2001 A Space Odyssey was an outstanding book and movie , and the two are both very similar and very different . The plots are essentially the same , as are the events that transpire , but the movie is much more of a visual journey whereas the book , being that it is written and not shown , is more descriptive and scientific . I like both , I don ' t really have a favorite , because both Arthur C . Clarke and Stanley Kubrick arewere geniuses . But one thing from the book that I wish was included in the movie was the antiWMD themes . The movie obviously warns us about the progression of technology , and how ultimately man will have to stand up to our creations , but it really only conveys this message through HAL . In the book , the final chapter which is immensely well written btw is about David Bowman , who has become the StarChild literally preventing nuclear war . Everyone on earth sends out nukes and the star child just detonates them in the air so nobody dies . I ' m sure this would have been difficult to do in the movie , given the time period , but I think it ' s a very important component to what the StarChild represents , the ideal final stage of humanity .