There is an interesting conundrum with regards to the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey: do you read the book? The answer really is if you enjoyed the film and watched while partaking of anything mind altering probably not. Once you know what the heck is going on you will be disappointed.
On the other hand if you saw the film stone cold sober and spent most of the screen time wondering what the heck was going on then by all means read it. It will explain a lot and will help frustrated viewers better understand. However if you just enjoyed the movie steer clear.
One of the big questions from the movie (besides what was the deal with all the stars, the bedroom, and the giant baby in space) was why did Hal 9000 go nuts and try to kill Dave (and succeed with the rest of the crew)? That is explained in the book 2010 (8 years ago!). Apparently Hal was programmed to succeed in reaching the monolith at all costs and determined that the crew was too random a factor to risk having along. It's unclear why he didn't just kill Dave and Frank Poole but leave the other three in suspended animation in case he needed emergency repairs or something. There's an important lesson in there about setting your parameters correctly. The vast majority of computer problems are actually user created.
The fact is Stanley Kubrick contacted Arthur C Clarke about doing a space movie with aliens (good aliens) before the book had been written. In fact the book and screenplay were developed in parallel. Something of a novelty.
The iconic music of the film (and it's success for all the psychedelic trippers in the audience) was actually the result of not wanting to pay for music rights and therefore getting all public domain songs. Still the movie would not be what it was if they had had the Beatles or the Monkeys playing in the background.
The film also had not dialog in the first and last 20 minutes. Kind of a neat bookend. Also the interior of the space craft with the centrifuge for gravity was actually a 30 foot Ferris wheel. The scene where Poole is eating and Dave walks up to him required that Gary Lockwood be strapped to the chair. They were really innovative back in the day of no CGI.
2001: a Space Odyssey is considered one of the most influential films ever made. There are definitely a ton of spoofs for it. It was selected for the National Film Registry in the Library of Congress in 1991. All that without a single gun battle or car chase (or even clear and coherent ending).
