History Film / STALKER

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->''"A film about three men walking through the wooded territory, two of whom are mostly calm, and the third is constantly afraid of something."''
-->-- A popular recap of unknown origin

''Stalker'' (''Сталкер'' in Russian) is a 1979 ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky. Shot in UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, it is an adaptation (albeit a very loose one) of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' sci-fi story ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'', who also wrote the film's script.

The film takes place in and around a devastated partially industrialised landscape called The Zone. At the centre of The Zone lies a location called The Room, which is said to grant the deepest desires of those strong enough to make it there, avoiding the numerous hazards for which The Zone has a fearsome and lethal reputation.

Our three main characters meet in a bar outside The Zone. They are only named by their professions: Stalker, Writer, and Professor. Stalker is the protagonist and bears the name of a class of semi-professional guides who are skilled at infiltrating the security cordon surrounding The Zone and avoiding the many hazards within it. Stalker regards The Zone with something close to religious awe and treats it as a temperamental deity to be appeased and wondered at. Writer is an urbane, fashionable, cynical author with a drinking problem. He has lost his inspiration, and believes he might regain it via the power of the Zone. Professor is a taciturn physicist, who appears to have no particular reason to visit The Zone, and a small backpack that he is very attached to.

[[VideoGame/{{Stalker}} The video game of the same name]] could be said to be loosely inspired by this film. Very loosely. It is more correct to say that they share some features in common because they draw on the same original inspiration.
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!!This film provides examples of:

