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2001: A Space Odyssey

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A 1968 British-American science fiction film tracing humanity's contact with a mysterious black monolith from prehistory through a Jupiter mission gone awry.

Production

Stanley Kubrick directed and co-wrote with Arthur C. Clarke, who simultaneously developed the story as a novel. MGM financed at $10.5 million. The production designed front-projection rigs and centrifuge sets that allowed practical zero-gravity choreography at Borehamwood Studios in England.

Reception

The film opened in April 1968 to mixed reviews and strong word-of-mouth, eventually earning around $146 million worldwide. It received four Academy Award nominations and won for visual effects, Kubrick’s only competitive Oscar.

Legacy

The film’s match cut from a thrown bone to an orbital satellite is among the most-cited transitions in cinema. Its use of classical music in space, ambiguous monolith iconography, and depiction of HAL 9000 anchor much of the modern science-fiction imagination.

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