WEBVTT - From the Vault: 2001: A Space Odyssey 0:00:05.720 --> 0:00:07.800 Hey, Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind. My name 0:00:07.800 --> 0:00:11.080 is Robert Lamb and I'm Joe McCormick. It's Saturday. Time 0:00:11.119 --> 0:00:13.400 to venture into the vault, this time for a movie 0:00:13.520 --> 0:00:18.280 episode that originally aired August. This was our episode about 0:00:18.320 --> 0:00:21.599 the science of two thousand one Space Odyssey. Yeah. This was, 0:00:21.680 --> 0:00:24.239 of course a tremendous amount of fun. It's one of 0:00:24.280 --> 0:00:28.479 the greatest movies ever made, um based on a fantastic book. 0:00:28.520 --> 0:00:31.440 And this was also like really our first, our first 0:00:31.720 --> 0:00:35.600 true movie episode. Getting into this pattern we've we've kept 0:00:35.640 --> 0:00:37.400 up over the past year where every month or so 0:00:37.479 --> 0:00:40.479 we'll devote an entire episode to a particular movie and 0:00:40.520 --> 0:00:43.800 then pick apart the science that is attached to it. 0:00:44.000 --> 0:00:46.159 I remember this one very fondly, so we hope you 0:00:46.280 --> 0:00:52.320 enjoy it. Welcome to Stuff to Blow your Mind from 0:00:52.320 --> 0:01:00.960 how Stuffworks dot com. Are you welcome to Stuff to 0:01:00.960 --> 0:01:03.279 Blow your Mind. My name is Robert Lamb and I'm 0:01:03.320 --> 0:01:06.039 Joe McCormick. And Robert, do you remember just about seventeen 0:01:06.120 --> 0:01:10.440 years ago how disappointing it was that the year two 0:01:10.480 --> 0:01:12.959 thousand one was not like the year two thousand one 0:01:13.040 --> 0:01:16.119 in the movie two thousand one Space Odyssey. Well, certainly 0:01:16.200 --> 0:01:19.880 it did not resemble the night film two thousand one 0:01:19.920 --> 0:01:22.960 of Space Odyssey. It did not resemble that that vision 0:01:22.959 --> 0:01:25.920 of the future, not exactly. We were not uh, we 0:01:25.920 --> 0:01:27.960 were not traveling. We did not have a moon base. 0:01:28.319 --> 0:01:30.640 I want my milk carton of corn to suck through 0:01:30.640 --> 0:01:34.120 a straw well that can be arranged if if that's 0:01:34.360 --> 0:01:38.039 if that's the definite uh uh, you know, futuristic experience 0:01:38.040 --> 0:01:41.560 you're looking for. But yeah, this is this is a 0:01:41.600 --> 0:01:45.080 classic science fiction film, perhaps the classic science fiction film. 0:01:45.120 --> 0:01:47.199 I mean, you can you can certainly make a case 0:01:47.240 --> 0:01:52.680 for other pivotal works of sci fi cinema, but Stanley 0:01:52.760 --> 0:01:56.480 Kubrick and Arthously Clark's two thousand and one is a 0:01:56.480 --> 0:02:00.760 film that has stood the test of time. Uh, inspired 0:02:01.000 --> 0:02:05.640 just countless other sci fi visions and uh and yeah, 0:02:05.680 --> 0:02:09.240 that definitely gave us this this sort of benchmark to 0:02:09.320 --> 0:02:12.000 look for in the future. So the reason we're talking 0:02:12.040 --> 0:02:14.760 about two thousand one of Space Odyssey is because this 0:02:14.840 --> 0:02:19.720 year that movie is actually fifty years old. It's hard 0:02:19.760 --> 0:02:23.240 to believe it half a century old. It was released 0:02:23.240 --> 0:02:26.239 in April of nine eight, and so because of the 0:02:26.280 --> 0:02:29.640 fiftieth anniversary, because the movie is so endlessly fascinating to 0:02:29.680 --> 0:02:32.040 talk about, we thought we would devote today to a 0:02:32.080 --> 0:02:36.040 discussion of two thousand one, the film itself, it's ideas, 0:02:36.120 --> 0:02:38.720 and its legacy. Robert, how old were you when you 0:02:38.760 --> 0:02:41.679 first saw two thousand one? Oh? You know, I saw 0:02:41.720 --> 0:02:43.480 it when I was pretty young, so I don't have 0:02:43.520 --> 0:02:46.480 a very um concrete memory of it. I think my 0:02:46.560 --> 0:02:49.600 dad he either he had had a VHS copy of 0:02:49.639 --> 0:02:52.640 it playing, or it was on TV. I'm not sure, 0:02:53.240 --> 0:02:57.040 but i'd say who Maybe I was eight or something. 