Originally Posted by
BurnetRhoades
The first manned Apollo mission, Apollo 7, happened on October 11 of 1968 which was six months after the US theatrical release of 2001 in April of that year. It would be another two months and Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to leave Earth orbit and then July of 1969 we put men on the moon, four years after an accurate depiction of men walking on the moon was shot by Kubrick for the film.
The moon base sequence of the film was the first thing shot, in 1965, only four years after the whole idea of a manned space program was even proposed as an actual goal for Congress to act on. There are things depicted in this film that wouldn't actually be experienced by humans until after the film was done or wouldn't be done for years and it got them right.
Neil Armstrong and the rest of NASA weren't even sure that the surface was solid enough to walk on until he took that first step after saying those famous lines. He was shitting bricks standing on the bottom rung of the ladder before stepping off.
Dave and crew are using iPad like thin tablets that are barely half a decade old now, not to mention the step towards HAL we have with stuff like SIRI. There isn't another scifi motion picture more prophetic or executed to the same standard. Before and after, most of what passes for "scifi" is really just fantasy.
Sorry, that'll be it. I just have a personal connection to the film beyond merely enjoying it or recognizing its singular achievement in the history of motion pictures on so many levels. For the genre it's more important than the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elvis all rolled together, with respect to Rock-n-Roll. 2001 is the fucking Blues.