Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey came after a collaboration with science fiction writer Arthur C.Clark and has just been piped to the top spot in our poll.A Space Odyssey deals with the idea of human evolution opening with the pre-historic ape-man struggling to survive. One morning a mysterious object - a monolith appears near their habitation.The film jumps forward into the future and Dr Heywood R.Floyd is the only passenger aboard a space craft that's docking with an Earth orbital space station.He reveals to those aboard the space station that he is heading to the moon base in Clavius crater. He is told that no one has been able to contact the base and all access to the base has been denied, they turned away an emergency landing.At the base Floyd meets with scientists stressing the importance of keeping secret the true reason why the base is under a suspicious quarantine.During a moonbus ride to an excavation site Floyd learns that an alien abject, another monolith, has been discovered buried on the moon. As the scientists gather around it for a group photo but are interrupted when a continuous high-pitched tone is picked up by their radio receivers.
The film then jumps forward eighteen months and aboard Discovery One, which is destined for Jupiter, astronauts Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood), and three scientists "sleeping" in cryogenic hibernation.
Dave and Frank watch a BBC television program about themselves, in which the "sixth member" of the crew, the HAL 9000 supercomputer (voiced by Douglas Rain), is introduced and interviewed.
The interview reveals that the supercomputer is the pinnacle in artificial machine intelligence, with a remarkable, error-free performance record.
The computer, which is called HAL by the crew, express concern over the secrecy of the mission in a conversation with Dave.
When Hal endangers the crew's lives for the sake of the mission, Bowman will have to first overcome the computer, then travel to the birthplace of the monolith.
Now a race begins between computers (Hal) and man (Bowman) to reach the monolith-placers, the winner will achieve the next step in evolution, whatever that may be.
The film is notable for its scientific realism as well as boasting pioneering special effects, this film was released in 1968.
Upon release the film received critical acclaim from some and negative reviews from others but went on to be nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Director, winning Best Visual Effects.
However over the last forty years the film has been recognised as one of the greatest movies ever made and in 1991 this film was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.
FemaleFirst Helen Earnshaw