Solaris - by Steven Soderbergh - October 4, 2001 draft
SOLARIS
by
Steven Soderbergh
October 4, 2001
First, over BLACK, we hear the sound of a light rain.
Then:
A MAN'S VOICE
I'm not a poet. I've never moved
anyone with my words.
(beat)
Maybe that's why they chose me.
EXT. WOODS - DAY
A mural of leafless trees beneath an overcast sky. Rain
continues to fall.
Maybe now we begin to notice a strange quality to the light
(or is it the sky?). Something vaguely unsettling.
CUT TO:
INT. BEDROOM - MORNING
Still, the sound of rain is heard.
A MAN
40s, lies on his side in bed, staring at us.
He has not been sleeping. In fact, judging from his distant
expression, he has not slept in ages.
CUT TO:
EXT. ROAD - DAY
Less like a road and more like a path that you maneuver a
vehicle through.
The Man, dressed in rain gear, walks down the middle. He is
accompanied by a medium-sized LABRADOR, and seems in no
particular hurry.
The sound of tires appear and grow in intensity. The Man,
without saying an actual word, instructs the dog to heal.
The dog obeys as the Man moves off the road. The vehicle
hurtles past him -- its engine quiet, its windows darkened --
spraying muddy debris in its wake.
Seconds later, the car brakes abruptly and skids to a stop.
THE MAN
Stops walking and stares at the car, which seems ominously
still.
The car then reverses direction and begins to move toward the
Man, who remains motionless.
When the car is alongside him, a darkened window turns
transparent and we see a WELL-DRESSED BUREAUCRAT in the rear
seat. His demeanor is pleasant and professional.
WELL-DRESSED BUREAUCRAT
Dr. Kelvin?
The Man he is addressing, who we now understand is CHRIS
KELVIN, stares back at him.
CUT TO:
INT. CABIN - DAY
The contrast between the cabin's rustic aesthetic and the
aggressively high-tech equipment contained therein isn't as
jarring as you might imagine.
Kelvin is seated in front of a desk, scrolling through a text
readout on a flat, transparent holographic screen. Behind
him is the Well-Dressed Bureaucrat from the car, and two
others: A WOMAN in her 50s and a MAN in his 30s. They are
also well-groomed. Each of their suits are embroidered with
a small but distinctive LOGO of some sort that composes the
acronym DBA.
Kelvin scrolls through several menus, hits a few keys, and a
digitized VIDEO IMAGE appears on his screen: A MAN, unshaven,
looking into the camera.
The man, GIBARIAN, looks very tired and somewhat apologetic.
The lower part of the screen has a time of day and date
display that reads: 0221 HRS 11/14/31.
GIBARIAN
We take off into the cosmos, ready
for anything: solitude, hardship,
exhaustion, death. We're proud of
ourselves, in a way. But our
enthusiasm is a sham. We don't
want to conquer the cosmos -- we
want to extend the boundaries of
Earth to the cosmos. We are only
seeking Man. We don't want Other
Worlds. We want mirrors.
(beat)
Maybe we don't need to know what it
is, or why. Maybe just knowing
that it is should be enough.
Gibarian stares at the camera for a long moment before
switching it off and ending the transmission.
Kelvin sits back.
The visitors exchange glances.
CUT TO:
INT. SPACE CAPSULE
Close on Kelvin. We hold on him a long time, as a myriad of
readouts scroll and flash across his face. A slit of
sunlight glides slowly through frame.
DISSOLVE TO:
KELVIN
in the same capsule, a month later. He is asleep.
DISSOLVE TO:
KELVIN
in the same capsule, two months later. He is dictating some
coordinates to Earth. He absently scratches his heavy growth
of beard.
DISSOLVE TO:
KELVIN
two months later still. He is looking out his small,
rectangular window, and for the fist time we cut around to
see the approaching planet: SOLARIS.
Kelvin stares at it, hypnotized. It has a translucent
quality, as though it is lit from within, and its undulating,
ocean-like surface slowly changes colors.
Kelvin's attention is diverted as an orbiting ship, the
PROMETHEUS, edges into frame.
KELVIN
Prometheus, this is Athena 7, on
approach, do you read me?
(beat)
Prometheus, this is Athena 7, on
approach, do you read me?
No response. He exhales and types on a keyboard.
EXT. SPACE
The Athena 7, sporting a DBA logo, advances toward the
Prometheus.
CUT TO:
INT. PROMETHEUS
Kelvin, in a space suit, climbs with some difficulty out of
the Athena 7, which has come to rest in the DOCKING BAY of
the Prometheus. Several exploratory PODS fill the remainder
of the area.
Kelvin gets his bearings and looks around, but sees no sign
of life.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR
Empty.
(NOTE: Except for some ROBOTIC, NON-SPEAKING CHARACTERS: the
AUTOMATED TASKMASTERS. These are small, bug-like repair
units that constantly roam the ship, fixing things. Their
tiny hum is virtually silent, and we see them all the time on
the Prometheus. They can adhere to any surface at any
angle.)
Kelvin, now out of his space suit and holding a small
carrying case and a duffle bag, moves on.
CUT TO:
INT. GIBARIAN'S ROOM
Ransacked.
Kelvin registers it, then moves to the corner of the room
where the computer terminal rests. Within moments he has
discovered Gibarian has recorded a video message for him to
replay.
VIDEO
Gibarian addressing the camera. He appears to be lucid, but
extremely fatigued.
GIBARIAN
Hi, Chris.
(a light smile)
I'm so glad you came.
(beat, the smile fades)
I still have a little time, and I
want to tell you something. To
warn you. By now you know about
me, or if you don't, get Snow or
Sartorius to tell you; it doesn't
matter.
(beat)
I didn't lose my mind. You should
be able to tell from this video.
I'm not mad.
(beat)
If it happens to you, remember that
it isn't madness.
(beat)
You should know, I'm in favor of
destroying Solaris. I know
that's... illegal. And unethical.
And irresponsible. But it's the
only way to make it stop.
A long moment of silence is broken by a noise on the video,
which draws Gibarian's attention offscreen.
GIBARIAN
(addressing whoever made
the noise)
Cut that out. Do you hear me?
Gibarian switches off the video.
The computer screen freezes the last recorded frame and
overlays a readout indicating the file has ended.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR
Empty. But there is a door at the end of it, slightly open.
Kelvin moves toward it.
INT. ROOM
A FIGURE, seated with its back to the door, turns to see
Kelvin enter. This is SNOW. He looks Kelvin up and down,
his expression wary and alert.
KELVIN
Snow. Didn't you hear me radio?
I'm Kelvin.
A long beat. Snow just watches him.
SNOW
Yes. We heard.
Kelvin takes a step forward, and Snow recoils.
KELVIN
What's wrong? What happened to
Gibarian?
SNOW
He's dead.
KELVIN
How?
A beat.
SNOW
Suicide.
Snow exhales, then looks up as though he's remembered
something.
SNOW
You didn't bring any chocolate, did
you?
KELVIN
What?
SNOW
(musing)
I love chocolate. I realized just
yesterday how much I love it.
(beat, then he recovers)
I thought maybe, if they let you
bring personal effects, you might
have snuck some through, because...
well, I've been thinking about it.
A long beat as Kelvin stares at Snow.
KELVIN
What happened here?
Snow lies back in his bunk.
SNOW
I can't talk just now. I'm too
tired.
KELVIN
Where's Sartorius?
SNOW
In his lab. He won't let you in.
KELVIN
(leaving)
He'll let me in.
SNOW
Kelvin, if you see anything
unusual...
Kelvin stops, but doesn't turn around.
SNOW
... try to stay calm.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR
Kelvin stands outside a door.
KELVIN
Let me in.
A beat.
SARTORIUS
(inside, muffled)
You have to give me your word you
won't come in. Then I'll come out.
KELVIN
All right.
Sartorius cracks the door open and slithers through the slit
and into the hallway. He is of obvious intelligence and not
to be messed with; contentious, intimidating when he wants to
be, and probably brilliant. Kelvin eyes him suspiciously.
KELVIN
What happened to Gibarian?
SARTORIUS
Didn't you talk to Snow?
KELVIN
I want to hear your version.
SARTORIUS
(incredulous)
Who, here, could possibly care what
you want? At best, you're Employee
of the Month for the highest bidder
in the Solaris auction. They have
no idea what's going on up here.
They've never even been in space.
And I'm supposed to listen to you?
KELVIN
I am here to recover this mission,
report my findings, and make a
recommendation. Now: What happened
to him?
SARTORIUS
The same thing that could happen to
any of us.
KELVIN
Where's his body?
SARTORIUS
In the lab. With her, probably.
