Wing Commander Movie Night: 2001: A Space Odyssey

The Wing Commander movie club had a great time revisiting the '90s with True Lies! For our next movie, we're going back to space... the space of a recent future past. That's right, it's finally time for Stanley Kubrick's legendary 2001: A Space Odyssey. You can join us this Friday via Discord to watch along.

The first major reference to 2001 in Wing Commander is that the HAL 9000 actually appears in the SNES port of the original Wing Commander! Watch carefully as you take off, he's on the first 'rung' of the Tiger's Claw. It's so fun to imagine some artist at Mindscape deciding to sneak this into the game.

The passwords provided at the end of the second episode of Secret Ops ("Thickening") are both direct references to 2001. AE-35, the winning password, is the model of the Discovery's antenna which HAL sends the crew to repair. TMA-1, the losing password, is the monolith which is found on the moon in the 1999 segment; it stands for Tycho Magnetic Anomaly One.

This concept image of a Vaktoth in action created by Art Wong for the sadly cancelled Privateer 3 is titled "Space Odyssey".

And finally, Roger Ebert's scathing review of the 1999 Wing Commander movie specifically calls out the fact that 2001 director Stanley Kubrick died just a week before it premiered.

These actors, alas, are at the service of a submoronic script and special effects that look like a video game writ large. Wing Commander arrives at the end of a week that began with the death of the creator of 2001: A Space Odyssey. Close the pod bay door, Hal. And turn off the lights.

Where can I find a copy of the movie for the watch party?

2001: A Space Odyssey is available for rent or purchase on the standard streaming services. If you would like a physical copy, the movie was released on Blu-ray in 2018 and remains in print around the world. It is also currently streaming on HBO Max in the United States. If you are not able to locate a copy please stop by the Discord and ping a CIC staff member before Friday's showing.

How do we watch the movie together?

It's pretty low tech! Simply join the Wing Commander CIC Discord on Friday and we will be chatting (in text) along with the film in the main channel. Everyone who wants to join in should bring their own copy and we will count down to play them together at 10 PM EST. Everyone is welcome and we encourage you to join in the conversation; sharing your thoughts helps make the experience better for everyone!

How can I help pick future movie club movies?

The movie club movies are voted on each week by the Wing Commander Discord. The poll is typically posted 24 hours before each week's screening and the next movie is announced at the end. The choices for the poll come from a master pool of Wing Commander-related movies. If you would like to suggest a film for inclusion in that pool you can post it to this thread.