8. What Purpose Does the Monolith Serve? (2001: A Space Odyssey)
The first significant question to strike viewers of 2001: A Space Odyssey will inevitably surround the nature of the monolith. After being scared away from their oasis by a rival pack, a two tonne 1:4:9 proportioned matt black rectangular object appears to a tribe of early hominids, contact with which appears to induce an evolutionary leap, allowing them to see the utility in tools and tactics, become more voraciously carnivorous, and by virtue of these advances, empowering them to reclaim their territory. The famous cinematic cut from a femur-club to a satellite suggests that our path to the heavens wasnt so much a matter of evolution as innovation; that not only HAL 9000s, but our own intelligence is artificial. The two main schools of thought on our origins involve gods and evolution. Kubrick suggests a third: that were a science project. Unless our makers deign to reveal their presence one day, however, their work will remain consigned to the spheres of the magical or the natural, and man as alien berchimp project a fancy of the tinfoil hat brigadewhich, of course, doesnt make it untrue.