KELVIN
Her? Who are you talking about?
Sartorius is grabbed by something on the other side of his
door. He struggles to keep his composure.
SARTORIUS
His last wish was to be buried on
Earth. In dirt, he said. "I want
to buried in dirt." What a clown.
Sartorius is losing the battle with whomever or whatever is
on the other side of his door.
KELVIN
They shouldn't let people like you
into space.
SARTORIUS
Just so you know: I'm not going
back until I understand what it is.
I am going to figure out what it
is, make it stop, and then I will
go home.
KELVIN
Listen --
SARTORIUS
We're done. Oh, I should tell you,
I don't trust Snow. There's
something wrong with him.
Sartorius rotates and zips back into his room. As the door
closes Kelvin sees a flash of ANOTHER FIGURE in Sartorius'
room. The glimpse was too quick to judge who or what the
other figure could have been.
CUT TO:
INT. CORRIDOR - DAY
Kelvin walks, exploring the ship. He sees something that
stops him:
A NUDE WOMAN
Black, early 20s, slipping across a corridor up ahead.
Kelvin gives chase. He sees her turn a corner, but by the
time he gets there, she is gone.
CUT TO:
INT. SNOW'S ROOM
Snow is lying on his bunk.
KELVIN
Is there anybody else here?
SNOW
(sits up a little)
Why, who did you see?
KELVIN
Gibarian warned me. He left me a
message.
SNOW
Who was it?
KELVIN
She was real. Where did she come
from?
Snow looks at him but doesn't respond.
KELVIN
Tell me. I won't think you're
insane.
SNOW
Oh, that's a relief.
Snow lies back down.
KELVIN
Where did she come from?
A beat.
SNOW
How much sleep do you need?
KELVIN
How much sleep?
SNOW
How long can you go without sleep?
KELVIN
That depends.
SNOW
Well, when you do go to sleep:
barricade your door.
Snow rolls over, away from Kelvin.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE
Solaris. Quiet, but still active somehow.
KELVIN (V.O.)
The Prometheus, as far as I can
tell, is functionally intact. Crew
status: One dead, Gibarian. Cause
of death appears to be suicide.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin speaks into a video communication device. As he does,
we see images of the things and people he describes.
KELVIN
Interviews with the surviving
members and a perusal of the
deceased's personal effects
indicate he was suffering from
severe depression with psychotic
features, along with bouts of
hypomania, dementia, delirium, and
primary insomnia. All of these
symptoms, combined with a profound
sense of isolation, are commonly
found in studies of low stimulation
environments, particularly long
range space travel. Snow and
Sartorius show indications of
depression, including dysthymic and
bipolar I; a variety of stress
disorders, including acute and
posttraumatic; and suggestions of
agoraphobia, obsessive/compulsive
disorder, and hypersomnia. I
emphasize these are preliminary
opinions on my part. I will
attempt to convince Snow and
Sartorius to return to Earth, but
as they currently view me as an
intruder of sorts, this may take
some time.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Later. Kelvin is lying down. The lights are out, and he is
trying to sleep.
After a moment, he gets up, checks the lock on his door, and
lies back down.
Then he gets up and moves a chair in front of the door, and
lies back down.
Then he gets up and puts two heavy cases on top of the chair,
and lies back down.
Laughing to himself, he drifts off to sleep.
Silence.
ANOTHER ANGLE
On Kelvin, asleep.
ANOTHER ANGLE
On Kelvin, still asleep. Then:
EXTREME CLOSE-UP:
A WOMAN'S LIPS, slightly parted.
BACK TO KELVIN
Asleep. Then:
INT. TRAIN - DAY
Continued silence, AND:
RHEYA, 30s, staring at us, practically daring us to look
away. Her obvious intelligence and confidence make her
extremely compelling, along with the fact that it was her
parted lips we were looking at a moment ago. Her expression
indicates she's in a very raw emotional state.
REVERSE ANGLE
Kelvin is the person she has locked eyes with on the TRAIN.
He is younger here; not just in age, but in spirit. The
contrast with his older self is striking.
BACK TO KELVIN
Asleep on the ship. After a beat:
EXTREME CLOSE-UP:
Rheya's LIPS.
Except the circumstance is clearly different: it's darker and
there isn't the side-to-side shimmy of the train car.
A WIDER VIEW
Reveals that Rheya is not sitting on the train -- she is
sitting in Kelvin's room on the Prometheus, right now.
She is staring at Kelvin and she is ethereal in her
stillness.
KELVIN
Awakens, blinks, and slowly recognizes her.
If he is not entirely surprised it is because he has
obviously dreamed of Rheya before. He looks at her, simply.
RHEYA
Stands and makes her way to Kelvin.
Without hesitation she kisses him and they begin to explore
each other and we see all of it happen and two things are
obvious: first, they have done this before, and two: they
haven't done it in some time.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is asleep, Rheya in his arms.
He wakes up and looks at her, perplexed. After a beat he
rises to sit on the edge of the bed.
A wave of terror is barely suppressed as he puts his hand to
his forehead. Rheya opens her eyes.
KELVIN
Oh, God. I'm awake.
RHEYA
Yes.
He looks at her.
KELVIN
Where did you come from?
She moves to him and kisses him as if that's all she wants to
do, forever.
Between kisses.
KELVIN
How are you here?
She stops.
RHEYA
How do you mean?
(beat)
Chris, what's wrong?
Hearing his name spoken by her (and those particular words,
perhaps) nearly causes Kelvin to scream.
He stands and moves to the chair. Rheya watches him.
RHEYA
I love you.
He looks up at her for as long as he can. Then he looks
down.
RHEYA
Do you love me?
He doesn't look up.
KELVIN
Yes.
A beat.
KELVIN
I need to see Snow.
RHEYA
I'll go with you.
KELVIN
(rising)
I'll just be a minute.
She bolts out of bed.
RHEYA
Don't.
KELVIN
Why?
RHEYA
I don't know. I can't be alone.
KELVIN
I'll be right back.
She is trying to accommodate him but her fear of being left
alone is palpable, even excessive. He sees this and puts his
arms on her shoulders to comfort her.
KELVIN
All right. All right. Here.
He hands her a few pills and retrieves a glass of water.
RHEYA
What are they?
KELVIN
To calm your anxiety.
RHEYA
To calm my anxiety.
She takes the pills and smiles.
CUT TO:
INT. DOCKING BAY
Kelvin leads Rheya to one of the exploratory pods. They are
in space suits.
RHEYA
We're taking a flight?
KELVIN
Yes.
He opens the door of a pod and indicates for her to enter.
She is unsure.
KELVIN
Go ahead. I'll close the door
behind me.
She stares up and into the pod. Kelvin watches her go with
difficulty and then CLOSES THE DOOR behind Rheya.
He walks across the docking bay to the control room and
begins preparations for the pod to be jettisoned.
KELVIN
In agony as he watches a real-time, beat-by-beat brand of
technological murder take place: Rheya's pod is pushed off
into space.
RHEYA
Her face contorted in confusion, watches through the pod
window as the docking bay doors close in front of her with a
brutal finality.
KELVIN
collapses to the ground, shattered.
INSERT:
A woman's HAND, resting on the floor of an apartment. The
fingers are being licked by a LABRADOR PUPPY.
ANOTHER INSERT:
A pot of coffee, on the boil. Except that it has been left
unattended for too long...
ANOTHER INSERT:
A rain-streaked window.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin, on the edge of his bed. He wants to tear himself
inside out.
A voice calls over the intercom: Snow's.
SNOW
Was her breakfast conversation that
bad?
KELVIN
Shut up.
SNOW
I told you, try to stay calm.
You're supposed to be the
psychologist of the bunch.
KELVIN
What was it?
Kelvin rises and goes to wash his face.
SNOW
Personally, I think it's God. At
least, it fits my definition.
KELVIN
And professionally?
SNOW
I'm not sure.
(beat)
It started with Gibarian. He
locked himself in his room and
refused to talk except through a
crack in the door. He covered the
video lens. Obviously we thought
he was having a nervous breakdown.
I don't know why he didn't tell us
he had somebody in there. By this
time, we were getting visitors,
too. He was desperately trying to
figure it out. Day and night.
(beat)
Who was she?
KELVIN
My wife.
SNOW
Dead?
Kelvin nods.
SNOW
She has materialized from your
memory of her. What was her name?
KELVIN
Rheya.
SNOW
It started about three months ago.
Right after the government sold the
expedition. We were ready to go
home.
KELVIN
Will she come back?
SNOW
Probably.
KELVIN
I wish you'd told me.
SNOW
Told you what?
A beat.
SNOW
What will you say?
