10 Movies That Only Make Sense At The End

Stanley Kubrick's insanely ambitious sci-fi epic has baffled and transfixed audiences in equal measure for more than 50 years, even if its driving thematic is really quite simple - it is a film concerned entirely with the notion of progress.

2001: A Space Odyssey is bookended by scenes which depict pivotal moments of evolution. The opening Dawn of Man sequence sublimely match-cuts from the ape-man's bone to an orbiting satellite, spanning millions of years in the blink of an eye.

And then, at the end of the movie, Dr. Bowman (Keir Dullea) encounters a monolith, which allows him to transition from a mere man into the Star Child, foretelling another epochal evolutionary leap.

Kubrick certainly intended his film to be open to a high degree of interpretation, but it's no mistake or coincidence that these unforgettable set-pieces effectively frame the rest of the movie.