0:02:57.080 --> 0:03:00.399 I'm not sure, but I remember it being a very 0:03:00.440 --> 0:03:02.800 interesting film to watch because it what It has this 0:03:02.960 --> 0:03:07.680 dreamlike quality to it, that is there, no matter what 0:03:07.800 --> 0:03:11.239 level of of awareness you're approaching it with as a 0:03:11.320 --> 0:03:14.919 view or you know, whether you understand the more complicated, 0:03:15.360 --> 0:03:19.919 uh science, fictional or philosophical aspects of its message, there's 0:03:19.919 --> 0:03:23.640 still this this hypnotic quality to the film that draws 0:03:23.680 --> 0:03:26.160 you in. I have a weird question about it. I 0:03:26.280 --> 0:03:30.560 wonder if a kid for whom the plot pretty much 0:03:30.560 --> 0:03:34.680 goes over their head actually understands the movie better than 0:03:34.720 --> 0:03:37.840 an adult who can grasp more of the content of 0:03:37.920 --> 0:03:40.600 the plot. Do you think about that? I mean, because 0:03:40.640 --> 0:03:44.280 the movie is. In many ways, it's almost like a 0:03:44.480 --> 0:03:47.040 more like a painting or like a you know, a 0:03:47.120 --> 0:03:51.120 work of art that is radically open to interpretation, where 0:03:51.520 --> 0:03:54.840 the stuff that the characters do, I'm not so sure 0:03:54.920 --> 0:03:57.720 that it matters as much as more the kind of 0:03:57.760 --> 0:04:02.360 like visual themes established the questions raised by you know, 0:04:02.480 --> 0:04:07.200 the spectacle before your eyes. Yeah, yeah, the spectacle is 0:04:07.200 --> 0:04:09.600 is a huge part of it. I I actually was tempted. 0:04:09.600 --> 0:04:11.960 I thought we should I let my six year old 0:04:12.000 --> 0:04:14.920 see at least part of two thousand and one and 0:04:15.080 --> 0:04:17.200 just see what his take is on it. And I 0:04:17.520 --> 0:04:21.080 did not quite get around to performing any a test 0:04:21.120 --> 0:04:24.000 of that sort um, but I have a feeling he 0:04:24.040 --> 0:04:28.120 would be drawn in by the visuals for sure. Just 0:04:28.240 --> 0:04:31.280 thinking about the visuals alone, it's hard to believe this 0:04:31.320 --> 0:04:33.520 movie is half a century old. Like we were saying 0:04:33.520 --> 0:04:37.080 a minute ago, it still feels so weird and so 0:04:37.279 --> 0:04:41.520 fresh and so intellectually adventurous. Apparently, you know. When it premiered. 0:04:41.560 --> 0:04:43.760 One of the things about the movie is that it's 0:04:43.880 --> 0:04:47.599 mostly silent. There are only actually very limited parts of 0:04:47.600 --> 0:04:50.400 it where characters are speaking to each other, and according 0:04:50.400 --> 0:04:53.039 to the stories about the premiere, the first audience is 0:04:53.120 --> 0:04:57.000 just hating. Not everybody. There were some people who saw, Okay, 0:04:57.040 --> 0:05:00.920 this is revolutionary, something very different and new, an original 0:05:01.000 --> 0:05:03.440 is happening here. But a lot of the Hollywood hot 0:05:03.480 --> 0:05:06.400 shots who were in attendance just hated it. There were 0:05:06.400 --> 0:05:09.479 tons of people walking out of the theater. Allegedly, Rock 0:05:09.600 --> 0:05:12.320 Hudson walked out saying out loud, will someone tell me 0:05:12.400 --> 0:05:16.559 what the hell this is about? Yeah, it's interesting because 0:05:16.560 --> 0:05:19.560 it is a film in which a lot of stuff 0:05:19.640 --> 0:05:21.840 does not happen, a lot happens. It's a film that 0:05:21.839 --> 0:05:26.119 that that that kind of sums up the ascent of 0:05:26.240 --> 0:05:30.799 humanity and where humanity might go beyond beyond our planet. 0:05:30.839 --> 0:05:34.640 But at the same time, every time something seems to 0:05:34.640 --> 0:05:37.000 be happening, we kind of get a cut, you know, 0:05:37.560 --> 0:05:41.320 the scenes where characters are having pivotal discussions about what's happening. 