KELVIN
To who?
SNOW
What are you going to report back
to Earth?
KELVIN
I don't know.
SNOW
An enormous amount of money changed
hands to get control of this
project. We are in little danger
of being left alone for long.
(beat)
You'll need to do something.
Otherwise they'll be sending
someone out to recover you.
KELVIN
Gibarian said he thinks Solaris
should be destroyed.
SNOW
That's ludicrous. This is contact.
We have found God. The only issue
is figuring out how to prove this
in a way that will make sense back
on Earth. So how will we describe
it, if we choose to describe it at
all?
CUT TO:
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM
Before Kelvin's arrival.
Gibarian is talking to Snow and Sartorius.
GIBARIAN
A pre-biological colloidal
envelope, possibly exceeding
terrestrial structures in
complexity; a plasmic mechanism.
Probably without life as we
conceive it, but capable of
performing functional activities on
an astronomic scale. My view is
that Solaris has reached, in a
single bound, the "homeostatic
ocean" stage without passing
through stages of terrestrial
evolution. I think it bypassed
cellular development altogether.
It hasn't taken endless eons to
adapt itself to its environment,
but in fact dominated its
environment immediately. From the
moment it existed, it was the most
superior element in the Universe.
And now it passes the time doing
extravagant theoretical thinking
about the Universe, with us as the
cast.
We now show this scene being played out on a video monitor,
watched by Kelvin.
GIBARIAN
It's engaged in a never-ending
process of transformation; an
ontological autometamorphosis,
begging the question: Can thought
exist separately from
consciousness?
SNOW
It's God.
SARTORIUS
I don't care what it is, we need to
figure out how to make it stop.
GIBARIAN
Nelson, we have the opportunity --
SARTORIUS
What if this thing follows us back
to Earth? What if what's happening
here started happening 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. For all we know it's
driving us crazy so it can watch us
kill each other.
Gibarian considers this.
SNOW
We're not even sure it will let us
leave.
CUT TO:
ANOTHER VIDEO
This time, Gibarian alone. Near the end.
GIBARIAN
Maybe it's stuck. Maybe its power
isn't that God-like. I mean, we
have God-like power relative to an
insect, but that doesn't mean we
can move the Earth around at will.
Maybe it's like a spider web,
waiting for something to show up.
(beat)
We intercepted some brief fragments
of what must be an everlasting
monologue with itself. Of course
it was beyond our understanding.
(beat)
I've come to hate it here. There's
only one way out of its reach, for
us. Humans.
CUT TO:
INT. LAB
Kelvin stares at Gibarian's body, which is lying under a
sheet in the ship's operating room. Also under the sheet,
next to Gibarian: The Young Girl.
GIBARIAN
(from a video)
I thought I'd been behaving
normally, rationally. But a sign
of insanity is the inability to
think about more than one thing.
So if I am consumed by the idea
that I am insane and can't think of
anything else, then I am insane.
(beat, smiles)
You ask questions at the end of
your life, the sort of questions
people who are content don't ask.
(beat)
Maybe life just can't be solved.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE
A shot hovering over the surface of Solaris.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is lying down, looking at the door.
After a beat, he turns out the lights and rolls over.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Time has passed. Kelvin is asleep.
RHEYA leans into frame and kisses him.
Without even waking, he kisses her back, hungrily.
KELVIN
Rheya...
RHEYA
I want you inside me right now.
They make love. It's even better than before.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya are asleep.
CUT TO:
INT. TRAIN - DAY
Kelvin, staring intently. What he is staring at is Rheya,
who is seated across from him. She doesn't see him, yet.
When she does, she locks eyes with his and doesn't look away.
This continues until she gets off the train. Kelvin watches
her go, and she looks back at him through the window as the
train pulls away.
INT. PARTY - NIGHT
Rheya enters, looks around. She spots Kelvin, who has
already spotted her. Their expressions indicate they are
pleased to see each other again. He approaches her, and they
stare at each other a long time, until:
KELVIN
"And Death Shall Have No Dominion".
RHEYA
Book?
KELVIN
Poem. Dylan Thomas. I thought of
it when I saw you on the train.
RHEYA
My Thomas is a little rusty.
He leans over and whispers into her ear. She listens, and
when he finishes, she leans back and looks at him, intrigued.
Genuinely intrigued. He smiles.
RHEYA
Not a very happy poem.
KELVIN
You didn't look very happy.
RHEYA
I wasn't.
KELVIN
And tonight?
RHEYA
Better.
He nods, and they smile. They seem to be rooting for each
other. After an extended pleasurable moment, Rheya leans
over and whispers in his ear. He listens, then leans back
and looks at her.
KELVIN
That's good to know.
CUT TO:
INT. FRIEND'S APARTMENT - NIGHT
Another night.
Rheya is wound up. Not drunk, something else. She has an
odd look in her eyes.
We are at a dinner party, and there are people trying -- but
failing -- not to watch.
RHEYA
You want to fuck her?
KELVIN
Stop it.
RHEYA
You behave as though you want to
fuck her.
KELVIN
Rheya. Not here.
RHEYA
And I just want to know if I'm
crazy or not -- if what I think is
happening is actually happening.
Or am I one of those people, those
women, who are blind to what's
going on? Who pretend not to see
their husband's attention toward
another woman?
KELVIN
Let's go home.
RHEYA
You go home.
KELVIN
I am. Please come with me. I
don't want to do this here.
RHEYA
You talk like an actor.
He is stung.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT
The immediate aftermath of the preceding scene, but at home
now.
Rheya crying as she embraces Kelvin.
RHEYA
I'm so sorry. I'm so sorry.
He is unmoved, but she labors to change his mind.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - MORNING
Rheya, in a chair, remorseful, Kelvin is dressing.
KELVIN
You're better when you take them.
RHEYA
I know, I know. But still, somehow
I don't feel better.
KELVIN
All right. How about I feel better
when you take them?
A beat.
RHEYA
Right.
They look at each other and understand; she will take the
pills.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - MORNING
Rheya, on the floor, dead. Her hand outstretched, a repeat
of an image we saw earlier.
Rain streaks the kitchen window.
The bottle of pills nearby.
CUT TO:
INT. PROMETHEUS
Rheya is taking her pills. Kelvin watches.
KELVIN
What do you remember?
RHEYA
What do you mean?
KELVIN
Do you remember Beethoven? The
Beatles? Movies, books,
restaurants, friends?
RHEYA
(thinking)
Yes. But not until you mentioned
them. As soon as you said those
things, I remembered them. And
they have associations that make me
think of other things I remember.
It's like filling up.
She looks out the portal at Solaris.
RHEYA
Is it a planet?
KELVIN
Not exactly. It exists in a
continuum that wasn't proven until
ten years ago, a higher
mathematical dimension superimposed
on top of the Universe. An
infinite number of them, in fact.
It was a violation of all of our
various laws regarding the
Universe, Space, or Space-Time. It
was completely counter-intuitive.
We had to unlearn everything.
RHEYA
Is it intelligent?
KELVIN
Intelligent beyond our
comprehension.
RHEYA
Then it's God, right?
KELVIN
It's something.
RHEYA
You still don't believe in God?
KELVIN
The whole idea of God was dreamed
up by a silly animal with a small
brain called Man. Even the limits
we put on it are human limits. It
can do this, it can do that! It
designs, it creates!
RHEYA
Even a God that wasn't active, that
just created something and stood
back and watched?
KELVIN
You're talking about a man in a
white beard again. You're
ascribing human characteristics to
something that isn't human. Human
beings look for causes and
patterns. How could we know what
Solaris is up to, if anything?
A beat.
RHEYA
But what if Solaris is what there
was before The Big Bang?
KELVIN
As I said, it is beyond our
comprehension.
RHEYA
As I said, then it's God, right?
She looks at him and can't keep from smiling, eventually.
RHEYA
Why are we talking about this shit
when we could be fucking?
Kelvin smiles.
The intercom comes to life.
SNOW
Kelvin, you awake?
KELVIN
What is it?
SNOW
Can you meet me and Sartorius on B
deck in an hour?
KELVIN
Why?
SNOW
Just a little strategy session.
But in person this time.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is getting ready to leave. Rheya sits on the edge of
the bed, nervous.
KELVIN
All right?
She nods and Kelvin exits, locking the door behind him.
We sit with her for a moment as she tries to remain calm.
IN THE CORRIDOR
Kelvin listens. A long time.
Satisfied, he begins to walk away but is stopped by the
sounding of a CRASHING GLASS from within. He hears footsteps
approach the door, and then a fierce POUNDING.
