"NATALYA BONDARCHUK" "DONATAS BANlONlS" "yuri YARVET" "VLADlSLAV DVORZHETSKY" "NlKOLAl GRlNKO" "ANATOLY SOLONlTSYN" "in" "solaris" "Based on the science-fiction novel by Stanislaw Lem" "Screenplay by F.GORENSHTElN, A.TARKOVSKY" "Directed by Andrei TARKOVSKY" "Director of Photography Vadim YUSOV" "Production Designer Mikhail ROMADlN" "Music by Eduard ARTEMYEV" "Sound by Semyon LlTVlNOV" "Ripped by" "SOUTHSiDE Ripping Crew" "solaris Part One" "Chris!" "Come here!" "You're just in time." "He takes a walk every morning for at least an hour." "He has been working too hard, all night sometimes." "This science of solaristics of his!" "He reminds me of a bookkeeper making up his accounts." "We expected you yesterday." "He wanted to run away when he saw me." "Hello!" "How do you do?" "I guess I shouldn't have bothered you today." "How old we have grown!" "I'm only now beginning to realize it." "Everything will depend on his initial report from the station." "Every message we receive is confusing or incomprehensible." "If he confirms for us that the study shouldn't continue, the station can be taken out of Solaris's orbit." "I understand." "You promised to talk to him." "I've brought the film." "Yes, of course." "Would you mind keeping the boy for a few days?" "Anna'll be pleased to have him." "She'll have more free time now." "When does he leave?" "By this time tomorrow, he'll already be gone." "It's very pleasant here." "This house looks like my grand- father's house. I liked it very much." "And so we built this one just like it." "I don't care much for new things." "Well, I better get going." "I've an awful lot to do." "Don't you want to see this?" "I've already seen it many times." "Twenty-one days after the launch of our expedition, radio biologist Vishnyakov and physicist Fechner went on an exploration mission over the Solaris ocean in an air vehicle." "When they failed to return, we ordered a search." "The fog was too dense, and we had to call the search off." "All ofthe rescue craft returned to the station except the helicopter piloted by Burton." "He came back only after the dark had set in." "He immediately ran to his quarters, obviously in a state of shock." "It was so unusual for a man who had been flying for 1 1 years." "He had recovered in a couple of days, but he would never leave the station." "And he refused to approach the window overlooking the ocean." "While under medical care in a clinic he offered to make a statement of great importance, one which he felt could affect the whole future of Project Solaris." "Very well, let's hear his story." "Now is the time to let Burton talk." "The first time I descended below a thousand feet, I had trouble maintaining altitude, because the wind had come up." "All my efforts were required in operating the ship." "I wasn't watching outside." "As a result, I entered the fog bank." "Was that an ordinary fog?" "It was like nothing I'd ever seen before." "It seemed to be a colloidal substance, a gluey mass." "All the windows were coated." "Because ofthe fog's resistance I began to lose altitude." "Where I supposed the sun would be, the fog glowed like fire." "Half an hour later, I emerged into a large open space." "The patch was round, about a few hundred meters across." "At that moment I observed great changes in the ocean." "The water became still, and the surface looked transparent." "A sort ofyellow mucus started to congeal under it." "When it rose up, it glistened like glass." "Then it began to boil, and a frothy crust appeared on top." "The surface was brown like burned sugar syrup." "This substance solidified into big lumps, giving shape to all sorts offigures." "I was being drawn to the fog bank, so I had to struggle against this force for some time." "When I looked down again, I saw a sort of garden." "A garden?" "Quiet, please." "I could see vegetation, hedges, acacia trees, narrow paths." "All ofthis same substance." "And all these trees and plants, did they have leaves?" "Those bushes, acacias?" "They looked like they were made of plastic, but in real-life proportions." "All of a sudden cracks started to appear." "The boiling began again, all was in froth." "You'll be able to see it for yourselves." "Everything I saw will be on the film." "Then I suggest we interrupt the hearing and look at it with our own eyes." "Yes, show us the film." "It's very interesting." " ls that all?" " Yes, that's all there is." "But we don't understand." "Your film is nothing but clouds!" "That must be the fog I was talking about." "I'm as surprised as you are." "All this might be the result of the bio-magnetic current of the Solaris ocean acting on Burton's conscience." "We know these currents to be not only a gigantic cerebral system, but also to be capable of generating thought." "That is a hypothesis that has not been confirmed." "Weren't you ill on that particular day?" "Oh, this next part is pointless." "We'll pick up here." "...I saw something floating." "I thought that it looked like Fechner's space suit." "I kept circling the spot to make sure I wouldn't lose sight of it." "Suddenly I could see the form rise slightly, as iftreading the waters." "I could see the man, he wasn't wearing a space suit, and he moved." "You mean it was human?" "Yes, human." "You saw his face?" "Yes." "What man?" "Who was he?" "It was an infant." " Did you recognize it?" " l'd never seen it before." "When I circled nearer, what I saw was monstrous." "What do you mean?" "At first I couldn't make it out, but then it became clear that it was incredibly huge." "It was twelve feet tall." "Its eyes were blue, its hair was dark." "Ifyou're not feeling well, we can recess the hearing." "I will continue." "It was absolutely naked, as if new born." "And it was moist, or rather slippery." "Its skin was glistening." "It rose and fell with the waves, but it was moving by itself." "The whole thing was repugnant." "Wait a minute, there isn't very much more." "...Burton's statements would appear to be the expression of a hallucinatory complex, induced by atmospheric influences ofthe planet, plus obscure symptoms to which the brain's cortical substance contributed in some measure through the excitation of associated zones." "This report in no way reflects the actual facts." "Or almost in no way." "There's a different opinion offered by Professor Messenger who believes that the information supplied by Burton could be true and needs to be thoroughly studied." "I saw everything I described with my own eyes!" "I would dare to venture another opinion." "We are on the verge of an immense discovery, and it would be unwise to be influenced by the fact that we base our decision upon the observations of an unqualified layman." "Every explorer may well envy this pilot, his presence of mind, his talents of observation." "Moreover, given the recent information, we are bound morally to press forward with our probes." "I can understand how Professor Messenger feels, however let's look back at the long road we've traveled." "For all our work, the Solaris probes are back where we began." "Years of effort have proven useless." "All we know about Solaris reminds me of a mountain of separate facts which we are unable to squeeze into the framework of any conception." "Well, we're even worse offtoday, as regards the essential." "Solaristics is degenerating." "The essential question is far more serious than just Solaristics." "We're probing the very frontier of human knowledge." "By artificially establishing a knowledge frontier, we limit our concept of the infinity of man's knowledge." "And if our movement is not forward, do we not risk moving backward?" "What do you mean by saying that the information supplied by me is in no way reflects the actual facts?" "I saw all this with my own eyes." "It means that some real phenomena could have triggered your hallucinating." "In windy weather it's very easy to mistake a swinging bush for a living creature." "To say nothing of a strange planet!" "There's nothing offending in it for you." "What action are you going to take in view of Prof.Messenger's opinion?" "Practically none at all." "Our research in this area will be discontinued." "I have a statement to make." "It's not my reputation but the spirit ofthe expedition that you offend..." "Well, et cetera... lt's considered to be good manners now to laugh whenever Burton's report is mentioned." "We've known you a long time, but still I know so little about you." "You were very handsome then." "You don't mean that, but thanks anyway." "Well, Chris, what do you think about all this?" "I would like to speak to your son alone." "I hate to look like an idiot before you once more." "I'll wait for you outside by the swing." "He looks ridiculous, your Burton." "Don't say that." "He's obviously ill at ease." "He feels he's intruding on us." "If he decided to come, it's because he considers the matter so important." "I didn't want to see outsiders today any more than you did." "We don't talk to each other often enough." "It's good to hear you say that." "Even on the last day." "The last day..." "When the farewells are overdone, you feel awful afterwards." "Let's meet after dinner." "We need to talk." "And still, why did you invite this Burton fellow today of all days?" "Where are the guests going to sleep?" "Upstairs, I guess." "Well, I'll be down by the swing." " But perhaps..." " Just a second." "The question ofwhere they're going to sleep can wait!" "Listen, Chris..." "What's the matter?" "What is it down there, standing in the garage and looking at me?" "It's just a horse." "I've seen it already." "Come on!" "He's very gentle." "Look how beautiful he is!" "I think that Solaristics is at an impasse as a result of irresponsible fantasizing." "I'm only interested in truth, but you want to convince me ofyour point of view." "I can't draw conclusions based on "reasons of heart"." "I'm not a poet." "My problem