Plot: 2001 is a story of evolution. Sometime in the distant past someone or something nudged evolution by placing a monolith here on earth (presumably elsewhere throughout the universe as well) Evolution then enabled man to reach the moon's surface where he finds yet another monolith, one which signals the monolith-placers that we have evolved that far. Now a race begins between computers (HAL) and man (Bowman) to reach the monolith-placers, the winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.

Tags: 2000s, airline, alien, alien contact, alien intelligence, alien technology, ancient astronaut, ape, archeological dig, artificial intelligence, asphyxiation in space, astronaut, based on short story, bathroom scene, birthday, blockbuster, blue danube waltz, bone, carl jung, chess, cinerama, classical music score, cold war, computer, computer breakdown, computer chess, cryogenics, cryonics, cult director, cult favorite, doctor, dream imagery, dream like, epic, evil computer, evolution, explosive decompression, famous opening theme, famous score, father daughter relationship, future, futuristic, hibernation, human versus computer, imagery, jogging, jupiter, lip reading, long take, man ape, man versus machine, messiah, metaphysical, millenialism, monolith, moon, moon base, moon landing, murder, nasa, negative footage, number in character's name, number in title, outer space, payphone, planetary alignment, prehistoric, product placement, psychadelic image, psychedelic, quarantine, rebirth, satellite dish, scientist, shuttle craft, soviet american relations, space, space expedition, space exploration, space hero, space shuttle, space station, space travel, spacecraft, spaceship, spaceship setting, spacesuit, spacewalk, stewardess, strauss also sprach zarathustra, super computer, surreal, surrealism, talking computer, technology, toilet scene, trans world airline, transfiguration, vacuum, very little dialogue, video phone, visionary, zero gravity, show all tags.