2001 A Space Odyssey | Canadian First Time Watching | Movie Reaction | Movie Review | Commentary

When George said "this movie is such an acid trip" just prior to Bowman going into the monolith I literally hurt my sides laughing knowing what was coming next!!!!! A definite "wait for it" moment!! The child inside the womb was called the starchild in the book and it does represent the next stage in evolution for mankind. If you want some answers and to react to a darn good sequel do "2010 the year we make contact"! It has a fantastic cast and it's also very well done and answers a lot of questions from 2001!!!

Douglas Rain's vocal performance as HAL 9000 is still one of the most chilling performances ever. That calm and calculating demeanour with emotionless intentions behind that soulless and unmoving red eye. Geez!

The timing of George's "This movie is such an acid trip." was so perfect.

The zero g toilet instuctions are: 1. The toilet is of the standard zero-gravity type. Depending on requirements, System A and/or System B can be used, details of which are clearly marked in the toilet compartment. When operating System A, depress lever and a plastic dalkron eliminator will be dispensed through the slot immediately underneath. When you have fastened the adhesive lip, attach connection marked by the large "X" outlet hose. Twist the silver coloured ring one inch below the connection point until you feel it lock. The toilet is now ready for use. The Sonovac cleanser is activated by the small switch on the lip. When securing, twist the ring back to its initial-condition, so that the two orange line meet. Disconnect. Place the dalkron eliminator in the vacuum receptacle to the rear. Activate by pressing the blue button. The controls for System B are located on the opposite wall. The red release switch places the uroliminator into position; it can be adjusted manually up or down by pressing the blue manual release button. The opening is self adjusting. To secure after use, press the green button which simultaneously activates the evaporator and returns the uroliminator to its storage position. You may leave the lavatory if the green exit light is on over the door. If the red light is illuminated, one of the lavatory facilities is not properly secured. Press the "Stewardess" call button on the right of the door. She will secure all facilities from her controll panel outside. When gren exit light goes on you may open the door and leave. Please close the door behind you. To use the Sonoshower, first undress and place all your clothes in the clothes rack. Put on the velcro slippers located in the cabinet immediately below. Enter the shower. On the control panel to your upper right upon entering you will see a "Shower seal" button. Press to activate. A green light will then be illuminated immediately below. On the intensity knob select the desired setting. Now depress the Sonovac activation lever. Bathe normally. The Sonovac will automatically go off after three minutes unless you activate the "Manual off" over-ride switch by flipping it up. When you are ready to leave, press the blue "Shower seal" release button. The door will open and you may leave. Please remove the velcro slippers and place them in their container. If the red light above this panel is on, the toilet is in use. When the green light is illuminated you may enter. However, you must carefully follow all instructions when using the facilities duting coasting (Zero G) flight. Inside there are three facilities: (1) the Sonowasher, (2) the Sonoshower, (3) the toilet. All three are designed to be used under weightless conditions. Please observe the sequence of operations for each individual facility. Two modes for Sonowashing your face and hands are available, the "moist-towel" mode and the "Sonovac" ultrasonic cleaner mode. You may select either mode by moving the appropriate lever to the "Activate" position. If you choose the "moist-towel" mode, depress the indicated yellow button and withdraw item. When you have finished, discard the towel in the vacuum dispenser, holding the indicated lever in the "active" position until the green light goes on…showing that the rollers have passed the towel completely into the dispenser. If you desire an additional towel, press the yellow button and repeat the cycle. If you prefer the "Sonovac" ultrasonic cleaning mode, press the indicated blue button. When the twin panels open, pull forward by rings A & B. For cleaning the hands, use in this position. Set the timer to positions 10, 20, 30 or 40…indicative of the number of seconds required. The knob to the left, just below the blue light, has three settings, low, medium or high. For normal use, the medium setting is suggested. After these settings have been made, you can activate the device by switching to the "ON" position the clearly marked red switch. If during the washing operation, you wish to change the settings, place the "manual off" over-ride switch in the "OFF" position. you may now make the change and repeat the cycle.

In case no one has mentioned this: the opening is intended for a closed-curtain viewing. The curtains would part when the MGM logo came on. This can also be seen with Lawrence of Arabia and West Side Story from the 1960s. Like theatrical overtures it was.

To answer your questions regarding the "old classical" music. The first piece is "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss. It was written before this movie, but this movie is what put that piece of music into the popular culture. The second piece is not from Nutcracker (though that was a good guess), it's the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss (no relation). That piece was already in the pop culture before this movie.

