Stanley Kubrick’s masterpiece 2001: A Space Odyssey is over fifty years old and nearly twenty years past its “futuristic” setting date. Nevertheless, it still awes and inspires film fans the world over. One of the most perplexing and often discussed moments in the film is its surrealistic climax. Now, one fan has used that moment to inspire a short film about life in quarantine in the year 2020.
Thanks to Laughing Squid, we’ve learned about an industrial designer named Lydia Cambron. Inspired by that legendary final scene of 2001: A Space Odyssey, she has created 2020: an isolation odyssey. This spot-on and often hilarious shot-for-shot remake of the film’s ending accurately displays life in isolation during the pandemic. All through the lens of Kubrick’s science-fiction epic.
Spoilers for this fifty-two year old movie, but the film ends in one incredibly trippy sequence. The climax finds astronaut Dave Bowman encountering some highly advanced life forms, aging, and then dying, after which he is reborn as a “star child.” All in the span of a few minutes of screen time. You can read Cambron’s description for her film down below:
“2020: an isolation odyssey is a reenactment of the iconic finale of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Restaged in the context of home quarantine, the journey through time adapts to the mundane dramas of self-isolation–poking fun at the navel-gazing saga of life alone and indoors. The adapted version delineates the passing of time through wardrobe rather than age, identifying each phase of the character’s journey with a product of self care or PPE.”
There have been some other great 2001 parody films in the recent past, but we think Cambron’s is maybe the best. If only for accurately showcasing how life in isolation has started to make us all question the nature of our reality these days.
Featured Image: Warner Brothers/Lydia Cambron
