10 Best Sci-Fi Movie Endings Of All Time

Whilst some may find the conclusion to Stanley Kubrick's 1968 space epic confusing, the sheer insanity of its final moments is what makes it so special. It isn't an ambiguous ending that has you questioning one option over another à la Inception, but rather an impressionistic one.

After coming into contact with one of the mysterious monoliths seen throughout the film, Dave (Keir Dullea) is flung through a kaleidoscopic vortex of colours and shapes, before arriving in a neoclassical bedroom. It only gets stranger when he sees (and becomes) an older version of himself in the room with him, and eventually, a much older version dying in the bed. After his death he's transformed into a foetus in a glowing sphere of light, that orbits in space around the Earth.

The beauty of this seemingly incomprehensible conclusion is the concept that all the strange and unexplainable events in the film are just that; beyond human comprehension. The idea that something is so far beyond our own understanding is both frightening and exhilarating, as it presents the notion that we are just a small drop in the vast ocean of the universe.

Kubrick himself likened the film to a piece of art or music, saying it's something to be experienced "at an inner level of consciousness". And more than 50 years later, the ending to his sci-fi masterpiece is still managing to raise more questions than it will ever be able to answer.