Museums. That's what I think of when I see this film. Wandering around old exhibits in natural history museums, planetariums, and science centers that have rooms and corners that have not been updated since the 1960s. A retro, Cold War perspective on the future and nature of humanity. Dimly-lit dioramas of great apes that were a little unsettling. Those huge maps with LED lights on them showing paths of satellites that you could light up by pressing a button. Glow-in-the-dark carpeting with stars and planets. Old recordings of jungle sounds that sounded straight out of Apocalypse Now.

It's an aesthetic that has a lot of nostalgic value to me, and it's that nostalgia that was the primary emotion I felt while experiencing this film for the first time. It is retro-futurism at its finest, and a grim reminder that sometimes knowledge (in the form of the monolith) can be a terrifying endeavor.

And if we're being honest here...HAL is a lovable sassy bitch.

Claire's A Film A Day, 2014: Day 246