"Chris, what is it?" "I love you so much." "Don't you love me any more?" "I've made progress, and I recognise that." "But my wife, who I can't even convince to come here..." "Anything can set her off." "It could be the phone ringing, something on the news, something online, going shopping maybe." "A commemorative T-shirt in the window." "It just puts her right back in that place, and it's like all my progress - ripped away." "And I'm right back there with her." "I feel totally the opposite." "I see the TV and I see the Internet and I see those T-shirts and I feel nothing." "The more I see the images, the less I feel, the less I believe that it's real." "I mean, I think I'm supposed to feel something by now." "Don't you think so?" "Linda, this is Chris Kelvin." "I'm returning your call." "I have two times available this week;" "7am on Tuesday or 6.15pm on Thursday." "You can leave a message if either of those times are good for you." "Thank you." "Well, I know that's not true." "Because I know you, and I know it's not true." "Good." "I'm glad." "All right." "Let's pick this up on Wednesday." "Can I help you?" "We're looking for Dr. Chris Kelvin." "Chris..." "I can't imagine what you must be thinking, getting a message like this." "I apologise if it seems melodramatic, but you are the only person I can trust in the situation." "I need your help." "I need you to come to Solaris, Chris." "I don't know how to describe what we are experiencing up here." "We can't even agree amongst ourselves what is happening, or what to do about it." "I suppose the most obvious solution would be to leave." "But none of us want to." "That's why you're getting this bizarre request." "I told the crew that your background and experiences made you the ideal candidate for this job." "Don't worry." "I didn't elaborate." "But it's true." "So, anyway..." "I hope you will come to Solaris, Chris." "I think you need to." "You will see what I mean." "I wish I could be more specific about all of this, but, you know." "People are listening." "You can imagine the distress Dr. Gibarian's message caused at DBA." "Why not send in the security force?" "We did." "We lost contact as they were approaching Solaris." "They haven't returned." "There must be some sort of on-board Al system." "They shut it down." "The company was hoping to solve this problem without involving a civilian." "Obviously these are extreme circumstances." "Some preparation is involved but you shouldn't have any trouble." "The flight itself is fully automated." "You'll be asleep most of the trip." "We feel confident that if you board the ship, you can negotiate their safe return." "Is that what everybody wants?" "Of course." "Find the probability of F." "OK, stop." "Go back." "Snow." "Kelvin, is it?" "Yeah." "Kelvin." "Right." "Oh, man." "Sorry about that, Kelvin." "Names, you know, just..." "For some reason." "Yeah." "Well, you wanna come in?" "I'm fine." "Whose blood is that, leading to the lab?" "Yeah." "Blood." "How 'bout that?" "Katarn." "He, um..." "Security forces showed up and he just took off, and they put a hole in his pot." "What happened to Gibarian?" "It was a suicide." "Who found him?" "I found him." "What happened to Rhys?" "Yeah, now, Rhys..." "We don't know, because the thing is, he kind of disappeared." " Disappeared?" " Disappeared." " How did he disappear?" " Exactly." "Don't know." "We do know that he's not on the ship, and that's all we know." "Where's Dr. Gordon?" "Dr. Gordon." "She is in her room, and Dr. Gordon won't let you in her room." "Can you tell me what's happening here?" "I could tell you what's happening, but I don't know if that'd really tell you what's happening." "I just wanna talk to you." "You have to give me your word you won't try to come in." "All right." "Well?" " What happened to Gibarian?" " Didn't you talk to Snow?" " I wanted to hear your version." " There isn't any version." "He killed himself." "Why haven't you come home?" "What happened here?" "What did you find?" " Who are you representing?" " I'm the last effort to recover this mission, before they abandon this ship and everyone on board." "Until it starts happening to you, there's really no point in discussing it." " Who else is here?" " Who else is here?" "I saw a boy." "Gibarian's son." " Michael." " How is that possible?" "I think that's why you're here." "I want a formal interview with you and Gordon." "I'll need your help with her." "Yeah." "All right." "How much sleep do you need, Kelvin?" " How much sleep?" " Yeah." " How long can you go without sleep?" " Depends." "Well, when you do go to sleep," "I find I sleep much better with the door locked." "I was with the project when it was still with NASA, before it was sold to DBA." "I was trained in physics." "I was sent here to assess the economic potential of Solaris." "Whether or not it was a viable commercial property or possible energy source." "I was still compiling data when this shit started happening." "Did you run any tests on the food, air, water?" "I checked it 50 times." "There are no signs of