Big Daddy Derek !Uvm54ORbmo joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 1 hour later[^][v]#637,501
@OP
The plot of 2001 is pretty simple, and can be summed up thusly: 4 million years ago, aliens from Jupiter visited Earth and inspired the primitive apes to start using tools and shit by leaving a giant black rectangle in their cave. Once the apes start using tools, the aliens bury another rectangle on the moon for the apes to find once they develop spaceflight. 4 million years later, in 1999, some humans dig up the rectangle on the moon, and it fires a beam of energy directly at Jupiter when it is exposed to sunlight, so they send a ship called Discovery there to meet the aliens, but on the way to Jupiter, Discovery's computer, TARS, goes mad and tries to kill everyone. Eventually Frank Pool manages to shut off TARS by locking himself in the ship's radiation room, sacrificing his own life in the process, leaving Dave Lister, sole survivor of the crew, to continue the mission. When Dave gets to Jupiter he dutifully pays his respects to Frank by launching his body towards one of Jupiter's moons from the torpedo launer, hoping that maybe it will be the beginning of new life, then he gets in a shuttle and goes to look for aliens, but all he finds a another giant rectangle, so he uses it to go back in time and steal some humpback whales from Seaworld so the aliens stop trying to destroy Earth, then he turns into a giant floating space baby and uses the Force to reunite Frank's katra with his body.
There is a sequel called 2010, but it's complete garbage. I recommend reading the book series instead.
(Edited 8 minutes later.)
Sheila LaBoof joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 5 hours later, 7 hours after the original post[^][v]#637,559
from wiki: At Jupiter, Bowman leaves Discovery One in an EVA pod to investigate another monolith discovered in orbit around the planet. The pod is pulled into a vortex of colored light, and Bowman races across vast distances of space, viewing bizarre cosmological phenomena and strange landscapes of unusual colors.
He finds himself, still in the pod, in a bedroom appointed in the neoclassical style. He sees older versions of himself, his point of view switching each time, first standing in the bedroom, middle-aged, and still in his spacesuit, then formally dressed and eating dinner, and finally as an old man lying in the bed. A black monolith appears at the foot of the bed, and as Bowman reaches for it, he is transformed into a fetus enclosed in a transparent orb of light. The film ends as the new being floats in space beside the Earth, gazing at it.
The star child signifies a "great new beginning," and is depicted naked and ungirded, but with its eyes wide open.
r04r joined in and replied with this 10 years ago, 46 minutes later, 8 hours after the original post[^][v]#637,570
it's about humanity evolving. the end is tied to the beginning because he's basically saying our next evolution will be as drastic as the one that split us from ape evolution. the whole star baby thing represents humanity being reborn and still in our infancy. prior to leaving earth (the womb) we're still just a fetus.