It is truthful to say that there isn’t any different film on the market immediately corresponding to 2001: A Area Odyssey. As a piece of science-fiction, it is just too distinct and singular to ever be solely replicated, and it was made by one of many best filmmakers of all time: Stanley Kubrick. It spans from the start of time into an incomprehensible future, charting humanity’s evolution from prehistoric apes to beings able to exploring the furthest reaches of house, and past.
Although it may be not possible to duplicate, there are different films which have comparable parts, or really feel in a roundabout way impressed by Kubrick’s 1968 movie. Different sci-fi films that discover human nature, house journey, and humanity’s future in thought-provoking, typically contemplative methods can finally hit related notes, and themselves be compelling house odysseys of a unique type. For anybody who’s searching for related films to 2001: A Area Odyssey, the next titles are value trying out.
10 ‘Solaris’ (1972)
Of all of the sci-fi films launched within the years since 2001: A Area Odyssey, Andrei Tarkovsky’s meditative 1972 movie Solaris is maybe essentially the most immediately comparable. It facilities on a psychologist who’s despatched to an area station to research a mysterious sickness that appears to be affecting everybody there, solely to expertise intense private and psychological adjustments himself after arriving.
Tarkovsky himself had gone on report as saying he did not suppose a lot of 2001: A Area Odyssey, to place it mildly, which makes Solaris viewable as his try at pulling off an formidable, lengthy, and slow-paced sci-fi movie in the identical vein as 2001. In the end, each movies discover human nature in house, and definitely have similarities on the subject of pacing and thematic content material, with each being difficult but rewarding movies that require viewers to be solely attentive whereas watching.
9 ‘Interstellar’ (2014)
Interstellar ranks as one of many longest theatrically launched sci-fi films of all time, clocking in at 11 minutes shy of three hours. That actually makes it an epic Christopher Nolan movie, and arguably his most formidable, with a premise involving explorers utilizing a wormhole to discover a new planet for humanity to stay on, as Earth is slowly dying.
It is all admittedly snappier, extra action-packed, and faster-paced than 2001: A Area Odyssey, however its ultimate act takes a sure flip that feels considerably just like the ultimate a part of Kubrick’s movie. Each movies have humanity pushing itself to its limits, although in Interstellar, the journey is a extra determined one, necessitated by Earth being more and more uninhabitable.
2010: The Yr We Make Contact is a sequel to 2001: A Area Odyssey, and an odd/surprising one at that. You would be forgiven for pondering that the unique from 1968 did not actually go away itself open for a sequel, and you would be proper. In consequence, 2010 takes away a lot of the anomaly and otherworldly awe current in 2001’s ultimate scenes, having to put down details relating to what occurred in that film’s trippy finale.
It feels prefer it strips away a number of the magic in consequence, and people searching for one thing equally indirect and haunting may be dissatisfied by the extra direct storytelling in 2010. Nevertheless, if considered with an open thoughts, it does take issues in an fascinating route, and does actually hook up with the primary… it is simply not fairly as compelling or groundbreaking.
7 ‘Star Trek: The Movement Image’ (1979)
The primary theatrically launched Star Trek film was launched a few decade after the unique collection had completed airing on tv. It noticeably (and expectedly) upped the funds and felt way more cinematic than something that had come earlier than, sending the crew of the Starship Enterprise off on a mission deep into house to examine a mysterious and damaging pressure heading in direction of Earth.
Later Star Trek films actually received extra action-packed, however the authentic The Movement Image was a way more patiently paced movie that targeted on the marvel and mysteries of house, quite than utilizing the situation to stage big motion sequences. This ends in some scenes feeling very harking back to sure elements of 2001, significantly on the subject of spacecraft floating gently by means of house.
6 ‘Advert Astra’ (2019)
If something, Advert Astra admittedly has extra similarities to the novella Coronary heart of Darkness than it does to 2001: A Area Odyssey, no less than on the floor. It follows an astronaut despatched to journey out into the chilly and unforgiving far reaches of house, looking for a purpose why a earlier expedition received misplaced, and the place they went.
