60 free 2001: a Space Odyssey trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
2001: A Space Odyssey opened in April 1968 to walkouts, baffled reviews and a New York critic calling it 'monumentally unimaginative'. It has since topped Sight & Sound's directors' poll and is routinely named the greatest science fiction film ever made. Stanley Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke built it from a handful of Clarke's short stories, four years of argument, and a rotating 30-ton set. This quiz covers the whole odyssey: the plot from the Dawn of Man to the Star Child, the cast and the voice of HAL, the writing and the abandoned titles, the effects work (the centrifuge, front projection, the slit-scan Star Gate), the classical music that replaced Alex North's score, HAL's real-world roots at IBM and Bell Labs, the premiere-night walkouts, the awards, and the 1984 sequel. Difficulty ranges from questions any film fan can answer to details for people who own the Blu-ray commentary. Every answer was verified against the Wikipedia articles on the film, HAL 9000, the soundtrack and the sequel, and each question shows its source.
30 of 60 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Stanley Kubrick
He also produced it and shared the screenplay credit with Arthur C. Clarke.
Q 02Which science fiction author co-wrote the screenplay with Kubrick?
Arthur C. Clarke
He was living in Ceylon at the time; Kubrick had been warned he was 'a recluse, a nut who lives in a tree'.
Q 03In which year was the film released?
1968
It premiered at the Uptown Theater in Washington on 2 April and opened in the US the next day.
Q 04Which 1951 Clarke short story was the primary inspiration for the film?
The Sentinel
Kubrick had wanted Childhood's End first, but its film rights were already optioned.
Q 05What is the name of the sentient computer aboard Discovery One?
HAL 9000
His twin, SAL, appears in the sequel voiced by Candice Bergen, with a blue eye instead of red.
Q 06Which planet is Discovery One bound for?
Jupiter
In Clarke's novel the destination is Saturn; the film changed it to Jupiter.
Q 07Who plays astronaut Dr Dave Bowman?
Keir Dullea
He returned to the role in the 1984 sequel and, in a 2018 anniversary event, saw the film in 70mm again with Christopher Nolan.
Q 08Who plays Dr Frank Poole, the astronaut HAL sends tumbling into space?
Gary Lockwood
For the famous centrifuge shot he was strapped into a seat at the top of the wheel while Dullea walked round to join him.
Q 09Who provided the voice of HAL?
Douglas Rain
Martin Balsam had recorded the part first but sounded 'a little bit too colloquially American' to Kubrick.
Q 10Which character travels to Clavius Base to inspect the buried lunar monolith?
Dr Heywood Floyd
MGM had suggested a star like Henry Fonda or George C. Scott for the part; William Sylvester got it.
Q 11Near which lunar crater is the second monolith found buried?
Tycho
The excavation pit was the first scene shot, in December 1965 at Shepperton Studios.
Q 12How does HAL learn that Bowman and Poole plan to disconnect him?
By lip reading
They had retreated to an EVA pod to talk in private, but he watched through the window.
Q 13How does Bowman get back aboard Discovery after HAL refuses to open the pod bay doors?
He blasts himself through the vacuum into the emergency airlock
Q 21Which waltz accompanies the space plane docking with the space station?
The Blue Danube
Kubrick linked the spinning satellites to waltzing dancers; the piece also plays over the closing credits.
Q 22Which Hollywood composer wrote an original score for the film that Kubrick then discarded?
Alex North
He only found out at the premiere; his friend Jerry Goldsmith later recorded the whole unused score.
Q 23Whose ballet Gayane supplies the mournful adagio heard as Bowman and Poole are introduced?
Aram Khachaturian
The Armenian composer's piece conveys the loneliness of the long voyage.
He does it without a helmet, jettisoning the pod door so the escaping air propels him across the gap.
Q 14Which song does HAL sing as Bowman disconnects his memory?
Daisy Bell
It was the first song ever sung by a computer, an IBM demonstration Clarke had witnessed in 1961.
Q 15According to the film, in which city did HAL become operational?
Urbana, Illinois
The film gives the date as 12 January 1992; Clarke's novel says 1997.
Q 16What does HAL's name stand for, according to Clarke?
Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
Fans noticed each letter is one ahead of IBM; both Clarke and Kubrick insisted it was coincidence.
Q 17HAL is a one-letter shift from the name of which company, which had actually advised on the film?
IBM
Clarke said they were embarrassed by the coincidence and would have changed the name had they spotted it.
Q 18Which British actor played HAL on set, before the voice was dubbed in post-production?
Nigel Davenport
During rehearsals Stefanie Powers had supplied the voice while Kubrick hunted for something suitably androgynous.
Q 19Which name had Clarke considered for the computer in early drafts, before HAL?
Socrates
He then tried Athena, a female-personality computer, before settling on HAL 9000.
Q 20Which Richard Strauss tone poem opens the film?
Also sprach Zarathustra
Decca let Kubrick use the Karajan recording only on condition that conductor and orchestra went unnamed in the credits.
Q 24Which composer's dissonant modernist works, including Atmosphères, accompany the monolith?
György Ligeti
He admired the film but was irritated that Kubrick had not asked his permission directly.
Q 25What did Kubrick and Clarke privately call the project, in a nod to an MGM Cinerama epic?
How the Solar System Was Won
The official title Journey Beyond the Stars was announced in February 1965; the final title was 'entirely' Kubrick's idea.
Q 26What title did Kubrick announce in 1965 before settling on 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Journey Beyond the Stars
The other two candidates and 'Universe' were also considered and dropped.
Q 27Where did Kubrick and Clarke first meet, on 22 April 1964?
Trader Vic's in New York
The project would take up the next four years of their lives.
Q 28Which Homeric epic did Kubrick use as a model and source for the title?
The Odyssey
He said the sea held the same mystery for the Greeks that space holds for us.
Q 29Which engineering firm built the 30-ton rotating centrifuge set for Discovery's interior?
Vickers-Armstrong
It cost $750,000, measured 38 feet across, and let actors appear to walk up the walls.
Q 30How much did the centrifuge set cost?
$750,000
The whole production ran $4.5 million over its initial $6 million budget and 16 months late.