Then you are mentally ripe for some closer inspection…

The closing sequence after astronaut Bowman steps out of the pod I personally consider the most important scenes in movie history, a fitting end to a movie that's more of a documentary in speculative format than SF, more about experiencing than merely watching. In those final scenes everything comes together: the viewer sees himself through Bowman, so does Kubrick the director who projects the images that follow: Bowman sees himself in the mirror, then as an older man sitting at a table... who watches his older self in his death bed.... silence. To me, the film's finale has always been a deeply emotional experience, not to go through more than once a year… And we haven’t even come to some of 2001’s messaging — to paraphrase Michael Crichton:

God creates man
Man destroys God
Man creates AI
AI destroys man

And we haven’t even begun to discuss the Music… like Khachaturian’s Gayane Adagio that perfectly illustrates the loneliness of voyaging the vastness and emptiness of outer space. https://youtu.be/O4uOZnao7JM

Cheers, Ralph