He takes a step back. An INHUMAN AMOUNT OF NOISE begins
emanating from the other side of the door, which is now
threatening to break apart. It sounds like a plane is
crashing in Kelvin's room -- no human could create this kind
of cacophony.
Finally, he steps forward and presses the button to open the
door.
RHEYA
Is revealed, covered in blood. She has completely torn the
inside of the cabin door apart and has badly injured herself
in the process.
KELVIN
Rheya...
Confused, she looks up at him as he takes her in his arms and
carries her to the bed.
RHEYA
What happened?
KELVIN
You were trying to break down the
door. Do you know why?
RHEYA
When I saw you were gone I got
scared.
He puts her down on the bed and runs to the bathroom, where
he gathers all the first aid materials he can find.
Returning, he blanches.
Rheya's wounds have HEALED; in fact, they are HEALING in
front of us.
She looks up at him and doesn't like the look on his face.
RHEYA
Chris, what's wrong with me?
CUT TO:
INT. LAB
Kelvin runs Rheya through a battery of tests and studies the
results.
RHEYA
Am I all right?
A beat.
KELVIN
Yes.
CUT TO:
INT. B DECK CONFERENCE ROOM
Snow and Sartorius wait for Kelvin.
SNOW
He won't do it.
SARTORIUS
Why do you say that?
SNOW
He won't.
Kelvin enters, with Rheya. Snow and Sartorius exchange
glances.
KELVIN
This is my wife, Rheya.
She looks at Snow and nods. Sartorius she hates instantly,
and the feeling seems to be mutual.
SARTORIUS
We thought you'd be alone. We want
to talk about...
SNOW
We want to talk freely.
KELVIN
Go ahead.
Sartorius begins.
SARTORIUS
I suggest we pool our knowledge
regarding the... visitors. We can
express whatever questions or
conclusions we might have... share
information about our various...
experiments. Agreed?
Kelvin and Snow nod.
SARTORIUS
I would like to start with
motivation. Why are they here?
Sartorius looks at Rheya. She looks away.
SARTORIUS
They are not autonomous individuals
and they're not actual persons.
They are projections materializing
from our minds, based on a given
individual.
SNOW
It's an experiment.
KELVIN
No. There's no behavior
modification.
SARTORIUS
She reappeared exactly as she had
before?
Kelvin looks at Rheya and nods. She is struck by the word
"before".
SNOW
The same vulnerabilities?
He nods again.
SARTORIUS
A recoil, with no compensating
mechanism.
SNOW
And when a given situation no
longer corresponds to the normal
faculties of the... original, the
visitor suffers some sort of
disconnected consciousness.
SARTORIUS
Followed by non-human
manifestations.
SNOW
Are the actions of Solaris
premeditated?
KELVIN
Is it being deliberately cruel, you
mean? I don't think so.
SNOW
I'm just trying to find an
explanation for the continual
reappearances.
KELVIN
(to Rheya)
When you cut yourself pounding the
door, did it hurt?
RHEYA
Yes.
(looks around)
Of course.
SARTORIUS
If they're not learning anything
and they're not modifying their
behavior, why do they come back?
SNOW
It's like they're plugged into a
game, which goes around and around,
endlessly repeating itself.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT
This is ten years ago. Rheya enters, alone.
She crosses to the kitchen and makes a drink. Almost
immediately, the labrador puppy enters from the bedroom and
stands beside her, tail wagging. She ignores it and
continues mixing her drink.
Halfway through this activity, the bedroom light comes on. A
moment later, Kelvin is in the doorway. Eventually, but not
angrily, because he's still not really awake:
KELVIN
Where've you been?
RHEYA
I been thinking about how much I
hate you.
She finishes making her drink, drinks it, and walks out the
door.
Kelvin stands in the doorway for a beat, then pivots and
returns to bed. The light goes out.
RHEYA (V.O.)
Yes, I remember that. I went back
to Lois' house and spent the night.
Those were dark days.
CUT TO:
INT. PARTY - NIGHT
Kelvin and Rheya, later in the evening when they spoke for
the first time. They are absolutely infatuated with each
other; they know something is happening between them, will
happen between them.
RHEYA
I would have these -- I don't know
how to describe them -- visions,
when I was younger. Maybe not
visions, but like these waking
dream states. Time would just
collapse, I would be inside time.
I would stare at a second hand on a
clock until it stopped. Freaky
stuff.
KELVIN
How old were you?
RHEYA
Seven, eight. So one day my mother
catches me sort of staring off into
space, and she asks me what I'm
doing, and I start trying to
explain to her, about this state
that I can put myself in, and this
look comes over her face.
KELVIN
What kind of look?
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya sit together in the Prometheus. Rheya
continues her story without a beat.
RHEYA
Scared. No, not scared. Wary.
Like I was something to be... her
guard went up. I was a threat.
Now I know why. She was afraid
she'd be seen. That I would see
her for the self-obsessed neurotic
that she was. I think she thought
she had a few more years of being
on a pedestal. But that's the
cycle, right? I knew a little more
than she did, she knew a little
more than her mother, and on and
on.
(beat)
I guess that's part of the reason
why --
KELVIN
I know. I know. We don't have to
talk about that.
Another beat.
RHEYA
I remember days of just thinking
about you.
INT. OFFICES - DAY
Intercut Kelvin and Rheya at their respective jobs, going
through a normal day. There is no sound. As we see these
images, it's clear that Kelvin and Rheya are slightly not
present in their respective encounters with other people;
they are distracted by the idea of each other.
And they like it.
RHEYA
Thinking what you were doing and
saying, just being consumed by
thinking of you. I loved it so
much, that feeling.
KELVIN
I did too.
INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT
Rheya on the edge of the bed, facing away.
KELVIN
I used to watch you undress.
As she does:
KELVIN
I never tired of watching you
undress. Every time, it was
exciting. Right until... to the
end.
A beat. Then a shot of Kelvin that we've seen before: Him
leaving their apartment, angry.
ON THE PROMETHEUS
A beat.
RHEYA
What happened to us, exactly?
KELVIN
You don't know?
Rheya shakes her head.
Kelvin just watches her.
RHEYA
I remember... something burning.
Coffee burning.
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
The rain-streaked window.
An automated coffee maker has been left on, and the
solidified coffee at the bottom of the pot is smoking.
Rheya's body is on the floor of the kitchen.
RHEYA (ON PROMETHEUS)
She is looking at Kelvin. He is dreading this.
RHEYA
You found me?
He nods. It's coming back to her.
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kelvin is yelling at Rheya. We don't hear what he's saying,
but judging from her reaction, it's not pleasant. She is
crying.
RHEYA (ON PROMETHEUS)
Experiencing this all over again. Kelvin comes and sits in
front of her.
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kelvin, still yelling, is packing some things into a
suitcase. Rheya, between sobs, pleads with him.
RHEYA (ON PROMETHEUS)
Her eyes fill with tears. Kelvin embraces her.
KELVIN
I'm sorry. I'm sorry.
Rheya is devastated, inconsolable.
RHEYA
Why did you say those things?
KELVIN
I don't know. I couldn't
understand why you didn't tell me.
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya lies on the kitchen floor, dead. There is a NOTE in
her hand.
Kelvin kneels next to her.
KELVIN (ON PROMETHEUS)
With Rheya still in his arms.
KELVIN
When you said you wouldn't make
it... I didn't believe you. Or I
didn't take you seriously, which is
worse.
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kelvin holds the dead Rheya.
KELVIN (ON PROMETHEUS)
Squeezing her.
KELVIN
I should have believed you.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin lies in bed, his eyes open. Rheya is in his arms.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya, talking to Chris. Obviously during a period when they
were getting along. Or at least: not fighting.
RHEYA
I can't help feeling that I'm
cheating when I take them.
KELVIN
It's genetics. You know this. You
know where it comes from. There is
nothing wrong with uncrossing a few
crossed wires.
She knows, intellectually, that he is right. But it doesn't
matter.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is out of bed and speaking into a videophone to Snow.
Rheya is asleep in the background. The room is dark except
for the glow of the screen.
SNOW
You're unnerved because you've
spent your whole life thinking
nobody is looking over you, and
suddenly your subconscious is an
open book. We are, for the first
time, experiencing changes in
natural reality by a force not our
own. That proves that --
KELVIN
-- we are not sure of that. We are
not sure we aren't all
hallucinating.
SNOW
If God is beyond our comprehension,
and she --
(meaning Rheya)
-- is here for reasons that can't
be understood, isn't God here?
KELVIN
Not necessarily.
SNOW
Stop equivocating! Unbelievable,
how you equivocate! You, the
atheist, you're more dogmatic than
any holy person I've ever seen!
