Scene 1 OVERTURE
Black screen, dissonant tones
Audience: Feels
unsettled. (Didn't I come here to WATCH
a movie?)
Director: This is not
a regular movie. Be prepared for a
different kind of experience. The
curtain has not yet risen.
Possible Metaphor:
Blackness may indicate what existed before human consciousness or
creation: i.e. literally night before
the dawning.
After a minute, dissonance builds... for two more minutes,
almost like an orchestra tuning before a play (the evolution tuning/tinkering
before the play of mankind?).
Scene 2 OPENING
CREDITS
Majestic music [Richard Strauss' Thus
Spake Zarathustra, which refers to Nietzsche's text of the same, which stated
famously "God is dead." It is
intended to be somewhat irreligious--if replacing it with a religion of science
(see ending sequence)]. Dawning of sun
on Earth. Note what appears before the
dawning of the Sun--the Moon--which prefigures other monuments/monoliths.
Scene 3 THE DAWN OF
MAN
Dawn on Earth.
Animal, insect noises. Wind. No music.
A desert (before the dawn).
Bones signify death but also prefigure birth of tech (bones
also used for giving death to some in order to give life to others). Juxtaposition to next shot of "men"
eating. Wild cat attacks (survival of
the fittest). Grooming. Competition with other animals for food
(other ape groups, other grazers). In
other words, up to this point, there's nothing that distinguishes our species
as being apart from the chain or cycle of being: Eat or be eaten. The wild cat growling over its prey, the
zebra, is no different than the apes defending the watering hole from other
apes. Apes hide in cave at night while
wild cat growls outside.
Voices singing tunelessly.
Apes awake at dawn. First
mysterious monument appears. Monument is
metaphor made real. It represents major
steps up the evolutionary ladder toward intelligence. The monument is obviously not
natural--rectangle, sharp corners, purely black: a door without a knob. It prefigures the discovery of the first
tool. At first the apes fear the
monument; then they touch, explore.
Bones--the glory of the first tool. Achievement is backgrounded with Strauss'
majestic music of the second scene (including organ--reminiscent of a
church?). Hint of violence.
Next series of shots:
now eat meat. Next series: first murder of (formerly?) same
species. Murder chases away rivals. Superiority is celebrated by throwing of bone
into air.
Scene 4 FROM EARTH TO
THE MOON (but not quite to the Moon.
Scene title is a play off an old Wells' novel)
Bone/tool of scene 3 transforms (famously) into
spaceship. The ship is an advanced
tool. Now the music is a waltz, a
dance. Kubrick wants the viewer to glory
in the progress of technology since the dawning. It is a calm, soothing, sophisticated,
cultured dance of the ship joining the space station. This makes Kubrick identify with the typical
reader of SF: the advancement of
humanity/technology is central.
Unlike scene 2 where the earth was in shadow, now it looms
huge, luminous and blue.
The Blue Danube: The
waltz--usually a dance between partners of opposite sex--now a dance between
ship and station (although possibly metaphor for genders. the waltz returns
without as transparent of innuendoes).
As the ship approaches, it orients with station (in process of being
built) so that to one another they appear normal while the rest of the universe
spins. Good understanding of spin
(weightlessness, however, could have been improved upon--Kubrick's technology
may not have been capable).
Scenes 5-7 VOICE
PRINT IDENTIFICATION, SQUIRT, A GREAT BIG MYSTERY
Various demonstrations of what everyday future technology
may be like. Note very stark white
interiors: purity of technology? People and chairs are highly colored. The chairs they sit upon are red--like Hal's
eye. Perhaps they ought not to trust so
heavily?
Hint of "epidemic" on moon station. Dr. Floyd is "not at liberty to
discuss" the matter. Perhaps human
advancement is an epidemic? or has been falsely portrayed as an epidemic?
Scene 8 OFF TO
CLOVIUS
Again, the Blue Danube:
Waltz to the moon. Drink
food. Trick shot of woman walking upside
down. Even a zero gravity toilet is a
technological dance. Not sure what all
the bright red signifies: Pilots in red,
ship dock lit in red, chairs of scene 7 in red.