* AbandonedArea: The Zone, which had to be abandoned after the mysterious alien visitation, and after the army's attempts to re-enter the Zone were destroyed, as shown by the burnt-out tanks. What once was an industrial area (the film was shot at an abandoned chemical plant in Estonia) is empty and overgrown by plant life and all-around creepy.
* AdaptationalNiceGuy: Stalker is ''much'' more kind and noble than Redrick, his counterpart in the ''Roadside Picnic''.
* TheAlcoholic: Writer is the first to the bar, is refused spirits and so buys beer as if that doesn't count. Stalker later tips away Writer's booze stash (hidden under Writer's decidedly NotSoBadassLongcoat.)
* AllThereInTheManual: Given how very little the film actually explains, familiarity with the source story helps. Have you been wondering how the bolts with a length of cloth tied to them is supposed to help find a safe route? ''Roadside Picnic'' describes the area containing anomalous spots of extremely high gravity. Throwing something solid with a fluttering tail behind it would be an excellent way of spotting those due to the flying arc suddenly dipping.
* AllThereInTheScript: An early draft of the script pegs the Writer's name as "Anton" and the Stalker's as "Victor", with the Professor being "Phillip". This is never mentioned in the film as EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep in the film.
%%* AppliedPhlebotinum: The disruption of reality in The Zone.
* ArtShift: From sepia in the town to color in The Zone--although interestingly, the Stalker's crippled and telekinetic daughter "Monkey" is always shot in color for her scenes, which are in the town.
%%* AuthorAvatar: The Writer.
* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The Room (allegedly) takes this one step further: [[spoiler:You do not ''ask'' for your wish out loud or even consciously. Instead, it looks into your mind and fulfills your greatest desire. Do you even ''know'' what you want? Do you dare find out?]]
* BookEnds: The film begins with the shot of a glass moving on a table due to the vibration from an off-screen passing train. The film ends with Monkey watching glasses move across a table, but [[MindOverMatter only before the train begins to pass]].
* BoringReturnJourney: Neither the Writer nor the Professor have the guts to enter the Room. They sit there at the entrance for a while, then the film cuts to everyone back at the bar, having left the Zone.
* BreakingTheFourthWall: Toward the end of the movie, the Stalker's wife addresses the camera and the audience directly, giving a little speech in which she explains that she knew all about the problems she'd have with the Stalker, including his emotional instability and the risk that their children would be born with defects, but she married him anyway, and it was worth it, as she got the highs along with the lows instead of a "dull, gray life".
* BurningTheShips: After entering the Zone on a motorized railroad hand cart, the Stalker starts it up again and sends it off back from where they came. He explains to his clients that you can't leave the Zone in the same way in which you entered.
* TheCakeIsALie: Does the Room grant you your deepest desire? [[spoiler:Only Porcupine would know, but even though he became rich, he killed himself because he sent his brother to his death. Nobody else is known to have gone into the Room and had their wishes granted.]]
* ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve: The Stalker is sickened by the inability of the Writer and Professor to believe in the Room.
* CoolCar: The three charge the gates in a Series II 88" Land Rover. It gets absolutely riddled with machine gun bullets, but sees them through safely.
* ContemplateOurNavels: All the characters, particularly Writer, are fond of long philosophical monologues.
* CursedWithAwesome: Monkey is a cripple, but may have psychic powers.
* DeliberatelyMonochrome: Like other Tarkovsky films. The monochromatic / sepia town scenes contrast with the colorful Zone. Monkey (Stalker's daughter) is also in color despite the town being greyscale.
* DoorOfDoom: The visitors sit outside the door of the Room for a long time, but never do work up the nerve to go in.
* DrivenToSuicide: [[spoiler:Porcupine, who killed himself out of guilt when the Room granted him his ''true'' inner wish -- money -- instead of what he believed was his wish, to resurrect his brother.]]
* DrivesLikeCrazy: Stalker cannot drive in a straight line, even on railroad tracks.
* DungeonMastersGirlfriend: Stalker's wife.
* DysfunctionJunction: Stalker has just returned from prison, presumably having been sent there for illegally going into The Zone. His daughter, Monkey, is crippled. Writer has come to The Zone because he no longer feels inspired in his writings. Professor wants to get a Nobel Prize and be respected by other academicians. Stalker's wife, despite arguing with Stalker, is the closest in the film to a happy person because she is the only person whose wishes have been granted.
* EldritchLocation: The Zone in all its incarnations (book, film, and game) is a sterling example of this trope. A very, very ominous place that will apparently kill you if you do something wrong.
* EliteMooks: Averted by The Zone security forces. They are generally more interested in television, and hosing civilian vehicles with machine gun fire.
* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Stalker, Writer, and Professor. Since entering the Zone is illegal, using an alias would make sense in the event one of them should be caught; they cannot identify each other by name. On the other hand, ''no-one'' in the movie is actually given a name - the Stalker's daughter is only known by her affectionate nickname of "Monkey", and the deceased Stalker who taught, well, the Stalker, is only referred to as "Porcupine". Not even the dog gets a name.
* FailedASpotCheck: One of the soldiers trying to prevent people from approaching The Zone sees Stalker's car, but does not think that Stalker is hiding under the car.
* FinalBoss: The Meat Grinder.
* ForbiddenZone: The Zone has been closed to visitors, and is patrolled by the military, but the Stalker and his clients still make their way in.
* FreudianTrio: Writer (Id), Stalker (Superego), and Professor (Ego).
* GainaxEnding: The significance of the final shot, with Monkey using her psychokinetic abilities to push some glasses off a table as a train roars by the apartment and shakes it, has long been one of the major points of debate regarding this film.[[note]]Creator/ArthurCClarke said it redeemed the entire film, in his opinion.[[/note]]
* GeniusLoci: The Zone. It even speaks directly to the Writer at one point with a human voice.
-->''The Zone wants to be respected. Otherwise it will punish.''
* GeoEffects: The shortest route between two points within The Zone is '''never''' in a straight line. Oh, and never attempt to retrace your steps.
* HaveAGayOldTime: The film's usage of "stalking" to mean "to steal past something", as it happens, is etymologically more accurate.
* HellIsThatNoise: Professor and Writer are disturbed by strange sounds in the distance that sound like wolves howling, not long after their arrival to the Zone. Stalker, however, dismisses this, saying that there's nobody out here, except themselves.
