8 Movies Where You’re Not Supposed To Work Out The Ending
6. 2001: A Space Odyssey
Where any odyssey is concerned, the journey is more important than the final destination, and that's absolutely true of Stanley Kubrick's mindbending adaptation of Arthur C. Clarke's sci-fi novel 2001: A Space Odyssey.
The movie's narrative descends into incoherence when astronaut Bowman (Keir Dullea) descends into a vortex of colours and finds himself in a strange new universe, and then in a room with an aged version of himself, and what's with that 'Star Child'?
Kubrick abandoned logic in the final act in favour of hallucinogenic imagery, and the remainder of the movie becomes a purely visceral experience. The filmmaker posed questions, offered no definitive answers, and left the viewer to draw up their own theories about the weird and wonderful sights on show.
2001 left audiences guessing, theorising and debating heatedly, but nobody should have expected anything less from a movie exploring mankind's place in the universe.