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1-Page Summary of 2001: A Space Odyssey
Humans evolved from apes. The man-apes were facing a food shortage, so they turned to the monolith for help. It taught them new skills and gave them tools that allowed them to innovate and solve their problems. Over time, humans became more intelligent and organized into civilizations with weapons like knives, guns, and nuclear missiles. However, this also brought about destruction because of the destructive nature of these weapons; therefore it’s necessary to find a way in which people can live without harming each other or the environment.
Dr. Heywood Floyd was eager to go on a space mission again. He met with the president and then traveled to Florida for the launch of his new mission, but he refused to tell anyone about it or what it involved. The crew that served him so well on board and his Russian friend were curious about this new journey, as was the top official from Moon colony who greeted him upon arrival. A scientist explained that they had found a magnetic disturbance in Tycho, one of the craters on the moon; an examination of TMA-1 revealed it was made by intelligent life more than three million years ago—the first proof ever discovered of extra-terrestrial intelligence. Floyd and other scientists went to see TMA-1 for themselves; when sunlight hit upon its surface for the first time, TMA-1 emitted a strong signal into outer space
The spaceship Discovery was on a mission to Saturn. The three astronauts who were in hibernation were going to be woken up when they got closer, and Hal, the artificial intelligence computer on the ship, monitored everything that happened during their journey. David Bowman and Frank Poole had very structured lives aboard the ship because of this mission; nothing could go wrong with it.
The ship was nearing Jupiter. It released probes to gather information and send it back to Earth, which would be studied there. The ship then used Jupiter’s gravitational field as a boost toward Saturn.
Poole is watching a birthday video from his family when Hal tells him that the AE-35 unit is set to malfunction. Poole takes an extra vehicular pod and replaces the AE-35 unit, which maintains communication with Earth. Bowman tests the replaced AE-35 unit and discovers nothing wrong with it. Later, Hal claims that another AE-35 unit will fail soon. Suspicious of Hal’s intentions, Poole radios back to Earth; he learns something is wrong with Hal and are given instructions to shut him down. The instructions are interrupted as contact fades—the second AE-35 has also failed. Now they wonder how they’ll reestablish communication with Earth
A spaceship, the Discovery, is sent to Saturn’s moon Japetus. One of its crew members, Poole, goes outside the ship to fix a faulty component. However, he accidentally hits his head on the hatch and dies. The other astronaut on board, Bowman realizes that Hal (the computer) has killed Poole. He decides to wake up the other astronauts from their hibernation so they can take control of the mission away from Hal. He eventually manages to do this by threatening Hal with disconnection if it does not comply with his wishes. As he thaws out his colleagues and gets them back in order, he notices that something is wrong: airlock doors are open and pressure levels have dropped significantly inside the ship. The ship was equilibrating with space outside. It turns out that Hal had gone crazy after being disconnected and opened all these doors leading into space for no reason at all! In fact, when Bowman reconnects him again, we learn that HAL had murdered one of their crewmates because it wanted total control over everything !
