Stress Pill | 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968)
After killing the rest of the crew of an ill-fated spaceship, the craft’s A.I. — HAL — suggests that the freaked out survivor “sit down calmly, take a stress pill, and think things over,” which is, coincidentally, what we do before scrubbing the toilet.
Doc Leavey Says: “The ‘stress pill’ in 2001: A Space Odyssey certainly sounds like a classic mild tranquilizer. Given the era of the writing of the book, meprobamate, marketed as Miltown, and very popular among the social elite of the day, would be a likely model for this drug. It is rarely used these days.”
