Solaris (1968 film)

Plot

Dr. Kris Kelvin travels to a space station circling the ocean-covered planet Solaris. For decades, the scientists aboard have studied this world and its vast sea. Just before Kelvin shows up, the crew blasted the ocean with a powerful gamma-ray burst. In response, the ocean starts testing the researchers by dragging up their most painful memories and thoughts, making them real by creating physical copies of people.

Kelvin is forced to face the ghost of his dead lover and the guilt he feels over her suicide. The other scientists seem to be suffering even more than Kelvin, though their specific torments are only hinted at. The ocean’s intelligence shows itself through physical events that the scientists’ limited science cannot explain, which deeply unsettles them. The alien mind of Solaris appears so different from human thinking that real communication seems impossible.

In a final attempt, Snaut and Sartorius record Kelvin’s brain waves and send them toward Solaris. While his brain waves are being recorded, Kelvin secretly wishes that his own visitor and Snaut’s visitor would vanish, but that Harey would stay. Kelvin then tells the crew that he and Harey plan to return to Earth. Snaut, however, speaks to Harey alone and explains that she will not be allowed on Earth and would not survive the trip anyway, since she only exists because of the energy Solaris sends to the station.

The night before they are supposed to leave, Harey tricks Kelvin into drinking a sleeping draught. While he sleeps, she writes him a second suicide note. She then goes to Snaut and Sartorius, who have built a machine designed to cancel out the visitors created by Solaris. Harey asks what it will feel like, and Snaut says it will be like a flash and a breath of wind. Harey disappears, and no more visitors return. The three scientists agree to remain on the station.