The timing of George's "This movie is such an acid trip." was so perfect.

When George said "this movie is such an acid trip" just prior to Bowman going into the monolith I literally hurt my sides laughing knowing what was coming next!!!!! A definite "wait for it" moment!!
The child inside the womb was called the starchild in the book and it does represent the next stage in evolution for mankind.  If you want some answers and to react to a darn good sequel do "2010 the year we make contact"! It has a fantastic cast and it's also very well done and answers a lot of questions from 2001!!!

In case no one has mentioned this: the opening is intended for a closed-curtain viewing.  The curtains would part when the MGM logo came on.  This can also be seen with Lawrence of Arabia and West Side Story from the 1960s.  Like theatrical overtures it was.

I only just now realized that the real theme of this movie is the Evolution of Food.  At first the apes were fighting off tapirs for the shrubbery, then they were "uplifted" to red meat.  4 million years later we had advanced to drinking peas and carrots through straws, then crustless sandwiches, TV dinners, and finally in Beyond the Infinite Dave was able to sit down for a proper dinner.  Then he botched that up, and the aliens went "we can't have nice things" and started feeding him umbilically.

In the jogging scene the entire room is on a rotating gimbal. So the actor is not running around it, the room is rotating around the actor, who is simply running in place. The trick is in the clever camera placement that fools you. Brilliant stuff.

Kubrick actually did shoot the Moon landing.
As a perfectionist though, he demanded it be shot on location.

Douglas Rain's vocal performance as HAL 9000 is still one of the most chilling performances ever. That calm and calculating demeanour with emotionless intentions behind that soulless and unmoving red eye. Geez!

I was a 12 yr old sci-fi geek when I went to see this in the cinema here in the UK. To say that I and the rest of the audience were completely blown away is an understatement. It was all we talked about at school for days afterwards. To see it through your (fresh) eyes 55yrs later kinda brought back the wonder that we all felt back in the day...

Clarke's novel version explains EVERYTHING, without ruining any sense of wonder, which was Clarke's strength.

17:11 - FUN FACT: The "VIBRATOR" light is for an actual device that would be mounted on aircraft instrument panels to make sure all mechanical gauges are reading correctly. (i.e. like constantly tapping on a gauge.)

Here's the definition from a parts manufacturer, "A mechanical device, electrically operated, designed to be mounted to the instrument panel of an aircraft to prevent instruments from intermittently sticking."

To answer your questions regarding the "old classical" music.  The first piece is "Also Sprach Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss.  It was written before this movie, but this movie is what put that piece of music into the popular culture.  The second piece is not from Nutcracker (though that was a good guess), it's the Blue Danube Waltz by Johann Strauss (no relation).  That piece was already in the pop culture before this movie.

In 1968 it was not ridiculous, it was awesome. At the end we, in the theater audience, just sat there and stared at each other without words.

Simone: "Could you imagine watching this stoned?"

Ashleigh Burton: "Hi. Yes. Hello!"

Kubrick took 5 years to make this film.  He invented new cameras, a new front  projection system for the apes in the beginning.  (most films had rear projection systems, this system project the  image OVER the apes.  He hired the vanguard of special effects artists to work on the SLIT SCAN SECTION of the film.  The most famous was Douglas Trumbull, a young special effects wizard who later directed his own movie called 'SILENT RUNNING", which featured three droids very similar to R2D2.  I happened to go to the NY PREMIER and was wowed by the effects and story. I went on to watch this film 20 times in the theater. It was my favorite film for many years.  Thanks for the reaction to this great film.

It's funny you said "one ape slapped another and suddenly it's nuclear bombs" because it's implied (but not very clear in the movie) that the first spacecraft you see after the ape throws the bone are platforms carrying nuclear weapons.

The movie cuts from the first weapon to weapons which can end humanity.

Kubrik actually explains the ending quite well. At the end, Bowman enters the monolith and is placed into a kind of zoo exhibit to be studied by the builders of the monolith which are beings of energy. Because they exist inside the monolith beyond time and space, Bowman's life inside his exhibit happens instantaneously. Time has no meaning inside the monolith. And upon his death, he is reborn and retuned to Earth.

I can't wait for Simone to start a reaction with either "I can't do that Dave" or "I can't do that George"

2010 is an overlooked and worthy sequel. Some things do get explained especially with HAL. It's worth a watch even though it's steeped in the Cold War. Also, my dad saw this in theaters and said it was so amazing to see spaceships, but you could also see the people inside them walking around. No one had seen that before. Also...the ending no one got and at the time, it pissed a few people off. It's definitely an acid trip.

3:40  "Looks like twitter"  LOL

As I understand it, the novel and the screen play were written in parallel with input going both ways.  I too was very confused by the movie but the novel made things much clearer.  Check it out, it's a great read!