You need to watch 'Moon' (2009) now, Duncan Jones's directorial debut is a criminally underrated gem and completely stunning considering its meagre budget, it has several nods to 2001.

17:11 - FUN FACT: The "VIBRATOR" light is for an actual device that would be mounted on aircraft instrument panels to make sure all mechanical gauges are reading correctly. (i.e. like constantly tapping on a gauge.) Here's the definition from a parts manufacturer, "A mechanical device, electrically operated, designed to be mounted to the instrument panel of an aircraft to prevent instruments from intermittently sticking."

I was a 12 yr old sci-fi geek when I went to see this in the cinema here in the UK. To say that I and the rest of the audience were completely blown away is an understatement. It was all we talked about at school for days afterwards. To see it through your (fresh) eyes 55yrs later kinda brought back the wonder that we all felt back in the day...

If you want to know more, 2001: A Space Odyssey the novel was also released in '68. It was written by Arthur C Clark jointly with Kubrick. 2010: Odyssey Two was the 1984 sequel by Clark & the movie 2010: The Year We Make Contact came out in 84. It's definitely worth the watch!

In the jogging scene the entire room is on a rotating gimbal. So the actor is not running around it, the room is rotating around the actor, who is simply running in place. The trick is in the clever camera placement that fools you. Brilliant stuff.

I saw this while in junior high when it was released. Told my folks for my birthday I wanted them to drive us into Pittsburgh, about 30 miles, to see this movie in one of the giant curved screen theaters. It was a mind blowing experience. Trying to tell my class mates what this movie was about afterwards was beyond my brain's ability at the time. LOL.

I can't wait for Simone to start a reaction with either "I can't do that Dave" or "I can't do that George"

Kubrick actually did shoot the Moon landing. As a perfectionist though, he demanded it be shot on location.

Kubrick never tells his audience what to think or how to react; he presents the scenes, gives clues, steers the story toward the issues he wants to explore and expects the audience to respond using their own knowledge & experience, and possibly to continually debate the meaning of his films. I have found that watching 2001 at different points in my life, at different ages and in different circumstances brings fresh perspectives and understanding. I also HIGHLY RECOMMEND that everyone watch this at least one time on the large screen as it was meant to be seen. Altho Cinerama no longer exists (it was a huge curved screen that used multiple cameras to project the image), in many cities there are film festivals featuring “70 mm” releases and 2001 is often shown. Seeing the film in such an immersive environment really makes the audience feel as if they are in space and deepens the impression the film and its music makes.

I like how you guys very quickly picked up on the monoliths enhancing humanity and serving as alien checkpoints. And you can trace that to the ending as well. Once the monkey touches the monolith he evolves. Once Dave touches the monolith he evolves too.

The "Spooky Chant" is The Requiem by the Hungarian composer György Ligeti is a large-scale choral and orchestral composition, composed between 1963 and 1965.

5:00 that texture that George is noticing is actually the edges of torn up pieces of 3M Scotchlite, used in the front projection rig for the Dawn of Man sequence (and one other in as the golf-ball shaped spaceship is seen by the astronauts on the moon as it descends for landing). The background image is actually projected over the actors onto the Scotchlite screen behind them, which reflects the light back where it came from, like modern highway signs do. A beamsplitter in front of the camera lets the projector be off to the side (90 degrees to the camera) so that everything lines up perfectly. You can't see the background image on the actors because they added key lights to wash it out and light the actors against the incredibly bright reflection coming off the Scotchlite. The reason they tore the Scotchlite into random pieces was because if you just use strips of it straight off the roll, you can see the seams. A much more sophisticated version of this rig was used to film many of the best looking flying scenes in Superman (1978), created by Zoran Perisic, who worked as an animation blob artist on this film. The centrifuge set was indeed a giant hamster wheel. The place where George thinks there's a cut, there isn't. Gary Lockwood was strapped in upside down while Keir Dullea walked the bottom of the rotating set. Since the set is 40 feet in diameter, that's some real trust in rigging on the part of the actors.

Sight and Sound Magazine had a poll, and this was chosen by directors as the greatest film ever made... And the music is a mix of very modern and late-Victorian sound (Richard and Johann Strauss; Penderecki; Ligeti; etc.) Oh, and the little girl in the phone call is one of Kubrick’s daughters!

The centrifuge set was actually built as it looks: a complete rotating wheel - albeit in two halves that could separated very slightly to allow a camera to follow the actor (who was always at the bottom of the set as it rotated). A similar filming technique was used for the scene of the flight attendant who was delivering food to the pilots. The set rotated with the camera locked into position so that she appeared to walk up the wall then upside-down.