0:05:41.360 --> 0:05:43.719 It's becomes just sort of a staple of so many 0:05:43.720 --> 0:05:48.000 other films, Like most films are missing. The murder that 0:05:48.000 --> 0:05:50.840 occurs to in the film is not actually seen, so 0:05:51.120 --> 0:05:54.320 it when you're watching two thousand one of Space Odyssey, 0:05:54.440 --> 0:05:56.920 there is almost this sense that someone is messing with 0:05:57.000 --> 0:06:00.440 you by removing these key bits of him from nation 0:06:00.560 --> 0:06:03.480 that should tell you what you're supposed to think about. Well, 0:06:03.560 --> 0:06:06.400 I can understand people hating it at first because it 0:06:06.480 --> 0:06:09.960 is in a way an intentionally challenging film. It's it 0:06:10.560 --> 0:06:15.480 goes against narrative conventions in a very deliberate way. Another 0:06:15.520 --> 0:06:18.360 thing about it is just I'm not usually a person 0:06:18.400 --> 0:06:21.120 to call out special effects first as a thing to 0:06:21.160 --> 0:06:23.520 love about the movie, but the visual effects in this 0:06:23.600 --> 0:06:27.760 movie are just unparalleled in so many ways. They look 0:06:27.800 --> 0:06:31.279 astonishingly realistic. For for you know, a time in the 0:06:31.320 --> 0:06:33.680 nineteen sixties when we hadn't even been to the moon 0:06:33.760 --> 0:06:35.680 yet when this movie was made, we had not been 0:06:35.720 --> 0:06:39.000 to the moon or space. Photography was very limited, so 0:06:39.040 --> 0:06:42.440 it's amazing they could get something looking as accurate to 0:06:42.760 --> 0:06:45.480 the experience of outer space as as they did. But 0:06:45.520 --> 0:06:49.680 then at the same time, it's so derealized and so 0:06:50.000 --> 0:06:53.320 unreal and uh, it has almost kind of a Dario 0:06:53.440 --> 0:06:56.560 Argento kind of quality, though of course it predates Argento, 0:06:56.680 --> 0:06:59.080 but I mean, like the you know, the strange lights 0:06:59.240 --> 0:07:04.600 and the way the colors color our moods. It's so good. Yeah, 0:07:04.640 --> 0:07:06.560 I'm glad Argento did not direct it, by the way, 0:07:06.560 --> 0:07:09.400 it could have been a very different film then The Monk, 0:07:09.480 --> 0:07:12.320 The The The the Dawn of Man sequence might have 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.520 been similar, but uh yeah, the special effects in this 0:07:15.600 --> 0:07:20.280 film are just so breathtaking. I feel like if anyone 0:07:20.280 --> 0:07:21.800 out there is wondering, what does it like to watch 0:07:21.840 --> 0:07:24.480 two thousand and one Space Obessee with Robert Lamb, it's like, 0:07:24.520 --> 0:07:28.200 every five minutes may sang aloud, why can't we make 0:07:28.280 --> 0:07:30.320 why don't we make movies that look like this? Now? 0:07:30.440 --> 0:07:32.760 You know, why can't why can't why don't spaceships look 0:07:32.760 --> 0:07:36.240 like this anymore? In films? And basically they don't look 0:07:36.280 --> 0:07:39.480 this good in anything else. For instance, nineteen seventy two 0:07:39.560 --> 0:07:42.640 Silent Running, another one of my favorite sci fi films, 0:07:42.960 --> 0:07:46.120 was directed by Douglas Trumbull, who worked on two thousand one, 0:07:46.120 --> 0:07:50.000 worked on the effects, and Silent Running looks fabulous, but 0:07:50.960 --> 0:07:53.720 it's not as pressed pristine as two thousand and one, 0:07:53.760 --> 0:07:55.720 And obviously you can point to a lot of different 0:07:56.240 --> 0:07:58.880 reasons for that. But then there's you know, you can 0:07:59.040 --> 0:08:01.120 you can say, well, these others were not directed by Kubrick. 0:08:01.160 --> 0:08:02.840 They maybe they did not have the budget, they didn't 0:08:02.880 --> 0:08:05.880 have the right key artistic people in place. Uh, this 0:08:06.000 --> 0:08:11.080 kind of perfect storm of creativity and intent. But but 0:08:11.080 --> 0:08:12.640 but you end up with this film that you had 0:08:12.680 --> 0:08:16.680 just looks so unlike anything else. And every single frame 0:08:16.720 --> 0:08:19.000 of this film I feel like you could you could 0:08:19.040 --> 0:08:21.800 print out, and you could put on the wall and 0:08:21.800 --> 0:08:24.679 and no one would question the choice. It's also somehow 0:08:25.400 --> 0:08:27.640 a movie that many people I think have tried to 0:08:27.680 --> 0:08:30.440 copy and been unable to. It's a movie the style 0:08:30.560 --> 0:08:35.040 