* HollywoodHomely: [[invoked]] Stalker and his wife.
* IDontLikeTheSoundOfThatPlace: A scary tunnel called the "meat mincer".
* InUniverseCamera: A LeaningOnTheFourthWall example. A scene has the cameraman visibly treading down some long grass, and the Professor and Writer casting prolonged nervous looks directly into the camera. But the film clearly plays it as though the moving grass is a result of the Zone's weird phenomena and that the Writer and Professor's nervousness and stolen looks are due to feeling as though they are being watched, which, well, they are. The Stalker, meanwhile, who is familiar with the Zone, notably doesn't share their trepidation and keeps his back to the camera all the time.
* ImperialStormtrooperMarksmanshipAcademy: The soldiers patrolling The Zone cannot hit Stalker's slow-moving Land Rover, but they do manage to wreck their own electrical equipment.
* IndustrialGhetto: The town Stalker lives in.
* IronicNickname: The "dry tunnel" has a large waterfall and is flooded. Previous Stalkers gave it that name as a joke.
* LeaveTheCameraRunning: Director's trademark. For example, he leaves the camera on to capture a rainstorm forming, pouring rain, and then dissipating.
* LegacyCharacter: Stalker. All Stalkers lead people into The Zone, and when one leaves the job, their apprentice becomes Stalker.
* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's generally left pretty ambiguous as to whether The Zone really does have all the fantastical qualities that Stalker claims [[spoiler:(primarily since all the characters opt not to enter The Room when they finally reach it.) Monkey's telekinesis is real, though]].
* MindScrew: What is in the Zone? What's the deal with the Room? [[spoiler:Does Monkey have superpowers?]]
* MysteriousWaif: Stalker's daughter, Monkey, apparently able to move glasses by force of will as an effect of The Zone.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: One of the rooms in The Zone is called the "meat mincer".
* NegativeSpaceWedgie: The Zone has mysterious properties, including the ability to kill people and wreck technology. The most dramatic example is when the trio enter The Zone and see the wreckage of dozens of army tanks.
* NothingIsScarier: The insane tension as the Writer crawls through the "meat mincer", as well as the specter of the Room itself.
* NukeEm: [[spoiler:The Professor wants to destroy the Room using his nuclear bomb to prevent it from being used ForTheEvulz. However, he [[AvertedTrope gives up the plan]] and disassembles the bomb after the Writer has a revelation about the Room.]]
* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / OnlyOneName: Stalker implies it is safer for everyone in case they are arrested that no one knows anyone else's name, although the trend encompasses almost the entire cast: Stalker, Writer, Professor, Luger, Monkey, Stalker's Wife, Writer's Girlfriend, and Teacher (or Porcupine).
* OhCrap: Writer decides to go off on his own until a disembodied voice -- almost certainly The Zone itself -- shouts at him to "Stop right where you are!"
* TheOner: Andrei Tarkovsky is in love with them.
* PostApocalypticDog: The Stalker takes possession of a dog he finds amidst the ruins.
* PrefersRocksToPillows: The Stalker clearly feels amiss and awkward in his domestic civilian life, and spends the first part of the film downcast and mostly silent compared to Writer and Professor. Upon reaching the Zone, his markedly raised mood, excitement, and increased talkativity quickly makes it clear that he feels much more at home there, as strange, unpredictable, and dangerous as the Zone might be.
* ProtagonistTitle: The title of the movie refers to ''the'' Stalker, the man who guides the Professor and the Writer through the Zone.
* PsychologicalHorror: Nothing overtly scary happens in the movie.
* PublicDomainSoundtrack: Music/OdeToJoy and Music/MauriceRavel's "Bolero."
* TheQuest: The Stalker's clients are all on one to get to the Room and have their wish granted. [[spoiler:In the end, neither of them can go through with what they came to the Zone to do and the quest goes unfinished.]]
* QuestForAWish: Supposedly, the mysterious place know as "the Room", which is found deep within the Zone, grants wishes, which is why the Stalker's clients have come.
* RealIsBrown: Used as a metaphor, where the world outside The Zone is (mostly) filmed in washed-out sepia tones.
* RuinsOfTheModernAge: This effect is achieved with the ruined factory.
* RunningGag: Writer asks several questions during the trip, but most of them are either just answered vaguely, if not outright by both Stalker and Professor.
* RuleOfSymbolism: This film runs on religious imagery.
* SceneryGorn: Anywhere outside The Zone. Overlaps with CrapsackWorld.
* SceneryPorn: Almost anywhere inside The Zone, the exploded tanks, artillery, and incinerated corpses of the armies sent to surround The Zone notwithstanding.
* ScienceIsWrong: Writer's snarkalicious speech to Professor about finding truth in science and art.
* ShoutOut: Stalker is called "Chingachook" and "Leatherstocking" in reference to characters from ''Film/TheLastOfTheMohicans''.
* SingleWomanSeeksGoodMan: Stalker's wife explaining the development of their relationship.
* SlidingScaleOfShinyVersusGritty: Doesn't get much gritter than this, as three run-down unshaven middle-aged men creep through a filthy, wrecked, abandoned chemical plant. The town the Stalker lives in is also grim and depressing.
* SoundtrackDissonance: The film closes with Beethoven's "Music/OdeToJoy", which is pretty weird, given the dour and depressing tone of the film and the grim surroundings.
* SpeechCentricWork: The film essentially consists of [[ContemplateOurNavels long, rambling monologues]] about life, the universe and everything, coupled with lengthy shots of nature and not much else.
* StateSec: The stormtroopers assigned to patrol The Zone.
* TheStoic: Professor is not upset by the challenge to modern science that The Zone presents. He even lands a few rhetorical punches on Writer following his little speech about truth.
* TrueArtIsAngsty: InUniverse. The Writer is easily the most miserable and cynical of the main characters. The Stalker explains early on that the Zone spares those who are unhappy, and after the Writer passes through the meat grinder unscathed, the Stalker remarks with wonder that he could live in the Zone for 100 years.
* UnknownPhenomenon: The Zone, not unlike ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}''.
* UnkemptBeauty: Alexei's mother and Stalker's wife, both based to varying degrees on Tarkovsky's mother. And Stalker himself may count as a male version.
* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The Room grants your deepest desire, regardless of whether you're conscious of it or not. [[spoiler:The reason Porcupine killed himself is because, when he went to the Room to wish for his brother to be resurrected, the Room granted him immense wealth instead, and he couldn't live with the realization that he wanted to be wealthy more than he wanted his brother back.]]
* WonderChild: Monkey appears to have telekinetic powers.
* YouAllMeetInAnInn: Stalker, Writer, and Professor start off in a bar.
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* EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep: Stalker, Writer, and Professor.

