2001 Is a Nonverbal Experience

Playboy: One critic even called 2001 “the first Nietzschean film,” contending that its essential theme is Nietzsche’s concept of man’s evolution from ape to human to superman. What was the metaphysical message of 2001?

Kubrick: It’s not a message that I ever intend to convey in words. 2001 is a nonverbal experience…

Stanley Kubrick interview with Playboy magazine, 1968