58 Fun Facts About 2001: a Space Odyssey

Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Stanley Kubrick directed and produced 2001: A Space Odyssey, his first film after the 1964 satire Dr. Strangelove.

Which science fiction author co-wrote the screenplay with Kubrick?

Arthur C. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay while drafting the novel in parallel; he was living in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, when the collaboration began in 1964.

In which year was the film released?

2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, premiering on 2 April before its general US opening the following day.

Which 1951 Clarke short story was the primary inspiration for the film?

The Sentinel, first published in 1951 as 'Sentinel of Eternity', describes an alien artefact left on the Moon to signal humanity's arrival in space, the seed of the film's monolith.

What is the name of the sentient computer aboard Discovery One?

HAL 9000 is the Discovery's computer; its twin SAL 9000, with a blue eye instead of red, appears in the 1984 sequel voiced by Candice Bergen.

Which planet is Discovery One bound for?

In Clarke's novel the destination is Saturn; the film changed it to Jupiter.

Who plays astronaut Dr Dave Bowman?

Keir Dullea plays Dave Bowman and returned to the role for the 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.

Who plays Dr Frank Poole, the astronaut HAL sends tumbling into space?

Gary Lockwood plays Frank Poole; for the centrifuge shot he was strapped into a seat at the top of the rotating set while his co-star walked round to join him.

Who provided the voice of HAL?

Douglas Rain, a Canadian stage actor, recorded the computer's lines in post-production after Martin Balsam's earlier take sounded too colloquially American to the director.

Which character travels to Clavius Base to inspect the buried lunar monolith?

Dr Heywood Floyd, played by William Sylvester, travels by Aries lunar shuttle to Clavius Base, where he is briefed before visiting the excavation.

Near which lunar crater is the second monolith found buried?

Tycho: the buried monolith is catalogued as Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One (TMA-1), and the excavation pit was the first scene shot, in December 1965.

How does HAL learn that Bowman and Poole plan to disconnect him?

By lip reading: Bowman and Poole retreat to an EVA pod to talk in private, but the computer watches their mouths through the pod window.

How does Bowman get back aboard Discovery after HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors?

He blasts himself through the vacuum into the emergency airlock: without a helmet, he fires the pod's explosive bolts so the escaping air hurls him across the gap.

Which song does HAL sing as Bowman disconnects his memory?

Daisy Bell was chosen because a 1961 Bell Labs speech-synthesis demonstration had a computer sing it, a feat the screenplay's co-author had witnessed in person.

According to the film, in which city did HAL become operational?

Urbana, Illinois: the computer says it became operational at the H.A.L. plant there on 12 January 1992, a date the novel gives as 1997.

What does HAL's name stand for, according to Clarke?

Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer is the expansion the novel gives; the authors denied that the name was a coded dig at a rival computer maker.

Fans claim HAL's name is a coded jab at which computer company that advised the film?

IBM, which advised on the film's computer displays, is one letter on from H-A-L; the writers called the match a coincidence they would have avoided had they noticed.

Which British actor played HAL on set, before the voice was dubbed in post-production?

Nigel Davenport read the computer's lines on set during filming so the actors had a voice to play against; the part was re-recorded in post-production.

Which name had Clarke considered for the computer in early drafts, before HAL?

Socrates was the computer's name in early drafts; a female-personality version called Athena followed before the final name was chosen.

Which Richard Strauss tone poem opens the film?

Also sprach Zarathustra, Strauss's 1896 tone poem after Nietzsche, opens the film with its sunrise fanfare and returns for the Star Child finale.

Which waltz accompanies the space plane docking with the space station?

The Blue Danube, Johann Strauss II's waltz, scores the docking ballet and returns over the closing credits.

Which Hollywood composer wrote an original score for the film that Kubrick then discarded?

Alex North composed a full original score that was dropped in favour of the classical selections; he only learned this at the premiere, and Jerry Goldsmith conducted a recording of it in 1993.

Whose ballet Gayane supplies the mournful adagio heard as Bowman and Poole are introduced?

Aram Khachaturian composed the ballet Gayane in 1942; its Adagio underscores the lonely routine aboard Discovery during the crew's introduction.

Which composer's dissonant modernist works, including Atmosphères, accompany the monolith?

György Ligeti's Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna and his Requiem appear in the film; the composer learned of their use only after the fact and was irritated not to have been asked.

What nickname, punning on a Hollywood epic, did the film-makers privately give the project?

How the Solar System Was Won was the in-joke name, after the 1962 Cinerama western How the West Was Won; the final title came later and was the director's own idea.

What title did Kubrick announce in 1965 before settling on 2001: A Space Odyssey?

Journey Beyond the Stars was the working title announced in February 1965; alternatives such as Universe and Tunnel to the Stars were also floated before the final title was chosen.

Where did Kubrick and Clarke first meet, on 22 April 1964?

Trader Vic's in New York, the tiki restaurant in the Plaza Hotel, hosted their first meeting on 22 April 1964; the collaboration then filled the next four years.

Which airline's logo appears on the Orion space plane in the film?

Pan Am branded the Orion III space plane, one of several real companies, alongside Hilton and Bell, that lent their logos to the film's vision of 2001.

Which engineering firm built the 30-ton rotating centrifuge set for Discovery's interior?

Vickers-Armstrong, the aircraft and engineering group, built the 38-foot-diameter centrifuge, which rotated so the actors appeared to walk up its walls.

How much did the centrifuge set cost?

$750,000 was the cost of the 30-ton, 38-foot rotating centrifuge built for the Discovery's interior scenes.

What technique created the coloured light corridors of the Star Gate sequence?

