The movie 2001: Space Odyssey directed by Stanley Kubrick is about Humanity finds a mysterious, obviously artificial object buried beneath the lunar surface and, with the intelligent computer H. A. L. 9000, sets off on a quest. This movie is a story all about the path of evolution and how time has progressed. There are many conflicts that occur in this timeless classic like how man was created, the evolution on technology, and the rebirth. The out of place curious apes discover the first tool on the earth, but in the end of this major discovery leads to destruction.
This scene opens up about four million years ago in the African desert with a clan of curious and fearful apes. The apes are in constant competition with each other or the other group of animals that are among them. As the apes awake from their chilling and fearful slumber they are woken up by a strange sound that is not familiar to them. As they become more awake and alive they see a big stone or a monolith in front of them, like it was deliberately placed there. This black monolith symbolizes the massive leap man must take to transform himself from one life to another.
The sounds of the human voices grow louder as the apes grow more curious, going up close then backing away. One ape has enough courage and pokes the monolith. As the first ape appears he comes from a fearful ape to a transformed intellectual man by creating the first tool. He learns to overcome the desert environment, and rise above his challenging competition to become more man. With the creation of this tool, it is also leading to a path of destruction, even though the world is evolving.
The ape is using this tool to brutally kill the other animals, to show his power he uses his bone tool to break the dead animal Skelton apart. In this film technology is depicted as maliciously cold, but also as affectionately pleasing to the rocketeers. The most significant piece of technology in this mastermind movie is the computer system HAL. HAL is a 9000 computer system that has been implanted on the ship and its function to discovery the brain and central nervous system and to control the mission. HAL controls all parts of the ship and goes off of the command of Dave and Frank.
He also has control over the three spacemen who are hibernating in their white coffins. Dave and Frank want to disconnect the dark and malicious piece of technology while they talk inside the white circle pod. HAL says that even though he cannot hear the two men talk he can lip read. If we assuming that HAL has determined to rid himself of the human crew by this point in the film, it is logical that he, being a creature of information, would want to extract from his victims all the information he can before killing them.
Hal could have easily killed the motionless astronauts quickly by letting the space air come into the ship. HAL intended on inflicting pain and suffering on the two spacemen. The idea of rebirth in this film hints towards the idea of intellect and progression of the human world that is to come. Floyd wishes his daughter a happy birthday on screen where they can see face to face, and Frank is wished happy birthday by his longing parents. HAL regresses back to the moment of his own birth as he is being shut down and his power cords being slowly pulled apart.
Bowman is obviously reborn as an illuminated baby after spending some time in a strange room of renaissance theme with white walls and glowing floors. The word renaissance translates as “rebirth”“. The snowy white uniforms that the space people wear feature round orb hats similar to baby’s heads and their zero-gravity walking even has a crawling baby-like quality. Even the black and white robes worn by Bowman as he ages could be representing death and rebirth.
Another characteristic of enlightenment is Bowman continuously sees himself in the third person before he is reborn; this trait separates the apes and the human qualities. The illuminated baby in the final shot slowly turns to look directly at us. If the reborn Bowman understands the meaning of the monolith it is like he is watching us from the other side of the screen, saying he knows about the past universe. These concepts of symbolic death, rebirth and enlightenment are not sci-fi concepts, but have been depicted across cultures and religions throughout history.
So the rebirth themes of 2001 seem to be related purely to intellect and its application for survival. After the apes have their intellectual rebirth experience, they are seen outside the cave entrance at night – unafraid of the dark. Before they encountered the monolith they were shown hiding in the cave and fearing the night. In the first shot we see what is the moon, the Earth and then finally a full view of the sun. In the final shot we see the moon then the Earth then the starchild.
Being that the sun has been historically linked to enlightenment the “star” child obviously represents the sun, bringing enlightenment to his home planet. Throughout the out of this world movie The Space Odyssey 2001 a major theme is evolution and how far the world has come. The evolution theory implies that humanity is not the final goal of this process. There is more to be seen in the world than what this movie implies. Life is a never ending cycle and will continue from time to come.
