2001: A Space Odyssey

TITLE PART I:

AFRICA:

3,000,000 YEARS AGO

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A1

VIEWS OF AFRICAN DRYLANDS - DROUGHT

The remorseless drought had lasted now for ten million years,

and would not end for another million. The reign of the ter-

rible lizards had long since passed, but here on the continent

which would one day be known as Africa, the battle for survival

had reached a new climax of ferocity, and the victor was not

yet in sight. In this dry and barren land, only the small or

the swift or the fierce could flourish, or even hope to exist.

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A2

INT & EXT CAVES - MOONWATCHER

The man-apes of the field had none of these attributes, and

they were on the long, pathetic road to racial extinction.

About twenty of them occupied a group of caves overlooking

a small, parched valley, divided by a sluggish, brown stream.

The tribe had always been hungry, and now it was starving.

As the first dim glow of dawn creeps into the cave, Moonwatcher

discovers that his father has died during the night. He did not know

the Old One was his father, for such a relationship was beyond

his understanding. but as he stands looking down at the emac-

iated body he feels something, something akin to sadness. Then

he carries his dead father out of the cave, and leaves him for the

hyenas.

Among his kind, Moonwatcher is almost a giant. He is nearly

five feet high, and though badly undernourished, weighs over

a hundred pounds. His hairy, muscular body is quite man-like,

and his head is already nearer man than ape. The forehead is

low, and there are great ridges over the eye-sockets, yet he

unmistakably holds in his genes the promise of humanity. As

he looks out now upon the hostile world, there is already

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A2

CONTINUED:

something in his gaze beyond the grasp of any ape. In those

dark, deep-set eyes is a dawning awareness-the first intima-

tions of an intelligence which would not fulfill itself for another

two million years.

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A3

EXT THE STREAM - THE OTHERS

As the dawn sky brightens, Moonwatcher and his tribe reach

the shallow stream.

The Others are already there. They were there on the other

side every day - that did not make it any less annoying.

There are eighteen of them, and it is impossible to distinguish

them from the members of Moonwatcher's own tribe. As

they see him coming, the Others begin to angrily dance and

shriek on their side of the stream, and his own people reply

In kind.

The confrontation lasts a few minutes - then the display dies

out as quickly as it has begun, and everyone drinks his fill of

the muddy water. Honor has been satisfied - each group has

staked its claim to its own territory.

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A4

EXT AFRICAN PLAIN - HERBIVORES

Moonwatcher and his companions search for berries, fruit

and leaves, and fight off pangs of hunger, while all around

them, competing with them for the samr fodder, is a potential

source of more food than they could ever hope to eat. Yet

all the thousands of tons of meat roaming over the parched

savanna and through the brush is not only beyond their reach;

the idea of eating it is beyond their imagination. They are

slowly starving to death in the midst of plenty.

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A5

EXT PARCHED COUNTRYSIDE - THE LION

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