10 Best Space Movies Of All Time

With a fittingly bombastic score, A Space Odyssey tracks the progress of man and monolith (big black rectangle from outer space), from the dawn of humanity through their intelligent development to the point where a lone astronaut - David - meets something like his maker.

Acid trip visuals and transcendence follow, in one of the most confusing and oft-pondered conclusions of all time.

This is the film that created the many visual, thematic and action templates for so much of what followed - Alien, Star Wars, Moon. From the waltz of the floating pen onward, the film takes cinema to space in innovative, breathtaking ways like never before.

The shots are to die for, whether taking in the solar system at the camera's own pace, showcasing humanity (and Kubrick's) technological wonders, venturing into the hallucinogenic dreamscape of the monolith, or gazing at HAL 9000's (the hyper-intelligent operating system of David's ship) red eye reflecting an ever-revolving world.

The ending gives viewers a lot to chew on, but it is HAL that everyone remembers best.

Perhaps this speaks to the philosophical elements of the film: we are more impressed by what we have conquered and created than that which we find unknowable; or maybe it is just that HAL's deadpan breed of sinister can never quite be shaken from the back of our minds.