2001: A Space Odyssey

Bowman’s pod passes through “the slot” and back into space, but he can tell he is far from Earth and can’t find any familiar markers. He wonders if he might still be within the Milky Way but viewing it from an unfamiliar angle, but he dismisses the thought. Bowman looks at unfamiliar stars and wonders about them, including a large red sun nearby. This sun is orbited by a smaller, brighter star that sends a pillar of fire down onto the surface of the larger body. He feels himself still under the control of the force that brought him to this place. A “dully gleaming cobweb or lattice-work of metal, hundreds of miles in extent” appears in the sky (204). This huge object is covered in spaceships, leading Bowman to consider it a parking lot. He speculates that it might have once been a place for commerce but notes that it now appears inactive and “dead as the Moon” (205). He is disappointed that he seems to have arrived at his destination too late, but his pod continues to move past this object and begins to descend.

Bowman flies close to the red sun, protected from its radiation by some invisible force. He sees thousands of huge bright beads that appear to move purposefully across the sun’s surface. They travel up the pillar of fire that descends to the surface of the red star from the white dwarf star. Bowman reflects that he might be watching a migration from star to star via a bridge of fire.

Bowman’s pod comes to rest on “some hard surface” (211). He finds himself looking out at what appears to be a hotel suite. He considers leaving the pod to look around and test the reality of the vision before him. He speculates that it might be a test not only of him but of his species. He dons his spacesuit and exits the pod. He picks up a directory and finds that it is for Washington, DC. The rest of the print is an unreadable blur. The furniture is solid, but the drawers don’t open; they are dummies. The suite has a functioning bathroom and kitchen. He takes off his helmet and suit. He eats food from the kitchen and drinks water from the tap. He takes a shower, lies down in the bed, and watches TV. He watches a news report, a violin concerto, a panel game, and a western, among other things. It is all two years out of date, suggesting to Bowman that TMA-1 transmitted information about Earth when it sent its signal. The rooms he is in have been based on a TV program that he stumbles across while watching TV. He falls asleep and “passe[s] beyond the reach of dreams” (218). This is the last time he sleeps as David Bowman.

Around Bowman, no longer awake to see it, the room dissolves until only the bed he is lying in remains. While he sleeps, something probes his mind. He dimly recognizes what is happening but is not fully conscious. He sees a lattice of light that looks like nerve fibers and imagines a gigantic mind studying him. After this vision has passed, he enters a new realm of consciousness and relives the past, reversing through time toward his own childhood. He becomes an infant and begins to cry.

A crystal slab, like the one that sparked the evolution of the “ape-men,” appears in the room. The baby is silent, transfixed by the slab, which works on his mind as it once worked on the minds of the “ape-men.” The room disappears, and the baby is in the fires of the double star but unharmed. He travels light years. When he feels overwhelmed, he is comforted and guided by an unseen force. He returns to “the space that men call real” (225).

Earth is before the Star Child. Alarms are going off and telescopes are scanning the sky. He detonates an orbiting nuclear warhead, bringing a “false dawn to half the sleeping globe” (226). He is “master of the world” and is not sure what to do with his power (226); the novel ends with the line, “[b]ut he would think of something” (226).