contaminants or psychotropic compounds." "How about you?" "How are you doing?" "Depression." "Along with bouts of hypomania and primary insomnia." "Suggestions of agoraphobia, obsessive-compulsive disorder, shock, fatigue, denial." " Not unusual, given the circumstances." " I know." "All right." "Now, what can you tell me about what's happening here?" "Just that I want it to stop, but I want to stop it." "If I can stop it that means I'm smarter than it is." "You know you can go home, walk away from all of this." "I can guarantee it." "Yeah." "The thing is..." "Man, I would kill to go back there." "I'd kill." "But Gordon?" "Gordon happens to be Gordon, you know?" "But I'll see what I can do." "We take off into the cosmos." "Ready for anything - solitude, hardship, exhaustion." "Death." "We're proud of ourselves." "But when you think about it, our enthusiasm's a sham." "We don't want other worlds." "We want mirrors." "So, anyway..." "How's the spawn?" "Oh, good." "He cries and shits in his pants every two hours." "I know the feeling." "When are you leaving?" " We've been postponed again." " I didn't hear that." "Nobody knows yet." "The governments are looking for a buyer." "I wish we could tell people what's happening." "You can tell me." "I'm a doctor." "Well, Doctor, as we study Solaris, the most interesting thing is it..." "Well, it seems to be reacting." "Almost like it knows it's being observed." "We can't explain it." "Are you listening to me?" "Chris?" " So anyway..." " So anyway." "Sorry." "Go to her." "Her name is Rheya." "She's a bit tricky but I guess she's worthwhile." "Maybe she needs a shrink." "Don't we all?" "Don't blow it." "You start." "I did." "Really?" "All right, I'm gonna resist the impulse to ask you about the door knob." " Do you always resist your impulses?" " Not always." "Try poetry." ""And death shall have no dominion."" "Thomas." "It's not a very happy poem, though." "Well, you didn't seem very happy when I saw you on the train." "I wasn't." "And tonight?" "It's early." "Goddammit." "I'm awake." "Yes." "How are you here?" "How do you mean?" "Where do you think you are?" "Where do you think you are right now?" "At home." "Where is home?" "With you, where we live." "And do you remember being anywhere else with me?" "Being together anywhere else?" " Our apartment." " Describe it." "It's dark." "It's very very dark." "And there are no paintings on the wall." "No pictures anywhere." "No pictures on the fridge, even, which I always thought was a bit strange." "Do you remember where we first saw each other?" "On a train." "Chris..." "I'm so happy to see you." "I love you so much." "Don't you love me any more?" "I have to check out something with the crew." "No!" "Don't leave me!" "Why?" " Why?" " I don't know." "It's OK." "Why are you sitting over there?" "Can I come and sit with you?" "Hey." "What was that?" "Yeah." "How 'bout that?" "Still workin' on that." "Where's your visitor?" "I don't know." "Stopped appearing." " Who's your visitor?" " My brother." "Who was it?" "My wife." "Dead?" "So what was her name?" "Will she come back?" "Do you want her to?" " No, it isn't." " Yes, it is." " No, it isn't." "It's crap." " Only one way to find out." "You can submit it to someone and see if they publish it." "That's not an indication of anything." "So no one else's opinion counts except for yours?" " Yeah." " That's insane." " That's insane." " L like it." "Brings out the red in my eyes." "Did you show it to your father?" " Yeah." " And?" " And he liked it." " What'd he say?" " He said he liked it." " Well..." "He's a man who doesn't pass out compliments very easily." "That's something." " What's that tell you?" " Can we talk about something else?" "Please?" "All right." "When do you wanna get hitched?" "Every time I bring it up you make a joke about it, and..." "I know." "I'm sorry." "It's just..." "It's so difficult for me." "Still?" "Is it something that I'm not doing?" "No." "That's not the issue at all." "Because, you know, if you keep putting this off, then in 15 or 20 years I'm just gonna stop asking." "Well, I've got ages, then." "So apart from the poem that you quoted to me the night that we met..." "The night that you were hitting on me." "Oh, I don't think so." "What's your favourite poem?" "My favourite Dylan Thomas poem?" "Well, there's the..." "There's the..." "Well, there's the one he's most famous for, which starts:" " "There was a young man from Nantucket..."" " I knew it." "I just..." "I'm not marrying you." "Oh, you're marrying me." "Would we have to invite anyone else?" "There should be witnesses." "Otherwise nobody'd believe us." "When I was little I had this imaginary friend called Mikashelli, who used to live under the wallpaper in the corner of the room." "I used to go and visit." "I had a very intense relationship." "I was an only child." "As you know." "That was like my sibling." "That was the person I used to have battles with and fights with and everything." "What happened progressively over the next few years is that my mother stopped communicating with