In the sequence in which Bowman recovers Poole's body with the pod, the camera was running at four times normal speed so that the resulting footage would be in slow-motion, giving a slow, "drifting in space" look. That means the soft contact of the pod's arms with Poole's body was actually rather rough, and as a result, the stunt man doubling for Poole was badly bruised by the end of the takes.
Incrementing each letter of "HAL" gives you "IBM". Writer Arthur C. Clarke claimed this was unintentional, and if he had noticed ahead of time, he would have changed it. HAL stands for Heuristic Algorithmic Computer. IBM product placements appear in the movie as well, including the computer panels in the spaceplane that docks with the space station, the forearm control panel on Dave's spacesuit, and the portable viewscreens on which Dave and Frank watch "The World Tonight".
It is reported that Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke watched an enormous number of science fiction films in preparation for creating this movie and Kubrick himself acknowledged the influence of producer George Pal's films. Pal's Conquest of Space provided several plot points throughout the movie.
Just like in Arthur C. Clarke's short story 'The Sentinel', the finding of the monolith on the moon would initially be the film's climax. This eventually became the kick-off for the movie's second half. But even during production, the ending of the movie was still under constant revision. Stanley Kubrick initially planned to show extra-terrestrials, but found out that the production's budget was quickly running out. He finally decided that it would be better to not physically show the aliens at all, stating that "you don't show God".
Magazine "poll" places won by this movie: In 2002, named by "Positif" (France) as #1 in both critics' choice and readers' choice of 50 best films in 1952-2002. In 2007, named by American Film Institute as #15 Greatest Movie of All Time, and #1 on AFI list of the 10 greatest "Sci-Fi" films, June 2008. "Open the pod bay doors, HAL," #78 (out of 100) of AFI's best movie quotes. "Dave, my mind is going, I can feel it," #82 of "The 100 Greatest Movie Lines," Premiere, 2007. A poster was #10 of 25 Best Movie Posters Ever, Premiere Magazine.
MGM took a four page advertisement in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times and the Washington Star to launch its publicity campaign for 2001: A Space Odyssey during 25th February 1968.
Most of the monitor screens used throughout the spacecraft sequences are rear-projection 16mm showing loops of film. Due to Stanley Kubrick's typical multi-multi-take technique, a lot of these loops ended up getting scratched, and if you study some of the screens, particularly in the pod, you can see repeating scratches.
One of Stanley Kubricks additions to the screenplay which Arthur C. Clarke did not like was HAL's ability to read the astronauts' lips when they are inside the pod. Years later, he admitted that Kubrick had been right all along, after learning that at the time, computers were being developed with the ability to read lips.
Originally Stanley Kubrick had planned to shoot the film in the aspect ratio of 1.85:1. After consultant Robert Gaffney convinced the director that Super Panavision (aspect ratio 2.20:1) was a more visceral experience, Kubrick agreed and got MGM to pay for the photographic process. Since shooting a 70mm space film with monaural sound was frowned upon, Kubrick decided to mix the soundtrack in stereo sound.
Originally intended as a road show release, with Overture, Intermission, and Exit music (all with curtain warmers) and a 35mm b/w prologue of interview with experts on the possibilities of extra terrestrial life. Despite the fact that the Overture, Intermission, and Exit Music were not used, the film still went out as a roadshow release, and still had an intermission. When Stanley Kubrick learned this, he not only ordered where the intermission took place, but had his film's composer record specific music for the intermission, and requested that the theater be plunged into darkness for a minute before the film restarted.
Originally, Stanley Kubrick had Stuart Freeborn create a primitive but more human-like makeup for the actors playing early man, but he couldn't find a way to photograph them in full length without getting an X-rating from the MPAA, since they had to be naked. So Kubrick went with the hairy monkey model instead. With the exception of two baby chimpanzees, all were played by humans in costume. Freeborn and his wife Kathleen Freeborn used comic actor Ronnie Corbett as a makeup model, but he did not appear in the final film. Daniel Richter, who plays the ape moon watcher, choreographed most of these scenes. Early viewers of the movie wondered where Kubrick obtained such well-trained apes. It was later joked that "2001" lost the Best Makeup Academy Award to John Chambers for Planet of the Apes because the judges didn't realize the 2001 apes were really people, but there was no nomination list at all, as the award was not created until 1981--Chambers' award was merely honorary.
Originally, HAL was to be called Athena and have a female voice. According to Keir Dullea (Dave Bowman), Nigel Davenport and Martin Balsam were hired and later replaced before Douglas Rain finally landed the role of HAL. Davenport was actually on-set in England during filming, reading HAL's lines off-camera so that Dullea and Gary Lockwood could react to them. Apparently, Stanley Kubrick thought that Davenport's English accent was too distracting, so after a few weeks he dismissed him and for the remainder of the shoot HAL's lines were read by an assistant director who, according to Dullea, had a Cockney accent so thick that lines like "Better take a stress pill, Dave" came out like "Better tyke a stress pill, Dyve". Later Balsam was hired and recorded HAL's voice in New York, but again when Kubrick heard his lines he wasn't satisfied, so he finally got Rain to re-record everything during post-production. Rain recorded in Canada, speaking his lines barefoot with his feet resting on a pillow to get the relaxed tone. For the sequel, Peter Hyams' 2010, the opposite process was used: Rain
Poole (Gary Lockwood) was filmed wearing a helmet on the bridge of Discovery because Stanley Kubrick initially had doubts over the scientific possibility of a person's survival for even an instant in a vacuum; however, data published at the time indicated that such survival was indeed possible, which allowed the Emergency Air Lock re-entry sequence to be filmed and for scenes to be shot of the astronauts without their helmets.
Rock band Pink Floyd was at one point approached to perform music for the film. However they turned it down due to other commitments. Yet they retain a connection with the film: much like The Wizard of Oz and "Dark Side of the Moon", it is said that Pink Floyd's song "Echoes" from the album "Meddle" can be perfectly synchronized with the "Jupiter & Beyond the Infinite" segment of the film. See links section for details.
Some of the "Dawn of Man" African sequences used the sounds of wild cats, gorillas and chimpanzees originally recorded for the MGM film Mogambo. The sounds were authentic and actually recorded in locations throughout Africa during the making of "Mogambo" while it was being shot on location there.
The 'buttons' that Dave Bowman presses to arm the depressurization sequence of the pod are the valves of the seat portion of a Martin-Baker aircraft ejection seat's personal equipment connector (PEC). The valves sealed the pilot's air services such as oxygen, pressure jerkin, anti-g suit and air ventilation (depending on the specific aircraft requirements) when the seat was not in use. Below the valves can be seen the brass intercom connections. The component seen could possibly have been salvaged from a series 4 seat fitted to an English Electric Lightning.
The actual "Space Station 5" model, which was about 7 feet across, was found a few years after 2001: A Space Odyssey was made, discarded in an English field with wild grass growing over its rapidly decaying surface. The model was destroyed by vandals a few days later.
The animal used in the "Dawn of Man" sequence, the one that looks like a black pig with a trunk, is a tapir.
The Blue Danube Waltz was not the first piece of classical music intended for the space station sequence. Stanley Kubrick originally set the sequence to the Scherzo from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's "Midsummer Night's Dream." Friend of Kubrick's introduced him to the Johann Strauß waltzes during 2001's editing stage, and he re-edited the sequence to The Blue Danube for the final version of the film.
The carry-on bags belonging to Russian space scientists with whom Dr. Floyd shares a drink are marked Aeroflot (in Cyrillic), still today the Russian national airline.