This sequence is certainly close to be chosen as the greatest film sequence of all time, and until recently it was. It definitely remains as the most mysterious and wondrous of film sequences from the film I choose as the greatest film ever made. Stanley Kubrick's masterpiece is one of the few films which uses the art form to present huge ideas, in this case, ideas about the birth of intelligence, the mysteries of early civilization, the wonders of the universe, and the dangers of our own technology. Pages and pages could be written on this film, but this final sequence remains so completely unique. After HAL, the onboard computer in charge of Discovery One, has managed to kill everyone on board the ship besides David Bowman, who outwitted HAL and disconnected him, the ship has finally arrived at its destination, the planet Jupiter, where a third monolith is found. The first arrived during the times of our ape ancestors and spawned the birth of intelligence, or perhaps was sent there to see if the living beings had evolved to the ability to journey to find their meaning. The second monolith was found by humans on the moon, after digging it up, receiving signals from Jupiter. So by the year 2001, humankind was able to send people to the source to find out what it means. As Dave Bowman encounters the monolith in the pod from Discovery One, and enters the planet Jupiter, the bizarre series of events begin. For about ten minutes, we see a strange mixture of colors and images, and like Dave Bowman, there are no words -- it's incomprehensible. Finally, Bowman has arrived in an ancient Victorian room, where he witnesses himself, only a little bit older. That older man witnesses an even older man, who witnesses a sickly and elderly Bowman lying on a death bed, with the monolith lying in front of him.

He reaches out to the monolith, until finally he is no more. The next sight we see is that of an embryo floating in space, the Star Child, who arrives at the Earth and the film ends. And ever since the film's original release, people have been debating the meaning of the film for so long, and it's this greatest of films that demonstrates the most unique quality of good movies -- leave the audience with questions and things to discuss, a film experience that they will keep talking about for weeks after they see the film. I've viewed the film several times, and I've finally come up with my own conclusion --- see if you agree.

When Bowman arrives at Jupiter, he experiences his instant death, and he is reborn into a being made of both human and alien parts, and also a part of HAL. A new intelligence and new beginning for the universe. The monoliths were nothing but stepping stones, objects to get us out there where something needed us. But that's the bigger question that I have yet to be able to answer -- was it an alien intelligence doing this, or the creator of the Universe, call it God, waiting for us out there until we were able to create the ability, on our own, to make it to him. This entity delivered two monoliths, one on Earth and one on the moon, millions of years ago when humans were not even walking the planet. The first monolith perhaps was the divine intervention which began the evolutionary change for the apes to evolve into human beings with intelligence. And then it delivered the second monolith out on Earth's moon, knowing that the species on Earth would have to develop a great mass of knowledge, technology, and ability to get them there to find it, at which point it could contact them to bring them out for the interstellar meeting. A meeting that could only take place when the species had evolved into one with intelligence. At that point it seems, we no longer need our technology, and a new age will begin. Perhaps the Star Child is the new Adam, a second chance to begin again. Or perhaps it's simply a new intelligence to combine with and forge a new venture to explore the universe. One film was able to evoke this much discussion and thought, and that definitely makes it the greatest film ever made. A different film presenting huge ideas and leaving the viewer to decide. This was what cinema was for -- this is why the movies are the art form they are.