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To celebrate this enduring legacy, we reached out to several creatives to hear how the film has impacted their own practice half a century after 2001: A Space Odyssey first wowed global audiences. The film’s visual effects by Douglas Trumbull, kickstarted a VFX arms race, massively impacting the visuality of the pictures we now see in the cinema, on TV and in books. Not only did 2001: A Space Odyssey create a discernible language that has bled into every facet of visual communication, it helped form our understanding of the cosmos at a time when the world was gripped by the space race. More notably in recent times, the disembodied yet sentient voice of Hal 9000 is echoed in Samantha, the AI love interest of Joaquin Phoenix in Spike Jonze’s Her. Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra which features on the film’s soundtrack is, as a result, synonymous with space travel and was used by the BBC in its coverage of the Apollo 11 Missions. Kubrick’s visuals, score and concepts made waves throughout the film industry and beyond waves which are especially pertinent today among growing polarisation concerning artificial intelligence (AI). Despite this, it quickly garnered a ferocious cult following and became the highest grossing film of that year: the only Kubrick motion picture to hold this status. This combined with its understandably puzzling ending meant the film received mixed reviews from critics upon its release.

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Packed full of lengthy sequences and free from dialogue or even sound, its imagery, directed by Stanley Kubrick, is tranquil to the point of being static at times. When 2001: A Space Odyssey premiered on – 50 years ago today – it somehow captured the imagination of its viewers: an audience who was yet to experience footage of the moon landing over a year later.

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