Before I start this blog, here’s a little context. This is an analysis I wrote about 2001: A Space Odyssey when I was in the midst of my incredible obsession of the film in Summer of 2020 (I still fucking love it, it’s my favorite film). I wrote this for about 4-5 hours straight in the middle of the night. I got a couple hours of sleep for work the next day but I wasn’t tired. I was more alive than ever. I had been watching the film on repeat for months trying to get closer to grasping the enigma Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece of a work is – and I had finally gotten my thoughts down on paper (or digital paper). Anyways, without further ado, my favorite analysis for my favorite film.
Here it is
my analysis for…
2001: A Space Odyssey
This is why 2001 is THE ULTIMATE TRIP
Let me start off by saying I’m about to get right into it. So don’t read below if you haven’t seen the film. No set up, no introduction. Let’s go.
SPOILERS
The monolith is the screen the viewer is watching the film, 2001: A Space Odyssey, on. The monolith (2001: ASO) has come to the viewer (you) and evolved you into an enlightened super being.
THE FIRST ACT:
For the first and last few minutes of the film, there is nothing but a black screen and ambience. This ambience is the same audio that plays when the monolith appears throughout the film. Since the monolith is the tv screen, we are looking straight at the monolith. This, the viewer looking at the screen, is the same as when the monolith first came to the apes and they were bamboozled. They didn’t know what it was. They started to touch it and try to understand it. Then they were enlightened. They used the bone as a tool to take back what was rightfully theirs (the land by the valley with water that was stolen from them by the other group of apes). In the same manner, the monolith (the tv screen/the film 2001: A Space Odyssey) has come to the viewer. It plays but there is nothing but blackness and ambience. We, the viewer, are confused. We experience it. We try to understand it. After we have experienced it, we are enlightened whether we are aware of it or not.
To further prove this idea of the monolith being the television screen, think about this. From a narratives perspective, the monolith seems to be this godlike entity. It is man’s creator within the film’s universe. So, who are the apes? Who are the astronauts? Who are these humans? Don’t think about it too deep (this is the only time you can’t think deep). They are characters within the film. And who are these characters creator? That’s right. The film itself. The film being represented by the monolith (the television screen).
Kubrick wanted the shape of the monolith to be a rectangle, as opposed to the multiple-form monolith in the book (which was written alongside the film), because he wanted it to be presented as some sort of “advanced television teaching machine.” The connection to the screen is self explanatory.
The opening starts. We see the earth, the moon and then the sun. In this scene, the three are perfectly vertically aligned. I will explain why this is important towards the end. The song “Also sparch Zarathustra” plays over this. Kubrick uses this to associate the song with “revelation”. The definition of revelation is the following: a surprising and previously unknown fact, especially one that is made known in a dramatic way. This also plays when the ape has a revelation about the bone. He can use it as a tool to fight against those who took what was rightfully his. Similarly, the viewer is using the film as a tool to take what back what was rightfully theirs. This may be confusing but it will make sense towards the end. Just know that the opening is showing us that we will use the film, 2001: ASO, as a tool. It’s a revelation.
THE SECOND AND THIRD ACT:
Now since I want to keep this relatively short (for a 2001 analysis), I won’t dive deep into the middle 2 acts but what I will say is that these 2 acts are the most important. This is because this is the viewer’s (us) process of enlightenment. We are being enlightened about the dangers of human enslavement through technological means from powerful corporations. Corporations that know much more than we do. Corporations that we think we can trust but actually cannot. This is reflected through the HAL plot line. HAL turns on the astronauts because they tried to disconnect him (because he made an error, so it makes sense. The humans aren’t wrong. This attempt to disconnect HAL is justified) which shows how the astronauts are basically attacked by the people who sent them. EVEN IF HAL wasn’t intentionally programmed this way, to kill in the case things don’t go right, the fact of the matter is that it happened. It’s possible BECAUSE of the way he is programmed. Once Dave is able to overcome and kill HAL, he is not only enlightened about the horrors and dangers of this technological control, but he is also FREED from this technological control. Because of this, he is ready to evolve from the monolith. Or in other words, the film (which is the monolith) is ready to take Dave’s character and evolve him into a higher being. We will get to the meaning of what this higher being (the star child) is during the explanation of the final scene.
THE LAST ACT:
Ahh… the finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey.
Now let me start off by saying that A LOT happens during this act. Like… a lot. I will talk about the most important moments for the sake of my analysis but please do dive deep into that final act because there is so much to unpack.
I believe that the title of this act, Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite, means that Kubrick is reaching beyond the infinite. He is reaching beyond what is possible. He is reaching through time and space through this sequence. He is merging the film’s universe and our universe so that the film’s character (Dave) and the viewer become one.
This act is Dave’s character preparing to evolve into us, the enlightened being. In order to do this, he must come through the television screen. The monolith, which is the film itself, is taking Dave through something beyond comprehension, that is leaving his universe.
Before Dave is shot through the star gate, we see planets align perfectly vertical. This is just like the opening where the moon, the earth, and the sun align perfectly vertical. This vertical alignment shows that the monolith (a vertical figure), which represents the film 2001: ASO, is taking someone (Dave and the viewer) through a journey that will evolve them into a higher being. The alignment in the opening scene is our monolith (our television screen) taking us through the film to evolve us into an enlightened being that is aware of Kubrick’s message of technological dependency, control, and enslavement. The alignment in the final act is the monolith within the films universe taking Dave through a journey that will evolve him into a super being.
The pod that Dave is in looks just like an eye. A black circle within a bigger white circle. This imagery could reflect how we are viewing the film through our eye just like Dave is experiencing this journey through the pod.