[[quoteright:252:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/stalker1_7023.jpg]]

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's generally left pretty ambiguous as to whether The Zone really does have all the fantastical qualities that Stalker claims (primarily since all the characters opt not to enter The Room when they finally reach it.) Monkey's telekinesis is real, though.
* MindScrew: What is in the Zone? What's the deal with the Room? Does Monkey have superpowers?

* NukeEm: The Professor wants to destroy the Room using his nuclear bomb to prevent it from being used ForTheEvulz. However, he [[AvertedTrope gives up the plan]] and disassembles the bomb after the Writer has a revelation about the Room.

* TheQuest: The Stalker's clients are all on one to get to the Room and have their wish granted. [[spoiler: In the end, neither of them can go through with what they came to the Zone to do and the quest goes unfinished.]]
* QuestForAWish: Supposedly, the Room grants wishes, which is why the Stalker's clients have come.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The Room grants your deepest desire, regardless of whether you're conscious of it or not. [[spoiler: The reason Porcupine killed himself is because, when he went to the Room to wish for his brother to be resurrected, the Room granted him immense wealth instead, and he couldn't live with the realization that he wanted to be wealthy more than he wanted his brother back.]]

* TheCakeIsALie: Does the Room grant you your deepest desire? Only Porcupine would know, but even though he became rich, he killed himself because he sent his brother to his death. Nobody else is known to have gone into the Room and had their wishes granted.

* BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: The Room (allegedly) takes this one step further: You do not ''ask'' for your wish out loud or even consciously. Instead, it looks into your mind and fulfills your greatest desire. Do you even ''know'' what you want? Do you dare find out?

* DrivenToSuicide: Porcupine, who killed himself out of guilt when the Room granted him his ''true'' inner wish--money--instead of what he believed was his wish, to resurrect his brother.

* SkunkStripe: A variation. Stalker has a notable patch of white in his otherwise dirty blonde hair.

* AppliedPhlebotinum: The disruption of reality in The Zone.

* AuthorAvatar: The Writer.
* BaldOfAwesome: Stalker has a convict's buzz cut, since he was released from jail recently.

''Stalker'' ( ''Сталкер'' in Russian) is a 1979 ScienceFiction film directed by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky. Shot in UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}, it is an adaptation (albeit a very loose one) of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' sci-fi story ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'', who also wrote the film's script.

''Stalker'', or ''СТАЛКЕР'' in the original Russian, is a 1979 Creator/AndreiTarkovsky ScienceFiction film shot in UsefulNotes/{{Estonia}}. It is an adaptation (albeit a very loose one) of the Creator/StrugatskyBrothers' earlier science-fiction story ''Literature/RoadsidePicnic'', who also wrote the film's script.

The film takes place in and around a devastated partially-industrialised landscape called The Zone. At the centre of The Zone lies a location called The Room, which is said to grant the deepest desires of those strong enough to make it there, avoiding the numerous hazards for which The Zone has a fearsome and lethal reputation.

* AllThereInTheScript: An early draft of the script pegs the Writer's name as "Anton" and the Stalker's as "Victor". This is never mentioned in the film as EveryoneCallsHimBarkeep in the film.

* TookALevelInKindness: Stalker is ''much'' more kind and noble than Redrick, his counterpart in the ''Roadside Picnic''.

* ProtagonistTitle

* TheQuest

* HaveAGayOldTime: The film's usage of "stalking" to mean "to steal past something," as it happens, is etymologically more accurate.

