Open the pod bay doors, because 2001: A Space Odyssey will stream for free in the New Year. Stanley Kubrick's science-fiction masterpiece is coming to Tubi. The 1968 20th Century Fox film will premiere on the free, ad-supported streamer on January 1, 2025.
The film was co-written by Kubrick and science-fiction legend Arthur C. Clarke, who included elements from some of his short stories, including "The Sentinel" and "Encounter in the Dawn"; Clarke also adapted an early draft of the script into a novel. 2001: A Space Odyssey featured state-of-the-art special effects and mind-blowing cosmic concepts, all captured with Kubrick's trademark precision. The film won the 1968 Oscar for Best Special Effects; it would be the only competitive Oscar Kubrick would ever win. It is now considered one of the greatest science-fiction films ever made: Christopher Nolan calls it "pure cinema," but also claims he still doesn't fully understand its mysteries.
What Is '2001: A Space Odyssey' About?
In the year 2001, humanity has colonized the Moon and sent manned missions to the outer planets: one such mission, Discovery One, is headed to Jupiter, crewed by human astronauts Frank Poole (Gary Lockwood) and Dave Bowman (Keir Dullea), and a supercomputer, HAL 9000 (voiced by Douglas Rain). Meanwhile, a mysterious alien monolith – identical to one seen in the film's prologue bestowing the gift of intelligence on a group of early hominids – has been discovered on the Moon, and a team led by government agent Heywood Floyd (William Sylvester) tries to uncover its hidden purpose. Unfortunately, HAL soon turns homicidal, and Bowman quickly becomes the only man left able to find out what the monolith means to humanity's past, present, and future.
Clarke followed 2001 up with a trio of sequels, each taking place further in the future: 2010: Odyssey Two, 2061: Odyssey Three, and 3001: The Final Odyssey. Peter Hyams adapted 2010 into a film in 1984; 2010: The Year We Make Contact takes place nine years after the original film, as Floyd (now played by Roy Scheider) leads a joint U.S.-Soviet mission to Jupiter to find out what happened to the Discovery mission. Dullea and Rain reprise their roles as Bowman and HAL, who may be Floyd's only clue to what the mysterious alien presence in the Solar System plans to do next.
2001: A Space Odyssey will stream for free on Tubi starting January 1, 2025. Stay tuned to Collider for future updates.
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After uncovering a mysterious artifact buried beneath the Lunar surface, a spacecraft is sent to Jupiter to find its origins: a spacecraft manned by two men and the supercomputer HAL 9000.
Release Date April 3, 1968
Director Stanley Kubrick
Cast Keir Dullea , Gary Lockwood , William Sylvester , Daniel Richter , Leonard Rossiter , Margaret Tyzack
Runtime 149 minutes
Writers Stanley Kubrick , Arthur C. Clarke
Budget $12 million
Studio(s) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
Distributor(s) Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer
English (US) ·