2001:A Space Odyssey- Film cuts and their meaning

The cuts he uses serve to help the audience get the message but also show how no matter what stage of life we observe, the overall instincts of life can neither be ignored or defeated. The humans feel threatened by the computer and wish to turn it off. Once again we are shown that no matter the species of life, the instinct of self-preservation is ever-present. With the introduction of the HAL 9000 computer the audience is again presented with a newly evolved life form. The computer has detected this poly and implements its own defense systems in order to prevent its own demise. Since the computer is in control of basically the entire ship, the men decide to deactivate HAL because of this. In this scene we now see two life forms struggling to survive. This entire scene is a seemingly perfect display of the first human weapon, the first human crime, and the first human murder. As the men conduct their mission in space they become concerned about the computer who has made a mistake in detecting an error aboard the spacecraft. This futuristic scene points directly back to the evolutionary period in the beginning of the film. As the apes approach the hole the same instinctive show of force is displayed, however, what the second group doesn’t know is that the others have now learned to make and use weapons.

After the opening scene Kubrick takes us thousands of years into the future where mankind has not only mastered the Earth, but he has begun to master space as well. In this fight for the water hole, the ape that learned how to weaponize a bone attacks one of the other apes and kills him. The apes that had been run off from the water are now regrouped and the camera draws in on one ape in particular. He is piddling through the skeletal remains of another animal when he grabs hold of a long piece of bone, raises it, and swings it down hitting the pile of bones.