A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government (while hiding the situation from the public) sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission. Eighteen months later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object--but on this trip something goes terribly wrong.

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Director and (with Arthur C. Clarke) co-screenwriter Stanley Kubrick has created a visual and aural spectacle that stands as one of the greatest achievements ever put on celluloid. The film begins with the "Dawn of Man" segment, about the evolution of apes, and then ventures into the future, taking a look at what the world might be like in the first year of the 21st century. Kubrick's film is a triumph of technological storytelling, with stunning sets and a brilliant, overwhelming soundtrack. Long dialogue-free scenes sparkle with indelible images backed by powerful orchestral music, culminating in an unforgettable, inscrutable tale of birth and rebirth, human evolution and artificial intelligence, the past and the future.

Theatrical release: April 4, 1968.

Filmed at MGM British Studios Ltd., Borehamwood, England.

Production on the film lasted four years.

The film was based on Arthur C. Clarke's short story "The Sentinel."

2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY was added to the Library of Congress National Film Registry in 1991.

Alex North composed a score for the film, but Kubrick opted to go with more familiar classical music pieces instead.

There are four parts of the film: "The Dawn of Man," "From Earth to the Moon," "Jupiter 18 Months Later," and "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite."

Pink Floyd's song "Echoes" was supposedly written and recorded to synchronize with the "Jupiter and Beyond the Infinite" part.

Vivian Kubrick, who plays Squirt, Dr. Floyd's daughter, is Stanley's daughter.

An early working title for the film was JOURNEY BEYOND THE STARS.

Two possibilities for the voice of HAL were actors Nigel Davenport and Martin Balsam before Douglas Rain got the part; Rain recorded his part without ever actually being on the set of the film.

Kubrick won an Oscar for Best Effects/Special Visual Effects, the only Oscar win of his career.

Bowman's spaceship is Discovery I, a name that was later used for an actual U.S. space shuttle.

A theory was perpetrated that Kubrick got the name HAL by taking the next letter preceding each one in IBM; Kubrick claimed that that was a coincidence. According to Arthur C. Clarke's writing, the name came from the technical term "heuristic algorithm."

Kubrick cut about 20 minutes from the film after the preview for critics and before the theatrical release. The original film was 160 minutes, which included an intermission, and was rated MPAA G.

Mission controller Frank Miller was an actual mission controller, and Richard Wood, who played the anchorman, was an actual BBC anchorman.

A sequel to the film, 2010: THE YEAR WE MAKE CONTACT, was released in 1984.

Excerpt: "The 9000 series is the most reliable computer ever made. No 9000 computer has ever made a mistake or distorted information. We are all, by any practical definition of the words, foolproof and incapable of error."--HAL 9000 (voice of Douglas Rain)

"I enjoy working with people."--HAL 9000

"Open the pod bay doors, Hal."--Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea)
"I'm sorry, Dave. I'm afraid I can't do that."--HAL
"What's the problem?"--Dave
"I think you know what the problem is just as much as I do."--HAL
"What are you talking about, Hal?"--Dave
"This mission is too important for me to allow you to jeopardize it."--HAL

DVD Features:

Region 1
Snap Case
Anamorphic Widescreen - 2.20
Letterbox - 2.20
Audio:
Dolby Digital 5.1 - English
Dolby Digital Mono - French
Additional Release Material:
Trailers: Original Theatrical Trailer
Interactive Features:
Scene Access
Interactive Menus
Text/Photo Galleries:
Production Notes
Additional Text: Interview with Arthur C. Clarke

Keir Dullea: Star, NAKED CITY (1960)
William Sylvester: American Actor
Gary Lockwood: American TV/Film Actor
Daniel Richter: Supporting Actor/"2001"
Leonard Rossiter: British Comic Actor
Robert Beatty: Canadian Actor

Stanley Kubrick: American Director/Producer/Screenwriter

Stanley Kubrick: American Director/Producer/Screenwriter
Arthur C. Clarke: Sci-Fi Writer

"...A significant landmark in the history of cinema. It's also, as the original posters proclaimed, 'the ultimate trip'..." -- 5 out of 5 stars
"...[A] masterpiece....It is one of the noblest and most awesome works of film..."
"With 2001, Stanley Kubrick proved that a sci-fi movie could be philosophical rather than pulpy, profound rather than pedantic."