Sunday Night's 'Mad Men' Was Just Like Stanley Kubrick's '2001: A Space Odyssey'

Even before last night’s episode of Mad Men aired, some fans suspected it might have Stanley Kubrick on its mind.

As Indiewire’s Sam Adams astutely noted a couple weeks back, the episode is called “The Monolith,” bringing to mind the mysterious object that heralds epochal change in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The timing was also ripe for Matthew Weiner to do his own spin on 2001: Kubrick’s “Ultimate Trip” came out in 1968, but it stayed in theaters well into 1969, when “The Monolith” takes place.

The episode “The Monolith” similarly represents potential epochal change in the world of Mad Men, and its allusions to 2001 begin at the very beginning. As soon as Don Draper first appears, getting off the elevator for his first day back at Sterling Cooper, the camera lingers as Don is confronted by this image, reminiscent of the object that gives the episode its title:

Don finally learns of the latest sign of this new era when he finds his colleagues: They’re meeting because the company is installing a new computer. As Cutler announces, “This agency has entered the future.”

And it’s not just any computer; it’s an IBM. 2001 is full of allusions to IBM: Even if you don’t buy the theory that the name of 2001’s computer HAL is a coded reference to IBM (just move each letter one forward in the alphabet, theorists say—H to I, A to B, and L to M), 2001 features fictional IBM equipment (you can see IBM’s logo on Dr. Dave Bowman’s suit), and IBM consulted on the movie.

In Mad Men, there’s a not-so-subtle conversation about the potential symbolism of the new computer. Harry Crane insists, “It’s not symbolic.” To which Don responds, “In fact it’s quite literal.”

If Don is our man, then the IBM technician, Lloyd Hawley, represents the machine. He and Don clash three times, with each clash seemingly making its own allusion to 2001. In Hawley’s first appearance, he tells Don and Harry of the computer, “We’ve mastered the infinite,” a possible allusion to the final chapter of 2001, when technology takes man “Beyond the Infinite.”

In Hawley’s next appearance, when he is unable to light a cigarette, Don—once again playing the caveman—taunts him, “you’re unable to make fire.” “The perils of technology,” Don concludes. But Hawley is unfazed, and he counters that it’s just “human error.” This sequence echoes a pivotal exchange in 2001, when the human crew has begun to think that something is wrong with HAL. Defending himself, HAL insists, “It can only be attributable to human error.”