Slit-scan photography, devised for the film by Douglas Trumbull, exposed moving artwork through a narrow slit over long exposures to create the streaking light corridors.

Who played Moonwatcher, the chief man-ape, and choreographed the other apes?

Daniel Richter, a professional mime, played Moonwatcher and choreographed the other man-apes, who were mostly mimes and dancers.

The famous match cut turns a thrown bone into what?

An orbiting satellite: the bone cuts to a craft circling Earth, which early plans identified as a nuclear weapons platform before that narration was dropped to avoid echoing Dr. Strangelove.

At which studios did principal photography begin on 29 December 1965?

Shepperton's huge Stage H held the 60-by-120-foot excavation pit for the opening day's shoot; the production then moved to Borehamwood for the rest of filming.

What was the film's initial budget?

$6 million was the initial budget approved in 1965; the production ran far over that figure and about 16 months behind schedule.

How long was the original cut shown at the premieres before Kubrick trimmed it?

161 minutes was the premiere running time; within days the director and editor Ray Lovejoy cut 19 minutes, yielding the 142-minute release version.

Which Hollywood star famously walked out of the Los Angeles premiere, baffled by the film?

Rock Hudson left the Los Angeles premiere partway through, reportedly demanding that someone tell him what the film was about; walkouts were reported in New York as well.

Which critic called the film 'a monumentally unimaginative movie'?

Pauline Kael wrote the line in Harper's Magazine in 1969; the director dismissed such New York critics as 'dogmatically atheistic and materialistic and earthbound'.

For which category did Kubrick win his only Academy Award?

Visual effects was the category; the film's four nominations also covered director, original screenplay and art direction, and this was the only competitive Oscar of his career.

Where does HAL rank on the AFI's list of the 100 greatest heroes and villains?

13th: the computer sits at number 13 among the villains on the AFI's 2003 list, and 'Open the pod bay doors, HAL' is number 78 on the AFI's 100 Movie Quotes.

In which year was the film added to the US National Film Registry?

1991: the Library of Congress added 2001 in the Registry's third annual selection; in 2022 it also topped Sight & Sound's directors' poll of the greatest films.

Which fan-voted science fiction prize did the film win for Best Dramatic Presentation?

The Hugo for Best Dramatic Presentation went to the film in 1969, voted on by members of that year's World Science Fiction Convention.

Who wrote, produced, shot and directed the 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact?

Peter Hyams, who had directed Capricorn One and Outland, took all four jobs on 2010; the original director gave his blessing but had no hand in it.

Why did Kubrick order all the sets, props and miniatures destroyed after filming?

To stop them being recycled in other productions: the director feared the costly models and costumes would turn up in cheaper science fiction films, so he had nearly everything destroyed.

What was the name of the 2018 Smithsonian exhibit that recreated the film's rococo bedroom full-scale?

The Barmecide Feast, artist Simon Birch's full-scale recreation of the film's final bedroom, opened at the National Air and Space Museum in April 2018 for the 50th anniversary.

Which studio released 2001: A Space Odyssey in April 1968?

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer financed and released the film, presenting it as a Cinerama roadshow attraction; it became the year's highest-grossing North American release.

In which city did the film have its world premiere on 2 April 1968?

Washington, D.C. hosted the world premiere at the Uptown Theater on 2 April; the film opened in New York the next day and was trimmed within the week.

Which short story by the film's co-writer inspired its man-ape opening?

Encounter in the Dawn, a 1953 story about visitors meeting primitive humans, fed the man-ape prologue; the director had optioned several of the author's stories in 1964.

What do the two man-ape tribes fight over in the film's opening act?

A waterhole: the rival tribe drives Moon-Watcher's group away from it, and after discovering the bone as a weapon the group returns and kills the rival leader to reclaim it.

How long was the largest model of the Discovery One spacecraft built for the film?

55 feet: the largest Discovery One miniature ran to about 55 feet long, while other models went down to two-foot satellites, with most effects done in-camera rather than by optical compositing.

The record-sized front-projection screen built for the film created backdrops for which sequence?

The Dawn of Man: the African desert vistas behind the man-apes were transparencies projected onto a giant Scotchlite front-projection screen, with the apes and set in front of it.

Which astronomer told Kubrick and Clarke to merely suggest alien intelligence rather than show aliens?

Carl Sagan recounted the advice in his 1973 book The Cosmic Connection, arguing that any explicit alien would carry 'an element of falseness'.

In which 65 mm widescreen process was 2001 photographed?

Super Panavision 70 used spherical lenses on 65 mm negative; the film was presented in Cinerama as a 70 mm roadshow before a general 35 mm release.

What was the film's approximate final cost after its overruns?

$10.5 million is the final cost recorded by the studio, roughly 75 per cent over the original budget after a shoot that ran well over a year late.

In Clarke's novel version, Discovery One is sent to which moon of Saturn rather than to Jupiter?

Iapetus, spelled Japetus in the novel, holds the giant monolith in the book; the film moved the destination because convincing rings for Saturn proved too hard to create.

According to Clarke's novel, why does HAL malfunction?

He was ordered to lie to the crew: told to conceal the mission's true purpose, the computer found the order conflicted with its basic programming to relay information accurately.

Which actor stars as the lead American scientist in the 1984 sequel, 2010?

Roy Scheider plays the scientist who travelled to the Moon in the original, now sent to the Discovery aboard the Soviet ship Leonov alongside John Lithgow and Bob Balaban.

Effects pioneer Douglas Trumbull, who worked on 2001, went on to direct which 1972 sci-fi film?

Silent Running, released in 1972 and made for about a million dollars, put Earth's last forests in geodesic domes aboard a space freighter tended by Bruce Dern.