me." "She only communicated with me as Mikashelli, and wrote me these letters, and we didn't have conversations any more." "Admittedly, she was certifiable." "But that was a strange way to grow up." "You know, you're with the right man." "I so know that." "That's what's great." "Cos, man..." "Rheya." "It's me." "I don't remember that." "When did you get that?" "I got it just before I came here." " Was I with you?" " No." "I don't actually remember anything." "I only remember you." "Have I been ill?" "Sort of." "And we've been apart?" " Yes." " For how long?" "A few years." " Were you alone?" " Yes." "Was that difficult?" "It was easier than being with someone else." "Did you think about me?" "Yes." "What is that, out there?" "Solaris." "Oh, my God, yes." "I can't remember how I got here." "Did I come here with you?" " I don't know how you got here." " What do you mean?" "I woke up and you were here." "So I wasn't here yesterday?" "No." "Right." "Getting dressed?" "People will notice tonight." "If you're not there, Rheya, people will notice." "I can put up with all of it, you know?" "The mood swings, the restlessness, changing jobs every three months, all of it." "What I can't put up with is you hiding from me." "Why do you do that?" "Do you wanna be here?" "Cos I need help." "I can't do this..." "I can't continue to do this on my own." "The idea of God was dreamed up by man." "A silly animal with a small brain." "Even the limits that we put on it are human limits." " It designs, it creates..." " No, I'm talking about a higher intelligence." "No, hold it." "You're talking about something else - a man in a white beard." "Ascribing human characteristics to something that isn't human." "Aren't we all?" "Rheya, given all the elements of the known universe and enough time, our existence is inevitable." "It's no more mysterious than trees or sharks." "We're a mathematical probability, and that's all." "How do you explain that of all the creatures on this planet, only we are conscious of our own mortality?" "You can't explain that." "That doesn't mean there's a God." "Maybe religion has been bred into us." "The pope is a wonderful woman..." " Excuse me." " A nihilistic shrink." "Is there a school?" "Not yet." "You see?" "He's funny, at least." "Where you been?" "Away from those fucking people." "They're my friends." "Yeah." "Chris, I've got to talk to you." "What's wrong?" "I don't understand what's happening." "And if I do understand what's happening then I don't think I can handle it." "What do you mean?" "I mean..." "I'm not the person I remember." "Or at least I'm not sure I am." "I do remember things, but I don't remember being there." "I don't remember experiencing those things." "I'm really really trying to understand." "And these..." "These strange thoughts keep coming into my head, and I don't know where they're coming from, and I'm scared." "And I don't know what's happening." " What do you think's happening?" " You need rest." " No." " Take that." "You don't understand." "Because I don't think that I can live with this." "I don't understand what is happening now." "This" " I remember this." "I have a memory of it." "But I don't." "I don't remember seeing it." "I don't remember being there." "Rheya, it's fatigue." "It's brought on by stress." "It's fatigue." "That's why you take this." "Right." "Yeah." "No, it is." "You'll be fine." "I'll talk to Gordon and Snow." "We'll go back to Earth." "And you're gonna be fine." " I'm coming right back." " Right." " Are you gonna be all right here?" " Yeah." "This door locks from the inside." " Yeah." " You'll be perfectly safe in here." "Yeah." "You sure you're gonna be all right?" "You keep asking me that, actually." "Yes." "Yeah." "I'm fine." "Stay here." "I was so worried, man." "About this guy." "But then you show up, and I'm even more worried about you." "Particularly after the first..." "When you sent the first one away." "Yeah, you were pretty..." "You deserved to be as freaked out as you were." "She can never know anything about that." "Ever." "You understand?" "No." "I wonder if they can get pregnant." "Where are you going?" " I can't be here." " What?" "You should have told me." " It wouldn't have made any difference." " Really?" "Chris, I had to." "Obviously I had to." "You know that about me." "I had no idea you'd react like this." "Listen." "Listen to me." "What's changed?" "I didn't even know you wanted one." "Why would I want one?" "Why would I want a child, or anything that would bring life into this house?" " No, Chris." "No." " Stop it." "No, Chris, you don't understand." "You have to understand." "I had no idea you felt like that." "I won't make it without you." " Then you won't make it." " Chris, no, please." " Let go of me!" " No!" "No!" "Oh, my God." "Oh, no." "You wanna change Gordon's mind." "What if Gordon and your wife, your very nice wife..." "She's nice, right?" "Of course she's nice." "Your wife is nice." "They get together, right?" "Cos I'm thinkin' "women", right?" "Right now we got woman and woman, right?" "If we get