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2001 - A Space Odyssey has influenced the science fiction genre like no other film before and also after. Even George Lucas Star Wars was massively inspired by Stanley Kubrick. Some designs were used as a starting point for the space ships and the stuff around them from Kubricks masterpiece. Some of the interior designs have also been copied from 2001. So the inside of the Millenium Falcon looks like the spaceship Orion 3, which brings the space functionary Dr. Haywood Floyd to a space station in the orbit of the moon at the beginning of the movie.

The same space station was also used 2014 in the film Interstellar by Christopher Nolan in a slightly modified form. Interstellar is generally a single tribute to 2001 - A Space Odyssey because the film offers so many allusions that enumerating it would jump the frame of this essay.

But the most important are the two robots CASE and TARS, which are based on the monolith, which plays a central role in 2001 - A Space Odyssey. The robots travel together with the protagonist Cooper and the crew to Saturn, where a wormhole was discovered. Stanley Kubrick had also originally planned that the wormhole in his own work would also be found near Saturn. However, at that time it was not yet possible to credibly depict the rings of the gas planet, which is why Jupiter was chosen.

Ridley Scott's 1979 horror classic Alien also took many visual influences from 2001 - A Space Odyssey. Apart from a small detail, the interiors of the spaceships are not clinically clean and bright but dirty and gloomy. Even the core of the ship Mother was copied more or less one to one from 2001. In the sequel Aliens the director James Cameron uses the musical piece Gayane's Adagio by Aram Chatschaturjan for the same purpose as Stanley Kubrick, namely to introduce the warship USS Solaco. How it floats elegantly in space, honestly like the Discovery in 2001 - A Space Odyssey did.

But the most important influence of all was 2001 - A Space Odyssey on the film industry itself, because if it hadn't proven that even serious and profound science fiction films could be successful at the box office, it would be very unlikely that films like Blade Runner, Close Encounters of the Third Kind or Contact would have been approved by the studios in the first place. Without 2001 - A Space Odyssey we would have to be satisfied with shallow science fiction movies like Star Wars, which offer good entertainment but don't have a profound story.

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Movies like 2001 - A Space Odyssey, Blade Runner or Alien are a much-needed variation between the whole uniform mush that has always dominated cinemas. 2001 - A Space Odyssey also proved that young filmmakers shouldn't give up despite stumbling blocks and have to pursue their dreams to create really good films.

Many of today's hollywood greats like Steven Spielberg, Christopher Nolan or Ridley Scott say that Stanley Kubrick's 2001 - A Space Odyssey has left its mark on them and always encourages them to give everything they have to give their film the love it needs to be successful.

2001 - A Space Odyssey is one of the greatest milestones in film history and has massively changed science fiction cinema. In addition, the film has held up extremely well over the last 50 years and still looks modern even today. The philosophical themes and the whole story itself are hardly answered and give the viewer a lot of freedom for their own thoughts.

Without 2001 - A Space Odyssey we would never have seen many films that we take for granted today and it's exactly those films that stand out from the monotony that has always dominated cinema. It's all the sadder that such films are no longer financial successes as we last saw with Blade Runner 2049, which in my opinion is one of the best science fiction films of recent years and still failed at the box office.

That's why it's all the more important to support such films and not let yourself be deterred by a lack of action, slow pacing or actions that require active thinking, but rather enjoy these works of art in themselves and fully engage with the plot and the images. Because one day the viewers will feel a fatigue from all the super- and action heroes and the cinema will turn in another direction again. However, the true masterpieces, all the transformations, will survive in the coming decades, like they did before.

If we, the consumers, don't allow this kind of cinematic art to die out, we can actively help decide the future of cinema, but for this we have to look beyond our own horizons and watch films that we may not like at first glance, and this is exactly what often distinguishes good films, that they get better with each viewing. And it's exactly the same with 2001 - A Space Odyssey, the film is a timeless masterpiece.

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_{Informations and Sources
2001 - A Space Odyssey at IMDb
The Cinema behind Star Wars: 2011 A Space Odyssey
Christopher Nolan briefly discusses Interstellar influences
On 2001: A Space Odyssey's Incalculable Cultural Impact}

Part 1