2001: A Space Odyssey in popular culture 2001: A Space Odyssey in popular culture In popular culture, Stanley Kubrick's 1968 science fiction film "" has had a significant impact in such diverse cultural forms and media as film, literature, music and technology. The influence of "2001" on subsequent filmmakers is considerable. Steven Spielberg, George Lucas and others, including many special effects technicians, discuss the impact the film has had on them in a featurette titled "Standing on the Shoulders of Kubrick: The Legacy of 2001", included in the 2007 DVD release of the film. Spielberg calls it his film generation's "big bang", while Lucas says it was
2001: A Space Odyssey (novel) a Space Shuttle launch, the adhesive sauces used to keep food firmly in place on one's plate, and even the zero-gravity toilet. Over the course of the novel, several minor characters either appear very briefly or are named only in passing, including other man-apes, spaceflight staff, lunar station security, and "Discovery" crew members. Among the novel's minor characters, some of the more consequential are listed below (often having direct film equivalents, or else being recurring characters in the "Odyssey" novel series). A sequel to the book, entitled "", was published in 1982 and adapted as a motion picture in 1984.