in kubricks 2001: a space odyssey the monolith arrived to awaken mankind from its primitive existence as apes. somehow giving them the idea to pick up a bone, and use it as a weapon to kill their competitors. its the great awakening. only without the murder part, as is portrayed at the end of the film when the monolith returns to modern man in orbit around jupiter. it was supposedly meant to be saturn but they said they couldnt do the special effects for saturn's rings.
kubrick was right about a lot.