of which is uncopyable. Uh My. I've talked about this 0:08:35.080 --> 0:08:38.000 a good bit with with my friend Dave. He often 0:08:38.040 --> 0:08:40.240 points out that you have the sequel to the film 0:08:40.679 --> 0:08:45.160 two thousand and ten, uh which which did not did 0:08:45.200 --> 0:08:48.400 not direct, came out in the eighties. Oh who was 0:08:48.480 --> 0:08:52.000 the guy who directed two thousand ten? Who he's the 0:08:52.000 --> 0:08:54.320 same amount gentleman and directed Outland as I Alo Cahol, 0:08:54.559 --> 0:08:58.360 Peter Hyams, and not just Outland. He made Time Cop. 0:08:59.000 --> 0:09:02.480 The guy who made thousand and ten made Time Cop. Well, 0:09:02.480 --> 0:09:04.679 it's interesting just if you just look at the trailers 0:09:04.920 --> 0:09:07.640 um between the two and you see just the stark 0:09:07.640 --> 0:09:10.599 difference because on one, on one hand, you have the 0:09:10.800 --> 0:09:14.880 again that the pristine white um, you know, almost hermetically 0:09:15.000 --> 0:09:18.760 sealed edible U seeming like you feel like you could 0:09:18.760 --> 0:09:22.559 just bite into the white chocolate goodness of the spaceships. 0:09:22.800 --> 0:09:24.800 In two thousand and one of Space hodysty and then 0:09:24.800 --> 0:09:29.280 by two thousand and ten everything is industrial and grimy, 0:09:29.520 --> 0:09:31.600 and not just the sets the order of the day 0:09:31.600 --> 0:09:33.760 it was, but but not only the sets but also 0:09:33.800 --> 0:09:37.440 the character interactions, because suddenly it's not this this very 0:09:37.480 --> 0:09:42.760 subdued performance, limited uh interaction, limited discussions between characters. No, 0:09:42.880 --> 0:09:46.320 you have Roy Schider run and center, mayor not Mayor 0:09:46.360 --> 0:09:50.080 of Amity from Jaws Chief of Police, Chief Rody. Yeah, 0:09:50.160 --> 0:09:53.160 Chief Rody is just right up front getting into you know, 0:09:53.400 --> 0:09:57.280 loud discussions with with all available characters. We're gonna need 0:09:57.320 --> 0:10:00.640 a bigger spacecraft before we keep going. And let's let's 0:10:00.640 --> 0:10:04.199 actually just listen to an excerpt from the original theatrical 0:10:04.200 --> 0:10:08.080 trailer for two thousand and one, millions of years ago, 0:10:08.400 --> 0:10:17.080 before the human race existed, an adventure began, an adventure 0:10:17.160 --> 0:10:21.760 that ultimately leads man to confront his own destiny in 0:10:21.800 --> 0:10:34.280 anticy of Exploration. Sounds great even without those impressive visuals. 0:10:34.320 --> 0:10:36.400 I feel like you still get you still hear that, 0:10:36.480 --> 0:10:38.360 and you just sucked in. Oh yeah. The music is 0:10:38.360 --> 0:10:40.240 a big part of the movie. In fact, they're they're 0:10:40.280 --> 0:10:42.880 segments of the movie where the screen is black and 0:10:42.960 --> 0:10:46.160 it's just music, and I think that's a very important 0:10:46.160 --> 0:10:49.040 part of the experience as well. So if you've never 0:10:49.080 --> 0:10:52.200 seen the movie and you don't want it spoiled, I 0:10:52.240 --> 0:10:54.200 don't know if that really makes sense with this movie, 0:10:54.240 --> 0:10:56.120 you might want to pause this and go watch it. 0:10:56.160 --> 0:10:58.319 Now we're about to talk about what happens in the plot. 0:10:58.360 --> 0:10:59.839 But I would say this is not a movie that 0:11:00.160 --> 0:11:02.440 is that is really going to be spoiled by you 0:11:02.480 --> 0:11:05.280 knowing what happens in advance. That's not really the point 0:11:05.559 --> 0:11:07.800 because it again, it leaves so much for interpretation and 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.800 it's so visual. I would urge you definitely if you 0:11:11.800 --> 0:11:14.080 have the ability used to get the blue ray on 0:11:14.120 --> 0:11:17.120 this one, because this is a film where the higher 0:11:17.200 --> 0:11:20.400 definition available the better. So the movie is basically broken 0:11:20.400 --> 0:11:22.600 into four parts. Would you say that's fair? Would you 0:11:22.600 --> 0:11:25.440 say three or four? Um? I would say it's broken 0:11:25.480 --> 0:11:29.560 into four parts kind of three separate movies that are, 0:11:29.920 --> 0:11:31.640 and it will feel like that you're like, oh, I 0:11:31.679 --> 0:11:34.480 guess we're done with this section. Now, Uh, let's follow 0:11:34.520 --> 0:11:37.640 this character. So the first section you get a title card. 0:11:37.640 --> 0:11:39.760 It says the Dawn of Man, and you've got this 0:11:39.800 --> 0:11:42.600 group of early hominids. I think it's suggested, well not, 0:11:42.720 --> 0:11:46.599 I think it is definitely suggested that these are our ancestors. 