By the year 2001, overpopulation has replaced the problem of starvation, but this was ominously offset by the absolute and utter perfection of the weapon. Hundreds of giant bombs had been placed in perpetual orbit above the Earth. They were capable of incinerating the entire Earth's surface from an altitude of 100 miles.
2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
NARRATOR
A screenplay character in 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968).
- lines
- 17
- words
- 1,314
- scenes
- 2
- dialogue
- 16%
- avg words / line
- 77
- shortest / longest
- 18 / 373
Sample dialogue
Those who had begun the expriment so long ago had not been men. But when they looked out across the deeps of space, they felt awe and wonder – and loneliness. In their explorations, they encountered life in many forms, and watched on a thousand worlds the workings of evolution. They saw how often the first faint sparks of intelligence flickered and died in the cosmic night. And because, in all the galaxy, they had found nothing more precious than Mind, they encouraged its dawning everywhere. The great Dinosaurs had long since perished when their ships entered the solar system, after a voyage that had already lasted thousands of years. They swept past the frozen outer planets, paused briefly above the deserts of dying Mars and presently looked down on Earth. For years they studied, collected and catalogued. When they had learned all they could, they began to modify. They tinkered with the destiny of many species on land and in the ocean, but which of their experiments would succeed they could not know for at least a million years. They were patient, but they were not yet immortal. There was much to do in this Universe of a hundred billion stars. So they set forth once more across the abyss, knowing that they would never come this way again. Nor was there any need. Their wonderful machines could be trusted to do the rest. On Earth, the glaciers came and went, while above them, the changeless Moon still carried its secret. With a yet slower rhythm than the Polar ice, the tide of civilization ebbed and flowed across the galaxy. Strange and beautiful and terrible empires rose and fell, and passed on their knowledge to their successors. Earth was not forgotten, but it was one of a million silent worlds, a few of which would ever speak. Then the first explorers of Earth, recognising the limitations of their minds and bodies, passed on their knowledge to the great machines they had created, and who now trnscended them in every way. For a few thousand years, they shared their Universe with their machine children; then, realizing that it was folly to linger when their task was done, they passed into history without regret.
scene 15 — INT. SPACE STATION – LOUNGEThe Base at Clavius was the first American Lunar Settlement that could, in an emergency, be entirely self-supporting.
scene 15 — INT. SPACE STATION – LOUNGEOne of the attractions of life on the Moon was undoubtedly the low gravity which produced a sense of general well-being.
scene 15 — INT. SPACE STATION – LOUNGEAll noticed the peculiar burst of energy that leaped from the face of the Moon and moved across the solar system, throwing off a spray of radiation like the wake of a racing speedboat.
scene 15 — INT. SPACE STATION – LOUNGE... Now, the long wait was ending. On yet another world intelligence had been born and was escaping from its planetary cradle. An ancient experiment was about to reach its climax.
scene 15 — INT. SPACE STATION – LOUNGE
Bookends
pod came, carrying life. The great machine searched its memories. The logic circuits made their decision when the pod had fallen beyond the last faint. glow of the reflected Saturnian light. In a moment of time, too short to be measured, space turned and twisted upon itself.