is simple:" "either end the research, withdrawing the station from orbit and legalizing the crisis in Solaristics, or take extreme measures, like bombarding the ocean with high intensity beams." "No, not that!" "Didn't you want to continue the research at any price?" "And you want to destroy that which we aren't capable of understanding?" "No, I don't advocate knowledge at any price." "Knowledge is only valid when it rests on a foundation of morality." "Man is the only agent who renders science immoral." "Don't forget Hiroshima." "Then don't make science immoral!" "It's strange..." "There's nothing strange about it." "Even you can't be sure that all you had seen weren'tjust hallucinations." "Thank you for your time." "We have nothing more to say to each other." " ls anything the matter?" " l'm leaving." "Leaving?" "He is a bookkeeper, not a scientist." "We're friends, Burton, but you shouldn't say that about him!" "We've known each other for 20 years." "It had to end someday, I guess." "Are you leaving the child?" "Why did you have to offend him?" "You're heartless." "It's dangerous to send your kind to the cosmos." "Everything is far too fragile there!" "The earth somehow manages to put up with men ofyour sort, though at what cost to humanity!" "Are you jealous ofthe fact that he will be the one to bury me, not you?" "It'd been established that the Solaris ocean is a peculiar kind of brain." "Later, even a more daring hypothesis was put forward, that is the Ocean is a thinking substance." "For years this hypothesis could not have been substantiated." "This program is about Solaris." "Very few true believers have remained." "First of all, they are those who are connected with the station." "On the station for a 85-strong crew, only three men are still working." "They are astrobiologist Sartorius, cyberneticist Snout" "and physiologist Guibariane who is dealing with the problem... I'm calling from the city." "Burton!" "Anna, please, we need to talk." "What I talked to Chris about was not important. I should have told him about Messenger who had a different opinion at that meeting." "He got very much interested in Fechner who died in Solaris Ocean." "It turned out that Fechner has an orphaned son, he had left his family." "Messenger and I paid a visit to Fechner's widow." "I saw this child with my own eyes." "You never told me about that." " l didn't have a chance." " All right, what about it?" "He looked exactly like the child I'd seen on Solaris." "Except that he wasn't twelve feet tall." "It wouldn't be good for him to think about it before the launch, but he should remember this when he's there." "There's no point in keeping these." "The only ones to be kept are those in my room." "All my research notes, my thesis..." "I wonder why we kept all these?" "Should something happens, I'll find someone to take care ofthem." "Oh, don't look for the film with the campfire. I'm taking it with me." "Oh, sure, do that..." " Ready, Kelvin?" " Ready!" "You have nothing to worry about." "Have a good trip." " When is the lift-off?" " You're already under way!" "Station Solaris!" "Can you do something?" "I seem to be losing stability." "Where are you all?" "You've got company!" "Doctor Snout?" "Snout?" "I'm Kelvin, psychologist." "It appears you weren't expecting me." "Did you receive the radiogram?" "Yes, certainly." "Why are you so upset?" "I'm sorry..." "Where is Guibariane?" "And Sartorius?" "Sartorius is in his quarters." "Guibariane is dead." "Dead?" "He committed suicide... I knew Guibariane. lt's not like him to..." "He was in a state of profound depression." "Since these mysterious disorders began..." "Maybe you'd better rest, take a bath." "You may take any room." "Come here in an hour." "I'm impatient to meet with Guibariane..." "I mean Sartorius." "I doubt if he'll let you in." "He's up in his laboratory." "Listen, I'm aware that something extraordinary has happened, and perhaps I..." "Doctor Kelvin..." "You see..." "Please, come in an hour." "Go now, and rest." "Now there're only three of us on the station: you, me and Sartorius." "You know what we look like from our photographs." "Ifyou see anything out of the ordinary, not me or Sartorius, try not to lose your head." " What would I see?" " That depends on you." " Hallucinations?" " No... but don't forget." " Forget what?" " That we're not on earth." "Why don't we have our talk tonight?" "No, let's make it tomorrow morning!" "A. GUlBARlANE" "HUMAN being" "TO C. KELVlN" "Hello, Chris." "I still have a little time left." "There're certain things I must tell you, that I must warn you about." "I suppose you've been told what happened to me." "If not, Snout or Sartorius can tell you the details." "What happened to me, it matters little." "The trouble is that no one can really explain it." "I'm afraid that what's happened to me is only a beginning." "I wouldn't wish it, of course, but it may happen to all ofyou." "Here, it may happen to anyone, for sure." "But don't think that I've gone mad." "You know me well." "If I have enough time, I'll tell you why I did this." "If it does happen to you, you will know it's not madness." "That's the main thing." "As for continuing our program of research, I'm ofthe same opinion as Sartorius." "Bombard the plasma ofthe ocean by high-powered X-rays." "It's prohibited, but there's no other choice." "We - or rather you - will be drawn in." "It may offer a way to break this deadlock." "It's your only chance to establish contact with this monster." "There's no other solution left." "Ifyou..." "Doctor Sartorius, my name is Kelvin." "I arrived two hours ago." "Look, I'm in a ridiculous situation here." "Either you open up, or I'll break the door!" "All right, I'll open the door, but don't come in. I'll come out." "My name is Kelvin." "You must have heard of me." "I worked with Guibariane." "Dr. Snout told me about Guibariane..." "I can't believe it." "So, you know the story." "Yes, it's horrible. I have no details, I only know he's dead." "All of us may die." "But he insisted upon being buried on the earth." "Guibariane wanted to be in the earth, with the worms." "Have you ever heard of Burton?" "Yes, he was on the search party for Fechner." "Fechner died a magnificent death, and Guibariane was a coward." "Please..." "He's dead!" "Whyjudge him?" "Duty to the truth is the only concern that should count." "You are misguided in your search." "Look..." "This courage you pretend to is only inhumanity." "Go away." "You're obviously overemotional." "You must adapt yourself." "Good health to you." "I saw Sartorius and we spoke." "I don't find him very likable." "He's a very talented scientist." "I'm afraid I don't feel so well." "There's nothing wrong with you, but you won't listen to advice." "Aside from the three of us, is there anyone else on the station?" "Did you see anything?" "What were you warning me against?" "What did you see?" "A human being?" "Was she real?" "Can she be touched or felt, or wounded, hurt?" "When did you see her the last time, today?" "And you, how do I know who you are?" "Shhh..." " Where did she come from?" " Leave me alone!" "You're afraid..." "Don't worry, I'm not going to think you're insane." "Me, insane?" "Oh God, you know so little..." "Madness would be a blessing!" "Snout, listen... lt's all so absurd." "They don't understand anything." "They're sure that I've gone mad." "Though it's something like insanity, I've got to do this." "I'm afraid that Snout and Sartorius will try to force their way in." "They don't understand what they're doing. I'm frightened, Chris... I can't..." "No one will ever understand..." "Guibariane, open the door!" "Don't be a fool!" "That's us, Snout and Sartorius!" "We want to help you!" "They say they want to help me." "All right, quit knocking." "I'm my own judge." "Have you seen her?" "Try to understand, Chris, I'm not mad." "It has to do with my conscience." "I really hoped you'd get here in time." "How did you... lt's so good!" "But you can't possibly..." "How did you find out where l was?" "What do you mean "find out"?" "Don't, Chris, that tickles." "Where are my shoes?" "No... they're not there." "Who's this?" "Chris, this is me..." "You know... I have a feeling" "as if I've forgotten something." "What's the matter with me?" ".." "Do you love me?" "Why do you have to ask, Hari, as ifyou didn't know." "I've got to go out." "I won't be long, wait here." " Can't I come with you?" " No. I'll be back soon." "No!" "Why?" "I don't know..." "I can't..." "You can't what?" "I feel like I've got to be with you..." "all the time, to see you..." "Why are you being so childish?" "I've work to do, Hari." "You're right, I'm acting childish." "As for you, you're as nervous as Snout." " As who?" " As Doctor Snout." "How do you know... I've got to go." "Ifyou want, you can come with me." "But you won't be able to get into a suit with your dress on." "Help me, I can't do it by myself." "Why do you keep staring at me?" "You might at least knock." "I thought I heard you talking to someone." "All the more reason." "So you've had visitors?" "You handle that very cleanly." "Well, you won't die from it." "I hope you used moderation in the beginning." "Narcotics, poisons, barbiturates, eh?" "Ifyou came here to clown, you might as well leave." "You're not going to tell me you haven't tried the rope or hammer?" "I don't suppose you threw an inkwell as Luther did?" "You just locked her in, pressed the button and that's it!" "Next time, you mustn't panic." "Try to launch it from the corridor." " Do you know what it was?" " No." "But we've been able to establish a theory at least." " Who was it?" " She died ten years ago." "You've just seen the materialization ofthe person you think you knew." " What was her name?" " Hari." "This began after we experimented with X-rays." "We wanted to test the ocean, so we initiated a concentrated surface sweep using high intensity