Thus Spake Zarathrustra

2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 film produced and directed by Stanley Kubrick and co-written by sci-fi genius Arthur C. Clarke. Visually stunning scenes, little dialogue, and an enigmatic ending make it one of the most beautiful films ever made and at the same time one of the most difficult to understand. This post will offer one interpretation of the film, which, in the end, is but one of many.

The monoliths seem to propel Man to his next stage of evolution. Before the first monolith appears in Africa 4 million years ago, our ancestors are indistinguishable from their primate cousins.


The presence of the monolith, however, prompts one forward-thinking ape do something that no being on the planet has done before: pick up a bone and smash things with it. In that moment, Man makes the enormous evolutionary leap into his next stage of existence and thus begins the Age of the Tool.


The use of tools allows him to reach the Stars (which, ironically, renders him a child who must learn how to walk again and is relegated to eating food through a straw) and culminates in his development of a computer that is so sophisticated that it gains its own sense of self. It is at this point that Man reaches a critical point in his development - for the tools that he has created threaten to overpower him. Man has no choice but to discard his beloved tools and face the uncertainty of the Unknown himself.


Man is now ready for the next stage of his evolution. He is propelled through space and time, across the Cosmos, developing at an accelerated rate until he is confronted with the final obstacle: his own death.


When, as an old man, Dave knocks the wine glass off the table breaking it, but the liquid is still there, it seems as if the orchestrator of this process is raising the question, "When the body dies and the container is gone, what is left?"


In the answer lies the point of the film: What is left when the container has been discarded is nothing other than You.

Kubrick's reference to Neitzsche's Starchild is designed to represent the next stage of Man's development. A nuclear missile has no effect on him for he is beyond form. Man has now reached the next stage of his evolution - he is Consciousness.