Perhaps they link up to the red of dawn in earlier scenes? But why chairs? These are the things that get us there? the things we rely on? But what about Hal's eye? Isn't there something menacing about the red
seen from outside the white (i.e. lunar lander from space)? It may be that the unions of contrast--humans
may err, and machine may be perfect--is a dance, a marriage that is spoiled
when machines are too heavily relied upon.
Note what BBC interviewer asks Hal.
Scene 9 PURPOSE OF
THE VISIT
Hush, hush. Epidemic
is really a cover story. Some secrecy
required. Seats, carpet blue (blue
Earth? Blue Danube? a planet, a river that change over time? or another
waltz/dance but of political words?).
Scene 10 DELIBERATELY
BURIED
Passengers in blue.
Pilots in red (again, well choreographed marriage/dance of men and
computers). Food improving. Puzzle unravels: Something deliberately buried on moon (by?).
Scene 11 THE MONOLITH
Passengers disembark and journey to the monument, tentative,
questing like the apes, one leading the others. Except this time they take a
picture, which appears to set off an alarm.
Scene 12 JUPITER
MISSION (18 months later)
Question (perhaps insoluble): Was the trip to the moon the monumental event
or Hal, the machine intelligence, supposedly superior, most reliable (would Hal
like to think the latter)? However,
ultimately, the question may be solvable in that Hal is designated as red and,
therefore, just the pilot.
"No 9000 has ever made a mistake or distorted
information. We are all foolproof and
incapable of error."
"Hal, despite your enormous intellect, are you ever
frustrated by your dependence on people to carry out actions."
"As to whether or not he has real feelings is something
no one can truthfully answer."
Curious: Crewmen
watch their own responses as they eat.
Scenes 13-16 "THE
WORLD TONIGHT," FRANK'S PARENTS, CHESS
WITH HAL, SKETCHES AND SUSPICIONS
Dave draws pictures of men in hibernation. Metaphor?
Machines doing too much of the thinking?
Hal proves superiority at chess.
Hal expresses doubts of mission and secrecy that shrouds it. Although scene 27 ("A Pre-Recorded
Briefing") suggested that Hal knew everything and that the crew knew
little or nothing, scene 16 suggests that Hal's information was somewhat
limited as well. According to scene 27,
Hal knows that other intelligences await, but he pretends(?) here not to know
about the digging on the moon.
Scene 17 REMOVING THE
AE35
Every scene is shown from multiple angles: Human acting, Computer watching human, Human
watching computer. Curious shot of pod
facing mothership as if facing off one another (parent to child--did not humans
give birth to machines? Yet who is
mothering? The machine does most of the
acting: Hal, move me closer.... Hal,
rotate the pod.... Open the pod bay doors please, Hal... etc.).
Sound is silent except for gas hissing, human breathing--the
lone living inhabitant outside the ship.
Sound probably intended to heighten sense of tenuous life in a harsh
space (passing asteroids). Frank leaps
unnecessarily dangerously across space, but this too is probably intended to
heighten place of danger though Frank's face appears unworried.
Scene 18-19 HUMAN
ERROR?, A BAD FEELING
"Well, Hal, I'm damned if I can find anything wrong
with it."
"Yes," Hal pauses overlong (i.e. he is damned, as
well as...), "it's puzzling."
Hal: Interested in cutting off human communication
completely (see related parenthetical 2 paragraphs down).
Mission Control: 9000 in error of predicting the fault.
Hal: It has always
been due to human error.
Dave having trouble with "transmitter" in the seed
pod. (The little girl,
"Squirt," wants a telephone (mother and father not at home). Communication is delayed between astronauts
and Earth. Technology is distancing
people from one another. Frank and
Squirt are separated from one another on their birthday due to technology. The music during Frank's birthday
transmission is melancholic.)
"Caution:
Explosive bolts"
Great shots from computer angle lip reading. Great time to cut to intermission.
SCENE 20 INTERMISSION
It may be that this has a few intended functions: To feel more like a play (with orchestra
tuning), and to prolong omnious mood tones.
Scene 21 CUT ADRIFT
Famous shots of dual perspective: of Frank's face operating seed pod and of the
helmet reflecting the lights of the equipment Frank is operating.
