But the film is really more about the odyssey of human civilization, and the plot features a strong belief in the evolutionary improvement of man. A group of these ape-men awake one morning to see a tall, dark slab of metal in their midst. It obviously comes from an intelligence far greater than their own. It is the year 2001 now. A similar slab is discovered on the moon.
Sunlight shines on the monolith, sending a beam into space.
A space ship follows a beam of mysterious signals in the direction of Jupiter, seemingly to discover the source of the intelligence behind this slab and the signals somehow energizing it. A surviving astronaut is fast-forwarded to a time when he is an old man, lying on his deathbed, apparently living now at the other end of the universe. He is then transformed into a huge human embryo. It is these final frames that pose the biggest riddle for viewers to solve. This is the idea of the man who can be called the 'father of the New Age movement,' Catholic priest Teilhard de Chardin.