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
2001: A Space Odyssey (soundtrack) as the closing credits. The first of these is the particularly famous sequence of the PanAm space plane docking at Space Station V. Ligeti's "Requiem" is heard three times, all of them during appearances of the monolith. The first is its encounter with apes just before the "Zarathustra"-accompanied ape discovery of the tool. The second is the monolith's discovery on the Moon, and the third is Bowman's approach to it around Jupiter just before he enters the Star Gate. This last sequence with the "Requiem" has much more movement in it than the first two, and it transitions directly into