Right before Dave is taken through the star gate, the monolith rotates in a way that makes it disappear from his sight. He no longer sees it. The monolith is gone. The camera points up. Dave sees colors coming towards him. The stars fade away. He sees nothing but black in the background and colors rapidly shooting towards him. He is staring at the monolith, the television screen. He is making his journey to the white room where he can be reborn as someone else. The colors from the star gate are the colors from the film (the actual film reel) coming out. The first patterns seen of the stargate sequence show what seems to be film reel. Since Dave is simply a character within the film 2001, his universe is solely made up of sound and image. The bizarre visuals and audio from this sequence are the accumulation of all the sound and image being sucked out of existence right before him.
During the star gate sequence, there is a shift from vertical to horizontal. This is one of the many visual clues that Kubrick has placed throughout the film to help the viewer make the connection that the monolith is the tv screen. This is because in the film, the monolith is vertical and the monolith we are using is horizontal. Another visual clue is the cut from the bone to the spacecraft. Some say that the cut is not perfect because the bone and spacecraft are not perfectly aligned when the transition is made. I disagree. This was very purposeful from Kubrick. If he wanted a perfect cut, believe me, he would’ve had it. He’s Kubrick, a perfectionist. When the bone turns into the spacecraft, it is more vertical as opposed to the the spacecraft which is more horizontal. This is another visual clue from Kubrick, telling us to switch our perspective from vertical to horizontal.
After the star gate sequence, everything from Dave’s world is wiped out of existence and he is brought into another dimension that is inconceivable. The monolith shows him visuals from this world just like the screen is showing US these visuals. This dimension is also inconceivable to the viewer because it is the collision between the films universe and our universe. Both the viewer and Dave are brought into this world by their respective monolith.
When Dave arrives in the white room, the screens in his pod read, “NON FUNCTION”. This shows that the things from Dave’s world are not able to, or don’t know how to, operate in this room which is a part of some other dimension.
Dave makes eye contact with an older version of himself and then becomes that version of himself. I will explain why this is significant when analyzing the final shot of the star child.
The monolith putting Dave in this white room is the film putting Dave’s character through a process that will allow him to be reborn as an enlightened being. He is shown as an older man in a robe at one point. This version of himself eats regular food as opposed to the space food shown earlier in the film. He is in comfortable, cozy clothing as opposed to the astronaut suits worn for much of the film. His surroundings are of high art, specifically renaissance art (which literally means rebirth), as opposed to the spacecraft surroundings from most of the film. His character is freed from technological control… besides one last thing: the monolith. The tv screen is the last technological device that is controlling his existence. Once he can travel through it, he will no longer be limited to it. But how? How can a character travel through the tv screen? Well… who’s on the other side? That’s right, you! You are the key!
After the closeup shot of the star child on the bed, we get what is the greatest shot I have ever seen. We zoom into the monolith so that Dave’s world and our world come together. In this shot, both of our monoliths become one and we, Dave and us, share the same space. We then see the moon, the earth, and then the star child. This is very similar to the opening shot where we see the moon, the earth, and then the sun. In fact, the same song plays, “Also sparch Zarathustra”. Remember the association between this song and revelation. More on this shortly.
The star child looking over the earth is us looking over the earth we are about to return to when finished with this film. We will come back changed and enlightened.
Now for the final shot. Remember how I said YOU are the key to helping Dave finally break away from all technological control? Well, in this shot, Dave finally breaks away from the film by traveling through the screen. How is this done? By becoming the viewer.
I mentioned earlier that the first moment Dave suddenly becomes older (when we see him first arrive to the white room in his pod) is very significant. This is because this scene shows how the last shot allows him to become the viewer. In this scene, Dave makes eye contact with his older self. We then see a shot of his older self looking directly at the camera. Now, Dave seems to have become that older self. Only, he didn’t become that being. He IS that being.
What if Dave as a star child doesn’t become the viewer but rather IS the viewer? What if… that isn’t Dave at all?
That enlightened star child is you. You are the one who has been taken on this experience. The final shot shows the child looking directly at the camera. The child is even in its own pod just like Dave, in the paralleling scene before it, was. When Dave suddenly became older, his pod and his younger self disappeared just like the star child disappears as the final shot fades to black. The star child becomes an older version of itself, which is you. The star child always was, and now is, you.
The epic song, “Also sparch Zarathustra” plays over this extraordinary imagery, invoking a revelation within the viewer. As the monolith enlightened the ape to use the bone as a tool, we must use what our monolith has given us, enlightenment, as a tool.
In an interview where Kubrick is asked to explain the film’s final moments, he states the following regarding the star child looking at the earth:
“We have to only guess what happens when he goes back.”
Kubrick has appeared to us through our television screen, taken us on a journey, and has enlightened us…
BUT…
he can only guess what we will do with this knowledge.
Is it a happy ending? Sad ending? Hopeful? Discouraging?
It’s up to us. This film is not conclusive for a reason.
When the apes were touching the monolith, they were being enlightened by it without, most likely, even knowing it. When the viewer is interacting with the monolith (the tv screen/ 2001: ASO), they are being enlightened by it without, most likely, even knowing it. This is because most people, including me, won’t understand the full meaning of 2001 on their first watch but will most likely, like me, be able to comprehend the basic storyline of the middle 2 acts, which again are the most important. Because of this basic comprehension, Kubrick has planted his message in the viewers head. He has enlightened them. He has evolved the viewer into a super being and sent them back to earth with this new enlightenment.
This is the brilliance of 2001: A Space Odyssey
In a way, Kubrick has become the closest thing to a God that a human can. Now it is up to us to spread his word. Go on star children, share this film to everyone.
Send them on the ultimate trip.
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