Isaac Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I had never seen the whole thing from start to finish before. What on earth is the final scene supposed to mean? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 That it is the end of the film! Joking aside there are lots of different ideas on what it is supposed to mean, personally I wouldn't read too much into it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 That it is the end of the film! Joking aside there are lots of different ideas on what it is supposed to mean, personally I wouldn't read too much into it. Why not? Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick didn't just randomly do it. They were trying to convey something. I'm interested to know what that was. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chinahand Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 I've never managed to get through the first half hour or so. I've never seen the last scene, but have read that Clarke explored its implications in all the follow on books, which I've not read either so I'm not much help really! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mojomonkey Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 That it is the end of the film! Joking aside there are lots of different ideas on what it is supposed to mean, personally I wouldn't read too much into it. Why not? Arthur C Clarke and Stanley Kubrick didn't just randomly do it. They were trying to convey something. I'm interested to know what that was. Ok, maybe it means something or maybe is means absolutely nothing. Neither of the two guys are around to give a definitive answer but feel free to ponder it if you want. Its a long time since I watched the film and to be honest I'm not inclined to watch it again, too self absorbent if you ask me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolley Posted June 8, 2015 Share Posted June 8, 2015 Saw it with my dad as a kid when it came out. Biggest let down ever. Saw the first 20 minutes recently when it was on the box. Time hasn't improved my opinion. It's a load of rubbish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted June 8, 2015 Author Share Posted June 8, 2015 I agree it's a fairly rubbish film, except for the opening scene with the earth rise and the music. Although, saying that, given its date of production, it has some pretty damn good special effects for the time. Still, I would like to know what the final scene really means. I'd rather a one sentence answer than to have to read a load of boring books. What was Arthur C Clarke getting at with the extraterrestrial artifact? Was he postulating the theory that life, or at least human life, was seeded on this earth by extraterrestrials? The way that artifact is in the room at the end was really strange. Is he delusional from the high speed space travel? Are he and the artifact the only real things in this scene, with the artifact conveying a message and explanation to him but he's just perceiving it in a jumbled up and fragmentary fashion with symbols from his own memory? (like the scene of the beach in Contact - a much better film with much a much better storyline and team of actors). Hmmmm. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Karellen Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 2010 is the more accessible follow up to 2001 and explains more about the monolith. If you enjoyed Contact, I think you'll enjoy 2010. And the wonderful Helen Mirren plays a Russian Cosmonaut. Something's going to happen...something wonderful Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Declan Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 I've always viewed it more like an piece of music, or a painting than a narrative story. It's about something that generates ideas and emotions in the audience, but doesn't need to be all tied up at the end with a satisfactory ending. When I was a kid we'd watch something on telly and at the end me Dad would often say "well pick the bones out of that" and I'd get annoyed because you don't need all the answers, sometimes art should leave you feeling that everything is unresolved or with questions - why should movies be any different? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
P.K. Posted June 9, 2015 Share Posted June 9, 2015 Read the book. It ends with the line "But he would think of something..." iirc. It's about the two forms of evolution in that you have the "Gradualist" side and then you have the "Eventist' side and then the likes of me who think it's both. So evolution slowly gradually creeps forward (gradualist) and then you have something like the Yucatan impact (eventist) that allegedly wiped out the dinosaurs allowing new types of life to flourish. So a monolith makes the hominids take a large leap forward in using tools and the buried monolith is positioned so that they can only discover it when they have moved forward enough (modern man) to be ready for the next evolutionary stage. The next evolutionary advance is where it ends. I think it's a very elegant undertaking, for want of a better word. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Isaac Posted June 9, 2015 Author Share Posted June 9, 2015 Hmmmm. Yes, I've read quite a few articles on the subject; I was just curious what people on the Isle of Man thought about it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Langweilig Posted June 13, 2015 Share Posted June 13, 2015 I never liked that movie. I always thought it was pretentious tosh The sequel, 2010 is much better. Even though it was made in the 80's when it was thought the Cold War would go on and on. A lot of the science in the film is believable - watch out for a 1980's laptop computer, similar to what we use today. The film stars John Lithgow (Memphis Belle, Shrek) and Roy Schieder (Jaws). Watch out for a Russian-speaking actress, Ilyena Mironova. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Shill Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 And I like the play on H.A.L. if you move the letters forward by 1 letter you get I.B.M Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Sick Moon Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 Ligeti innit! Love......... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
woolley Posted June 15, 2015 Share Posted June 15, 2015 It might be nearly 50 years since we saw it at the cinema, but I still remember the disgust my dad put into the words "Come on, let's get out of here." Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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