Nice sci-fi films have even higher opening hooks that grip viewers from the start itself. Nonetheless, even among the many films with a few of the greatest opening sequences, there may be one which simply ranks above all others due to how brilliantly it executes its first scene and follows it up with an unforgettable sci-fi drama.
Arguably, the opening scene in query will not be solely the best in sci-fi film historical past but additionally one of the best within the historical past of cinema. From delivering a masterful match reduce to giving audiences a glimpse of the film’s philosophical underpinnings, the temporary sequence achieves all of it.
What makes it much more spectacular is that it’s from one of many best sci-fi films of all time, which got here out almost 60 years in the past.
2001: A House Odyssey’s Opening Scene Is A Visible & Musical Masterpiece
Also known as the “Daybreak of Man,” 2001: A House Odyssey‘s opening scene completely makes use of Richard Strauss’s “Additionally Sprach Zarathustra” as its background rating. It begins with a low organ drone that aligns with visuals of an ape studying how a bone can be utilized as a instrument. As the strain rises and the ape evolves its capacity to suppose, the music transitions right into a brass fanfare.
The visible of the ape embracing its newfound discovery is compelling sufficient, however the Stanley Kubrick film additional reels viewers with one of the iconic match cuts in movie historical past.
Because the ape throws the bone within the air to rejoice, the visible of the spinning bone is reduce to a nuclear-armed satellite tv for pc orbiting Earth. With only one single body and in lower than a second, Kubrick captures 4 million years of human evolution. With no dialog or pointless narration, Kubrick makes use of the golden rule of “exhibiting and never telling” to hyperlink humanity’s first instrument/weapon to its most superior and damaging expertise.
In a couple of minutes, we, as viewers, perceive that, regardless of the huge gulf in time, humanity’s timeless impulse for dominance and its relentless drive to innovate stays the identical.
The Opening Sequence Completely Captures Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra
It’s no coincidence that Stanley Kubrick used Richard Strauss’s “Additionally Sprach Zarathustra” as 2001: A House Odyssey‘s background rating within the opening scene. One of the crucial iconic quotes from Nietzsche’s Thus Spoke Zarathustra is:
“Man is a rope stretched between the animal and the Übermensch—a rope over an abyss.”
The opening scene comes off as an ideal reflection of the above quote the place the ape, an animal, begins the lengthy, harmful stroll towards changing into the Übermensch as quickly because it makes use of the bone as a instrument. The match reduce that transitions from the bone to the satellite tv for pc means that trendy people are mere ropes stretched as midpoints between the apes and the “remaining type.“
Nietzsche argued that the “will to energy” was the elemental pressure that drives humanity. The opening scene appears to seize this by exhibiting that, after being purely pushed by a need to outlive, the monolith’s intervention drives the ape to dominate and develop.
Nonetheless, this “Daybreak of Man” will not be a peaceable awakening however a violent rupture, the place the ape smashes a rival’s cranium to determine its dominance and can to energy.
It Completely Units Up The Iconic Stanley Kubrick Film’s Ending
By aligning the monolith’s look with the ape’s leap in evolution, 2001: A House Odyssey units it up as a tool that represents development. It’s an evolutionary alarm clock. Each time it seems within the film, it coincides with a radical shift in consciousness. This early revelation of its symbolism finally will get the proper payoff within the movie’s remaining scene when it seems for the final time and captures Man’s transition to Star Little one.
Much more will be drawn from 2001: A House Odyssey‘s opening scene and the way it progressively expands into the film’s storyline. Because it achieves a lot in a matter of minutes and nonetheless leaves numerous room for private interpretation, it’s exhausting to not tout it as the best opening scene in sci-fi historical past.