rays." "Yes, but this is..." "You're fortunate." "This woman is only part ofyour past." "Imagine ifyou had seen something else, something unknown in your experience, out ofthe recesses ofyour soul." "I don't see what you mean..." "Apparently the ocean somehow probed our brain centers, from which it extracted isolated bits of memory." " You think she'll come back?" " She will and she won't." " Hari the second..." " There may be many of her." " Why didn't you warn me?" " You wouldn't have believed me." "I got scared and acted not very..." "Don't berate yourself." "The point is to liquidate the station." "This is my mission." "If I make out the report, will you sign it?" "What if she were the contact we've been waiting for, for so long?" "The night is a blessed time here." "Somehow it reminds me ofthe earth." "You can also tie strips of paper to the air vents." "At night you'll think you're hearing leaves rustle in the dark." "Guibariane's invention." "Like all strokes of genius, it's so simple." "Sartorius said we were sentimental fools, but he has something like that hidden in his closet." "Try and get some rest." "We'll meet in the library later." "I've prepared a list of books for you." "Snout, is that you?" "Chris, where are you?" "Come here." "It's so dark..." "Come here, don't be afraid!" "The door opens the other way!" "Don't be afraid. I'll be right back." "When I saw that you weren't there, I was afraid..." "Hi, Chris!" "I can hardly hear you." "What are you doing right now?" "Nothing." "Sartorius wants to see us in the laboratory." "Yes, I'll be right with you." "Chris, what's wrong with me?" "is it epilepsy?" "This is my wife." "How do you do?" "Hi." "We've been waiting for you." "I couldn't get away sooner." " Are these yours?" " No, they're Snout's." "As far as I'm able to observe, they are structured..." "Let's call them "The Visitors"." "While our structure is atomical, theirs is based on neutrinos." "But any neutrino system would lack stability." "There must be a magnetic field out of Solaris stabilizing them." "You've got an excellent specimen." "She is my wife!" "My congratulations. I'm delighted." "Take a blood sample from your "wife"." " Why should I?" " You'll see things a lot clearer." "What do you think, Snout?" "I'm fed up with the lot ofyou!" "I used acid to burn the blood, but it regenerates itself." "Self-regeneration?" "Immortality!" "Faust's problem." "There's no need of absorbent cotton." "Are you qualified to perform an autopsy?" "She's my wife." "Don't you understand?" "It's more humane to experiment on them than on the earth rabbits." "It would be like cutting off my own leg." "Did you feel pain when you broke through the door?" "Pain?" "Of course!" "So if I ever catch you attempting anything on her..." "You're very lucky to have established an emotional contact with them." "It may feel pleasant, but..." " What?" "Are you envious?" " Perhaps." "No, you can't feel any guilt, the guilt is mine." "When you have turned yourself into a hopeless cripple, you can call on us." "We will empty your chamber pot." " Toward whom are you guilty?" " Toward you, among others." "My father shot most ofthe film." "I shot bits of it." "Do you know... I don't even know my own self." "Who am I?" "As soon as I close my eyes I can't recall what my face is like." "Do you know who you are?" "Yes, all humans do." "That woman in the white fur coat, she hated me." "That woman died long ago, before we ever met." "Stop fooling me." "I do remember that I came over for tea, and she told me to leave the house." "So I left at once." "I remember it very well." "What happened after that?" "After that, I went away." "That was the last time we ever saw each other." "Where did you go?" "To another city." " Why?" " l was transferred." "Why didn't you take me with you?" "Because you refused to come." "Yes, I remember that." "Sorry, I thought you were awake." "What's up?" "The rate of regeneration has slowed." "For two or three hours we can be rid of our visitors." "And you've come in the middle of the night to tell me that?" "I'll tell you exactly why I came." "We thought that since the ocean extracts our visitors from us during our sleep, it might be in our interest to communicate to it our waking thoughts." " Yes, but how?" " By X-rays." "Perhaps it will get the message and spare us all these apparitions." "Again your idiotic X-ray theories about the greatness of science?" "We'll modulate the beam with the brain waves of one of us." "One of us means me, of course?" "A transcription of my thoughts?" "What if I want her to die, to disappear?" "Give everything back to that..." "mass ofjelly?" "It's already invaded my soul." "Chris, we're losing time." "Sartorius has another project." "The annihilator." "To destroy only neutrino systems." "Blackmail?" "I convinced him that we should start with the encephalogram." "And one more thing..." "For now, forget all about it." "Tomorrow's my birthday." "You're invited." " You're trying to patch it up?" " Yes, I am." "Not so loud, she's sleeping." "So she knows how to sleep already?" "This is going to end badly." "What do you propose then?" "Nothing." "So you'll come?" "To the library tomorrow?" "We'll set up the table." "At least there are no windows there." "In the meantime let's go and see Sartorius." "She's sleeping." "Suppose that she follows us?" "Try leaving the door unlocked this time." "What door?" "It's just a mirage." "I'll be right back." "Where are you going?" "Forgive me!" "Why aren't you sleeping?" "You don't love me." "Stop it." " We have to talk." " About what?" "I don't know where l came from." "Do you know?" "What are you talking about?" "Ifyou do know, and you can't tell me, for some reason, perhaps one day you will, Chris?" "What are you talking about?" "I don't understand anything." "You won't tell, you're afraid to." "So I'll have to tell you." "I'm not Hari." "Hari is dead..." "She took poison." "And I'm someone else." " Who've you been talking to?" " Sartorius told me." "When?" "Last night?" "It would've been less painful ifyou'd told me yourself." "Oh, my God!" "What's the difference?" "How did you live all that time?" "Were you in love with someone?" "Did you ever think of me?" "Sometimes, yes, not always." "Whenever I felt unhappy." "I think someone is playing a kind of game with us" "And the more they play, the worse it will be for you." "I wish I knew how to help you." "The girl, the other one, what happened to her?" "We'd quarreled." "Toward the end, we used to quarrel a lot." "I packed my things and left her." "She made me understand..." "She didn't say it in so many words..." "When you've lived with a person long enough, words aren't necessary." "I didn't think it was so serious, but then I remembered that I'd left the laboratory preparations" "in the fridge, having explained to her their effect." "I got scared and wanted to go to her, but then I thought she'd understand that I took her words seriously." "On the third day I did go to her after all." "She was already dead." "There was an injection mark on her arm." "Like this?" "Why do you think she did that?" "I believe she felt that I didn't love her anymore." "But I love you." "Chris!" "I love you so much." "Go to sleep." "I don't know how to sleep." "It seems like sleep, but it's not." "It's like a sleep within a sleep." "It doesn't come from inside me." "It's from far away." "It's still a kind of sleep." "I guess our hero is not going to show up." " Why?" " Perhaps he's having guests." "Oh, everybody's here!" "You're one and a half hour late." "What is that you're reading?" "This is all rubbish!" "Where did I put it..." "Where the devil..." "Here!" "They come at night, but a man needs his nights for sleeping." "That's our problem." "Man has lost the gift of sleep." "You'd better read it. I'm a bit overexcited." ""Senor, I know only one thing." "When I..." "When I sleep, I know no fear, no hope, no work, no blessing..." "Blessings on him who invented sleep, that balance and weight that equals the shepherd with the king, and the simple with the wise." "Sound sleep has but one defect - it smacks too much of death." "Never before, Sancho, have you pronounced such a gracious speech."" "That's great." "Now perhaps you'll let me inject a few words of my own?" "I propose a toast to Snout, to his courage, and his devotion to duty." "Here's to science, and to Snout!" "To science?" "It's a fraud!" "No one will ever resolve this problem, neither genius, nor idiot!" "We have no ambition to conquer any cosmos." "We just want to extend Earth up to the Cosmos's borders." "We don't want any more worlds." "Only a mirror to see our own in." "We try so hard to make contact, but we're doomed to failure." "We look ridiculous pursuing a goal we fear and that we really don't need." "Man needs man!" "Let's drink to Guibariane." "In memory of a man." "Though what he did, was out offear." "No, Guibariane was not afraid." "There are worse things than being afraid." "He died because he saw no way out." "He thought that what was happening, was happening only to him." "All that heart-breaking moaning is just second-rate Dostoyevsky." "Who do you think you are to judge us?" "At least I know why I'm here." "Nature created man so that he might gain knowledge." "In his march toward the truth, man is condemned to knowledge." "The rest is of no consequence." "Ifyou will permit me to inquire, what exactly are you doing on Solaris?" "What a question!" "Except for your tryst with your ex, nothing here seems to interest you." "Your time is spent lolling in bed day after day." "is that how you understand your duty?" "You've lost contact with reality." "Ifyou ask me, you're plain lazy." "Stop it!" " Let's drink to Guibariane." " No, to Man!" "Are you suggesting he was not a man?" "Stop it, Chris!" "We'd better not quarrel." "After all, today is my birthday." "I think Chris is more logical than