Arthur Charles Clarke (16 December 1917 -- 19 March 2008 was a British science fiction author, inventor, and futurist, most famous for his novel 2001: A Space Odyssey, and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the film of the same name.2001: A Space Odyssey is a 1968 science fiction film directed by Stanley Kubrick, written by Kubrick and Arthur C. Clarke. The film deals with thematic elements of human evolution, technology, artificial intelligence, and extraterrestrial life, and is notable for its scientific realism, pioneering special effects, provocatively ambiguous and often surreal imagery, sound in place of traditional narrative techniques, and a very minimal use of dialogue.Despite receiving mixed reviews upon release, 2001: A Space Odyssey is today recognized by critics and audiences as one of the greatest films ever made; the 2002 Sight & Sound poll of critics ranked it among the top ten films of all time.[1] It was nominated for four Academy Awards, and received one for visual effects. In 1991, it was deemed "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant" by the United States Library of Congress and selected for preservation in their National Film Registry.The title sequence begins with an image of the Earth rising over the Moon, while the Sun rises over the Earth.Over images of an African desert, a caption reads "The Dawn of Man". A tribe of prehistoric ape-men is struggling to survive in the dry desert. One morning, a mysterious black rectangular monolith appears near their habitat and is examined by the nervous apes. Following this encounter, a lone ape-man (Daniel Richter) invents the first tool when he picks up a bone from a pile and discovers he can use it as a club to crush other bones. This ape-man, now standing partially upright, leads the tribe in defense of their waterhole against another tribe, using the new weapon to club an enemy ape to death. The victorious ape-man throws his weapon into the air, at which point the film jumps to the future, in a match cut that links the tumbling bone to an orbital satellite.A Pan American spaceplane carrying only one passenger, Dr. Heywood R. Floyd (William Sylvester) docks with an Earth-orbital space station. From the station, Floyd makes a videophone call to his daughter on Earth (played by Vivian Kubrick). He then encounters an old friend, Elena, one of a group of Soviet scientists. When he says he is traveling to the American base in Clavius crater, one of the Soviets, Dr. Andrei Smyslov (Leonard Rossiter), asks why no one has been able to contact Clavius, mentioning that Clavius had even denied emergency landing permission to a Soviet shuttle, in violation of international agreements. Floyd feigns surprise, but when Smyslov presses him for further details, alluding to "very reliable intelligence reports" that a serious epidemic of unknown origin has broken out at Clavius, and expresses concern that the epidemic might spread to the Soviet base, Floyd replies that he is "not at liberty" to comment.Floyd travels to Clavius Base on a lunar shuttle. At the Base, Floyd meets scientists and administrators and speaks about the importance of hiding the true reason for the base's suspicious quarantine. He states that the cover story of an epidemic and a base-wide communications black-out will remain in effect until their superiors on Earth decide otherwise. He reminds them of "the potential for cultural shock and social disorientation" that the discovery presents. Though ostensibly there to assess the situation and make a report, Floyd informs those present that new security oaths are required from all personnel.During a later moonbus ride to the excavation, a discussion between Floyd and a base administrator reveals they have discovered an alien object, "deliberately buried" on the Moon four million years earlier. At the dig site, the scientists approach an identical monolith to that found by the man-apes; like them, Floyd strokes its smooth surface. The scientists gather around it for a group photo but are interrupted when a continuous high-pitched tone is picked up by their radio receivers.