This is happening, Kevin. Wake up.
KELVIN
Consciousness is enough, that's all
I've saying. Consciousness should
be enough for anybody.
SNOW
Who are you trying to convince?
Kelvin just looks back at Rheya.
SNOW
It will end badly. As inevitably
as the rising of a bubble.
Kelvin doesn't respond.
SNOW
Let's all meet tomorrow. Sartorius
has some new ideas, about making it
stop.
Kelvin just keeps staring at Rheya, asleep.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is eating with Rheya. Looking at her. Desiring her.
RHEYA
Do you have any idea how much I
like fucking you?
KELVIN
I think so.
RHEYA
Good. Because I want you to know.
I really like fucking you.
He leans over and whispers in her ear. She smiles and leans
back.
RHEYA
I like that too.
KELVIN (V.O.)
How could she not be real? I can
smell her, taste her. She does
exactly what she did... it's not
possible.
RHEYA
(smiles, teasing)
You know, I've decided: I'm just
gonna believe what you believe
about this whole Solaris thing,
it'll make life so much easier; the
little wife agreeing with her big,
strong husband. You must get such
a headache thinking about those
Great Big Problems all day.
He just stares at her -- he really likes this. It's
familiar, this type of teasing, and it reminds him of when
things were good.
KELVIN (V.O.)
Like I said, it's not possible.
A beat.
RHEYA
So, Chris, seriously, aren't you
afraid you're going to get fired?
They laugh.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya, post-coital. Relaxed. On the verge of
sleep.
RHEYA
You sure say "God" a lot when we're
doing it.
KELVIN
I know. I'm putting that in my
next report.
She smiles.
RHEYA
Right. The report. Report and
recommend.
They consider that.
RHEYA
What does Snow think you should do?
KELVIN
Snow thinks we shouldn't leave
until we figure out a way to
document it, to prove its existence
to the planet Earth. This is
hilarious: He thinks it's God, but
he wants it to sit still for a
photograph so he can show the folks
back home.
They smile at this. Rheya's smile fades before Kelvin's.
RHEYA
Sartorius wants to destroy it.
KELVIN
Well. He doesn't think it's God,
but for different reasons than me.
He's thinking: If I can figure out
how to make it stop, than I am
smarter than it is, and therefore
it cannot be God.
RHEYA
He has a point.
KELVIN
He does have a point. That's just
not the way I'd like to see it
proven.
RHEYA
You feel sorry for Solaris, or for
me?
KELVIN
It's a violent response to
something we haven't figured out.
Don't let the cowardly demeanor
fool you: He is ruthless.
Unblinking in his prejudice.
RHEYA
It was obvious from the way he
first looked at me.
A beat. He holds her.
RHEYA
Do I really feel like... I am...?
KELVIN
Yes. Yes.
RHEYA
I'm glad.
A beat.
CUT TO:
EXT. SOLARIS
Turning, slowly.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - NIGHT
Then years ago. Kelvin, naked, sitting in a chair, in the
dark. Rheya, also naked, is smoking a cigarette in bed.
KELVIN
Everything you pursue, you end up
becoming disinterested in. The
fact that you're good at everything
you try makes it worse. You have a
degree in animal science, you could
be a terrific vet.
You drifted into writing and turned
out to be a perceptive journalist.
Then it was politics, which seemed
best of all, you had an actual gift
for understanding the best pattern
for a group of people to be
arranged for you to achieve your
goal. And they didn't even know
they were being arranged. But you
got bored with it, like you do with
everything.
She just smokes, not really looking at him. Maybe it's a
common observation and she's past being defensive about it.
KELVIN
I don't know what it's really like,
to not know what you want to do.
To not have anything that you love
to do more than anything else.
A beat. He looks at her. She seems more interested in her
cigarette at the moment.
RHEYA
(sarcastic)
Imagine my frustration.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
On the Prometheus. Rheya is awake, Kelvin asleep.
She rises and goes to sit in a chair; she is anxious,
something we haven't seen before.
Kelvin wakes up, looks at her. Noting her expression:
KELVIN
What's wrong.
RHEYA
You don't love me.
KELVIN
Stop.
A beat. She looks down.
RHEYA
I have to talk to you... I... I
don't know where I came from.
(up at him)
Do you know?
He doesn't respond.
RHEYA
If you know but can't tell me
now... will you ever be able to?
Calmly:
KELVIN
What are you talking about?
RHEYA
That I am not Rheya. That Rheya
died. Killed herself. I'm
different.
He's looking at her, and knows this is dangerous territory.
KELVIN
Who have you been talking to?
RHEYA
(no reason to lie)
Sartorius.
KELVIN
When? When I'm asleep?
She nods. He can only imagine what form Sartorius' anecdotes
must have taken.
KELVIN
I'm sure there are worse people to
talk to, but I don't know who they
are.
RHEYA
I'm just trying to understand
what's going on.
A beat.
RHEYA
How have you lived the last ten
years? Did you love anyone?
A long beat. Kelvin shakes his head.
RHEYA
Did you think about me?
Another beat. He nods. Then:
RHEYA
But we fought.
KELVIN
Yes. Especially toward the end.
RHEYA
Why did she do it?
KELVIN
You... she said I didn't love her.
RHEYA
Was she right?
KELVIN
No. I love you.
RHEYA
(reflexive, but genuine)
I love you, too.
If she seems satisfied for the moment, Kelvin knows the
feeling won't last.
KELVIN
Can you sleep?
RHEYA
I don't think do. It's not sleep;
it's something else. It's all
around me.
KELVIN
Those are dreams.
She falls asleep.
FADE OUT.
FADE IN:
INT. CONFERENCE ROOM
Kelvin, Rheya, Sartorius, and Snow. They are in the middle
of a heated discussion.
SNOW
Gibarian was under enormous --
SARTORIUS
Gibarian was helpless. It's very
simple: Man created the science
that resulted in the discovery of
Solaris, and the ship that brought
us here.
KELVIN
Meaning Man can do whatever the
fuck it wants?
SARTORIUS
Yes.
KELVIN
That's fantastic.
SARTORIUS
Why did you agree to come here?
A beat.
SARTORIUS
Too tired to answer?
Looks at Rheya, then back to Kelvin.
SARTORIUS
I'll bet. Is this what they sent
you here to do? You've lost it,
you've gone native.
Kelvin moves toward him. Sartorius just lets him come.
RHEYA
(to Sartorius)
You're the coward.
KELVIN
Don't debate him; he'll say
anything.
RHEYA
(still, to Sartorius)
I'm just as human as you. I see, I
hear, I touch, and I feel just like
you do.
SARTORIUS
Prove it.
RHEYA
These "guests" are a part of you,
of your subconscious. Chris loves
me.
SARTORIUS
YOU ARE NOT HUMAN! Try to
understand that if you can
understand anything!
Kelvin is within an inch of his face.
KELVIN
Get out of here.
Slowly, carefully, Sartorius grasps Kelvin by the shoulders.
Then he leans in and whispers in Kelvin's ear:
SARTORIUS
Rheya is dead. She's a copy. A
facsimile. And she's seducing you
all over again. You're sick. You
think of fucking her as research
for humanity. It's just fucking.
Kelvin backs away.
SARTORIUS
There's nothing grandiose about it.
You've jumped out of a plane and
you're trying to sew a parachute
together while you fall.
Sartorius turns...
SARTORIUS
It'd be hilarious if it weren't so
damn sad.
And leaves.
A beat.
SNOW
We didn't even get to hear his new
ideas.
Snow wanders toward the door.
SNOW
I'm not feeling well.
He passes Kelvin and leaves.
Kelvin watches him, then looks at Rheya. She seems dazed.
CUT TO:
EXT. SOLARIS
The fog-shrouded surface, shifting and turning like an ocean.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Rheya is asleep. Kelvin is talking to Snow on the
videophone.
SNOW
We can liquidate the station. Take
the Athena back.
KELVIN
No.
SNOW
Of course, when we return, we'll be
regarded as lunatics if we tell the
truth.
(shrugs)
We'll chalk it up to isolation,
collective derangement.
KELVIN
I've never heard you express any
desire to leave before now. Why
now?
SNOW
Well, I think we're reaching the
point of diminishing returns here,
right? Certainly it's learning
more about us than we'll ever learn
about it.
KELVIN
But why is it doing what it's
doing? Given it's resources, it
could have done anything.
Presented me with your double, and
you with mine.
SNOW
Perhaps it did.
KELVIN
Human beings can die.
SNOW
But they are human. They certainly
become human with incredible speed.
