2001 - not quite like that, was it?

A remarkably slim book adapted to a pretty lengthy film. A very famous scene with a bone flying through the air merged into a spaceship. A computer that develops a not particularly friendly personality. That just happens to have a name whose initials are in each case one less than IBM. An unexplained black slab that keeps cropping up

And a year that was passed six years ago (and counting).

The book is able to flesh out some of the mystery, seeing as the film is not narrated. But it's still quite oblique.

The ending of the film is - to me - extremely moving. Though I don't understand why!

And the turning off of HAL is sampled by New Order in their song Murder (along with a section from Caligula).