Of Men and Monoliths Science Fiction, Gender, and 2001: A Space Odyssey

Abstract The general impression that viewers tend to bring away from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) is an overall feeling of “coldness,” not just the physical cold of outer space, but of the film’s sense of humanity. As has often been observed, the computer HAL seems a more complex character with greater emotional depth than any of the people in the film. And while the computer’s death is a scene of wrenching pathos, the three hibernating sci- entists expire in what is perhaps the most antiseptic depiction of death in all of cinema, a bland-looking monitor indicating “Life Functions Terminated.” 2001’s relative dearth of dialogue, wooden characters, slow pace, and sleek production design, which depicts the environments of space travel as thoroughly antiseptic and ordinary, all contribute to the film’s cold tone.