Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey the myriad mysteries of cosmic intelligence anathema. The film has been seen by many people not only as a literal story about evolution and space adventures, but as an allegorical representation of aspects of philosophical, religious or literary concepts. Friedrich Nietzsche's philosophical tract "Thus Spoke Zarathustra", about the potential of mankind, is directly referred to by the use of Richard Strauss's musical piece of the same name. Nietzsche writes that man is a bridge between the ape and the Übermensch. In an interview in the "New York Times", Kubrick gave credence to interpretations of 2001 based on "Zarathustra" when he
Interpretations of 2001: A Space Odyssey as "orbiting satellites carrying nuclear weapons" Actor Gary Lockwood (astronaut Frank Poole) in the audio DVD commentary says the first satellite is an armed weapon, making the famous match-cut from bone to satellite a "weapon-to-weapon cut". Several recent reviews of the film mostly of the DVD release refer to armed satellites, possibly influenced by Gary Lockwood's audio commentary. A few published works by scientists on the subject of space exploration or space weapons tangentially discuss "2001: A Space Odyssey" and assume at least some of the orbiting satellites are space weapons. Indeed, details worked out with input from space industry