2001: A Space Odyssey is a very unconventional film, filled with mystery, tension, and action. Stanley Kubrick presents us with several stories; one of them, the infamous evil AI (HAL) scene.

It is widely regarded that the stories are separated, but that might not necessarily be true. Most films follow a narrative structure such as the hero’s journey or the Todorov theory, this film has a narrative structure in every one of its stories, making it a small tales in a big story.

Before I start explaining my theory I have to say that it’s easier to understand if we think about it like in the Marvel Universe style. I’ll explain why further on.

The first scene of the film is where the group of monkeys by the pond living in peace, this would be the setting of the story, where the status quo is at peace, where there is an equilibrium. The problems (Disequilibrium) start when the second group of monkeys take over the pond, making the first group, feeling defeated, leave. The day after, a monolith appears out of thin air in front of the first group of monkeys, and because of that, a new status quo is presented, a new equilibrium is established when one of the monkeys touches the monolith, learns to kill and take over the pond again.

After that, we go back to another equilibrium. To understand this part, we have to imagine that the film was a reality, creating a universe around the plot. We know that Dr Floyd is going to the moon the day before his daughter’s birthday due to the recently discovered monolith. Imagining him as a normal father he probably has had prepared a party for his daughter. This would be the equilibrium. The Disequilibrium came when the monolith was discovered, as this was what caused that Dr Floyd had to leave his plans and go to the moon to investigate the monolith; ergo, it’s a disruption of the equilibrium of the main character in the film.

We can argue that maybe Dr Floyd didn’t have plans for his daughter, as the launch and preparation of the scientists would have been planned long before he could plan a birthday party for his daughter. However, the discovery of the monolith has made the U.S. government want to keep it a secret because it can make people worry or maybe any other reason. Therefore, it’s still a disruption of the equilibrium, as this can make a change in history. The Disequilibrium continues until the end of the scene when the astronauts hear the high pitch noise.

The new equilibrium, like the equilibrium, is behind what we see: we don’t know what happened to the astronauts, they could have been killed by the noise or it could have made them deaf, but common sense tells us that this fact instigated a fear and curiosity by the government. Therefore, creating a new equilibrium for the government and Dr Floyd (if still alive) as this fact would need to be studied creating a new reality for the ones I previously mentioned. This new equilibrium would lead to an investigation by the government, which is why we see the spaceship going to Jupiter in the next scene, thus starting the next story.

Starting with another equilibrium we see the new main characters in their secret mission (plus the interview with the BBC). The Disequilibrium starts when HAL has the programming error and starts killing the people on the spaceship. The normal thing would be to change to a New equilibrium when Bowman disconnects HAL, but the new equilibrium doesn’t start there because the mission of going to the monolith in Jupiter is still ongoing, and because the mission was the main part of the equilibrium, that must also come to an end with a disruption. The Disequilibrium finishes when Bowman gets close to the monolith and goes through the space gate. Finally, the new equilibrium starts when he ages in the strange and unknown rooms.

Even though, when Bowman is in bed looking as if he was about to die (due to his old age) the monolith appears in front of him. So far, we have seen that when the monolith appears it forms part of the disequilibrium, opening the door to a new equilibrium, therefore, if we imagine the situation (like when we did with the “monolith on the moon” scene), maybe it created another space gate and, therefore, creating a new disruption of the status quo. This would explain the image of the baby at the end of the film (It will make more sense in the last section of this post where I explain my theory about the monoliths).

I believe that this theory is applicable as the theory is applied to narrative, stories and this film is several different stories in one film, making more sense if we think of it as if it was something like the ‘Marvel universe’ (as I said before): Different stories but all related.

MY THEORY OF THE MONOLITHS:

As we’ve seen, the monoliths are always opening the door to a new equilibrium, appearing suddenly without no one knowing who or when put that there.

My theory is that, what if the monoliths are the representation or a tool of the universe or some sort of god? Something beyond human power. Movies have many times tempered with the idea of advanced civilisations influencing certain periods of time, or other less developed civilisations. If they are a ‘higher power’, why do they appear at different times?

My theory is that, if they are the representation of the universe or a god they could have metaphysical ‘powers’ and for some reason they are looking for someone, but the monolith doesn’t know when this person or animal will be born, so it decides to change human history so that it can discover the signal of the monoliths in space. And later on, eliminating the people who the monolith doesn’t think to be ‘worthy’, making the person pass some tests.

For this to make sense, we have to think of the people and the animal who touches a monolith. The monkey touches the monolith and instantly he has more aggressive ideas to kick the other group of monkeys out of the pond and develops a passion for meat (changing human history). Then another monolith is discovered, Dr Floyd touches it and seconds afterwards, a very high pitch noise starts sounding. Later on, in the spaceship which has the mission of investigate a second monolith in Jupiter, HAL, the machine which is supposed to not to be able to suffer any errors has one, humans blame error on it and it blames the error on humans, but it no one discovered the cause of the error; which kills everyone except Bowman, who is able to disconnect HAL (everything developing when the spaceship gets closer to Jupiter). Finally, when Bowman is close to the monolith with his pod, a space gate opens and takes him to some unknown rooms and alone.

It’s a long-lasting trend in storytelling to show us the unfolding of events, as it’s what we want to hear about. So, my theory can still stand. The monkey story is the start of the monolith’s search for this ‘worthy’ creature. The third story was longer because it was where the events develop, the finals stages of the monolith’s quest to find the ‘chosen one’, which is Bowman.

But now another question comes to my head. Why did the monolith wait until he was almost dead to appear again if it wanted him?

The best answer I have come with is that the monolith wants Bowman’s soul or something metaphysical like that and it has to wait until he dies in that room, as he has proved he is worthy. And as I explained before, the monoliths always create a new equilibrium, a new reality, so maybe, it opened another space gate in which his soul (or what it’s looking for) is able to go to a metaphysical world. This would explain why there is a child in foetal position glowing; because it could mean that Bowman is reborn as ‘the child of the universe’.

#ClassicFilms #Film #LongRead