The Odyssey Explained

Rating: 10/10 (21 June 2002)

Central to 2001 is man's evolutionary bond with the tool, or what later develops into human technology. 2001 begins in prehistoric Africa, focusing on a tribe of apes struggling for survival. Following the mysterious appearance of a large black Monolith, apparently of alien origin, the apes give birth to what is the film's paramount symbol, and what the film suggests is the key to humanity's dominance over nature--the tool. This is clearly depicted when the ape playing in a heap of bone remains learns the destructive power of the bone. The camera zooms in on and tracks the bone after the ape hurls it into the air to convey that this is birth of humanity as we know it. The apes have gone from mildy successful scavengers into weapons-making hunter-gatherers that eventually dominate their planet. Also, Kubrick's message in this segment of the film is that the qualities of the apes themselves, and not the intervention of the Monolith, are responsible for the apes' revolutionary discovery. Almost immediately, the film moves forward millions of years, to the point where the tool has evolved into a massive network of technology that gives man complete control of the Earth. Now, mankind seeks to dominate the cosmos.
During this part of the film, tangible characters are introduced and Kubrick takes his audience on a tour of the power of man and his technology. Kubrick has another point to make during this section: man's weakness in space. Stewardesses aboard a shuttle must use gravity shoes to walk; passengers are shown eating through tubes; and another sequence depicts lengthy instructions on how to use a zero-gravity toilet. Kubrick's motive behind these scenes? To demonstrate that humans are somewhat over their heads in space, suggesting that their weakness could lead to a challenge to their dominance.
As the film progresses, the modern humans discover the Monolith deliberately buried under the surface of the Moon, emitting a signal toward the far reaches of the solar system. The discovery prompts the film's major sequence, a manned space voyage to Jupiter, for reasons undisclosed to the viewer. The first developing and round characters emerge during this part of the movie, including mission commander Dr. David Bowman.Kubrick also introduces another major character--HAL, a talking computer that controls most of Discovery's operations, including the duty of monitoring crewmen placed aboard in hibernation. HAL essentially represents the pinnacle of man's technological achievement, and inevitably embodies the film's principal antagonistic element. The HAL computers have a perfect operational record, and are considered "incapable of error." However, Kubrick's space drama begins when HAL makes an incorrect prediction regarding the failure of Discovery's antenna, causing Dr. Bowman and his assistant, Dr. Frank Poole, to question HAL's stability and competence. Thus creates the film's cardinal conflict, and a monumental battle between man and his tools ensues.
Kubrick again subtly suggests human weakness in space, this time through the use of sound. In two separate segments that occur while the humans are outside the ship and floating in space, the only audible noise is the assisted breathing of Bowman and Poole within their helmets. This suggests that man is like a fish out of water in space, and computers have no need to breathe. The battle between man and his technology begins when HAL decides that the human crew might endanger his mission, murders the hibernating crewmen, and launches Dr. Poole spiraling into space. But HAL isn't as perfect as he claims, as suggested by his inaccurate prediction of the antenna's failure. Dr. Bowman, the last remaining survivor of HAL's murderous plot, manages to infiltrate the ship after HAL attempts to lock him out, and manually disconnects HAL using the simplest of man's tools-the screwdriver.
In the final segment of 2001, Kubrick's sci-fi epic takes a mind-boggling turn as Dr. Bowman reaches Jupiter, where the alien forces behind the Monolith have led him. Kubrick uses an inventive and stunning sequence of vibrant lights and colors to illustrate Bowman's journey into the unknown, leading him and the viewers to a strange room. The room becomes Kubrick's irrational stage for the final act of the film, where Bowman must confront a final test--his own death. Kubrick uses no narration nor dialogue to progress the plot, instead he simply challenges the audience to grasp his conclusion. However, Kubrick does consummate 2001 with a definite ending. Dr. Bowman ends man's evolutionary bond with the tool, and becomes the Starchild, a being of pure energy. Like the tool, this is just the next major step in man's evolution. Again, the alien forces are not responsible for this change. Instead, they merely directed man where to go and set the stage for him.
This film is a marvelous concoction of science and fantasy, and is truly rewarding for viewers familiar with its subject matter. All of us should be intellectually stimulated by it, but tragically, that probably will never be.