both ofyou." "In these inhuman conditions he alone acted human." "While you two pretend that it doesn't concern you, and that your visitors are just an exterior enemy." "But your visitors are part ofyou, they are your conscience." "I believe Chris loves me," "but perhaps he doesn't really, perhaps he just defends himself." "By me, who is alive, he wants..." "No, that's not the point." "It doesn't matter why a human loves." "No, it isn't Chris, it's you..." "I hate you all!" "Don't interrupt me." "I'm a woman after all!" "Woman?" "You're not even a human being." "Try to understand that, ifyou're capable of understanding anything!" "Hari doesn't exist!" "She's dead!" "You're only a reproduction, a mechanical repetition ofthe form!" "A copy from a matrix!" "Yes, perhaps." "But I..." "I'm becoming a human being!" "I can feel just as deeply as any ofyou." "I can live without Chris already." "I..." "I'm in love with him." "I'm a human being!" "You, why are you so cruel..." "Get up, on your feet!" "My dear man!" "Nothing is more easy." "It's wrong of us to quarrel like this." "We lose our humanity, our dignity as humans." "No, you're very human, but each one in his own way." "That's why you're quarrelling." "I hope I'm not bothering you?" "You're really a good fellow." "Only you look awful!" "Actually, I'm worn out." "Could you help me?" "Doesn't a man who'd give up his life for some silly damned contact, for knowing the truth about it, doesn't he have a right to get drunk once in a while?" "Certainly he has, absolutely." "Tell me, do you believe in our mission?" "I'll stay up a while yet." "It's important we don't sleep." "I'm going to see Faust in his laboratory." "Our Faust, Sartorius, is still seeking his remedy against immortality." "While we..." "Suppose we opened all the windows and yelled down as loud as we could?" "Do you think it would hear?" "Only who shall we call to?" "Maybe we should whip him with birch leaves?" "Or we could even pray to it..." "What's the matter?" "I think I closed the door..." "She's alone there." "Go on. I feel a lot better." "The station changes its orbit." "At 17 hours there'll be thirty seconds ofweightlessness." "So don't forget." "Hari!" "Forgive me, darling, I was lost in my thoughts." "is anything wrong?" "No." "No, nothing's wrong." "Everything's all right." "She drank liquid oxygen..." "She did it out of desperation." "It is going to get worse." "The more she's with you, the more human she becomes." " What are you going to do?" " Wait until she comes back." "And then what?" "Leave the station?" "Chris, she can live only here, on the station." "What else can I do?" "I love her." "Love whom?" "Her?" "Or the girl on the rocket?" "She will return." "She can return a hundred times over." "Don't convert the scientific problem to an insignificant love story." "I had a foreboding that this would end badly." "You should help her." "It's horrifying, isn't it?" "I'll never get used to these constant resurrections!" "is it me?" "What?" ".." "What?" ".." "Why?" "Why?" "No..." "I'm not..." "Not her..." "Not Hari..." "And you..." "What ifyou aren't either..." " Don't talk, Hari." " l'm not Hari!" "Maybe your appearance is supposed to be a torment, maybe the ocean sent you." "But you're more to me than all that science could ever mean!" " Do I look very much like her?" " You may have looked like her." "But now it's you who are real Hari." "Tell me..." "Do I look ugly?" "Can you look at me?" " Do I disgust you?" " No." " You're lying!" " Stop it!" "I must be looking disgusting!" "Don't touch me!" "I love you!" "Hari, what can I do?" "Nothing... I won't return to earth." "We'll live here, on the station." "I'm afraid." "The ocean's activity is increasing." "Your encephalogram may be the cause." "Whenever we show pity we empty our souls." "Perhaps that's true." "Suffering makes life seem gray and suspicious." "No, I don't believe that..." "I will not accept that..." "What is not indispensable to life is in some way harmful to it?" "No, that's not true either." "Itjust isn't true!" "Remember Tolstoy's suffering about the impossibility of loving the humankind in general?" "How much time has passed since?" "I can't figure it out..." "Help me." "Let's suppose I love you." "Love is something we can feel, but never explain." "One can only explain the idea." "You love that which you can lose." "Yourself, a woman, your country..." "Until today, humanity, the world, had no way to reach love." "There are so few of us!" "Perhaps the reason we're here, is to understand, for the first time, human beings as a reason to love?" "He's feverish." "How did Guibariane really die?" "You haven't told me." "I'll tell you, but later." "Guibariane did not die out offear, he died out of shame." "The salvation of humanity is in its shame!" "Mama, I... I'm two hours late." "I know." "How was your trip?" "It was just a bit tiring." "It was all right." "It's running slow again." "I'll set it right." "You have lots oftime." "I don't know what's the matter with me... I have completely forgotten your face." "You don't look well." "Are you happy?" "Happiness is an idea that's obsolete." "I think that's too bad." "I feel so alone now." "Why are you hurting us?" "What have you been waiting for?" "You might have telephoned." "You seem to lead such a strange life." "You're sloppy, you don't take care ofyourself." "How did you get into this state?" "What's this?" "Wait, I'll be right back." "Hari..." "How are you?" "You feel better now?" "Where's Hari?" " What is it?" " There is no more Hari." ""Chris, I'm sorry I had to deceive you." "There wasn't any other way." "This is the only solution for us both." "I asked them myself. lt was my decision." "Do not blame anyone for this." "Hari."" "She did it for you." "Snout, listen..." "Calm down, Chris." "How was it?" ".." "The annihilator." "An explosion of light, and a breath ofwind." "To think that we quarreled so often those last days." "Snout, why are we being tortured like this?" "We have lost our sense ofthe Cosmic." "Ancient man had no such problem." "He'd have never asked why..." "You remember the myth of Sisyphus?" "Since we sent your encephalogram, not a single one ofthe visitors has returned." "Something beyond our understanding is happening to the ocean." "Islands have begun to form on the surface." "First there was one, then others began to appear." "Are you telling me that we were understood?" "Just like that?" "In one stroke?" "At least we can hope now." " How old are you?" " Fifty two." "Have you been here long?" "You must have read my background papers." "After so many years on the station, do you still feel as clearly your link with the life down below?" "I suppose next you'll want to know what life's all about, eh?" "Please, let's not be ironical." "When a man is happy, the meaning of life and other themes of eternity rarely interest him." "These questions should be asked at the end of one's life." "We don't know when our life will end, that's why we're in a hurry." "The happiest people are those who never bother asking those cursed questions." "We question life to seek out some meaning." "Yet to preserve all the simple human truths we need mysteries." "The mystery of happiness, death, love." "You may be right." "But try not to think about it." "To think about it is the same as to know the day of one's death." "Not knowing that date makes us practically immortal." "Well, anyway, my mission is finished." "And what next?" "To return to earth?" "Little by little, everything will come to normal." "I'll find new interests, new acquaintances." "But I won't be able to devote all of myselfto them." "And do I have the right to turn down even an imaginary possibility of contact with the ocean, to which my race is trying to stretch a thread of understanding?" "To stay here, among the things we both touched, which still remember our breathing?" "What for?" "Just for the hope of her return?" "But I have no hope." "The only thing left for me is to wait." "Wait for what?" "I don't know..." "A new miracle." "Are you all right now?" "Yes, I feel fine." "In my opinion, it's time for you to return to earth." "is that your opinion?" "The End" "Second Artists' Association" "ALISSA FREINDLIKH" "ALEXANDER KAIDANOVSKY" "ANATOLY SOLONITSYN" "NIKOLAI GRINKO in" "STALKER" "Screenplay by Arkady STRUGATSKY and Boris STRUGATSKY based upon the story "Roadside Picnic"" "Directed by Andrei TARKOVSKY" "Director of Photography Alexander KNYAZHINSKY" "Production Designer Andrei TARKOVSKY" "Music by Eduard ARTEMYEV" "Director L. TARKOVSKAYA" "Verses by F.I. TIUTCHEV Ar.A. TARKOVSKY" "Sound by V. SHARUN Conductor E. KHACHATURYAN" "English Subtitles by T. Kameneva" "STALKER" ""What was it?" "A meteorite?" "A visit of inhabitants of the cosmic abyss?" "One way or another, our small country has seen the birth of a miracle - the Zone." "We immediately sent troops there." "They haven't come back." "Then we surrounded the Zone with police cordons..." "Perhaps, that was the right thing to do." "Though, I don't know..."" "From an interview with Nobel Prize winner, Professor Wallace." "Why did you take my watch?" "Where are you going, I'm asking you?" "You gave me your word and I believed you." "All right, you're not thinking about yourself, but what about us?" "Did you think about your child?" "She's just getting used to you, and you start it again!" "You've made an old woman of me." "You've ruined my life." "Not so loud, you'll wake up Monkey." "I can't wait for you forever." "I'm going to die!" "You wanted to start working!" "You've been promised a normal human work!" "I'll be back soon." "You'll be back to prison!" "Though this time you'll get ten years, not five!" "And for ten years you will have neither your Zone, nor anything!" "And I'll be dead in the meantime." "Oh God, for me it's prison everywhere!" " Let me go!" " No!" "Let go, I said!" "Go!" "And may you rot