Allright, because I'd never seen it and it was supposed to be really incredible, I rented 2001 last night. It's a running joke around RW (well, at least in the BAM of the novel and in Sam's review) that you can't understand the ending without reading Clarke's novel. I thought I probably could figure it out anyway. I couldn't. I'm all for open ended movies that don't tie everything neatly together, but WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON? I was with the movie right up to when Dave gets to Jupiter. Suddenly the movie stops even trying to make sense. Is this some deeply complex metaphor I don't see? The positive reviews I've read of it dance around this fact calling it so spectacular -- but none of them explain what happened. I guess you're supposed to derive your own meaning, but the only thing I got was "Man, they were on some wicked drugs back then."

Any help?