2001: A Space Odyssey Trivia
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58 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 58 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who directed 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Stanley Kubrick
Stanley Kubrick directed and produced 2001: A Space Odyssey, his first film after the 1964 satire Dr. Strangelove.
Q 02Which science fiction author co-wrote the screenplay with Kubrick?
Arthur C. Clarke
Arthur C. Clarke co-wrote the screenplay while drafting the novel in parallel; he was living in Ceylon, now Sri Lanka, when the collaboration began in 1964.
Q 03In which year was the film released?
1968
2001: A Space Odyssey was released in 1968, premiering on 2 April before its general US opening the following day.
Q 04Which 1951 Clarke short story was the primary inspiration for the film?
The Sentinel
The Sentinel, first published in 1951 as 'Sentinel of Eternity', describes an alien artefact left on the Moon to signal humanity's arrival in space, the seed of the film's monolith.
Q 05What is the name of the sentient computer aboard Discovery One?
HAL 9000
HAL 9000 is the Discovery's computer; its twin SAL 9000, with a blue eye instead of red, appears in the 1984 sequel voiced by Candice Bergen.
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
Keir Dullea plays Dave Bowman and returned to the role for the 1984 sequel, 2010: The Year We Make Contact.
Q 08Who plays Dr Frank Poole, the astronaut HAL sends tumbling into space?
Gary Lockwood
Gary Lockwood plays Frank Poole; for the centrifuge shot he was strapped into a seat at the top of the rotating set while his co-star walked round to join him.
Q 09Who provided the voice of HAL?
Douglas Rain
Douglas Rain, a Canadian stage actor, recorded the computer's lines in post-production after Martin Balsam's earlier take sounded too colloquially American to the director.
Q 10Which character travels to Clavius Base to inspect the buried lunar monolith?
Dr Heywood Floyd
Dr Heywood Floyd, played by William Sylvester, travels by Aries lunar shuttle to Clavius Base, where he is briefed before visiting the excavation.
Q 11Near which lunar crater is the second monolith found buried?
Tycho
Tycho: the buried monolith is catalogued as Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One (TMA-1), and the excavation pit was the first scene shot, in December 1965.
Q 12How does HAL learn that Bowman and Poole plan to disconnect him?
By lip reading
By lip reading: Bowman and Poole retreat to an EVA pod to talk in private, but the computer watches their mouths through the pod 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
The Blue Danube, Johann Strauss II's waltz, scores the docking ballet and returns over the closing credits.
Q 22Which Hollywood composer wrote an original score for the film that Kubrick then discarded?
Alex North
Alex North composed a full original score that was dropped in favour of the classical selections; he only learned this at the premiere, and Jerry Goldsmith conducted a recording of it in 1993.
Q 23Whose ballet Gayane supplies the mournful adagio heard as Bowman and Poole are introduced?
Aram Khachaturian
He blasts himself through the vacuum into the emergency airlock: without a helmet, he fires the pod's explosive bolts so the escaping air hurls him across the gap.
Q 14Which song does HAL sing as Bowman disconnects his memory?
Daisy Bell
Daisy Bell was chosen because a 1961 Bell Labs speech-synthesis demonstration had a computer sing it, a feat the screenplay's co-author had witnessed in person.
Q 15According to the film, in which city did HAL become operational?
Urbana, Illinois
Urbana, Illinois: the computer says it became operational at the H.A.L. plant there on 12 January 1992, a date the novel gives as 1997.
Q 16What does HAL's name stand for, according to Clarke?
Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer
Heuristically programmed ALgorithmic computer is the expansion the novel gives; the authors denied that the name was a coded dig at a rival computer maker.
Q 17Fans claim HAL's name is a coded jab at which computer company that advised the film?
IBM
IBM, which advised on the film's computer displays, is one letter on from H-A-L; the writers called the match a coincidence they would have avoided had they noticed.
Q 18Which British actor played HAL on set, before the voice was dubbed in post-production?
Nigel Davenport
Nigel Davenport read the computer's lines on set during filming so the actors had a voice to play against; the part was re-recorded in post-production.
Q 19Which name had Clarke considered for the computer in early drafts, before HAL?
Socrates
Socrates was the computer's name in early drafts; a female-personality version called Athena followed before the final name was chosen.
Q 20Which Richard Strauss tone poem opens the film?
Also sprach Zarathustra
Also sprach Zarathustra, Strauss's 1896 tone poem after Nietzsche, opens the film with its sunrise fanfare and returns for the Star Child finale.
Aram Khachaturian composed the ballet Gayane in 1942; its Adagio underscores the lonely routine aboard Discovery during the crew's introduction.
Q 24Which composer's dissonant modernist works, including Atmosphères, accompany the monolith?
György Ligeti
György Ligeti's Atmosphères, Lux Aeterna and his Requiem appear in the film; the composer learned of their use only after the fact and was irritated not to have been asked.
Q 25What nickname, punning on a Hollywood epic, did the film-makers privately give the project?
How the Solar System Was Won
How the Solar System Was Won was the in-joke name, after the 1962 Cinerama western How the West Was Won; the final title came later and was the director's own idea.
Q 26What title did Kubrick announce in 1965 before settling on 2001: A Space Odyssey?
Journey Beyond the Stars
Journey Beyond the Stars was the working title announced in February 1965; alternatives such as Universe and Tunnel to the Stars were also floated before the final title was chosen.
Q 27Where did Kubrick and Clarke first meet, on 22 April 1964?
Trader Vic's in New York
Trader Vic's in New York, the tiki restaurant in the Plaza Hotel, hosted their first meeting on 22 April 1964; the collaboration then filled the next four years.
Q 28Which airline's logo appears on the Orion space plane in the film?
Pan Am
Pan Am branded the Orion III space plane, one of several real companies, alongside Hilton and Bell, that lent their logos to the film's vision of 2001.
Q 29Which engineering firm built the 30-ton rotating centrifuge set for Discovery's interior?
Vickers-Armstrong
Vickers-Armstrong, the aircraft and engineering group, built the 38-foot-diameter centrifuge, which rotated so the actors appeared to walk up its walls.
Q 30How much did the centrifuge set cost?
$750,000
$750,000 was the cost of the 30-ton, 38-foot rotating centrifuge built for the Discovery's interior scenes.