The Ending Of 2001: A Space Odyssey Explained

So what's up with the floating fetus, the black slab, and the rapidly aging astronaut in 2001: A Space Odyssey? Stick around to find out!

#SciFi #EndingExplained #Movies

The final act | 0:00
Trouble in outer space | 1:20
Bowman learns the truth | 2:39
The Discovery One reaches Jupiter | 4:05
What does it all mean? | 5:16

[Looper]

What did you think of the ending to "2001: A Space Odyssey?"

[msfmvwi]

So, honestly, there really aren't too many interpretations. Knowing how the film was made gives serious clues too. The making of the film was almost as clever as the film itself. The Monoliths were placed intentionally by aliens. Kubrick ran through nearly 10, 000 prototypes for what the aliens should look like, ultimately deciding that any form would not be abstract enough to convey them properly, thus they are implied and never seen.

The pillars are a map. The human species is meant to hit each one as we evolve and finding a pillar causes a jump to higher level of evolution.

First we learn to use tools. Then we begin our journey off the planet. Then we develop AI. Then we evolve into Space Babies.

This movie was made one year before the moon landing and at first, it was thought that this movie was pro space race and technology, thus companies like IBM funded big dollars. He showed the investors a cut without the tension between the ship and Hal and even had a 10 minute documentary of scientists talking about the glorious future of computers and space travel.

He had final editing rights and before its release, SURPRISE, the new edit ditches the documentary part and adds in the ending with an evil AI.

The Space Baby is a representation of evolving beyond technology. Two important notes that are important. 1) The dialogue is very academic. No one jokes or flirts or anything but business. Also, we see how people of each ACT eat. The Dawn Monkeys eat raw meat (no thanks). The 2nd act, they drink their food. The 3rd Act they eat a food paste and stale artificial sandwiches.

However, when the astronaut arrives at the end location, he slowly loses his technology and eventually comes to eat nice home cooked food with silverware.

The Space Baby is a stage of transcendance beyond technology where we can traverse the universe without vehicles. In one thought by Kubrick, the space baby was suppose to return to earth which was surrounded by nuclear satellite weapons that the Space Baby clears away into space.

Our science is a tool. It will direct who we are for the foreseeable future, but technology is not what is need at a certain level of evolution where we need to reclaim our humanity.

[connecticutaggie]

My interpretation has always been that the monoliths were structures that gave humans a boost to make it to the next step in our evolution/development. The first monolith gave us what many consider the first step that made us unique - making tools. The second monolith moved us to explore other planets (by pointing us to the monolith on Jupiter) and possibly gave us the ability to create sentient life (HAL). The third monolith then moved us past our physical bodies (the star-child) and gave us a way travel to other worlds. Both the movie and the film are a bit confusing on this third step (which I believe is intentional) but by looking at them both, I feel you can see Clarke's intent.

[ericpowell]

When I first saw the movie, I felt bad for Boman aging alone for all those years in a windowless room. 💀

[FlyWithMe_]

This is just a summary of the plot, but at least Looper hit the 7 minute mark…

[c.ladimore]

i don't think he is aging or regressing literally. he is experiencing time all at once, like a photon. you can see it better in 2010 when he cannot explain where or when his communications to HAL are occurring. he isn't within our spacetime, so explaining it with words would be pretty ridiculous. kubrick chose a visual metaphor for the impossible

[Mamo]

By far the most influential science fiction movie ever as far as how a sci-fi movie 'looks.' Nearly all sci-fi movies after it can be traced back to this movie.

[stevenarvizu]

What really helped me understand the movie was finding out that the monoliths literally represent aliens, since that’s what they were originally supposed to be in the movie, but was changed as Kubrick decided to use monoliths to represent the idea of aliens advanced beyond comprehension. Once you understand that every monolith is meant to represent an alien showing us something, the more metaphorical meaning and implications of the movie makes a lot more sense

[nanomia]

The cinematography was amazing but it gave me kind of uneasy and really creepy feeling.

[gt-gurb]

I saw Kubrick in an old interview once and what he said was Beowman was in some kind alien zoo to be watched by the extra terrestrials who created the monolithic. But I dismissed it as Kubrick being tired of people asking him about the ending. Kubrick deliberately meant for the ending to be vague and up to the viewer. The Shinning's ending is pretty vague also. I think that's how he got his kicks. However I'm not dismissing what he accomplished with 2001. It's an all time classic. A step forward in film making.

[trollzone]

Beyond our own time….we’re 22 years in the future of this movie’s timeline. In the 60s no one knew what 40 years of technological innovation would look like.

[pshakouri]

I watched this 20 years ago in medicalschool, forced myself to get through it and at the end i was like wtf was that! The movie never left my mind, I kept thinking about it here and there, what it meant, what was that ending, etc.... That is true art, never leaves you, provokes you, confuses you and make you learn and speculate just a tiny bit more about life and existence! What a brilliant mind Kubrick has

[jkdbuck]

For those of you who saw this movie, just imagine the review Dr Bowman left on Tripadvisor! "Trippy cab ride to this place. Nicely lit floor. Weird noises. Food made me age 60 years. Would DEFINITELY recommend!"

[sgt]

I really like this film. However, I sometimes get a little suspicious about the cerebral nature of enigmatic films. There is a temptation to think that something is profound simply because it's hard to understand. The French philosophers were notorious for this. It's been called obscurantism.

This is not to say a film can't be both enigmatic and actually say something meaningful. But you can only dig so deep and at some point, you should expect to find something if there is anything there.

Modern art is perhaps the most guilty of this.

[TheMichaelBeck]

Author C. Clark was so smart, he penned a 2 page letter in 1948 detailing how a satellite orbiting at 22, 300 miles above the Earth would be in geosynchronous orbit. Smart man.

[LoveHandle]

Kubrick was a genius and will live on throughout his films forever.

[tomdoell]

My personal speical very own unique interpretation is... he approached the third monolith, then went into a space tunnel, woke up in a fancy apartment, aged rapidly, became a fetus, then floated around near the earth.

[WarDog]

The Answer (my friends) is in the Very Last Chapter of Clarke's novelization of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Bowman, reincarnated as the "Star-Child" arrives above Earth at a time when the orbiting missile platforms are awaking with their arsenal of destruction. He exerts his will and destroys them all, thus saving humanity. I could wish that Kubrick had put that in the movie, but if not, then Clarke certainly fixed it. I would say the aliens who created the monoliths sent Bowman back as they did *to* save humanity, but Kubrick wanted us to ponder all we'd seen and not have simple answers.

[CalebMichaelRiley]

“The ending of 2001:Space Odyssey not explained “

[gabrieljantzi]

i really enjoyed this movie and i think the premise is really cool, like with the monoliths guiding humanity like a trail of bread crumbs, but i just wish that it was explored upon more because this is definitely one of the best movies that i have ever seen.