First they're like they were in our
memory, but then they fill in on
their own. DNA doesn't determine
the hundreds of trillions of
connections that occur in the
brain, it's not dense enough. They
build up with experience.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM - EARLIER
Quick glimpses of Rheya. In several of them she is in
repose, thinking, as if to illustrate Snow's point.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Back to Kelvin, thinking.
KELVIN
They come when you sleep.
SNOW
That's right. And we all have to
sleep, eventually.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin on the bed with Rheya. Their eyes are closed.
We think they are asleep until:
RHEYA
You don't want me.
KELVIN
Rheya.
RHEYA
That's what you were saying. I
heard what you were saying.
KELVIN
For a reason that neither of us
understand, you are forced to stay
near me. That's all I know right
now.
She realizes she doesn't want to argue. Not right now,
anyway.
RHEYA
I have these strange thoughts, I
don't know where they come from.
(beat)
I can't explain it.
KELVIN
Neither can I. Not any of it.
There's no reference point for
what's going on; it's never
happened before. It's a clean
break in the fabric of the
Universe; a gap. There is nothing
to do but experience it, moment-to-
moment, and not let it destroy us.
RHEYA
But that's what happened before.
KELVIN
Not this time.
He kisses her. She wants to believe him, so she says
nothing. Then:
RHEYA
Do you want to stay here?
KELVIN
Do you?
RHEYA
If you're here.
They kiss again...
DISSOLVE TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is asleep. Rheya is next to him.
Offscreen, we hear the door open.
Someone walks quietly (though not surreptitiously) through
the frame and sits.
After a long beat, Kelvin bolts upright, his mind struggling
to clear. When it does:
KELVIN
Gibarian.
GIBARIAN
Leave the light off.
A beat. Kelvin tries to get his bearings.
GIBARIAN
I wish you'd come a little sooner.
I might not have had to kill
myself.
He smiles, looking at Kelvin.
GIBARIAN
You think you're dreaming me, like
you dream her. Understand
something: I am the real Gibarian.
Just a new incarnation.
KELVIN
What do you want?
GIBARIAN
You're being tricked. Sartorius
picked a fight with you to avoid
telling you about his idea for
getting rid of the visitors. He's
figured out they're made of
subatomic particles called
neutrinos, and he's going to create
a negative neutrino field. Twenty
four hours a day, until they're
back on Earth.
KELVIN
Can it work?
GIBARIAN
It can. Ordinary matter, like
ours? Not affected. Everything
else, disintegrates.
Kelvin registers this.
GIBARIAN
What I'm saying is: Don't trust
anyone. Find yourself a weapon of
some sort.
KELVIN
I can trust Rheya.
GIBARIAN
You'll end up like me.
KELVIN
You're not Gibarian...
GIBARIAN
No? Who am I, then?
KELVIN
A puppet.
GIBARIAN
And you're not? Maybe you're my
puppet. But like all puppets, you
think you're actually human. It's
The Puppet's Dream. Wondering if
they're human!
Gibarian smiles.
KELVIN
wakes up, gulping air. Rheya, startled:
RHEYA
What's wrong?
KELVIN
Gibarian. He was here.
RHEYA
You said he was dead.
KELVIN
He is. But he was here...
He moves to the chair, looking for some residue of Gibarian,
some proof. Finding none:
KELVIN
He spoke to me.
Kelvin leaves the room. After a few beats, Rheya follows.
INT. LAB
Rheya lingers behind Kelvin, who is looking at Gibarian's
body.
It is there, alone on its slab; even the Young Girl is not
with him.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin, thinking. He gives Rheya some pills to take. She
just looks at them.
KELVIN
Are you going to take them?
She nods and takes them.
RHEYA
What's happening to us?
KELVIN
It's all right.
RHEYA
Please don't lie. I told you
before, I don't know how I came to
be here. Whatever you think you
can't say to me, I need to hear you
say it.
KELVIN
I love you.
RHEYA
Don't. I'm the one at risk here.
If we're playing out what happened
before, I won't survive.
He goes to her.
KELVIN
That won't happen again. We're
different.
RHEYA
How can I tell? You've seen both
of me. I only know what you're
like here. You're all I know.
There is no "You" from before.
She sits, frustrated. Sad.
RHEYA
How could it be so cruel? How
could it torture us like this?
KELVIN
I don't think it knows it's
torturing us. It's just watching.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya, in bed. She looks despondent.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is asleep. Alone.
After a long period of silence, we hear the faint sound of an
instrument of some sort hitting the ground. After another
beat, Kelvin awakens. He notices that he is alone, and
something tells him that's not a good sign.
CUT TO:
INT. LAB
Rheya is on the ground, convulsing. Beside her is a SMALL
STEEL DRUM, which is spilling a strange-looking LIQUID that
solidifies and vaporizes with a smoky hiss.
Kelvin moves to Rheya and is startled to see that half of her
face and throat are burned away -- not melted as in a fire,
but merely eaten cleanly away. He picks her up.
INT. CORRIDOR
Kelvin is carrying Rheya. Snow sticks his head out of a
passing room.
SNOW
What happened?
KELVIN
She drank liquid oxygen.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin puts Rheya on the bed. Her face and throat have
returned to normal, but she is not breathing. Kelvin goes
and puts his head to her chest, but doesn't hear what he
hoped to hear. He stands, still looking at her. Snow seems
very detached.
An uncomfortably long moment as we realize she is actually
not going to wake up.
KELVIN
She's dead.
Snow says nothing.
Then:
Her finger twitches.
Barely noticeable at first, but growing in intensity. Kelvin
sees it, and goes to her. She is starting to shake a little,
as though cold.
SNOW
She'll come back, don't worry. But
then what? My theory is she can
only live here, that she will die
if she leaves this ship.
Kelvin is still looking at Rheya, who is shaking a little
harder; it's feeling like a seizure now.
SNOW
Why do you think she hasn't
suggested that? It's the most
obvious solution: Escape. She
knows she can't leave here --
KELVIN
Get out --
SNOW
Oh, this one you love? What about
the first one, the one you fucked
and then put into a rocket and
blasted into space? You didn't
love her?
Rheya is shaking much harder now, Kelvin tries to hold her
still, but she's too strong. He stands, reluctantly, and
watches her.
SNOW
What happens if she comes back? Is
that polygamy? And even if you
could take her home, how would you
get her through? You think they're
not going to notice her?
Rheya is shaking violently now, as if a rippling rhythmic
force were coursing through her. Snow, as he looks
dispassionately on the two of them:
SNOW
I never get used to them, these...
"Resurrections".
He leaves.
Rheya continues her process of "waking up" -- it's violent,
even sexual. She spasms to a peak of some sort, and then
slowly returns to normal.
Kelvin puts his hand on her forehead.
She gradually begins to open her eyes. She looks at Kelvin.
It takes her a moment to realize she shouldn't be seeing him;
she shouldn't be seeing anything. She should be dead.
She begins to cry.
RHEYA
What am I? Why can't I die?
She turns away.
RHEYA
I'm not Rheya. You're always known
that.
KELVIN
Rheya --
RHEYA
Don't call me that.
He turns her over.
KELVIN
Listen: I don't care about anything
but the fact that you are here.
You are her, you are Rheya.
RHEYA
I'm disgusting.
KELVIN
No.
RHEYA
You're lying. I'm not human.
KELVIN
Rheya, I am not going back. I'm
staying here with you.
RHEYA
Then you'll die.
KELVIN
I want every second I can get with
you.
A beat.
RHEYA
What will I do, if you die?
He doesn't know.
CUT TO:
EXT. SOLARIS
Turning slowly.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya, in bed.
RHEYA
Do you think I can get pregnant
here?
A long beat.
KELVIN
We'll know soon enough.
INSERT:
The first time Kelvin and Rheya spoke, at the party ten years
ago. Again we see her whisper in Kelvin's ear, but this time
we hear what she is saying:
RHEYA
I can't be a mother.
She pulls back.
KELVIN
That's good to know.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kelvin, as he packs to leave Rheya.
RHEYA
Don't do this. I am literally
begging you not to do this. Chris.
KELVIN
You should have told me.
RHEYA
It wouldn't have made any
difference.
KELVIN
Thank you.
RHEYA
Chris, I had to. I had to. I
didn't think you'd react like this.
KELVIN
Neither did I.
RHEYA
You never said you wanted one.
KELVIN
I never said I didn't.
RHEYA
Chris --
KELVIN
I can't stay here.
RHEYA
Chris, please. Chris, I'm serious.
I won't make it.
KELVIN
Then you won't make it.
He leaves, brushing past her.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya, unconscious, on the kitchen floor.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
A long, held shot of Rheya, crying. She is curled up,
retreating into herself. Kelvin is trying to console her.