women together on the same team and all that shit, what happens?" "You know what happens." "All kinds of shit you can't explain happens." "But good shit, you know?" "Mysterious, but good." "Usually very good." "Things get solved, you know?" "That's my plan, you know?" "What do you think?" "I'll have to think about that." ""And death shall have no dominion."" ""Dead men naked, they shall be one" "With the man in the wind and the west moon."" ""When their bones are picked clean and the clean bones gone," "They shall have stars at elbow and foot."" ""Though they go mad they shall be sane."" ""Though they sink through the sea they shall rise again."" ""Though lovers be lost love shall not."" ""And death shall have no dominion."" "You found me." "I came back for you." "I came back that day." "I'm sorry." "All right." "Enough hypothesising." "The visitors." "Are they or are they not made of subatomic particles?" "Subatomic particles." "I'm not sure." "What do you think?" "I think probably." "Stabilised by what?" "Guess." "I don't know." "Maybe a Higgs field." "So if we created a negative Higgs field and bombarded them with Higgs antibosons they might disintegrate?" "Maybe." "You know, it would take a lot of power." "Shut down all the noncritical ship functions." "This is just a theory, you know?" "We could be wrong." " Let's find out." " We'll take the findings back to Earth." "What if they follow us back?" "What if what's happening here happened on Earth on a mass scale?" "Don't you see that as a problem?" "I think it's a serious mistake to assume it's benign." "It's driving us crazy so it can watch us kill each other." "Is that really why you think they're here?" "Given its resources it could have done anything, including destroy us." "Meet me in the lab in an hour." " L won't let you." " How you gonna stop us?" " How you gonna stop me taking her back?" " Shall we pick up the other one on the way?" "Shouldn't be too hard." "We could chart its course." "Only take a day or so." "Chris, what's she talking about?" " Nothing." " Her oxygen might have run out." "Maybe they don't need any." "Chris, what are they talking about?" "You didn't tell her?" "Tell me what?" " You came before." " He got rid of you." "You what?" "I sent you away." "Into space." "Oh, my God." "No." "Rheya..." "Don't touch me." "Rheya, I didn't understand." "Rheya." " Don't." " No." "Don't." "What were you trying to accomplish with that, exactly?" "Kelvin..." "It is a mistake to become emotionally engaged with one of them." "You're being manipulated." "If she were ugly, you wouldn't want her around." "That's why she's not ugly." "She's a mirror that reflects part of your mind." "You provide the formula." " She's alive." " She is not human." "Try to understand that, if you can understand anything." "What about your visitor?" "The one you're so ready to destroy without hesitation?" "Who is it?" "What is it?" "Does it feel?" "Can it touch?" "Does it speak?" "We are in a situation that is beyond morality." "Your wife is dead." "How do you know?" "How can you be definitive about a construct you do not understand?" "She's a copy." "A facsimile." "And she's seducing you all over again." "You're sick." "We are not taking her back with us." "Leave the light off." "You think you're dreaming me." "You're not Gibarian." "No?" "Who am I, then?" " A puppet." " And you're not?" "Well, maybe you're my puppet." "But like all puppets, you think you're actually human." "That's the puppet's dream - being human." "Why did you kill yourself?" "It seemed like a good idea at the time." "Now I think I made a mistake." " What about your son?" " That's not my son." "My son is on Earth." "And that's not your wife." "They are part of Solaris." "Remember that." "What does Solaris want from us?" "Why do you think it has to want something?" "This is why you have to leave." "If you keep thinking there is a solution, you'll die here." "I can't leave her." "I'll figure it out." "Do you understand what I'm trying to tell you?" "There are no answers." "Only choices." "Rheya?" "Gordon!" " What happened?" " She drank liquid oxygen." "She's dead." "No." "I never get used to them." "These resurrections." "Oh, no." "No." "Why'd you do that?" "Rheya?" "Don't call me that." "There are two components." "A high-energy proton accelerator and a matter phase modulator." "By adjusting the tuning frequency I get an enhancement of Higgs antibosons at 90GHz and an almost pure beam at 160GHz." "I used it on mine." "What happens?" "They disappear, back where they came from." "It's what she wants." "I won't let her do it." "She'll come to me when you're asleep." "Then I won't sleep." "Don't you see?" "I came from your memory of her." "That's the problem." "I'm not a whole person." "In your memory you get to control everything." "So even if you remember something wrong, I am predetermined to carry it out." "I'm suicidal because that's how you remember me." "My voice sounds the way it does because that's how you remember it." "I don't believe that we're predetermined to relive our past." "I