there!" "Be damned the day when I met you, bastard!" "God himself has cursed you by giving you this child!" "And me too, because of you, jerk!" "My dear, our world is hopelessly boring." "Therefore, there can be no telepathy, or apparitions, or flying saucers, nothing like that." "The world is ruled by cast-iron laws, and it's insufferably boring." "Alas, those laws are never violated." "They don't know how to be violated." "So don't even hope for a UFO, that would have been too interesting." "And how about the Bermuda Triangle?" "You're not going to deny..." "I am." "There is no Bermuda Triangle." "There's only Triangle ABC that equals Triangle A-prim, B-prim, C-prim." "Do you feel the boredom contained in this assertion?" "To live in the Middle Ages was interesting." "Every home had its house-spirit, and every church had its God." "People were young!" "Now every fourth is an old person." "It's so boring, my angel." "But you said that the Zone was the product of a superior civilization..." "It must be boring, too, all those laws, triangles, and no house spirits, and no God, that's for certain." "Because if God is also a triangle, then I don't know what to think." "It's for me!" "Great!" "Goodbye, my dear friend." "This lady was so kind as to agree to go with us to the Zone." "She's a very courageous woman." "Her name is..." "I beg your pardon, your name is..?" "Are you really a stalker?" "Wait..." "I'll explain everything." "Go..." "What a cretin!" "You did get drunk after all." "Me?" "What do you mean?" "I had a drink, like one half of the population does." "The other half gets drunk." "Including women and children." "I just had a drink though." "Damn it, what a mess here." "Go on, drink." "We've got time." "How about a glass for the road?" "What do you think?" "Take it away." "I see." "Dry law." "Alcoholism is a scourge of mankind." "All right, we'll drink beer." "Is he with us?" "Never mind, he'll sober up." "He needs to go there, too." "Are you really a professor?" "If you don't mind." "Then let me introduce myself." "My name is..." "Your name is Writer." "Well." "And what is my name?" "Yours?" "Professor." "I see." "I'm a writer, so, naturally, everyone calls me Writer for some reason." " And what do you write about?" " About the readers." "Obviously, there's nothing else one should write about." "One should write about nothing at all." "And what are you?" "A chemist?" "A physicist rather." "That must be boring, too." "Searching for the truth." "It's hiding and you keep searching for it." "You dig in one place -- eureka!" "The nucleus is made of protons." "You dig in another -- great!" "Triangle ABC equals Triangle A-prim, B-prim, C-prim." "With me it's quite different." "While I am digging for the truth, so much happens to it that instead of discovering the truth" "I dig up a heap of, pardon..." "I'd better not name it." "You're lucky!" "But imagine some antique pot displayed in a museum." "It was used at its time as a receptacle of food leftovers, but now it's an object of universal admiration for its laconic pattern and unique form." "Everyone goes oh!" "and ah!" "And suddenly it turns out that it's not antique at all, that some joker has palmed it off on the archeologists" "just for fun." "Strange as it may seem, the admiration dies off." "Those connoisseurs..." "Is it what you think about all the time?" "God forbid!" "In fact, I don't think much." "It's not good for me." "It's impossible to write, thinking all the time of success or failure." "Naturlich!" "But if no one is going to read me in one hundred years, why the hell should I write at all?" "Tell me, Professor, why did you let yourself be mixed up in all this?" "What do you need the Zone for?" "I'm a scientist in some sense." "But what do you need it for?" "You're an "in" writer." "Women must be running after you in flocks." "My inspiration has been lost, Professor." "I go begging for it." "Have you been used up?" "What?" "Yes, I guess, in a way." "Do you hear it?" "Our train." " Have you taken the roof off the car?" " Yes, I have." "Luger, if I don't come back, call on my wife." "Damn it, I forgot to buy cigarettes." "Don't go back." " Why?" " You must not." " You're all like this." " Like what?" "Believing such nonsense." "Well, I'd better leave it for a rainy day." "Are you really a scientist?" "Down!" "Don't move!" "Go and look, is there anyone there?" "Move it, for God's sake!" "There's no one there." "Go to the other exit." "Where on earth did you look, Writer?" " You didn't forget the jerry can?" " No." "It's full." "Everything I told you before... is a lie." "I don't give a damn about inspiration." "How would I know the right word for what I want?" "How would I know that actually I don't want what I want?" "Or that I actually don't want what I don't want?" "They are elusive things:" "the moment we name them, their meaning disappears, melts, dissolves like a jellyfish in the sun." "My conscience wants vegetarianism to win over the world." "And my subconscious is yearning for a piece of juicy meat." "But what do I want?" "World domination." "Quiet!" "Why a diesel locomotive in the Zone?" "It services the outpost." "It won't go any farther." "They don't like going there." "Take your places!" "Everybody here?" "The guards have arrived." "Tell them to turn the TV off." "Hurry!" "Go look if there's a trolley on the tracks." "What trolley?" "Go back, I'll do it." "The jerry can!" "Give it to me!" "Get rid of your knapsack, it's hampering you." "You may travel light, if you wish, as if going for a stroll." "If someone gets hit, don't shout or rush about." "If they see you, they'll kill you." "When everything settles down, crawl back to the outpost." "They'll pick you up in the morning." "Can they catch up with us?" "They fear it like the plague." "Fear what?" "Here we are... home, at last." "How quiet it is." "This is the quietest place in the world." "You'll see for yourselves." "So beautiful here." "Not a single soul here." "What about us?" "Three men can't spoil the place in one day." "Why?" "They can." "It's strange that flowers don't smell." "Or have I..." "Do you feel anything?" "I feel the stench of the bog." "No, that's the river." "There's a river here." "There was a flower-bed nearby, but Porcupine had trampled it down." "The smell lingered for many years though." "Why did he do it?" "I don't know." "I asked him why, too." "And he said:" ""You'll understand later."" "I think he just came to hate the Zone." "Porcupine, that's his name?" "A nickname, like yours." "He had been taking people to the Zone for years, and no one could stop him." "He was my teacher." "He opened my eyes." "He was called Teacher then, not Porcupine." "Then something happened to him, something broke in him." "Though I think he was punished." "Will you help me?" "Tie those strips of bandage to the nuts." "And I... will go for a walk." "I need to do something..." "Don't go anywhere." "Where's he going?" "He wants to be alone, I guess." "Why?" "Even with the three of us together, I feel weird." "A date with the Zone." "He's a stalker." "And what does that mean?" "You see, being a stalker is some sort of calling." " I thought he'd be different." " Like what?" "Well, you know, the Leather Stockings, Chingachgook sort of things..." "His background is even more frightful." "Several times in prison, then he was harmed here." "He has a mutant daughter, "a victim of the Zone" as they call it." "They say she's got no legs." "And what about this Porcupine?" "What does it mean, "was punished"?" "Or was it just a figure of speech?" "One day Porcupine returned from here and got rich overnight." "Fabulously rich." "You call it punishment?" "A week later he hanged himself." "Why?" "Quiet!" "What was that?" "Presumably a meteorite fell down here about twenty years ago." "It had burned down the settlement." "They searched for this meteorite, but never found it, of course." "Why "of course"?" "Then people began disappearing here." "They came here and never returned." "So it was concluded... that this meteorite was not really a meteorite." "At first... they circled the place with barbed wire to scare off the inquisitive." "All this gave rise to rumours that there's a place in the Zone... where wishes come true." "Naturally, they began to guard the Zone like the apple of their eye." "Who knows what kind offish someone might cherish." "What was it if not a meteorite?" "I told you, no one knows." "And what do you think?" "Nothing." "Or anything." "A message to mankind, as one of my colleagues says." "Or a gift." "Some gift." "Why on earth would they do it?" "To make us happy." "The flowers are blooming again, but they don't smell for some reason." "Sorry for leaving you two here, but it was too early to go anyway." "Did you hear it?" "Maybe someone lives here?" "Who?" "You told me yourself about some tourists camped here when the Zone originated." "There's no one in the Zone and there can't be." "Well, it's time." "How are we going to return?" " They don't return here." " What do you mean?" "We'll go as we agreed." "I'll show the direction." "Any deviation from it is dangerous." "The first landmark is that last pole." "You go first, Professor." "Now you." "Try to follow in his footsteps." "Oh, my God!" "And where are..." "Did they remain here like that?" "Those people?" "Who knows." "I remember them packing at the station, getting ready to come here." "I was just a boy." "We all thought then that somebody wanted to conquer us." "You first, Professor." "Now you, Writer." "Your room is over there." "We'll go this way." "Why were you hiking up the price?" "It's so close at hand." "Yes, but the hand has to be very long." "We don't have such a hand." "Don't!" "Leave it alone!" "Don't touch it!" "Don't touch it, I said!" "Are you crazy?" "What's the matter with you?" "It's not the place for leisurely strolls." "The Zone wants to be respected." "Otherwise