0:11:46.679 --> 0:11:48.880 That you go back some number of millions of years, 0:11:48.920 --> 0:11:52.800 and they are these sort of desert savannah dwelling ap 0:11:52.880 --> 0:11:57.559 like creatures, and they are hanging around eating plants, hiding 0:11:57.600 --> 0:12:00.439 from a leopard that attacks them, and fighting with another 0:12:00.480 --> 0:12:03.559 band of apelike creatures over access to a puddle of water. 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.120 And then one day they wake up and find this 0:12:06.320 --> 0:12:11.200 great black rectangle, this rectangular box that's known in the 0:12:11.280 --> 0:12:13.640 in the story is the monolith. Yea, this slab of 0:12:13.760 --> 0:12:17.960 matter that is unlike anything in their natural habitat. It's 0:12:18.000 --> 0:12:21.719 not only unlike anything they've seen, it embodies interesting mathematical 0:12:21.840 --> 0:12:26.160 characteristics like the dimension ratios are one four and nine, 0:12:26.200 --> 0:12:29.240 so it's nine units high, four units wide, and one 0:12:29.320 --> 0:12:31.920 unit deep. Of course, one four and nine are the 0:12:31.960 --> 0:12:34.839 squares of the first three integers one, two, and three. 0:12:35.480 --> 0:12:38.320 And so after first being frightened by the monolith and 0:12:38.320 --> 0:12:41.080 they kind of scream at it and do territorial displays, 0:12:41.120 --> 0:12:43.000 one of them gets the courage to go up and 0:12:43.040 --> 0:12:45.560 touch it, and then they all begin to touch it, 0:12:45.840 --> 0:12:49.240 and the encounter somehow triggers something in human evolution, and 0:12:49.320 --> 0:12:53.000 the mechanism is not explained, but something happens to these 0:12:53.040 --> 0:12:58.160 apelike creatures, right, yeah, they they this amazing sequence. They 0:12:58.280 --> 0:12:59.959 be one of them, in particular, I believe this is 0:13:00.120 --> 0:13:03.160 Moon Gazer Uh as he's referred to in the book, 0:13:03.760 --> 0:13:07.200 picks up the bone of one of these taper creatures 0:13:07.200 --> 0:13:10.480 that they're living among and realizes that he can wield 0:13:10.559 --> 0:13:13.280 it as a tool and wield it as a weapon. Right, 0:13:13.320 --> 0:13:16.360 Grabbing the femur of one of these tapers gives you leverage, 0:13:16.400 --> 0:13:18.760 and that extra leverage makes all the difference in the 0:13:18.760 --> 0:13:21.920 world for these creatures, who now suddenly have the ability 0:13:21.960 --> 0:13:24.400 to kill the tapers and eat the meat and to 0:13:24.480 --> 0:13:27.480 fight off the predators, right exactly, to fight off the leopard, 0:13:27.559 --> 0:13:30.760 to defend, to win in territorial disputes with the other 0:13:30.920 --> 0:13:33.080 with the other ape like creatures over the water puddle, 0:13:33.360 --> 0:13:35.559 and so in victory, then one of the ape like 0:13:35.679 --> 0:13:37.640 creatures throws this bone up in the air and then 0:13:37.679 --> 0:13:39.880 we get one of the most fantastic cuts in all 0:13:39.920 --> 0:13:43.080 of movie history, where the bone immediately cuts to a 0:13:43.120 --> 0:13:46.319 spacecraft above the Earth. It's like a five million year 0:13:46.360 --> 0:13:49.600 smash cut. It's also the reason that in Mystery Science 0:13:49.640 --> 0:13:52.760 Theater three thousand, the satellite of Love looks like a bone. 0:13:52.840 --> 0:13:56.880 Oh really, yeah, they said that explicitly, Joe Joel Hodgson 0:13:57.080 --> 0:13:59.880 says that explicitly. But its shaped like a cartoon