2001: A Space Odyssey

A closer look at the story

The story opens with a mysterious black monolith appearing among humanity's distant ancestors. Ages later, when a similar object is uncovered beneath the surface of the Moon, scientists set out to learn where it came from. That search sends astronauts David Bowman and Frank Poole on a long voyage towards Jupiter, accompanied by HAL 9000, the talking supercomputer that runs every system aboard their ship. Directed by Stanley Kubrick, who wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke, the 149-minute 1968 film stars Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood in a landmark of science fiction that tells its story through images and music more than dialogue, reflecting on evolution and technology.