SOURCE: “A Cold Descent,” in Sight and Sound, Vol. 4, No. 1, January, 1994, pp. 18-25.

In the following essay, Miller surveys the major themes of 2001.

2001: a Space Odyssey Synopsis

The prehistoric past. A small tribe of apemen lives on a rocky hillside, in constant terror of neighbouring carnivores and quarrelling with a rival tribe for the possession of a water hole. One morning they wake to find before them a mysterious black monolith. When their initial terror has subsided, one of them, inspired by the slab, learns how to use bone clubs to hunt for food. Four million years later, space scientist Doctor Heywood R. Floyd arrives on the moon to investigate a similar black slab which has been found buried deep below the surface and is now emitting powerful signals in the direction of Jupiter. The giant spaceship ‘Discovery’ sets out on a nine-month voyage to Jupiter, manned by...