Sci-fi epic directed by Stanley Kubrick. At the dawn of mankind, a tribe of ape-like beings are visited on Earth by a large black monolith. Thousands of years later, in the year 2001, scientist Dr Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) discovers a similar black monolith on the moon, which then emits a signal aimed at the planet Jupiter. A year later, astronauts Dr David Bowman (Keir Dullea) and Dr Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) are en route to Jupiter to investigate the signal's destination and purpose. However, their mission comes under threat when their ship's sentient computer, HAL (voice of Douglas Rain), seemingly develops a malfunction.