Great Scene: 2001: A Space Odyssey

I can still remember to this day seeing 2001: A Space Odyssey for the first time. The movie screened at the theater on Minot AFB in North Dakota where my family was stationed. I had just turned 15. At the end of the movie, I sat in my seat and didn't move. The credits rolled, then darkness. I still sat there. The movie was an absolutely mind-boggling experience. I saw the movie several more times before its run ended. Each time I thought I understood it a little more - and a little less. We moved to March AFB near Riverside, California that summer of 1968. I suppose having my own little 'head trip' with 2001 was some sort of preparation for the experiences that awaited me in SoCal.

There are so many great scenes in the movie, but the one I want to highlight today is the opening. It's interesting to compare the movie to the only script that's available (to my knowledge). The movie differs in many of the particulars, but when you read the script excerpt below, you'll see that writer-director Stanley Kubrick and co-writer Arthur C. Clarke knew early on in the writing process both the tone and the symbolism of where this sequence was headed.

It's also interesting to note how much like a novel the script is.

EXT STREAM - MASTER OF THE WORLD

From their side of the stream, in the never violated safety of

their own territory, the Others see Moonwatcher and fourteen

males of his tribe appear from behind a small hillock over-

looking the stream, silhouetted against the dawn sky.

The Others begin to scream their daily challenge. But today

something is different, though the Others do not immediately

recognize this fact.

Instead of joining the verbal onslaught, as they had always done,

Moonwatcher and his small band descended from the rise, and

begin to move forward to the stream with a quiet purposefulness

never before seen.

As the Others watch the figures silently approaching in the

morning mist, they become aware of the terrible strangeness

of this encounter, and their rage gradually subsides down to

an uneasy silence.

At the water's edge, Moonwatcher and his band stop. They

carry their bone clubs and bone knives.

Led by One-ear, the Others half-heartedly resume the battle-

chant. But they are suddenly confronted with a vision that cuts

the sound from their throats, and strikes terror into their

hearts.

Moonwatcher, who had been partly concealed by two males who

walked before him, thrusts his arm high into the air. In his

hand he holds a stout tree branch. Mounted atop the branch is

the bloody head of the lion, its mouth jammed open with a stick,

displaying its frightful fangs.

The Others gape in fearful disbelief at this display of power.

Moonwatcher stands motionless, thrusting the lion's head high.

Then with majestic deliberation, still carrying his mangled

standard above his head, he begins to cross the stream, followed

by his band.

The Others fade back from the stream, seeming to lack even

the ability to flee.

Moonwatcher steps ashore and walks to One-Ear, who stands

unsurely in front of his band.

Though he is a veteran of numerous combats at the water's edge,

One-Ear has never been attacked by an enemy who had not first

displayed his fighting rage; and he had never before been attacked

with a weapon. One-Ear, merely looks up at the raised club

until the heavy thigh bone of an antelope brings the darkness

down around him.

The Others stare in wonder at Moonwatcher's power.

Moonwatcher surveys the scene. Now he was master of the

world, and he was not sure what to do next. But he would

think of something.

And now, the entire opening sequence of 2001: A Space Odyssey:



How about you? Did 2001 boggle your mind the first time you saw it?