bone, 0:14:00.080 --> 0:14:03.400 like the two little lobes on each side, or like 0:14:03.480 --> 0:14:05.600 a dog chew toy bone. And then of course after 0:14:05.640 --> 0:14:08.080 this we're in the age of space exploration, which is 0:14:08.120 --> 0:14:10.600 where the rest of the movie takes place. You've got 0:14:10.600 --> 0:14:12.880 this middle section that is not given a title card, 0:14:12.960 --> 0:14:16.280 so it doesn't let you know explicitly this is a 0:14:16.320 --> 0:14:19.040 different part of the story. But a character named Heywood 0:14:19.040 --> 0:14:21.640 Floyd is flying around in space travels to a space 0:14:21.680 --> 0:14:24.680 station and then to the Moon to investigate an anomaly 0:14:24.800 --> 0:14:27.280 that's been discovered on the surface of the Moon, where 0:14:27.360 --> 0:14:31.080 researchers on a moon base have discovered an underground object 0:14:31.120 --> 0:14:34.200 generating a strong magnetic field. So they dig it up 0:14:34.320 --> 0:14:36.880 and it's another monolith. Right. I should also add that 0:14:37.160 --> 0:14:39.479 it's only in this sequence that we get any dialogue. 0:14:39.640 --> 0:14:42.280 We go and what feels like an astounding amount of 0:14:42.280 --> 0:14:46.080 time in the film without any characters speaking to anyone, 0:14:46.480 --> 0:14:49.960 no narration, nothing, and it's beautiful. It's just hypnotic. Uh. 0:14:50.480 --> 0:14:55.800 The scenes of the of the Taurus space station rotating 0:14:55.840 --> 0:14:58.800 there with the classical music playing behind it. Absolutely, and 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.920 that the whole thing about space stations in the sequence 0:15:02.000 --> 0:15:05.480 is a really interesting and deliberate filmmaking choice on Kubrick's part. 0:15:05.520 --> 0:15:09.000 I think, um, because very often what you want to 0:15:09.040 --> 0:15:11.440 show in in sci fi of the time. You know, 0:15:11.480 --> 0:15:13.760 if you had the sci fi of the fifties, sixties, 0:15:13.800 --> 0:15:17.680 Flash Gordon type stuff, you you would have wanted to 0:15:17.880 --> 0:15:23.160 show spaceships as an exciting, fast moving, powerful thing. But 0:15:23.240 --> 0:15:26.240 instead spacecraft in this movie are are presented as a 0:15:26.320 --> 0:15:30.520 thing as a kind of like slow moving, very careful, 0:15:30.800 --> 0:15:34.320 behemoth technology. Yeah. And uh, and I also love how 0:15:34.360 --> 0:15:37.360 the station itself that we see is unfinished. Yeah. So 0:15:37.440 --> 0:15:40.560 there's not this sense of this pristine sense of all right, 0:15:40.760 --> 0:15:43.280 humans have done it, they're in space now, they've got 0:15:43.280 --> 0:15:45.760 it all worked out. No, there's this sense that even 0:15:45.800 --> 0:15:50.000 though everything this this technological world is is so advanced 0:15:50.000 --> 0:15:52.600 compared to what we had then and also what we 0:15:52.680 --> 0:15:56.440 have now in many respects, yet it is still unfinished. 0:15:56.440 --> 0:15:58.880 It is still work in progress. We will definitely come 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:01.840 back and talk more about the about the technological reality 0:16:01.840 --> 0:16:05.240 of the space travel sequence later. But um, so, what 0:16:05.320 --> 0:16:07.240 happens in the plus so they find this monolith on 0:16:07.280 --> 0:16:10.360 the Moon. It emits a powerful radio signal when sunlight 0:16:10.400 --> 0:16:13.320 touches it, and it seems to indicate that there's something 0:16:13.400 --> 0:16:16.200 else for them to find in orbit around Jupiter. You know, 0:16:16.240 --> 0:16:19.720 I thought we're rewatching it for this episode. This was 0:16:19.760 --> 0:16:23.479 the first time I realized that without that sequence, um, 0:16:23.600 --> 0:16:25.520 the Ark of the Covenant in Raiders at the Lost 0:16:25.600 --> 0:16:28.280 Ark would have been very different, because clearly that's where 0:16:28.320 --> 0:16:31.880 Steven Spielberg got the inspiration for the way the arc 0:16:31.960 --> 0:16:34.080 is presented. You mean the opening scene at the end 0:16:34.120 --> 0:16:37.440 of the movie. Yes, yeah, don't look at it, yes exactly. 