Again, multiple perspective shot: of Frank exiting the seed pod, of Hal's eye
watching, of Dave's shoulder watching.
Frank murdered by Hal.
Scene 22 RESCUE
MISSION
Dave investigates death via pod. Again, the sign "Caution: Explosive bolts" which carries more weight (i.e. explosive
emotion, machine bolts).
Scene 23 THE BIG
SLEEP
"Computer Malfunction" vs. "Life Functions
Critical" -- More murders (see last note on scene 8).
"This mission is too important for me to allow you to
jeopardize it." Hal interjects
himself as the primary actor/benefactor of the mission. Humans err; hence, jettison the humans.
Scenes 24-27
"OPEN THE DOORS!",
EMERGENCY AIRLOCK, "MY MIND
IS GOING," PRE-RECORDED BRIEFING
Open the doors may be a metaphor for man's inability to
achieve progress through machine doors.
True progress comes when... (you'll have to wait for the psychedelic
scenes).
Dismantling Hal -- Hal becomes the most life-like of his
existence, when he's about to die--he sings a love song, even. Reflect on earliest scenes of life/death and
their intimate connection. We find out
the humans had trusted the machine more than humans with the information about
the knowledge of other intelligence.
Scene 28 JUPITER...
Dissonant voices soon to be accompanied by dissonant
music. Monument flies by (in orbit?
probably not). Jupiter (greatest of
Greek gods) in sight. (Planets supposed
to be aligned?) Pod bay door opens, and
presumably Dave flew out to fetch the monument, seguewaying into the
psychedelic sequence (what movie of this period wasn't enhanced by such? Apparently, rumors abounded at the time that
you couldn't understand the movie without drugs... not that you would
understand when you came down).
Scene 29 ...AND
BEYOND THE INFINITE
The lights seem to indicate motion through space, and the
still-frames indicate strange, slowed time (if, in some manner,
horrifying). Eerie, dissonant voices
stop when the first still-frame of Dave appears--i.e. a different stage of
journey.
The human eye is juxtaposed against the exploding
supernova--perhaps a journey to the Big Bang, the beginning of it all and
perhaps to, therefore, all knowledge.
Jellyfish-light imagery (parallel between beginning of time and
life?). Alternately, the lights could be
said to be of egg-yolk consistency while the *white* *seed* pod trails
something behind it like a white tail (need I elaborate?).
Again the juxtaposing of the eye to imagery that mimics the
eye. Perhaps looking into one is like
looking into the other, peering into a thing's essence.
Flights over rocky and watery terrains. Eye turns normal, as dissonant tones smooth
out.
Scene 30 THROUGH
SPACE AND TIME
Seed pod now in a bedroom (appropriate place if common for
the conception of babies--see end of scene).
White floors, bottom lit. Grecian
white statues. Dave is shaken, shaking
inside the pod. He peers out and sees
himself, outside the pod. In fact, he is
that self outside the pod, and the self inside the pod is no more. Dave has aged. This motif, repeated often, is not unlike
life: We look ahead to who we will be
while looking backward at where we've been... where we no longer are.
Almost operatic voices in bathroom. (Renaissance?) paintings fill the walls
behind, which along with the statues and other decor, perhaps symbolize human
intellectual progress of a few millennia.
Dave peers at self in mirror (not unlike eye of psychedelic scene), then
peers at himself older and finally accustomed to this life, cutting up food on
his plate. The future Dave feels like
he's being watched, turns around but sees no one (perhaps this suggests that
Kubrick saw hindsight as less reliable as foresight).
Dave knocks the crystal glass over--it shatters on the
floor. He looks at it, then to the sound
of heavy breathing from the bed (his future self, of course): both broken vessels.
Dave on his death bed crooks a finger like the Sistine
chapel painting by Michelango and directs his finger at the mysterious
monument, suddenly at the foot of his bed.
Then Dave is gone and is replaced by a fetus. What is odd about the fetus?
Scene 31 STAR CHILD
Its eyes are wide open, and it journeys back to Earth--presumably
through the monolith gateway--wide-eyed, with the majestic music that played
when humanity moved beyond its dawning evolution. The future awaits. Something will change, something will be born
(though what the next stage will bring, it does not specify).
