Whenever I talk with people about movies, they inevitably find out that I have never seen Star Wars. Not a single one of the movies. I can see the horror on your face now after reading that. But the honest truth is I’ve never seen them and I honestly don’t feel like I have to. Star Wars is one of those movies that is so ingrained into American culture and film that even by not seeing it, I could tell you the plot based on times when shows I enjoy have parodied it. To a lesser extent, the same could be said about Scarface. After watching this movie, I weirdly enough found out that 2001 is one of those movies that just being a fan of media makes it so that you know the plot.

We’re going to skip a bunch of the standard “that song is everywhere now” stuff and get to the nitty gritty. The weird stuff.

For instance, the first time during 2001 that most of us said “what the hell is going on” was when the big black monolith first appeared on screen with the apes in Africa. To me, not only did I not know what the hell was happening, but it also felt strangely familiar. You know where I’ve seen that scene before? The clearly inferior Charlie and the Chocolate Factory movie with Johnny Depp. Not only does this scene show that scene and have the monolith turn into a chocolate bar (which is actually kind of funny now that I think about it) but they even have that exact music going the whole time. As if the reference wasn’t obvious enough.

Another one that sticks out in my mind is the Futurama episode Love and Rocket. If you’re not familiar with Futurama, it’s a show made by the same guy who made The Simpsons, but it ended when it should have. Anyway, I can’t link the whole episode, but the whole episode rips off the entirety of the section in the Discovery One.  The ship develops a personality, it becomes irrational and attempts to kill all of them. Even the scene when he’s taking apart HAL is exactly like it. The funniest part that I just now am realizing is that there’s a scene when they’re talking in private and the ship goes “Oh I wish I could read lips.”

To round out my review of the movie using other pop cultural references, I’ll just go to my favorite TV show of all time, Community. Of course they have a reference to this movie, and it’s the super confusing end scene. At least in this context, it’s confusing because Jeff was knocked out with monkey gas and was worried about turning old all episode. But, it does show the importance of that table in the show. There’s even the sound of monkeys in the background.

Now, I talked about these three references because they follow along with the plot of the movie, but I found so many more cool shoutouts. I’m sure that you guys remember some references to this movie now, because there are too many.

Also, there’s a new Flatbush Zombies record out called 3001: A Laced Odyssey. Would recommend for fans of underground hip hop