KELVIN
I came back. You have to know
that. I came back that night.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya on the kitchen floor, the note in her hand.
Kelvin is kneeling over her.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin and Rheya. She is sobbing, but somewhat calmer.
KELVIN
I couldn't make it, either.
(beat)
I'm so sorry.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin, asleep.
CUT TO:
GIBARIAN
As we saw him before, sitting in the chair. But we didn't
hear him say this before:
GIBARIAN
If they succeed, you'll never see
her again.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
In the immediate aftermath of her suicide attempt with the
liquid oxygen:
RHEYA
You're afraid of me. I can't do
this anymore. I still don't
understand. It's not possible.
He tries to console her, but she recoils.
RHEYA
Don't --
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya, as Kelvin brushes past her on his way out. She looks
desperate.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Rheya and Kelvin.
RHEYA
What do I have to do to stop it?
KELVIN
I want you here.
RHEYA
You're lying.
KELVIN
You exist here. I keep telling
you.
RHEYA
That's impossible. I'm not Rheya.
KELVIN
Who are you, then?
RHEYA
I... I am Rheya. But I am not the
woman you loved ten years ago.
KELVIN
Yes, you are --
RHEYA
Did you hear what Gibarian said?
I'm not a human being. I'm an
instrument. I came from your
memory and your imagination and I
will torture you no matter what.
Even if I remain passive. That's
when I drank the...
(beat)
I was going mad. It felt like
there was no body underneath my
skin. There was something else.
An illusion. But I could feel my
heart beating, and I remembered you
tested my blood. Is it like yours?
KELVIN
Yes. I told you. It was exactly
like mine.
RHEYA
But then I would be dead now.
A beat.
KELVIN
Is that really what you want?
RHEYA
I want to stop taking those pills.
KELVIN
I wish you wouldn't.
RHEYA
They do something to me. It's hard
to think straight.
KELVIN
I think they help.
RHEYA
I have consciousness, but I am not
mortal. Don't you see why I'm
going crazy?
KELVIN
You have to remember that I love
you, that's all that matters --
RHEYA
I can't --
KELVIN
It put you here. I'll admit it, it
acted like a God and put you here,
put you into my consciousness.
I was asleep, and it put you into
my dream. I saw your mouth. And
there you were.
(beat)
Whether you've been sent here to
make me happy or punish me, it
doesn't matter. The decision we
make now is all that matters. Stay
with me.
RHEYA
Am I really her?
KELVIN
I don't know anymore. All I see is
you.
They kiss.
KELVIN
Stay with me.
(beat)
Stay with me.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is asleep. Rheya is next to him.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is on the videophone to Snow.
KELVIN
She knows everything. She knows
who she is.
SNOW
She knows everything? Does she
know she came once before and you
put her in --
KELVIN
No.
A beat.
SNOW
What do you want?
KELVIN
I want you to get Sartorius to
abandon his plan.
SNOW
(feigning innocence)
What plan?
KELVIN
Just get him to stop.
SNOW
What do you want to do, leave the
station with her?
KELVIN
Yes.
SNOW
Kelvin, she'll disintegrate. You
don't believe me? Let's radio that
shuttle pod you launched -- better
yet, let's go get it. I've charted
it's trajectory, only take a few
hours...
KELVIN
Her oxygen would have run out.
SNOW
Maybe she doesn't need any. Should
we check?
Kelvin just stares at him.
SNOW
Who are you trying to please?
Yourself? Her? Which her, this
one or that one. Can you face
both? We are in a situation that
is beyond morality. So: Leave with
her. You'll see the
transformation.
KELVIN
Into what?
SNOW
You'll see her die, that's all.
They're mortal, despite what she
told you. She will die. Then what
will you do?
KELVIN
I love her.
SNOW
You do, you don't. She's willing
to give her life, you're willing to
give yours, it's touching and
magnificent, anything you want but
-- this isn't the place for it.
Don't you see? No, you don't.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
He is playing back a message sent by Sartorius.
SARTORIUS
I'm sending you a message because I
feel sorry for you. I really do,
Kelvin.
(beat)
It is a mistake to become
emotionally engaged with one of
them. You are being manipulated.
You are going around in circles to
satisfy the curiosity of a power we
don't understand and can't control,
and she is the living proof that
power exists. If she were ugly,
you wouldn't want her around;
that's why she's not ugly. She is
a mirror that reflects part of your
mind. You provide the formula.
You can only finish where you
started, remember that.
(beat)
They sold us out to the highest
bidder. They had no right to do
that. We should have been
consulted. We're not fucking
hardware.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin wakes up. Rheya is beside him. He rises and heads
for the bathroom.
He swallows two pills and a small cup of water.
When he returns to the bed, Rheya is looking at him.
RHEYA
What are you taking?
KELVIN
A sleeping pill. Do you want
yours?
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Rheya, on the kitchen floor. The bottle of sleeping pills
just beyond her hand.
BACK ON THE PROMETHEUS
Kelvin looks at Rheya. She shakes her head; she doesn't want
the pills. Kelvin comes and sits beside her.
KELVIN
What does it want?
RHEYA
I don't know. Something.
Anything.
She goes to a portal and stares out at Solaris.
RHEYA
It created me and yet I can't
communicate with it. It must hear
me, though. It must know what's
happening to me. Don't you think?
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Snow on the videophone to Kelvin. Rheya is asleep in the
background.
SNOW
I don't think it dislikes us. I
think it just noticed us. It
lives, thinks, and acts. We are
dealing with a living creature
here, no question. And it's done
something we've never been able to
do: create a perfect human body.
Perfect except for the subatomic
alterations, but...
CUT TO:
GIBARIAN
On his suicide tape:
GIBARIAN
If Solaris is inside our brain, and
it knows everything, and we're only
consciously aware of what 2% of our
brain is up to at any given moment,
it knows us better than we know
ourselves. It's not even close.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Rheya and Kelvin.
RHEYA
I've decided that if it is God,
it's a sick God. Its ambitions
exceed its powers, but it doesn't
realize it.
(beat)
It's created a situation without a
goal, and I hate that. A God whose
passion is not a redemption, who
saves nothing, fulfills no purpose.
(beat)
And us? We would have to have "an
arrangement". An unspoken
understanding that I am not human.
How can I not hate something that
does that?
KELVIN
Please. Don't.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin is asleep. Rheya is crying beside him.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin asleep, alone. Rheya is in the corridor, talking to
someone.
KELVIN
wakes up. Rheya is beside him, asleep.
CUT TO:
EXT. SOLARIS
Turning, slowly.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin, in a fever, eyes open but glazed.
Rheya is putting a compress on his forehead.
KELVIN'S POV
Of the room.
His LABRADOR FROM THE OPENING SEQUENCE is sitting by the
chair.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S CABIN (EARTH)
Kelvin sits in a chair, looking at:
THE LABRADOR
Sitting in the same position as it was on the Prometheus.
KELVIN
Breathes a sigh of relief at being home. Everything seems
slowed down, somehow.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I though I was home.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
On the Prometheus. Kelvin is in bed, feverish.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I thought it was over.
He sees Rheya, in the hallway again, talking to someone we
can't see.
KELVIN
Wakes up again. Rheya is asleep beside him.
CUT TO:
INT. TRAIN
Rheya, the first day she and Kelvin saw each other.
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET CORNER - DAY
Ten years ago. Kelvin and Rheya standing on a street corner.
They seem to be pausing in the midst of a very serious
conversation. It is raining.
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
Kelvin in bed, on the Prometheus. Still feverish.
Rheya is mopping his brow.
INT. KELVIN'S CABIN (EARTH)
Kelvin in bed, feverish.
Rheya is there, wiping his forehead.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM
On the Prometheus. Kelvin looks over to Rheya.
KELVIN
Where did you go before?
RHEYA
When?
KELVIN
Last night. You were talking to
someone in the corridor.
RHEYA
You must have been dreaming.
She begins to cry.
KELVIN
What's the matter?
She just shakes her head.
KELVIN
Rheya?
From Kelvin's point of view: Rheya, in the chair, crying.
Then he looks right to see: Rheya, in the doorway, talking to
someone we cannot see.
Then he looks further to the right, and there she is again,
staring at him from the bathroom doorway. She moves to the
edge of the bed in order to be near.
KELVIN
Sweating. Struggling. Beyond fear.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I'm losing my mind.
(beat)
I'm breaking apart.
INT. CABIN - DAY
Kelvin sits in his chair, as he did at the beginning, with
the three officials from DBA behind him.
Only now the three officials are Snow, Sartorius, and
Gibarian.
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM (PROMETHEUS)
Kelvin, transfixed.
