2001: A Space Odyssey is a countdown to tomorrow a road map to human destiny a quest for the infinite. It is a dazzling Academy Award-winning visual achievement a compelling drama of man vs. machine a stunning meld of music & motion. It may be the masterwork of director Stanley Kubrick (who co-wrote the screenplay with Arthur C. Clarke) & it will likely excite inspire & enthrall for generations. To begin his voyage into the future Kubrick visits our prehistoric ape-ancestry past then leaps millennia (via one of the most mind-blowing jump cuts ever conceived) into colonized space & ultimately whisks astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) into uncharted realms of space perhaps even into immortality. Open the pod bay doors HAL & let the awe & mystery of a journey unlike any other begin. ; ; ; The entire film is a stunning sensuous marvel &8211; a cinematic experience like no other before or since.