35 Rare Behind-The-Scenes Pictures From 2001: A Space Odyssey
I first watched 2001: A Space Odyssey about fifteen years ago and thought it was impressive but kind of a slog. Revisited it last month, and I’m still reeling.
What gets me isn’t just that it “holds up”—it’s that it feels like Kubrick actually went to space and came back with footage. Those spacecraft interiors, the rotating centrifuge, the video calling stations—they don’t just look cool, they look correct. You can watch ISS footage today and see astronauts dealing with the same mundane realities: eating, sleeping, exercising in cramped quarters. Kubrick got that space travel would be equal parts wonder and tedium, which might be the least cinematic insight ever committed to film.
And this was made in 1968—before the moon landing—yet it predicted tablets, AI assistants, commercial space flights, and video calls more accurately than most modern sci-fi.
The behind-the-scenes photos below show the obsessive craft behind it all. No green screens, no digital effects. Just engineering, imagination, and a director who refused to accept “close enough.”
These rare production shots still blow my mind. Hope they do the same for you.
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
34.
35.
