Best scene in 2001: a space odyssey

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This is easy to answer. It is off course the scene where Dave and Frank are sitting in the shuttle talking with each other, thinking that HAL cannot understand them.
the problem is, that he is mouthreading them!.
That is in my opinion a really creepy scene. The suspense really lies in the fact that there are nowhere the poor two guys can have a private confidental conversation*. That they are totally overwatched/looked. A bit like the panopticon just in a lot more subtle manner.
Off course the whole movie is a masterpiece which contains multiple fantastic scenes, but the one above is really the one which makes my jaw hit the table again and again.




* A conversation where they are off course talking about voting HAL off the island beacuse of the problems he is causing

I loved when the primates discovered the power of weapons, in the opening.

I like it when HAL refuses to let Dave back in the ship and says: "This conversation can server no further purpose." or something like that. I think that is creepier than the eavesdropping scene.

I really don't have one particular favorite scene, but I do like the scenes where Dave and HAL speak with one another. I don't know why, but I just think it's interesting to see how their interactions deteriorate to the point where they essentially try to "kill" each other.

I also like the Blue Danube scenes with the ships and the weightlessness. I just think they're really impressive visual effects, even for today, and the music just adds to it.

I like the scene just before the end when he is in that room seeming to age and change.

Thanks for your replys.
I really like your choices of favorite scenes. Its impressive that there are so many magic/fantastic scenes in that movie. It also makes it so much harder to accept 2010 beacuse of the huge quality difference. I dont really think that there are any memorable scenes in 2010.
Maybe this one is somewhat memorable. But maybe thats more due to the fact that I am hyperfocused on the possible life on the jupitermoon europa in generel.
[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qi2GvxWHoQY[/youtube]

2001 is a beautiful film. You cannot beat Stanley Kubrick. It was based on a very good book.

I had a hard time liking 2010 and thought it had a dumb ending. I think it said something like "all these worlds are yours, except <some planet name> you must not go there." And I thought yeah right, the first thing a human is going to do is go there.

The ape-man tossing the bone weapon and it segues into a space shuttle. That scene encapsulates the historical development of human technology.

ruveyn

Beautiful film, and it looks stunning on Blu Ray, like it came out yesterday. It is still one of the most futuristic movies ever made.

The end credits. I'm a fan of SyFy but I did NOT like that movie. I could not fallow what was going on at all because there was no plot. Each scene was completely unrelated to everything else in that movie & they were really boring.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aFNtf95roQk[/youtube]

It's difficult to say, really. As an old git, I like the early space bits. Where the stewardess is walking on velcro booties, or where the shuttle lands on on the base on the moon and goes down on the huge lift.
The entire middle section is good, the interaction between Dave and HAL are all good stuff. I recently went to see Prometheus and to be honest, 2001 knocked it all hollow. Except for the incredible details onboard the ship.
You can say what you want, but 2001 still stands as the REALISTIC sic-fi movie.

Off course you are in your right to dislike the movie. But I would make the claim that there indeed is a plot in 2001.

1) The main theme is, evolution. Then there are also things like: artificial intelligence, aswell as the search for extraterrestial life. And just technology in generel.
2) The plot, defined as the main engine in a movie, is established, at least as I see it... The main plot and the main engine in 2001 which gives the characters acting a meaning is the search for the next step in evolution.
3) The characters then act according to this goal.
4) In order to make a plot complete we also need problems/obstacles which our characters would have to overcome. The evolving will (and going haywire) of HAL 9000 is in that context a very concrete obstacle/challenge.

The style in 2001 is of extreme importance, if one don't fancy that style, then the movie would most defenitly appear to long and to quiet and maybe even boring.

Maybe I would of got & enjoyed it more if there was a narrator talking about evolution when the scenes changed

I love the trippy part - infinity & beyond (or something like that) with expanding solar systems and the light show travel scenes with short freeze frames of the traveller's contorted face. Stunning.

Also where he shuts Hal down and Hal is saying 'I'm afraid Dave'. Pure pathos.

I understand what you mean, but if there were to be a narrator then the movie would most definitely not be a Kubrick movie. And if there were a narrator who helped the audiance in understanding, there wouldn't have been so much discussion and debate for decades over this movie.
I think its a blessing that movies like this exist, and I truly admire Kubrick for following his own very controversial conventions.
This movie is without doubt a very important masterpiece which has influenced greatly on other sci-fi classics like alien and star wars.
This movie was when its was released a difficult one to interpret and it still is. Even Arthur C. Clarke couldn't quite follow Stanleys visions.

Your wish of a narrator is something that emphasize the discourse about the movie being one with a high level of abstraction, ambiguity and thorough use of symbolism.

I'd say the story is about humanity searching for its maker/or some other existing being. The finding of the monolith, which indicates intelligent life, on the moon triggers the search across the solar system. I think Arther C Clarke took the story to a place where we meet an entity so beyond our understanding that it showed us how small and simple we. His idea of our species evolution being encouraged by an outside entity made us look like pets.