10 Things You Never Noticed in 2001: A Space Odyssey - Premiere.com

10 Things You Never Noticed in 2001: A Space Odyssey

We’ll probably never live long enough to get a chance to use a commercial space toilet.

By: John DeVore

09/07/2010 07:03 pm

The only thing Stanley Kubrick’s visionary sci-fi classic got wrong about the future was the year. By the time the year 2001 actually rolled around, much of what director Kubrick and author Arthur C. Clarke predicted hadn’t come true, exactly. But prophecy isn’t an exact science. The future they imagined is still unfolding.

Thanks to the magic of Blu-ray, we’ve compiled a list of fleeting moments from a movie stacked with iconic scenes. Kubrick’s attention to detail commands respect, regardless of whether you think 2001: A Space Odyssey is a breathtaking epic that tackles deep philosophical questions, or an overrated and pretentious excuse for a nap. Here are ten things you might not have noticed about the future predicted by 2001: A Space Odyssey.

1. The astronauts have iPads!

Clearly, this movie infiltrated the subconscious of Apple’s Steve Jobs. Dave Bowman and Frank Poole watch their iPads while having breakfast. Rant Alert: If their spaceship Discovery has artificial gravity, why are the humans forced to eat multi-colored paste with forks? What kind of future invents the iPad, but neglects inventing Hungry Man frozen dinners?

2. There’s a Hilton in Earth’s orbit!

Everyone from Richard Branson to President Obama expects space to become commercialized. In the future Kubrick predicted, this comes true – the now long defunct Pan Am airline flies people to a Hilton Hotel in the stars.

3. Space toilets are really complicated!

4. Waking up an astronaut in deep-space hibernation isn’t as complicated as using a space toilet!

5. Triggering explosive bolts in your space pod isn’t as complicated as using a space toilet!

6. Space food isn’t appetizing! At all!

If you’re strapped into a rocket hurtling towards a space station, you’re going to be eating food that can’t float around in zero gravity. Food that can be eaten through a straw. Tonight's dinner: liquid fish, corn, peas, and cheese!

7. Man travels to the moon!

The special effects in 2001 were so realistic, that some conspiracy theorists are convinced Kubrick was hired by the US government to help fake the Apollo moon landing footage. This makes some twisted sense: this shot of a lunar craft drifting toward the moon looks like the real thing. Of course, it’s just a scene from a movie shot in 1968… a year before the actual Apollo mission.

8. Sandwiches with the crusts cut off are delicious moon snacks!

While on the moon, dainty sandwiches are enjoyed.

9. There’s a Skype booth in the future that wasn’t, but will be!

10. There are nuclear weapons in space!

In one of the most famous scenes in 2001, a newly self-aware man-ape triumphantly throws a bone he has used as a weapon into the air. As the bone sails up, shots of a futuristic spacecraft are intercut in. This spacecraft is actually an orbiting nuclear device, and it was Kubrick’s way of connecting man’s first weapon to his ultimate. These nuclear spaceships were going to be used during the climax of the movie, but Kubrick opted for a more obscure and metaphysical ending. Putting weapons into space has been a controversial issue ever since the Russian’s put Sputnik into space. And it is a topic that is very contemporary: the US military depends heavily on communication and spy satellites. A few years ago, China knocked one of its own satellites out of orbit. And this past year, the US sent up a top-secret, space shuttle-like device into orbit. Both of these events point towards an inevitable race to arm space.

via premiere.com