How Nietzsche’s work influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey

Stanley Kubrick once said, in an article in the New York Times, “Man is the missing link between primitive apes and civilised human beings. Man is really in a very unstable condition”. This gives the inclination that Kubrick’s film, 2001: A space Odyssey, takes its foundations from Friedrich Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra. As mentioned in a previous post Nietzsche hypothesised that “Ubermensch” (overman) will eventually evolve beyond mankind. Nietzsche had the idea that the evolution of man would go through three stages: primitive man, modern man, and eventually overman. Thus suggesting modern man is just a bridge between ape and overman but a necessary stage in the evolutionary chain. Nietzsche is also famous for declaring “God is dead” in Thus Spoke Zarathustra and in 2001: A Space Odyssey we see Stanley Kubrick’s interpretation of this idea. Between man and becoming ‘Ubermensch’ there is God, and it is stopping man from evolving any further, and in Kubrick’s film man ‘kills’ God by ceasing to believe, enabling man to progress on to overman.

As well as Nietzsche’s Thus spoke Zarathustra, Kubrick’s film also builds upon Nietzsche’s The Birth of Tragedy. In this work Nietzsche developed the idea of conflict between the Apollonian and Dionysian concepts. The Apollonian referring to the rational and scientific side of mankind and Dionysian refers to the primitive and natural side. Using these two opposing concepts we can interpret Kubrick’s film through Nietzsche tinted glasses. Primitive man is Dionysian, controlled by instinct lacking intellect; Kubrick shows this in the opening scene, ‘the dawn of man’ when they first gain the instinct to kill, as shown by Moon-watcher. Primitive man then evolves into modern man who is shown to be Apollonian, ruled by; science, democracy and religion, peaceful and calm in comparison to primitive man. Kubrick shows this change through Moon-watcher throwing the bone he used as a weapon into the air; this represents the gradual evolution into modern man. The animal instincts that were shown in this opening scene have been extinguished.  The overman will regain these Dionysian traits and combine them with Apollonian to create the overman.

 The evolution from modern man into overman is depicted through the character of Dr Dave Bowman as well as the monolith which appears throughout 2001: A Space odyssey. This evolution from primitive man to modern man to overman is represented by its appearance. It symbolises Nietzsche’s idea of the journey from primitive man to overman. Its first appearance comes in ‘The dawn of man’, and it is after this appearance that primitive man learns to use a bone as a tool and then a weapon. Its next meaningful appearance comes on the moon. The monolith appears on the moon with the sun overhead and produces a loud noise which shows the first morning of the overman.