The mission finally ends up being a high-stakes one, with the way forward for Earth hanging within the steadiness. That is all to say that Advert Astra is extraordinarily formidable, in addition to lovely, unpredictable, and in addition fairly horrifying, with sure sequences recalling a number of the extra tense and unnerving moments in 2001, like all the pieces involving HAL 9000, or the half the place a monolith is found on the moon.
5 ‘Prometheus’ (2012)
Do not let anybody inform you in any other case: Prometheus could also be flawed, however it’s nonetheless a genuinely good sci-fi/journey film from Ridley Scott. It is a prequel of kinds to Ridley Scott’s 1979 movie Alien, however total feels fairly totally different, and has a plot that is no less than initially about discovery, quite than combating for survival.
It is the seek for the origins of humanity deep in house that offers no less than the primary half of Prometheus some similarities to 2001: A Area Odyssey, and the way in which that movie is all about exploring humanity, albeit with a give attention to its future. The sequel to Prometheus – Alien Covenant – then again, returns the collection to at least one that feels way more corresponding to the primary Alien, with the emphasis as soon as extra on horror and survival.
4 ‘A.I. Synthetic Intelligence’ (2001)
As luck would have it, A.I. Synthetic Intelligence got here out within the yr 2001: A Area Odyssey was set. It additionally has a pre-production historical past that entails Stanley Kubrick’s involvement, because it was a movie he’d wished to make for years, however ultimately handed the script to a considerably reluctant Steven Spielberg in 1995, after which himself handed away in 1999.
Spielberg made the movie – a few robotic boy who’s programmed to like, but yearns to be fully human – in a method that Kubrick might have, although it does nonetheless really feel like a Spielberg film. It is type of a cross between the 2 administrators, stylistically, which means it is one of many closest issues Kubrick followers have to a different big-budget, futuristic sci-fi film from the director after 2001.
3 ‘Arrival’ (2016)
One yr earlier than releasing a Blade Runner sequel, Denis Villeneuve directed Arrival, which is a quiet, low-key, private, and emotional science-fiction movie. It is about how humanity reacts to an alien spacecraft touchdown on Earth, and an professional linguist getting employed by the army to work out what these on board the craft are after.
It takes a considerate and considerably psychological strategy to a (peaceable) alien invasion film, and once more, the emphasis is on discovery and understanding, quite than violence. 2001: A Area Odyssey additionally touches upon interactions with new, difficult-to-comprehend beings from elsewhere within the universe, so although Arrival is about on Earth, it has that as a similarity.
2 ‘Stalker’ (1979)
Seven years after Solaris, Andrei Tarkovsky made one other haunting, slow-paced, and epic-length science-fiction movie with Stalker. It follows a bunch of three males as they journey into harmful territory seeking a spot recognized solely as The Zone, as they consider reaching this place will grant them something they need or want to know.
They might not journey into outer house, however the journey they go on seeking The Zone takes that into some very unusual and otherworldly areas which can be equally weird. It is a movie that takes its time and leaves an incredible deal as much as every viewer’s personal interpretation, and in these restricted methods, scratches the same itch to 2001: A Area Odyssey.
1 ‘Excessive Life’ (2018)
Excessive Life is an uncommon and oftentimes confronting science-fiction film, and definitely one which’s not going to be to everybody’s liking. It is concerning the final two survivors on board a spacecraft that was despatched to discover the outer areas of the photo voltaic system, and the way in which they should struggle for survival by avoiding getting sucked right into a black gap.
Whereas the primary half of 2001: A Area Odyssey presents house journey as awe-inspiring, the potential horror of house is touched upon within the movie’s final half, and it is this type of concern of the unknown which is much more emphasised in Excessive Life. Launched precisely half a century after 2001, it exhibits that in spite of everything these years, humanity remains to be fascinated by – and afraid of – the countless reaches of outer house.