimentally begins to smash other bones. To the heroic tones and drums of “Also Sprach Zarathustra,” he now starts to stand taller on his own two legs. In the crescendo of the music, his willful exuberance shows his realization of his invention of a tool of his own. This moment symbolizes the dawn of human intelligence and technological innovation.
He then uses his new tool to kill a tapir, providing meat for his tribe. He educates and equips the rest of the tribe with his new weapon. They form an attack on the other ape tribe that previously took their waterhole. Standing tall, they manage to frighten the other apes and kill their leader, reclaiming their territory. The other apes retreat, confused and terrified, (signifying the back-and-forth cycle of clashes between tribes in our evolving humanity).
The new victorious ape leader, triumphant, throws his weapon high into the air in slow motion, in a cinematically remembered scene. They have won. They have evolved. He is proud over his new tool/weapon.
The narrative of the movie then cuts to the future, where the bone is replaced with a space shuttle of the same shape, symbolizing a new tool or weapon that humanity has now invented to explore and conquer the next waterhole: space.
Scene 4. Cut into Pace, and geometrical elements.
“An der schönen blauen Donau” translates to “On the Beautiful Blue Danube” in English. This is the title of Johann Strauss II’s famous waltz, commonly known as “The Blue Danube.”
“Donau” is the German name for the Danube River. So “An der schönen blauen Donau” translates to “On the Beautiful Blue Danube.” The Danube is a major river in Central and Eastern Europe, and Johann Strauss II’s waltz celebrates its beauty.
Symbols, planetary forces, music,
Scene 5. Conference in space
Flavian, Gregory.
Cover story
Scene 6: Digging the Moon – Monolith Again
They have found the monolith there again. Interacting with it, just like the apes in Scene 1 of the movie, instigates the next step of human evolution: from conquering the whole world to conquering space.
Scene 7. Mission to Jupiter — Next jump
In Kabbalistic philosophy, Jupiter is the place from where we make the “jump” from the ‘Real’ (matter) to the ‘Ideal,’ universal mind, or spirit. This shift, or ‘metamorphosis’ is also known as ‘the crossing of the abyss’, or as some refer to it, ‘the dark night of the soul’.
Interacting with Hal. Care
Scene 8. Battle with the limited rational fear-based mind, Dismantling HAl. The one-dimensional ego. Like the cyklops in the Oddeyssy.He sings a song a bout the Daisy. As the childlike wonder
The main prograganist now Dave Bowman/Odysseys is constantly referred to as an archer.
Realigning. Shapes.
Scene 9. Psychedelic journey
Scene 10. Timeless dimension
Breaks the glass.
Scene 11. Ending Scene
Reborn as a fetus-like child in space, the Starchild, or Starmaker, silently watches the course of humanity, realizing that he was its creator from the start, all along.
Final Remarks
In an epic interview Stanley Kubrick gave to Playboy magazine in September 1968, (right after the release of this movie) he shares his views on existentialism, the human condition, and the impact of mortality on human behavior:
“If man merely sat back and thought about his impending termination, and his terrifying insignificance and aloneness in the cosmos, he would surely go mad, or succumb to a numbing sense of futility. Why, he might ask himself, should he bother to write a great symphony, or strive to make a living, or even to love another, when he is no more than a momentary microbe on a dust mote whirling through the unimaginable immensity of space? … Those of us who are forced by their own sensibilities to view their lives in this perspective — who recognize that there is no purpose they can comprehend and that amidst a countless myriad of stars their existence goes unknown and unchronicled — can fall prey all too easily to the ultimate anomie. … The world’s religions, for all their parochialism, did supply a kind of consolation for this great ache … This shattering recognition of our mortality is at the root of far more mental illness than I suspect even psychiatrists are aware.”
“The very meaninglessness of life forces man to create his own meaning. Children, of course, begin life with an untarnished sense of wonder, a capacity to experience total joy at something as simple as the greenness of a leaf; but as they grow older, the awareness of death and decay begins to impinge on their consciousness and subtly erode their joie de vivre, their idealism – and their assumption of immortality. As a child matures, he sees death and pain everywhere about him, and begins to lose faith in the ultimate goodness of man. But, if he’s reasonably strong – and lucky – he can emerge from this twilight of the soul into a rebirth of life’s elan. Both because of and in spite of his awareness of the meaninglessness of life, he can forge a fresh sense of purpose and affirmation. He may not recapture the same pure sense of wonder he was born with, but he can shape something far more enduring and sustaining. The most terrifying fact about the universe is not that it is hostile but that it is indifferent; but if we can come to terms with this indifference and accept the challenges of life within the boundaries of death – however mutable man may be able to make them – our existence as a species can have genuine meaning and fulfillment. However vast the darkness, we must supply our own light.”
— Stanley Kubrick
This analysis is an excerpt from my book, 10 Steps to Conquering the World, Chapter/Step/Experiment #1: “An Inexhaustible Source of Energy, or How to Create Your Own Religion.”
In the Spirit of Discovery,
The Alchemist