it will punish." "Don't you ever try it again..." "Have you no tongue or what?" "I warned you, didn't I?" "Are we to go there?" "Yes." "Up, enter it and to the left." "Only we are not going this way." "We'll go around." "Why?" "People don't go this way." "In the Zone, the longer way, the less risk." "And to go straight ahead is fatal?" "He told you it's dangerous." " And making a detour's not dangerous?" " It is." "But they don't go this way." "What do I care that they don't?" "What if I take a chance..." "Listen, what's the matter with you..." "To go all the way around!" "When everything's so close." "Here a risk, there a risk." "What the hell!" "You're being very flippant about this." "I'm fed up with all those nuts and bandages." "You may do as you wish, but I'm going." " You're insane." " It's you who are..." "May I?" "The wind is coming up..." "Can you feel it?" "The grass..." "All the more so." "What do you mean?" "Wait!" "Keep your hands off!" "Professor be my witness, I didn't sent you there." "You go of your own will." "Of my own will." "What else?" "Nothing." "Go." "God help you to be lucky." "Listen!" "Should you notice something, or just feel something, go back at once, or..." "Just don't throw iron poles at me." "Stop!" "Don't move!" " Why did you do it?" " Why did I do what?" " Why did you stop him?" " I thought it was you..." "What's up?" "Why did you stop me?" "I didn't stop you." "Who did it then?" "You?" "Who the hell knows..." "You're smart, Mister Shakespeare." "To go straight ahead is scary, to go back is embarrassing." "So you gave yourself a command." "Fear has made you come to your senses." " What?" " Stop it." " Why have you emptied the bottle?" " Stop it, I said!" "The Zone is a very complicated system... of traps, and they're all deadly." "I don't know what's going on here in the absence of people, but the moment someone shows up, everything comes into motion." "Old traps disappear and new ones emerge." "Safe spots become impassable." "Now your path is easy, now it's hopelessly involved." "That's the Zone." "It may even seem capricious." "But it is what we've made it with our condition." "It happened that people had to stop halfway and go back." "Some of them even died on the very threshold of the room." "But everything that's going on here depends not on the Zone, but on us!" "So it lets the good ones pass and kills the bad ones?" "I don't know." "I think it lets those pass who... have lost all hope." "Not good or bad, but wretched people." "But even the most wretched will die if they don't know how to behave." "You have been lucky, it just warned you." "I guess I'll wait for you here until you come back, made happy." "It's impossible!" "I've got sandwiches, a thermos..." "You won't last even an hour here without me." "Besides, one doesn't return here the way one comes." "Anyway, I would prefer..." "Then we're going back right away." "I'll return your money minus a certain sum for the trouble, so to speak..." "Have you come to your senses, Professor?" "All right." "Go on, throw your nut." "STALKER" "Where are you?" "Come here!" "Are you tired?" "Oh, God!" "Judging by his tone, he's going to start sermonizing again." "Let everything that's been planned come true." "Let them believe." "And let them have a laugh at their passions." "Because what they call passion actually is not some emotional energy, but just the friction between their souls and the outside world." "And most important, let them believe in themselves" "Let them be helpless like children, because weakness is a great thing, and strength is nothing." "When a man is just born, he is weak and flexible, when he dies, he is hard and insensitive." "When a tree is growing, it's tender and pliant, but when it's dry and hard, it dies." "Hardness and strength are death's companions." "Pliancy and weakness are expressions of the freshness of being." "Because what has hardened will never win." "Come here!" "We're progressing well." "Soon we'll come to a dry tunnel, after that it will get easier." "Knock on wood." " Are we on our way already?" " Of course." "Why?" "I thought you just wanted to show us something." " What about my knapsack?" " What about it?" "I left it there." "I didn't know we were going." " There's nothing we can do about it." " No, we have to go back." " It's impossible!" " I can't do without my knapsack!" "Can't you understand that no one here has ever come back the same way?" "Forget about your knapsack." "What have you got there, diamonds?" "The room will give you anything you want." "Really." "It will drown you in knapsacks." "How far is it, this room?" "If you go straight, about 200 meters, but there's no going straight here." "Let's go." "Give up your empiricism, Professor." "Miracles are outside empiricism." "Remember how St. Peter was nearly drowned?" "Go, Writer." "Go where?" "Up these stairs." "Professor, where are you?" "Here is the dry tunnel!" "You call it dry?" "This is a local joke." "Normally one has to swim here." "Wait, where's Professor?" " What?" " Professor has disappeared!" "How could it happen?" "He was following you all the way." "He probably lagged behind and lost his way." "No, he didn't lose his way!" "He must've gone for the knapsack!" "He won't be able to make it now." "Shall we wait for him?" "We can't." "Things change here every minute." "We'll have to go." "Look!" "What is it?" "How could it be?" " I already explained." " What did you explain?" "It's the Zone, don't you understand?" "Let's go, quick." "It's..." "There he is!" "I'm certainly grateful to you that you... but..." "How did you get here?" "Mostly I had to crawl up here on my fours." "Incredible." "How did you manage to overtake us?" "What do you mean, "overtake"?" "I came back here for the knapsack." "And how has our nut gotten here?" "Oh, my God, that's..." "the trap!" "Porcupine put this nut here on purpose." "How could the Zone let us through?" "Oh God, I'm not going to take one more step until..." "I don't like it." "That's it!" "We rest!" "But keep off this nut, just in case." "Sorry, but I thought that Professor won't be able to make it." "You see, I..." "I never know beforehand what kind of people I'm taking with me." "Everything gets clear only here, when it's too late." "What's important is that Professor's bag with his underwear is safe." "Don't stick your nose in someone's underwear if you don't understand it." "What is there to understand?" "Binomial theorem?" "Some psychological abysses!" "You have a bad reputation at your institute." "They don't give you money for an expedition." "So you decide to pack a knapsack full of manometers and other shit... penetrate the Zone illegally... and put all these miracles to an algebra test." "No one in the world has ever heard of the Zone." "So we'll work a sure sensation!" "The television, fans raving and bringing laurel wreaths." "Here our Professor appears, all in white, and declares:" ""Mene-mene, tekel, uprasin."" "Everyone gaping and shouting:" ""He deserves a Nobel Prize!"" "You lousy scribbler, a homespun psychoanalyst." "You're only good for painting walls in public toilets, you blabbermouth." "No good." "Too sluggish." "You don't know how to do it." "All right." "I'm going to get a Nobel Prize." "And what are you after?" "Want to bless mankind with the pearls of your purchased inspiration?" "I don't care a damn about mankind." "Of all your mankind" "I'm interested only in one man -- myself." "Whether I'm worth anything or I'm just shit like others." "And if you find out that you're really..." "You know, Mr. Einstein, I have no wish to argue with you." "Truth is born of argument, damn it!" "Listen, Chingachgook..." "You've brought here many people." "Not as many as I would like." "That's not the point." "Why did they come here?" "What did they want?" "Happiness, I guess." "Yes, but what kind of happiness?" "People don't like to speak about their innermost feelings." "And it's neither yours nor mine business." "In any case, you've been lucky." "As for me, I haven't seen one happy man in my life." "Me neither." "They return from the room and I lead them back, and we never see each other again." "It's not that wishes come true immediately." "Have you ever wished to use this room yourself?" "I'm fine as I am." "Listen, Professor." "Speaking of the purchased inspiration." "Let's imagine that I enter this room and return to our God-forsaken town a genius." "A man writes because he's tormented, because he doubts." "He needs to constantly prove to himself and the others that he's worth something." "And if I know for sure that I'm a genius?" "Why write then?" "What the hell for?" "Well, I must say that we exist for..." "Will you be so kind and leave me alone?" "Let me get a wink, I haven't slept all night." "Keep your complexes to yourself." "In any case, all this technology of yours... all those blast furnaces, wheels... and other bullshit are only designed in order to work less and eat more." "They are all just crutches, artificial limbs." "And mankind exists in order to create... works of art." "Unlike all other human activities, this one is unselfish." "Great illusions!" "Images of the absolute truth!" "Are you listening to me, Professor?" "What unselfishness are you talking about?" "People still die of hunger." "Have you fallen from the moon?" "And they are considered to be our brainy aristocracy!" "You're not even capable of thinking in abstractions." "Are you going to teach me about the meaning of life?" "And also how to think?" "It's useless." "You might be a professor, but an ignorant one." "And there was a great earthquake." "And the sun became black as sackcloth made of hair." "And the moon became like blood..." "And the stars of the sky fell to the earth, as a fig tree casts its unripe figs when shaken by a great wind." "And the sky was split apart like a scroll when it is rolled up." "And every mountain and