2001: Stanley Kubrick's Space Odyssey and Herman Melville's Moby Dick, two separate and radically different compositions that both explore humanity's self-destructive potential. Moby Dick, set in the New England region of North America in the mid-to-late 1800s, tells the story of Captain Ahab's quest on the whaling ship, The Pequod, to kill the white whale that crippled him on his last voyage . During their journey the crew faces many warnings to turn back, ultimately Ahab must make a decision between saving more lives and exacting his revenge. Ishamel, an educated traveler and crew member of the Pequod, tells the story several years after these events occurred. 2001: A Space Odyssey is the story of humanity's actions after first extraterrestrial contact. Dr. Dave Bowman travels to Jupiter to discover the source of a signal from an obelisk buried beneath the moon's surface. At the end of his journey, Bowman is the only survivor of his ship's crew and must destroy the computer that guided them, HAL, to survive. Moby Dick is set in Massachusetts where "nearly a third of the population is Quaker". ” (Sequence 9). The strong religious influence of the time period likely made the characters more morally righteous than people today. Whaling ships were often at sea for long periods of time and must have been resourceful. It was not unheard of for a ship whaler salvaged parts and entire lifeboats from a stranded ship (Chase 12). Ships often faced dangers arising from the environment in addition to the dangerous nature of their trade. During the voyage a ship occasionally had to "abandon the idea of ​​maintaining longitude correct" (Chase 39). In a Space Odyssey, humanity's improvement is ultimately its undoing. The first true AI, HAL. Considered 100% foolproof, it fails and kills several humans whose was entrusted with life. 2001: A Space Odyssey continues to demonstrate the theme of man versus nature through the scientists' interaction with the obelisk and Bowman's journey through the solar system. It is considered a classic due to the very stylistic shots and the strange but completely functional soundtrack. What we must ask ourselves, then, is why human nature has guided us in such a way that our reward-seeking tendencies manifest themselves. ultimately be the cause of destruction. And how should we act to change it? It seems that man is constantly fighting with his subconscious, both the conscious and unconscious mind, thinking he knows what is best..