10 Mysterious Sci-Fi Films That Gave Nothing Away
2. 2001: A Space Odyssey
At the premier screening of 2001: A Space Odyssey, Hollywood star, Rock Hudson, stormed out, shouting, "Will someone please tell me what the hell this is about?"
2001: A Spacey Odyssey centres around an AI unit on a space station that goes rogue and begins killing the scientists onboard. That's the story... but that's not what the film is about. However, answering what 2001: A Spacey Odyssey is about is a bit tricky since most viewers have trouble understanding... every single scene. The director, Stanley Kubrick, didn't want to spoon-feed the audience and so, decided to tell the story through visuals, not dialogue. As a result, 88 minutes of the film is dialogue-free. Anyone expecting a monologue explaining the hominids, the monolith, or the Star Child were left dumbfounded.
According to the author of the original novel, Arthur C. Clarke, "If you understand '2001' completely, we failed. We wanted to raise far more questions than we answered." You're not supposed to "get it". Clarke admitted he found the film so vague, he elaborated on certain plot points in the novel (which was released the same year). If you struggled to follow the story, don't worry. The author had the exact same problem.