A four-million-year-old black monolith is discovered on the moon, and the government sends a team of scientists on a fact-finding mission while hiding the truth from the public. Later, another team is sent to Jupiter in a ship controlled by the perfect HAL 9000 computer to further investigate the giant object–but something goes terribly wrong. 2001: A SPACE ODYSSEY is a masterpiece of filmmaking. Director and coscreenwriter (with Arthur C. Clarke) Stanley Kubrick has created a visual and aural spectacle that stands as one of the greatest achievements ever put on celluloid. The film begins with the “Dawn of Man” segment, about the evolution of apes, and then ventures into the future, taking a look at what the world might be like in the first year of the 21st century. Kubrick’s film is a triumph of technological storytelling, a marvel of stunning sets and a brilliant soundtrack with the power to overwhelm and mystify. Long dialogue-free scenes sparkle with indelible images and powerful orchestral music, culminating in an unforgettable, inscrutable tale of birth and rebirth, human evolution and artificial intelligence, the past and the future.