Respond to these rapid questions in our A Space Odyssey quiz and we will tell you which A Space Odyssey character you are. Play it now.
2001 covers millions of years of history and into the everlasting cosmic space of the future (or what was the future in 1968, when the book was written). Yet the plot is not all that difficult, in reality.
Much of this is because there is no true growth of character to talk about. Another feature of the book is that a great deal of the book describes astronomical skills. In 2001, a lot of the ground can be covered with little complot. Much whoosh, very little bang.
This novel begins with a bunch of managers millions of years in the past. Such sucks as a man-ape.
You eat only berries, you’re always starving, you’re young to die. But then a dome crashes to Earth and begins to tingle with the brains of the man-apes. Our hero man-ape Moon-Watcher becomes extremely intelligent, knowing how to use tools. He murders a pig for sustenance, a leopard, then a rival tribe’s head. Man-apes continue to move up.
A Space Odyssey quiz
Millions of years go by until or after 2001 (a year that was thirty years in the future when Clarke wrote the novel). Dr. Heywood Floyd (who is less characterful than the dome in the room) goes to the moon to look at a large plate unearthed by the moon inhabitants named TMA-1.
The sun rays hit the plate just as it gets there and the signal begins to spread. (Dr. Floyd’s good timing.)
Cut down the space road for a few months. In the Discovery ship originally sailed to Jupiter, but now, at the last minute, David Bowman and Frank Poole are diverted to Saturn. They go to the moon of Saturn Japaetus, the site of the TMA-1 transmission signal. For reasons that don’t make very much sense (other people on the Earth surely know), Bowman and Poole don’t know about aliens, but again they have huge slabs on the moon, so what about plotholes or two among friends? Also, you must try to play this A Space Odyssey quiz.
Three million years B.C., unseen aliens place the monolith (a colossal apparatus for the research of other worlds utilized by aliens) in Africa. A group, lead by a character named Moon-Watcher, of early human ancestors sees the device. The group begins to create tools, which provide them a benefit in turn over wild animals and other tribes, after looking at the device. The evolutionary leap in thinking in the group is due to covert psychological influence from the alien monolith (the development of the instruments), which allows them to nourish and rule over the other tribes.
About the quiz
Its dimensions are too precise for nature to make, but the artifact predates humanity.
The monolith sends a signal to one of Saturn’s moons when activated by the sunlight. The monolith loses its magnetic characteristic after this explosion of activity.
Who is there to install the monolith? I guess we should be thankful for this Kubrick never answers. In 2001, explorers on the moon unearth another monolith. The story progresses. This one is transmitting messages to Jupiter. And he is brashly following the trail, trusting in his machines.
A plot only develops at this point. Keir Dullea and Gary Lockwood were the ship’s pilots. In suspended animation, three scientists are included for the conservation of supplies. The pilots are suspect of “Hal,” the computer that runs the ship. But we’re not really interested in doing so oddly – speaking in monotones like the “Dragnet” characters.
There is therefore minimal suspense in the development of character in the plot. What is remarkable is Kubrick’s fanatical care in creating and producing his own machinery. In this long film, there is no moment when the viewers can see the props. The stars appear like stars and the outside space is audacious and dreadful.
Some of the consequences of Kubrick were tediously criticized. They may be, but the intentions I can understand. Wouldn’t we have laughed, if its spacecraft moved with dying accuracy if they zipped around like “Captain Video” props? You honestly believe that’s how things would be.
For more personality quizzes check this: Vertigo Movie Quiz.