0:16:37.680 --> 0:16:39.280 You know, that scene I think takes a page from 0:16:39.320 --> 0:16:41.400 two thousand one in multiple ways. There's the sort of 0:16:41.480 --> 0:16:44.800 staging of the scene which is clearly esthetically derived from 0:16:44.840 --> 0:16:48.240 two thousand one. But I think also the mystery of 0:16:48.280 --> 0:16:51.040 the scene, how it's not really fully explained, how Indie 0:16:51.040 --> 0:16:53.840 No is not to look at it, you know, yeah, yeah, 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:57.880 I agree. Interesting bit of Hollywood gossip trivia. But during 0:16:57.920 --> 0:17:00.720 the filming of Raiders, Uh, the art in the monolith 0:17:00.720 --> 0:17:05.920 we're actually dating. Not many people know that. It should 0:17:05.920 --> 0:17:08.400 have known better than to trust an arc and Arkell 0:17:08.480 --> 0:17:11.760 break your heart every time. So then we go to 0:17:11.800 --> 0:17:14.080 the next sequence, the third sequence of the movie, which 0:17:14.119 --> 0:17:17.080 is a crude mission to Jupiter in a spacecraft called 0:17:17.200 --> 0:17:19.679 Discovery one. So you've got several crew members who are 0:17:19.680 --> 0:17:22.560 in hibernation, and then you've got two astronauts named David 0:17:22.560 --> 0:17:25.880 Bowman and Frank Poole who are awake, and the Discovery One, 0:17:25.960 --> 0:17:29.679 we find out, is controlled by an onboard artificial intelligence 0:17:29.760 --> 0:17:33.080 called HOW nine thousand. It's always been fun to point out, 0:17:33.320 --> 0:17:35.760 especially years ago when I was wrestling with the sluggish 0:17:35.800 --> 0:17:39.000 IBM for eighty six, that, of course HOW as an acronym, 0:17:39.080 --> 0:17:43.679 is just one letter removed from IBM HL. I actually 0:17:43.680 --> 0:17:46.119 never put that together before. I don't know if that 0:17:46.160 --> 0:17:50.359 was intentional. I assume it was. But How advertises the 0:17:50.400 --> 0:17:52.600 fact that he, you know, he's an artificial intelligence. He 0:17:52.640 --> 0:17:56.200 has conversations with people. He sort of presents himself as 0:17:56.280 --> 0:17:59.199 in many ways a person. He straight up says that 0:17:59.240 --> 0:18:02.480 he has consciousness, kind of off handedly. But uh, and 0:18:02.560 --> 0:18:05.119 He also advertises that he is perfect and that he 0:18:05.240 --> 0:18:08.760 is incapable of error, and of course, when How begins 0:18:08.800 --> 0:18:11.879 to appear to malfunction, Bowman and Pool are really troubled 0:18:11.920 --> 0:18:14.719 by this, so they secretly decide to take How offline 0:18:14.760 --> 0:18:18.040 and complete the mission under human control without the artificially 0:18:18.080 --> 0:18:21.800 intelligent computer. How becomes aware of their plans and tries 0:18:21.840 --> 0:18:24.680 to kill them. Uh. He believes that if he's deactivated, 0:18:24.720 --> 0:18:26.760 it will put the mission in jeopardy, so How kills 0:18:26.800 --> 0:18:29.840 Frank Pool during a spacewalk and then tries to kill 0:18:29.920 --> 0:18:32.560 David Bowman, but Bowman manages to get inside the ship 0:18:32.840 --> 0:18:35.640 and deactivate the computer. And as he's doing this, there's 0:18:35.720 --> 0:18:40.560 this long, strange sequence where How begs for his life 0:18:40.720 --> 0:18:45.919 and I forgot how how unnerving that whole sequence is, 0:18:46.000 --> 0:18:49.080 while where the computer is begging not to be killed, 0:18:49.600 --> 0:18:53.120 while the while the astronaut is taking out its memory. Yeah, yeah, 0:18:53.240 --> 0:18:55.240 just the what are you doing day? We tend to 0:18:55.240 --> 0:18:56.920 I feel like I tend to remember just a little 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:58.919 bit of it that it does. It goes on for 0:18:58.960 --> 0:19:02.239 a while as he's slowly removing he well, first as 0:19:02.280 --> 0:19:06.200 he's gaining access to the chamber, and then slowly removing 0:19:06.240 --> 0:19:09.040 each of those cards, and then in the final sequence 0:19:09.080 --> 0:19:12.080 of the