Brand new factory sealed vhs tape is the letterboxed widescreen version of the movie. Newer television owners, simply use one of your zoom modes. Retro pop-n-go video has no fussy menus to mess with and the analog sound is more robust that it's digital counterpart. The original theatrical trailer is a special feature before the movie begins.

The film opens with an alien obelisk appearing out of nowhere to a clan of apes in prehistoric times. Upon touching the tall slab, the monkeys gain a superior intelligence and begin to use tools to hunt and defend. Bare in mind that nearly a half hour will pass in this prologue without a spoken word or man appearing.

Fast forward to the 21st century and humans are making routine space travels to moon bases and orbiting motels. Another hour will pass here before the main plot reveals itself. It is soon discovered that an alien slab monument is discovered on the moon because it is now beaming communications to someone on Jupiter. A top secret mission is then mounted to go to Jupiter and find the sentient receivers.

The movie is completely absorbed in its fanatical attention to sci-fi detail, that is somewhere between hypnotic and completely boring. The number of ways in which the movie conveys visual information (there is very little dialogue) drives it to an outer limit of the visual, especially the last half hour of the cosmic ending with murky implications of theology.