think that we can choose to do it differently." "The day I left and you said you wouldn't make it, I didn't hear you because I was angry." "This is my chance to undo that mistake." "And I need you to help me." "But am I really Rheya?" "I don't know any more." "All I see is you." "All I see is you." "It created me." "And yet I can't communicate with it." "It must hear me, though." "It must know what's happening to me." "And you and I, we would have to have some kind of an arrangement, some kind of" "unspoken understanding that I'm not really a human being." "No, Rheya." "Chris..." "I wish you would just let them use the device on me." "And then you can go back to Earth and you can tell everybody all about Solaris." "No." "It's the only solution that makes any sense." "We could never have a life together on Earth, Chris." "You know that." "It would be impossible." "And this?" "What kind of life is this?" "Trapped here." "It's not a life." "I don't know what to call it." "It's what we have." "It's enough for me." "You need to rest." "You're going to make yourself ill." " I don't care." " Just lie down for a moment." "Please, Chris." "You have to rest." "You know I'm not human so I don't understand what you're afraid of." "Of course you can use the device." "It's not murder." "You said that yourself." "You're the one who had the idea in the first place." "Chris doesn't trust me." "Chris, don't blame Gordon." "It's not her fault." "I begged her to do it." "It's better this way." "I found the suicide note." "I went through your things." "The page torn from the book of poems." "And I realised" "I'm not her." "I'm not Rheya." "I know you loved me, though." "I know that." "I felt that." "And I love you." "I wish we could just live inside that feeling forever." "Maybe there's a place where we can." "But I know it's not on Earth." "And it's not on this ship." "That's all I can say right now." " You killed her." " Not her." "It." " It's murder." " Kelvin, she begged me." "It wasn't painful." " She'll be back." " No." " Why would you let her do it?" " Kelvin!" "It's not human." "Whatever it is, it's not human, and I'm threatened by that." "And I wanna win." "I want humans to win." "Whose side are you on?" " What are you doing?" " Putting the Al back online." "I'm going home." "Gordon." " I knew it." " How long you think he's been dead?" "Hard to say because of the cold." "He attacked me." "There I am." "Somehow, there I am." "And I couldn't tell you how I'm there, or who I am or what's going on." "But before I can get to that, what's this over here?" "Comin' at me." "What are you tryin' to do?" "Oh, I see." "You're tryin' to kill me." "Yeah, confusing." "I'll tell you somethin' confusing." "Bingo, there you are, and my welcoming committee dropped his knife and it's good night." "And, by the way, after all that" "I find this, whoever this..." "I get my first good look and it happens to be..." "I survive the first 30 seconds of this life, whatever you call it, by killing someone." "And by killing someone who happens to be me." "See, most people..." "I would think most people in this position would be, like "This..." "Ah."" ""I don't know." However, this is at least..." "This is an incredible opportunity." "This is..." "What if this is a gift?" "I'm a gift." "Hey." "I say we use the Higgs device on him." "I don't think you really have time." "Why would you say that?" "Well, you know, ever since we used the famous Higgs device," "Solaris started taking on mass exponentially." "You might have noticed how we're a lot closer to it." "That would be because everything within its gravitational field - it's pulling it in." "And, yeah, sorry." "By the way, the Higgs device also drained the fuel cell reactors." "Can I make a suggestion?" "I mean, this is..." "You can do what you want, but I would just lock me in here really tight and take the Athena back." "Wear your seat belt." "Switch to internal power." "Start fuel cell operational diagnostic." "Service check on LGA." "Point and calibrate high-beam antenna." "Depressurising." "Spin all turbines to standby." "Disengage coupling interlocks and all docking couplers." "Vent and seal all main engine propellant lines." "Earth." "Even the word sounded strange to me now." "Unfamiliar." "How long had I been gone?" "How long had I been back?" "Did it matter?" "I tried to find the rhythm of the world where I used to live." "I followed the current." "I was silent and attentive." "I made a conscious effort to smile, nod, stand, and perform the millions of gestures that constitute life on Earth." "I studied these gestures until they became reflexes again." "But I was haunted by the idea that I remembered her wrong." "That somehow I was wrong about everything." "Depressurising." "Spin all turbines to standby." "Disengage coupling interlocks and all docking couplers." "Vent and seal all main engine propellant lines." "Rheya!" "Rheya?" "Chris?" "Am I alive or dead?" "We don't have to think like that any more." "We're together now." "Everything we've done is forgiven." "Everything."