movie, Bowman reaches the destination on Jupiter and 0:19:12.119 --> 0:19:16.240 discovers another monolith there in orbit around Jupiter, and this monolith, 0:19:16.359 --> 0:19:19.080 unlike the others, which were just solid objects, appears to 0:19:19.080 --> 0:19:22.520 be some kind of doorway or gateway, which begins this 0:19:22.720 --> 0:19:26.000 surreal sequence that ends the movie, where Bowman is apparently 0:19:26.000 --> 0:19:30.600 taken across vast distances and shown incomprehensible sites. We it's 0:19:30.640 --> 0:19:33.600 it's hard to know exactly how literally to take the 0:19:33.640 --> 0:19:36.240 things that he appears to be seeing. We're showing a 0:19:36.240 --> 0:19:39.080 lot of things, apparently from his perspective that are just 0:19:39.240 --> 0:19:42.159 colors and hard to understand. Yeah, there's this sense that 0:19:42.440 --> 0:19:45.000 is definitely an acid trip vibe to it. I mean 0:19:45.040 --> 0:19:47.400 some of the visuals so where we see these sort 0:19:47.440 --> 0:19:50.920 of cosmic explosions taking place like those are are are 0:19:51.200 --> 0:19:54.399 films of like oil, uh that are very similar to 0:19:54.480 --> 0:19:57.560 some of those, like those oil projection patterns that you 0:19:57.680 --> 0:20:02.280 see in like sixties musical performances, whether you know, projected 0:20:02.320 --> 0:20:04.600 on the on the screen or on the band itself. 0:20:04.640 --> 0:20:06.959 It reminds me of like stand brackage movies like if 0:20:06.960 --> 0:20:09.719 you've ever seen a Dog, Starman or anything like that, 0:20:09.920 --> 0:20:13.119 Experimental films that have a lot of things like close 0:20:13.240 --> 0:20:17.560 ups of liquids being pressed between pains of glasts and stuff. Yeah, 0:20:17.600 --> 0:20:20.280 that sort of thing. So you're you're left wondering, is 0:20:20.359 --> 0:20:23.840 this is this the gateway that were as we're seeing it, 0:20:23.880 --> 0:20:29.120 Is this just like the the crazy um psychedelic experience 0:20:29.200 --> 0:20:31.640 that is that is happening to Bowman as he's kind 0:20:31.640 --> 0:20:36.399 of like squeeze through the fabric of reality and you know, 0:20:36.400 --> 0:20:38.560 with space and time warping all around him. Is this 0:20:38.680 --> 0:20:41.680 essentially Stephen King's the Jaunt because he looks like he's 0:20:41.720 --> 0:20:44.480 jaunting and some of those skills that we see, Yes, 0:20:44.560 --> 0:20:48.040 so like his visions seem to be intercut with these 0:20:48.080 --> 0:20:51.320 stills of his face being blurred and warped and like 0:20:51.400 --> 0:20:56.000 he's losing his mind. And then Bowman finally ends up 0:20:56.000 --> 0:20:59.520 in a strange room that has like a glowing floor 0:20:59.760 --> 0:21:03.879 and neo classical furniture and decorations, and a lot of 0:21:03.880 --> 0:21:06.560 people have argued over what this scene means, but he 0:21:06.640 --> 0:21:11.120 essentially sees himself other versions of himself and then becomes 0:21:11.200 --> 0:21:13.760 them as an older and older version of himself. It 0:21:14.040 --> 0:21:16.359 seems to sort of suggest that many years passed with 0:21:16.440 --> 0:21:18.600 him living in this room, but it's not exactly clear. 0:21:18.880 --> 0:21:22.000 And then finally he's laying in bed, apparently near death, 0:21:22.080 --> 0:21:24.560 and another monolith stands at the foot of his bed, 0:21:25.040 --> 0:21:28.840 and he appears transformed into some kind of glowing newborn 0:21:28.960 --> 0:21:32.119 baby with these creepy adult eyes. Adult eyes on a 0:21:32.160 --> 0:21:36.240 baby is just the most horrifying side. But it's this 0:21:36.320 --> 0:21:39.679 new form of humanity shown. And then he has finally 0:21:39.720 --> 0:21:42.280 shown hovering back over Earth, and a lot of people 0:21:42.280 --> 0:21:44.480 have argued, what does this mean? Has he come back 0:21:44.480 --> 0:21:47.520 to Earth to what has he been transformed? Is he 0:21:47.600 --> 0:21:50.600 back here to share some kind of knowledge with us? 0:21:50.720 --> 0:21:54.160 Is he back here to do something to observe us, 0:21:54.240 --> 0:21:57.640