InfluenceMEDIUM

Also sprach Zarathustra (Thus Spake Zarathustra) influenced 2001: A Space Odyssey

Added by · 15 September 2026

The evidence

The Strauss tone poem that opens the film is named after the book, and Kubrick chose it knowing what it was quoting. The borrowing goes past the music: Nietzsche's ape, man and overman is exactly the film's three-part shape, from the bone thrown at the Dawn of Man to the Star Child looking back at Earth. Kubrick and Clarke both discussed the film as being about the step after the human one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Also_sprach_Zarathustra_(Strauss)

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