island were moved out of their places." "And the kings of the earth and the great men and the rich and the chiliarchs and the strong and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains;" "and they said to the mountains and to the rocks, "Fall on us and hide us from the presence of Him who sits on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb, for the great day of His wrath has come," "and who is able to stand?"" "And that very day two... two of them... were going to a village which was about 60 stadia from... named... and they were conversing with each other about all these things." "And while they were conversing and discussing..." "He Himself approached, and began travelling with them." "But their eyes were prevented from recognizing Him." "And He said to them:" ""What are these words... you are exchanging with one another, and why are you sad?"" "And one of them, named..." "Are you awake?" "You were speaking of the meaning... of our..." "Life... of the unselfishness of art..." "Take music, for instance." "Less than anything else, it is connected to reality, or if connected at all, it's done mechanically, not by way of ideas, just by a sheer sound, devoid of..." "any associations." "And yet, music, as if by some miracle, gets through to our heart." "What is it that resonates in us in response to noise brought to harmony, making it the source of the greatest delight which stuns us and brings us together?" "What's all this needed for?" "And most important, who needs it?" "You would say, "No one." "And for no reason."" "Unselfishly." "No." "I don't think so." "After all, everything has some sense." "Sense and reason." "Do we have to go there?" "Unfortunately, yes." "There's no other way." "It looks morbid, don't you think, Professor?" "I don't feel like going there first." "And Chingachgooks can never be volunteers." "I think we'll have to draw lots." "Do you mind?" "For this, I would rather have a volunteer." "Have you got matches?" "Thanks." "The long one will go." "Pull it." "The long one." "No luck this time." "Why don't you throw one of your nuts at least?" "Sure." "As you wish." "One more?" "All right..." "I'll go." "Hurry up, Professor!" "There's..." "There's a door here!" "Go that way!" "Open the door and go in!" "Me again?" "Do I have to go in first again?" "You've drawn the lot." "Go!" "People don't wait here." "What have you got there?" "No guns here!" "You'll have yourself killed, and us too!" "Don't you remember the tanks?" "Drop it, I beg you." "Don't you understand?" "If something happens, I can save you, but not this way..." "I beg you!" "Who are you going to fire at?" "Go, we haven't got much time!" "There's water here!" "Hold on to the handrail and go down." "But don't go anywhere!" "Wait for us outside!" "I hope you haven't got anything like that?" " Like what?" " Like a gun." "No." "As a last resort I've got an ampule." " What ampule?" " Implanted ampule." "Poison!" "Oh, God!" "Did you come here to die?" "No, it's just in case." "Writer!" "Come back!" "Come back!" "You want to get yourself killed?" "I told you to wait by the exit!" "Stop!" "Don't move!" "That's all your pipe." " Why?" " You should've gone in there first." "He was so scared that he went the wrong way." "One more experiment." "Experiments, facts, truth of the highest instance." "There's no such thing as facts." "Especially here." "All this is someone's idiotic invention." "Don't you feel it?" "But you, of course, must find out whose invention it is." "And why." "What good can your knowledge do?" "Who is going to get guilty conscience because of it?" "Me?" "I've got no conscience." "I just got nerves." "Some bastard would criticize me, I get wounded." "Another would loud me, I get wounded again." "I would put my heart and soul in it, they gobble up both my heart and soul." "I would relieve my soul of filth, they gobble it up too." "They're all so literate." "They all got sensory deficiency." "And they're all swarming around, journalists, editors, critics, some endless broads." "And they all demand:" "more, more!" "What hell of a writer am I if I hate writing?" "If it's constant torment for me, a painful, shameful occupation, sort of squeezing out a hemorrhoids." "I used to think that someone would get better because of my books." "No, nobody needs me!" "In two days after I die they'll start gobbling up someone else." "I wanted to change them, but it's they who've changed me." "Making me in their own image." "The future used to be just a continuation of the present, with all the changes looming far behind the horizon." "Now the future and the present are one." "Are they ready for it?" "They don't want to know anything!" "All they know is how to gobble!" "Gosh, how lucky you are!" "My goodness, now..." "You're going to live a hundred years!" "Yes." "But why not forever?" "Like the eternal Jew." "You are probably a fine man." "I almost didn't doubt it." "I can imagine what torture it was for you being in there." "This pipe is a horrible place!" "The most horrible in the Zone!" "It's called "the meat mincer", but it's much worse than any mincer." "So many people perished there!" "Porcupine sent his brother to die there." "The boy was so delicate, very talented." "Here, listen to this." "So summer is gone, Leaving no epitaph." "It's still warm in the sun, Only that's not enough." "All that true could have come," "Like a five-fingered fluff, Folded into my palm," "Only that's not enough." "No evil was slighted in the good aftermath," "World was festively lighted, Only that's not enough." "Life forever was tucking, Caring, making me laugh." "I was really lucky, Only that's not enough." "No leaves ever seared, No limbs broken rough." "Day, like glass, washed all clear, Only that's not enough." "Good, aren't they?" "That's his verses." "Why do you fidget?" "Fussing all the time?" " I'm just..." " I get sick just looking at you!" "I'm so happy!" "It's not often that everyone who goes makes it." "You did everything right." "You're good, kind, honest people." "I'm proud that I was right about you." "Look at him!" "He's happy that everything ended well!" "Fate!" "Zone!" "I'm a fine man, he says!" "You think I didn't see how you shoved the two long matches at me?" " No, you don't understand..." " Of course, how could I?" "I'm sorry, Professor, no offense meant, but this jerk has chosen you to be his favorite." "Come on, it's unfair!" "And me, a second-rate creature, he shoves into that pipe!" "Meat mincer!" "To think of such a word!" "What right have you got to decide who is to live and who is to go into the meat mincer?" "You've chosen it yourself!" "What?" "One long match out of the two long ones?" "The matches are nothing." "The Zone had let you through earlier, under the nut, so it became clear that only you could go through the meat mincer." "And we just followed you." "Well, it's too much..." "You can't even imagine how dangerous it is to make a mistake here." "But someone had to be first!" "Yes?" "No, it's not a clinic!" "You see, someone has to go first!" "Don't touch it!" "Laboratory nine, please." "Just a minute." " Hello?" " I hope I'm not disturbing you." " What do you want?" " Just a few words with you." "You've hidden it." "I've found it." "The old building." "Bunker four." "Do you hear me?" "I'm alerting the security immediately." "You may do it." "You may inform on me, you may set my colleagues against me, but it's too late." "I'm now at a stone's throw from that place." "Do you realize that's the end of you as a scientist?" "Well, you may rejoice!" "Do you realize what will happen if you dare?" "Trying to scare me again?" "All my life I've been afraid of something." "Even of you." "But now I'm not afraid of anything, I assure you." "Oh God, you are not even a Herostratos." "It's just that you've always wanted to make my life unbearable because twenty years ago I slept with your wife." "And now you're delighted that you've made even with me." "Well, go and do your..." "vile thing." "Don't you dare hang up on me!" "Prison is not the worst thing expecting you." "The worst is that you'll never be able to forgive yourself for this." "I already see you hanging from your suspenders in your prison cell." "What are you up to, Professor?" "Do you realize what will happen when everybody believes in the room?" "And all come rushing here?" "It's only a question of time." "If not today, then tomorrow!" "And not just tens of them, thousands!" "Unfulfilled emperors, great inquisitors, fuhrers, self-appointed benefactors of the human race!" "And they'll come not for money or inspiration, but to change the world!" "I never take here people like that." "You think I don't understand it?" "What on earth can you understand?" "You're not the only stalker on Earth." "No stalker can know what those you lead bring with them and what they take from here." "And the number of unmotivated crimes is on the rise!" "Isn't that your doing?" "Take coups d'etat by the military, or the mafia penetrating governments, aren't they all your clients?" "Or lasers and all those super-bacteria, all that filth, kept for the time being in safes?" "Will you please stop this sociological diarrhea?" "Can you really believe in all those fairy tales?" "Not in the good ones, no!" "But in the bad ones, certainly!" "Come on!" "A human being is not capable of such hatred or love... that would extend over the whole of mankind." "Well, money, a woman, maybe a desire for revenge," "Let my boss be overrun by a car, that I can understand." "But ruling over the world!" "A just society!" "God's kingdom on earth!" "These are not just wishes, this is ideology, action, concepts." "Unconscious compassion is not ready for realization yet." "As a regular instinctive impulse." "There cannot be happiness at someone else's expense." "I can see quite clearly now that you plan to overwhelm mankind with good deeds." "As for me, I'm not a bit