* InUniverseCamera: A LeaningOnTheFourthWall example. A scene has the camera-man visibly treating down some long grass, and the Professor and Writer casting prolonged nervous looks directly into the camera. But the film clear plays it as though the moving grass is a result of the Zone's weird phenomena and that the Writer and Professor's nervousness and stolen looks are due to feeling as though they are being watched, which, well, they are. The Stalker, meanwhile, who is familiar with the Zone, notably doesn't share their trepidation and keeps his back to the camera all the time.

* IronicNickname: The "dry tunnel" has a large waterfall and is flooded. Previous stalkers gave it that name as a joke.

* MaybeMagicMaybeMundane: It's generally left pretty ambiguous as to whether The Zone really does have all the fantastical qualities that Stalker claims (primarily since all the characters opt not to enter The Room when they finally reach it.) Monkey's telekinesis is real though.

* MysteriousWaif: Stalker's daughter Monkey, apparently able to move glasses by force of will as an effect of The Zone.
* NamesToRunAwayFromReallyFast: One of the rooms in The Zone is called the "meat mincer."

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / OnlyOneName: Stalker implies it is safer for everyone in case they are arrested that no-one knows anyone else's name, although the trend encompasses almost the entire cast: Stalker, Writer, Professor, Luger, Monkey, Stalker's Wife, Writer's Girlfriend, and Teacher (or Porcupine).

* PrefersRocksToPillows: The Stalker clearly feels amiss and awkward in his domestic civilian life, and spends the first part of the film downcast and mostly silent compared to Writer and Professor. Upon reaching the Zone, his markedly raised mood, excitement, and increased talkativity quickly makes clear that he feels much more at home there, strange, unpredictable, and dangerous as the Zone might be.

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: The Room grants your deepest desire, regardless of whether you're conscious of it or not. [[spoiler: The reason Porcupine killed himself is because, when he went to the Room to wish for his brother to be resurrected, the Room granted him immense wealth instead, and he couldn't live with the realization that he wanted to be wealthy more than he wanted his brother back]].

->''"A film about three men walking through the wooded territory, two of which are mostly calm, and the third is constantly afraid of something."''

* BreakingTheFourthWall: Towards the end of the movie the Stalker's wife addresses the camera and the audience directly, giving a little speech in which she explains that she knew all about the problems she'd have with the Stalker, including his emotional instability and the risk that their children would be born with defects, but she married him anyway, and it was worth it, as she got the highs along with the lows instead of a "dull, gray life".

Our three main characters meet in a bar outside The Zone. They are only named by their professions; Stalker, Writer, and Professor. Stalker is the protagonist and bears the name of a class of semi-professional guides who are skilled at infiltrating the security cordon surrounding The Zone and avoiding the many hazards within it. Stalker regards The Zone with something close to religious awe and treats it as a temperamental deity to be appeased and wondered at. Writer is an urbane, fashionable, cynical author with a drinking problem. He has lost his inspiration, and believes he might regain it via the power of the Zone. Professor is a taciturn physicist, who appears to have no particular reason to visit The Zone, and a small backpack that he is very attached to.

The film takes place in and around a devastated partially-industrialised landscape called The Zone. At the centre of The Zone we are told, lies a location called The Room, which is said to grant the deepest desires of those strong enough to make it there, avoiding the numerous hazards for which The Zone enjoys a fearsome and lethal reputation.

Our three main characters meet in a bar outside The Zone. They are only named by their professions; Stalker, Writer, and Professor. Stalker is both the protagonist and also the name of a class of semi-professional guides, skilled at infiltrating the security cordon surrounding The Zone, and avoiding the many hazards within it. He regards The Zone with something close to religious awe, and treats it as a temperamental Deity to be appeased and wondered at. Writer is an urbane, fashionable, cynical author with a drinking problem. He complains that he has lost his inspiration, and wishes to regain it via the power of The Room. Professor is a taciturn physicist, who appears to have no particular reason to visit The Zone, and a small backpack that he is very attached to.

* GeniusLoci: The Zone.

* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname / OnlyOneName: Stalker implies it is safer for everyone in case they are arrested that no-one knows anyone else's name, although the trend encompasses almost the entire cast: Stalker, Writer, Professor, Luger, Monkey, and Teacher (or Porcupine.)
* OhCrap: Writer decides to go off on his own until a disembodied voice - almost certainly The Zone itself - shouts at him to "Stop right where you are!"

* InUniverseCamera: A LeaningOnTheFourthWall example. A scene has the camera-man visibly treating down some long grass, and the Professor and Writer casting prolonged nervous looks directly into the camera. But the film clear plays it as though the moving grass is a result of the Zone's weird phenomena and that the Writer and Professor's nervousness and stolen looks are due to feeling as though they are being watched, which, well, they are.