The earliest appearance of hibernation pods in science fiction can be traced back to the 1968 film “2001: A Space Odyssey,” directed by Stanley Kubrick. In the movie, the spacecraft Discovery One crew members are shown in hibernation pods during their long journey to Jupiter.
Since then, hibernation pods have been featured in numerous science fiction films, often used as a plot device to enable long-duration space travel or to suspend characters in time. Some notable examples include “Alien” (1979), “Outland” (1981), “Aliens” (1986), “Event Horizon” (1997), “Passengers” (2016), and “Interstellar” (2014).
It’s important to note that the concept of hibernation or suspended animation predates its appearance in science fiction films. The idea has roots in various works of literature, such as Robert A. Heinlein’s novel “Beyond This Horizon” (1942), which introduced the concept of “cold sleep.” However, the visual representation and popularization of hibernation pods in film can be attributed to “2001: A Space Odyssey” and subsequent science fiction movies.