Synopsis

Andy Summers' "2010" is an instrumental promotional video built around footage from the science-fiction film 2010: The Year We Make Contact. Images of spacecraft, astronauts, control rooms, Jupiter, and the film's mysterious cosmic phenomena are edited to Summers' electronic guitar-driven adaptation of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra." The clip presents the track as a sleek, futuristic extension of the film's world, even though Summers' recording does not appear in the movie itself.

Factoids & Trivia

• The track was released in 1984 as part of the soundtrack album for 2010: The Year We Make Contact and was also issued as a single.

• Summers' recording is a modern new-wave interpretation of Richard Strauss' "Also Sprach Zarathustra," the piece strongly associated with Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

• The song was not used in the film. The music video instead pairs it with selected scenes from the movie, effectively turning the clip into a soundtrack-style trailer.

• The single's B-side was "To Hal and Back," another piece connected thematically to the 2010 project, although it appeared neither in the film nor on the soundtrack album.

• The video was occasionally shown on MTV, giving the Police guitarist a solo presence on music television during the period immediately following the band's Synchronicity era.