KELVIN (V.O.)
Is this what it means to die?
(beat)
Am I in the moment of my own death?
(beat)
Is this the last thought I will
ever have?
This idea forces him to rise, and he does, slowly.
INT. CORRIDOR
Behind Kelvin as he somehow keeps moving.
We hold a long time, and then:
CUT TO:
BLACK.
Count to ten. Then:
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET
Kelvin moving down a crowded sidewalk, in slow motion.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I am home now.
(beat)
I try to find the rhythm of the
world where I used to live... but I
feel completely and continually out
of-sync. I am separate. Why did I
return to Earth and lie about what
happened? Lie about having contact
with something like Solaris? I
knew something else was out there,
and didn't tell a soul. I left
them in the dark. We all did.
CUT TO:
INT. TRAIN - DAY
Kelvin, traveling home from the city.
CUT TO:
EXT. KELVIN'S CABIN - DAY
Kelvin returns. He stops and looks around before entering
his front door.
KELVIN (V.O.)
So why come back at all? To see if
she comes here?
KEVIN'S POV
Of the woods.
But there are strange incongruities in the image -- pieces of
the Prometheus breaking through; for instance, a few of the
AUTOMATED TASKMASTERS are crawling along the ground.
KELVIN
Looking from the doorway, notes this. He doesn't seem
surprised, though.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I don't believe it will happen.
INT. KELVIN'S CABIN - NIGHT
Kelvin, in his bed, awake.
KELVIN (V.O.)
But I will wait, anyway.
CUT TO:
BLACK.
Count to five. Then:
CUT TO:
INT. KELVIN'S ROOM (PROMETHEUS)
Kelvin is in his bed, still feverish.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I thought it was over.
He looks around the room. He is alone.
A flashing light on his computer demands attention.
ON THE COMPUTER
A video message from Rheya.
RHEYA
Don't blame them. I begged them to
do it. It's better this way.
(beat)
I'm sorry.
(beat)
I'm sorry I tried to make you think
I was human.
(beat)
I read my own suicide note. I
found it in your things. I
realized I was not her.
She looks away.
RHEYA
I know that you loved me, Chris. I
know that.
(beat)
I love you.
Kelvin breaks down.
CUT TO:
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kelvin, with the dead Rheya in his arms, crying. Beyond him
is the rain-streaked window. On the floor, by her hand, is
the note. On it is scrawled the end of a Dylan Thomas poem,
the one Kelvin quoted to her the first time they spoke.
INT. PARTY - NIGHT
The first night. Again, Kelvin leans into Rheya's ear and
whispers. This time we hear what he says:
KELVIN
"Though they go mad they shall be
sane. Though they sink through the
sea they shall rise again."
INT. APARTMENT - DAY
Kevin holding Rheya.
The note on the floor.
The rain-streaked window.
RHEYA (V.O.)
"Though lovers be lost love shall
not. And death shall have no
dominion."
Kelvin wipes the hair from her face.
KELVIN (V.O.)
You killed her!
SARTORIUS (V.O.)
Not her. It.
CUT TO:
INT. PROMETHEUS
Kelvin, furious, is talking through a slit in Sartorius'
door.
KELVIN
You murdered her!
SARTORIUS
Kelvin, she begged me. I had a
short-range version of the
destabilizer prototype, a miniature
with a range of a few meters. She
walked into it and disappeared.
She was gone.
Kelvin looks around.
KELVIN
She'll come back.
SARTORIUS
No, she won't.
KELVIN
Why would you let her to do that?
SARTORIUS
It's not human, Kelvin. Whatever
it is, it's not human, and I am
threatened by that. Evolution-of-
the-species-at-stake threatened.
And I want to win. I want humans
to win. So I am killing it before
it kills me.
KELVIN
You fucking bastard...
SARTORIUS
Whose side are you on?
Kelvin moves away.
CUT TO:
EXT. SOLARIS
Still turning, slowly.
But something about its appearance is different.
INT. PROMETHEUS
Complete chaos.
Kelvin is chasing Sartorius to the flight deck.
SARTORIUS
(yelling as he runs)
It's changing characteristics.
It's solidifying taking on weight.
KELVIN
How quickly?
SARTORIUS
If it continues, it will implode
from its own weight and turn into a
black hole in about four hours and
pulls us in with it.
INT. FLIGHT DECK
Kelvin and Sartorius get the ship ready for take off.
KELVIN
Where's Snow? Did you call him?
SARTORIUS
Yes.
Kelvin turns and sees one of the video monitors that Snow is
sitting in his room.
KELVIN
(via intercom)
Snow! We need you up here.
Snow doesn't reply.
KELVIN
Snow!
Snow looks up. There's a strange look on his face.
KELVIN
What's wrong with you? We need
your help.
SNOW
I won't be making the trip.
SARTORIUS
Snow, get up here, now.
SNOW
I'm not Snow.
This stops Kelvin and Sartorius. They look at each other and
then at the monitor.
SNOW
I got rid of him. I wanted to see
if... I wanted to be the only one.
I wanted to be Snow.
SARTORIUS
Fuck me. I knew it.
KELVIN
When did this happen?
SNOW
Oh, right away. That's why you
never saw me with anyone. You
should've noticed that. I miss
him, though. I think I made a
mistake.
KELVIN
Jesus...
SNOW
But I can't leave with you. I
won't make it.
KELVIN
Maybe you can.
SARTORIUS
You want it coming back with us?
SNOW
You go ahead. Of what I remember
about Earth... it's all one thing
now. Everything's a blur. I like
distinctions.
Snow lies down on his bed. Kelvin looks at Sartorius.
SARTORIUS
We do not have time to deal with
this. Get the diode sail into
position and let me know when the
bias drive and the induction ring
are at zero point.
Kelvin nods and obeys. He then takes one last look at the
monitor to see Snow lying in bed. Kelvin reaches over and
shuts the monitor off.
CUT TO:
EXT. SPACE
Silence.
The Prometheus moves away from Solaris.
CLOSER ON SOLARIS
After the ship has gone.
A soft black spot begins to form in the center of the planet.
Slowly, inexorably, this black spot begins to expand.
Within a minute Solaris has disappeared.
CUT TO:
EXT. STREET CORNER - DAY
Kelvin, back on Earth. Silent and still. And the rain
continues.
He watches the activity; the cars, buses, and people moving
to and fro.
KELVIN (V.O.)
Earth.
(beat)
What did that word mean to me?
(beat)
I have returned. Finally.
Kelvin begins to walk.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I work in the city now. After work
I wander and lose myself. I am
silent and attentive. I follow the
current. I make a conscious effort
to smile, nod, stand, and perform
the millions of gestures that
constitute life on Earth.
INT. TRAIN - DAY
Kelvin taking the train to the suburbs.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I will study these gestures until
they become reflexes again. I will
find new interests and occupations,
but --
EXT. ROAD - DAY
Kelvin makes his way toward his cabin. As he nears, his
LABRODOR recognizes him and approaches.
Kelvin pats the dog's coat.
KELVIN (V.O.)
I will not... give myself. I will
not give myself to anything or
anyone, because I am haunted by the
idea that I remembered her wrong.
That I shaded my memory of her to
suit myself. That I was unfair to
her and caused her destruction.
What if I was wrong about
everything?
(beat)
I've come to believe that memory is
a curse.
EXT. CABIN - DAY
Kelvin is near the front door, dog at his heel. He looks in
as he brings his key to the lock and his face FREEZES.
RHEYA
Is in the living room, waiting for him.
She is sitting on the sofa, looking toward the other side of
the room. Sensing someone, she turns to see Kelvin, and her
face melts into a smile.
KELVIN
Opens the door. He cannot speak.
RHEYA
Rises and moves toward him.
They embrace.
He breathes her in. She squeezes him.
After a long beat:
KELVIN
How can you be here...
RHEYA
(whispering)
Shhhh. Just stay with me.
(beat)
Stay with me. Everything is
forgiven. Everything.
She sways with him, gently. His body relaxes.
KELVIN
I love you.
EXT. CABIN - DAY
A tableau of the cabin. The dog is on the front step,
seemingly content despite the light rain.
As fog drifts in, we RISE, and soon the mist has nearly
obscured the house. The fog turns into clouds and we get
fleeting glimpses of the cabin, as we move farther and
farther away.
We stay in a translucent white stage for a few moments, until
gradually the edges of a circle become apparent in the
corners of the frame. Still there is a light rain sound.
These dark, rounded edges penetrate further until they are
forming the shape of a circle.
The misty consistency begins to gain some color and body.
And we realize we are now looking at the surface of Solaris.
FADE OUT.
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