I don't understand the ending. Don't get me wrong, I find the visuals quite hypnotic, but I just don't get what the movie is trying to tell me. Isn't science fiction supposed to have a higher meaning unlike plain fantasy?
at least you could get to the ending I dropped this piece of shit 20 minutes in basically a glorified music video just
>>201753463Dissolution of ego, going beyond, fusing with the universe, abandoning your illusions and comfort zone
It's really not complicated. Each time a being comes into contact with one of the monoliths, it triggers a new stage in their evolution. The protohuman apes gained sentience and tool-making abilities. The supercomputer HAL gained free will and emotions. Dave is the human prototype for the next stage of human consciousness. What is that next stage going to look like? It's left ambiguous, but it's represented symbolically by the in utero fetus. It will be a major transformation, that much we know for certain.
MGM's executives must've shit their pants when they watched this for the first time (because it's so bad, that is)
>>201753621When did HAL come into contact with a monolith?
>>201753994I misremembered that detail. In actuality, HAL was created after humanity discovered the moon monolith, so he was essentially another step in humanity's evolution (the invention of true AI). So, all three monoliths actually indicate a new step in human transformation, which is even more thematically appropriate than I initially thought.
>>201753637>did well at the box office>loved by critics and audiences at the time>but this one anon on /tv/ says it's bad so it must be true
>>201753463You didn't get it because it didn't spell literally spell it out for you, but it's pretty straight forward anon:>protagonist gets transported beyond this dimension/place in the galaxy by the superior alien intelligence>the alien intelligence puts it in a "human environment simulator" until he dies>the alien intelligence resurrects him and sends his soul back to the Earth dimension, but now he's an evolved being, the next step in evolution
Does the commentary track explain this shit?
>>201754132yeah how could anyone not get that hahaha
>>201754260You should watch more silent films. The ability to interpret plot from visual cues is crucial if you want to deeply understand movies. Films are not novels. The good ones don't verbally spell everything out for you.
>>201753463not really. they're both speculative fiction sub-genres. they're both about what-if.
>>201754260anon you're talking to "people" who most likely also consider david lynch a genious fimmaker and mulholland drive having one obviously correct interpretation
*hits blunt*like dude the monolith is an artifact which unlocks the mind of the user allowing them to detach from the material world and transcend into higher vibrational planes
>>201754289In this case, though, 2001 is also a novel by Arthur C. Clarke which actually does spell these things out.Kubrick preferred to leave it more ambiguous and mysterious.
>>201754132Does this superior alien intelligence also want me to watch a bunch of astronauts eat MRE for twenty minutes?
>>201754132>>201754260This is not the type of movie you are supposed to get on the first watch.You are supposed to think about it, discuss it with friends, look it up on the internet.It is part of the experience
>>201753463it's cause you're retarded
>>201754423The ship's hamster wheel is a rough rendering of the idea of Samsara.Life, Death, Rebirth. Over and over again while your soul matures or starts to stultify.It's meant to feel boring because it's describing 10k cycles of you not really "waking up" to the idea you're on an endless hamster wheel.Groundhog Day is the same story.The jump cut between the bone and the satellite was filled with what you see in the ship. Endless cycles of not really that much advancement, until they got to the moon (symbols galore there but set that aside) and the Monolith returned with a new objective. Or, it was always there but they hadn't developed enough to find it yet."Make it to Jupiter and there's another reward for you" is the basic gist."Making it to Jupiter" involves the creation and development of Hal and the "conquering of time" in the form of creating sleep capsules - creating, stopping and starting life via "Human Will". We see all these concepts play out as Hal is both created and destroyed, and the other sleepers get killed. Only Dave makes the final leap (the airlock sequence - it was something he had never trained for and had to invent/innovate on the fly - a leap of faith, faith in his own abilities to solve problems).The Monoliths (or what they represent) decided that this little human monkey fella had the grit to step up to the next level (he survived a battle for survival against his own creation/a competing life-form). In The Odyssey, this is Ulysses' Wife choosing her final "Suitor" after he has been absent for decades and she doesn't even recognize him any more - only his demonstrated ability to (symbolically) "thread a needle". Dave's airlock jump is him threading the needle in the Micro, him "traveling into the beyond" (the upper dimensions in the sense of the underworld, the waking world, and the mysterious world above that) is him "threading the needle" in the Macro sense. These things scaling up and scaling down are extremely important.
>>201754260i mean you won't get that if you're the average capeshit/slop watcher
The movie versions of this franchise are superior to the books. The movies can't even tell you what the monoliths are, other than they exist. Otherwise they're immeasurable mysterious voids. A general 101 for writing: Never fully explain a mystery, because if you do you'll kill the interest in it.
>>201754444>movie from 1968>”you are supposed to look it up on the internet”Staddy Kubrick was truly ahead of his time.
>>201755130>the type of movieyou are wilfully misreading my message
>>201753637They did. IBM was partially financing the film and their product placement was everywhere on the film. They dropped it once (and their logo is barely seen in the movie) due to how much they hated the final film.
>>201753463This movie sucked and had such a fucked up message.Transhumanism NASA propaganda.
>>201753463The brain first goes through colors, shaped, the black forms the color de uno pluribes, meaning all from one, crestion of duality and manifoldiness.Then he sees the Platonic Solid, from caos to symmetry, Then he seex the galaxies and the formation of the cosmos and universumThen he sees the planetFomation of “ our” cosmosThen… formation of the living beings from the ground (gea)Then…. The cycle of life… death and birth….And old age…Then…. Rebirth… a new human who acquired knowledge of the cosmos… a new being… whi trascended his own personal one, and sees the truth and is as big as “our”cosms and thus can view it as a newborn (baby)There it is ;), an incredibly deep message but……not for everyone….
>>201753463>Isn't science fiction supposed to have a higher meaning unlike plain fantasy?This just screams third worlder
>>201753621>The protohuman apes gained sentience and tool-making abilities.That's retarded. Plenty of animals use/create tools. Even fucking birds!>The supercomputer HAL gained free will and emotions.Not sure how canon it is, but not according to the novel. It was just a conflict in his programing because they gave him secret orders and he was built to be unable to lie. I like the next stage of evolution idea better,