worried about you or myself, and least of all about mankind." "Because you're not going to achieve anything." "At best you'll get your Nobel Prize." "Or rather you'll get something absolutely incongruous, something you don't even think about." "Something like this telephone..." "You dream of one thing, but you get quite another." "Why did you do that?" "Telephone... electricity..." "Look, very good sleeping pills." "They don't make ones like that any longer." "Why so many of them here?" "Maybe we'd better be going?" "It will be dark soon, difficult to come back." "By the way, it's absolutely clear to me that all this poem reciting and making detours is just a form of apologizing." "I can understand you." "Difficult childhood, bad environment..." "But don't have any illusions, I'm not going to forgive you." "Will you please stop it, do me a favor." "Professor, come here, please." "Wait a minute." "Don't be in a hurry." "I'm in no hurry whatsoever." "I know, you're going to get mad." "Anyway, I must tell you..." "We are now..." "on the threshold..." "This is the most important moment in your life." "You must know that..." "Your innermost wishes will be made real here." "Your most sincere wish!" "Born of suffering!" "No need to say anything." "You just have to... concentrate and try to recall your whole life." "When a man thinks of the past, he becomes kinder." "And most important..." "Most important..." "You have to believe!" "Now you can go." "Who wants to be the first?" "Maybe, you?" "Me?" "No, I don't want to." "I understand, it's not easy, but it will pass." "I doubt... that it will pass." "If I begin recalling my life, it's very unlikely I'll get any kinder." "Besides, don't you feel how shameful the whole thing is?" "Humiliating yourself, sniveling, praying?" "What's so bad in praying?" "It's just your pride speaking." "Calm down, you're not ready yet." "It happens quite often." "Maybe, you first?" "Yes, me." "We see before us Professor's new invention!" "An appliance exploring human souls!" "Soulmeter!" "It's only a bomb." "What?" "You must be kidding." "No, it's just a bomb." "Twenty kilotons." "What for?" "We had it assembled with my friends." "With my former colleagues." "This place will never bring any happiness to anyone." "But if this thing gets into the wrong hands..." "Though, I'm not sure any more." "We came to the conclusion then... that we shouldn't destroy the Zone after all." "Even if it's some miracle, it's still part of nature, and therefore, a hope in a sense." "They had hidden that bomb, and I've found it." "The old building, bunker four." "I guess there must be a principle..." "Never do anything that can't be undone." "I understand everything, I'm not some maniac." "But as long as this plague lies in the open, accessible to any scum," "I can get no peace, no sleep." "Or maybe, my innermost won't let me do it?" "Poor man, some problem he's invented for himself." "Give it to me!" "Give it to me!" "You're a civilized man, aren't you?" " Why?" "What's the matter with you?" " You, lousy hypocrite..." "Why?" "What have I done... to you?" "He wants to destroy your hope!" "That's all people have got left on this earth!" "It's the only place they can come to, if there's no hope left for them." "You yourself have come here!" "Why destroy hope then?" "Shut up!" "I can see through you!" "You don't give a damn about people!" "You just make money, using our... anguish!" "It's not even the money." "You're enjoying yourself here." "You're like God Almighty here." "You, a hypocritical louse, decide who is to live and who is to die." "He deliberates!" "Now I see why you stalkers never enter the room yourselves." "You revel in all that power, that mystery, your authority!" "What else is there to wish for?" "It's not true!" "You... you're mistaken." "A stalker must not enter the room." "A stalker must not even enter the Zone with an ulterior motive." "Remember Porcupine?" "Yes, you're right, I'm a louse." "I haven't done any good in this world, and I can't do any." "I couldn't give anything even to my wife." "I can't have any friends either." "But don't take mine from me!" "They'd already taken everything from me back there, behind the barbed wire." "So all that's mine is here." "You understand?" "Here!" "In the Zone!" "My happiness, my freedom, my self-respect, it's all here!" "I bring here people like me, desperate and tormented." "People who have nothing else to hope for." "And I can help them!" "No one else can help them, only I, the louse, can!" "I'm so happy to be able to help them that I want to cry." "And that's all." "I don't want anything more." "I don't know." "Maybe." "Anyway, excuse me, but..." "You're just a God's fool." "You have no idea what's going on here." "Why do you think Porcupine hanged himself?" "He came to the Zone with a mercenary motive." "He made his brother die in the meat mincer because of money." "I know." "But why did he hang himself?" "Why didn't he come here again, not for money, but for his brother?" "In way of repenting." "He wanted to..." "I don't know." "He hanged himself a week later." "Because he realized that not just any wish comes true here, but only your innermost wish." "Not what would you holler at the top of your voice..." "Coming true here is only what's in line with your nature, with your essence, of which you know nothing." "But it's there, in you, directing you all your life." "You didn't understand anything, Leather Stocking." "It wasn't greed that had done Porcupine in." "He was crawling in this puddle, begging to bring his brother back." "But what he got was only money, and he couldn't get anything else, because render unto Porcupine the things that are Porcupine's!" "And things like conscience, anguish, they are just inventions." "He realized that and hanged himself." "I'm not going to your room." "I have no wish to pour my filth over somebody's head." "Even yours." "And then to put my neck into the noose, like Porcupine." "I'd rather drink myself to death in my mansion, in peace and quiet." "You don't understand anything about human beings, Chingachgook, if you take to the Zone people like me." "And something else..." "Why do you think that this miracle really exists?" "Who told you that wishes actually come true here?" "Have you seen a single man who's been made happy here?" "Was it Porcupine?" "As a matter of fact, who told you about the Zone, about Porcupine, about that room?" "He did." "Then it makes no sense to me at all." "What's the use coming here?" "It's so quiet..." "Can you feel it?" "What the heck..." "Why not chuck it all, take my wife, Monkey, and move over here." "For good." "There's no one here." "No one can hurt them here." "So you're back." "Where did you get this?" "He got attached to me." "I couldn't leave him there." "Well, shall we go?" "Monkey is waiting." "Are you coming?" "Does any one of you need a dog?" "I've got five of them at home." "So you love dogs, don't you?" "What?" "That's very good." "All right, let's go." "You can't even imagine how tired I am!" "God only knows!" "Calling themselves intellectuals, those writers and scientists!" "Don't get so excited." "They don't believe in anything!" "They've got the organ with which one believes atrophied for lack of use." "Stop it." "Come on." "Go to bed." "Don't lie here..." "It's too damp here for you..." "You shouldn't lie here." "Take it off." "Oh God, what people..." "Calm down, it's not their fault." "You ought to pity them, not to be angry with them." "Haven't you seen them?" "They've got empty eyes." "The only thing they can think about is how to sell themselves not too cheap!" "How to get as much as possible for their every emotional movement!" "They know they were "born for a purpose", "called upon"!" "After all, they live "only once"!" "Can people like that believe in anything?" "Stop it, calm down." "Try to sleep, will you?" "Go to sleep." "And nobody believes." "Not only those two." "Nobody!" "Who am I going to take there?" "Oh, God..." "And what's most awful... is that no one needs it." "No one needs that room." "And all my efforts are just in vain." "Why do you say that?" "Stop it." "I'm not going there with anybody again." "Do you want me to go with you?" "Where?" "You think I've got nothing to ask for?" "No..." "You can't go there." "Why not?" "No, no." "What if it wouldn't work with you, either?" "You know, my mother was against it." "You've probably noticed already that he's not of this world." "All our neighborhood laughed at him." "He was such a bungler, he looked so pitiful." "My mother used to say:" ""He's a stalker, he's doomed, he's an eternal prisoner!" "Don't you know what kind of children the stalkers have?"" "And I..." "I didn't even argue with her." "I knew it all myself, that he was doomed, that he was an eternal prisoner, and about the children." "Only what could I do?" "I was sure I would be happy with him." "Of course, I knew I'd have a lot of sorrow, too." "But it's better to have a bitter happiness than... a gray, dull life." "Perhaps, I thought it all up later." "But then he approached me and said:" ""Come with me."" "And I did, and never regretted it." "Never." "We had a lot of sorrow, a lot of fear, and a lot of shame." "But I never regretted it, and I never envied anyone." "It's just our fate, our life, that's how we are." "And if we haven't had our misfortunes, we wouldn't have been better off." "It would have been worse." "Because in that case, there wouldn't have been any happiness." "And there wouldn't have been any hope." "I love your eyes, my darling friend," "Their play, so passionate and brightening," "When a sudden stare up you send," "And like a heaven-blown lightning," "It'd take in all from end to end." "But there's more that I admire:" "Your eyes when they're downcast" "In bursts of love-inspired fire," "And through the eyelash goes fast" "A somber, dull call of desire..." "The End"