Cultural references

*Spoilerish*

Another poster made an insightful comment describing how parts of the film correlate with South Korea's economic rise, which I hadn't thought of before I looked at the board, so I thought I'd throw this post open to any other references people have noticed that others have missed.

The most obvious one for me was the 2001 references - 'primitive' man/apes gathered around a large stone block left by aliens at the dawn of modern time.

I also hope, but highly doubt, that Kang's name is a Simpsons joke.

Any more for any more?