History Film / Solaris2002

!![[SimilarlyNamedWorks You may be looking]] for ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', the 1972 film adaptation of [[Literature/{{Solaris}} the same novel]], directed by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky.

!![[SimilarlyNamedWorks You may be looking]] for ''Film/{{Solaris|1972}}'', the 1972 film adaptation of [[Literature/{{Solaris}} the novel]], directed by Creator/AndreiTarkovsky.

Chris Kelvin (Clooney) is a future psychiatrist on Earth, where he is eking out joyless existence after the death of his wife, Rheya (Natasha [=McElhone=]). Out of the blue he gets a visit from agents of DBA, a private corporation involved in space exploration. They inform Chris they've lost contact with the Solaris expedition, headed by Dr. Gibarian (Creator/UlrichTukur), a close friend of Kelvin's. The last communication with the ship is a recording from Gibarian, pleading for Chris to come to Solaris, but with no explanation other than requiring his expertise as a psychiatrist. Gibarian's unstable behavior resulted in DBA sending a mission to recover the ship, but all communication with the second team was lost as they approached Solaris. Believing that Gibarian is possibly holding them hostage and that he was reaching out to his friend for help, DBA asks Kelvin to travel to Solaris to negotiate the safe return of both crews.

[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/solaris1_1018.jpeg]]

Chris Kelvin (Clooney) is a future psychiatrist on Earth, where he is eking out joyless existence after the death of his wife, Rheya (Natasha [=McElhone=]). Out of the blue he gets a visit from agents of DBA, a private corporation involved in space exploration. They inform Chris they've lost contact with the Solaris expedition, headed by Dr. Gibarian (Ulrich Tukur), a close friend of Kelvin's. The last communication with the ship is a recording from Gibarian, pleading for Chris to come to Solaris, but with no explanation other than requiring his expertise as a psychiatrist. Gibarian's unstable behavior resulted in DBA sending a mission to recover the ship, but all communication with the second team was lost as they approached Solaris. Believing that Gibarian is possibly holding them hostage and that he was reaching out to his friend for help, DBA asks Kelvin to travel to Solaris to negotiate the safe return of both crews.

Chris Kelvin is a future psychiatrist on Earth, where he is eking out joyless existence after the death of his wife, Rheya. Out of the blue he gets a visit from agents of DBA, a private corporation involved in space exploration. They inform Chris they've lost contact with the Solaris expedition, headed by Dr. Gibarian, a close friend of Kelvin's. The last communication with the ship is a recording from Gibarian, pleading for Chris to come to Solaris, but with no explanation other than requiring his expertise as a psychiatrist. Gibarian's unstable behavior resulted in DBA sending a mission to recover the ship, but all communication with the second team was lost as they approached Solaris. Believing that Gibarian is possibly holding them hostage and that he was reaching out to his friend for help, DBA asks Kelvin to travel to Solaris to negotiate the safe return of both crews.

Kelvin is suspicious but agrees to go. When he arrives at Solaris, he finds the ''Prometheus'' in orbit, abandoned, with signs of a bloody struggle in its docking bay. He eventually finds a pair of survivors but both are unwilling to say what happened. Dr. Snow only asks Kelvin how long he thinks he can go without sleep, and Dr. Gordon explicitly tells Kelvin, "There's no point discussing it until it starts happening to you."

->'''Chris :''' Am I alive, or dead?
->'''Rheya :''' We don't have to think like that any more. We're together now. Everything we've done is forgiven. Everything.

->''"We don't want to conquer space at all. We want to expand Earth endlessly. We don't want other worlds. We want a mirror."''
-->--'''Snaut'''

!! ''Solaris'' (2002) provides examples of the following tropes:

* TheMole: [[spoiler: Snow is a "visitor" who killed the human version of itself shortly after manifesting on the ship. Subverted in that while the imitation Snow knows what he is, he is not actively working on Solaris's behalf and is confused and scared as everyone else, which is what led to the murder of his human self. The human Snow panicked and tried to kill the imitation Snow, and imitation Snow only fought back in self defense.]]

* StarfishAlien: Solaris is a cross between this an and and an EldritchAbomination. It is a planet-sized ball of shimmering light that communicates by invading the minds of humans that come near it and giving their deepest and darkest memories physical presence, often in the form of dead friends or family. The "visitors" themselves seem to be aware of what they are, but are just as frightened and confused because they don't know why Solaris created them any more than the humans do.

* SpellMyNameWithAnS: In the original film, Chris is "Kris", Rheya's name is "Hari", Snow is "Snaut" and Gordon is "Sartorius". Translations of the novel seem to cycle through the two sets, but "Sartorius" remains fairly consistently NOT Gordon.

---> '''Kelvin:''' What does Solaris want from us?
---> [[spoiler: '''Gibarian''']]: Why do you think it has to want something? This is why you have to leave. If you keep thinking there's a solution, you'll die here.

---> '''Kelvin:''' You're not [[spoiler: Gibarian.]]
---> [[spoiler: '''Gibarian''']]: No? Who am I then?
---> '''Kelvin:''' A puppet.
---> [[spoiler: '''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... to be human.

---> [[spoiler: '''Gibarian:''']] Why do you think it has to want something? This is why you have to leave. If you keep thinking there's a solution, you'll die here.

* GeniusLoci: The planet orbited by Solaris [[spoiler: is actually a single, living being--or at least the ocean that covers it is.]] It also [[spoiler: responds to the memories of humans]].

Kelvin is convinced the crew is experiencing some kind of mass hysteria, until he falls asleep. He awakes with Rheya snuggled next to him, apparently brought back to life by Solaris. At odds with the surviving crew and with his own scientific principles, he has to try and figure out what Solaris is and what it wants before being going mad from the impossible situation that drove the members of the expedition to kill themselves.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: After Kelvin leaves the makeshift morgue in the cold room, the camera pans up, revealing blood seeping from a ceiling tile. Later, Kelvin and Gordon see the stain and push back the tile, revealing [[Spoiler: the body of the "real" Snow, who was killed and replaced by one of the manifestations from Solaris.]]

Chris Kelvin is a future psychiatrist on Earth, where he is eking out an existence after the death of his significant other, Rheya. Out of the blue he gets a call from an old friend/coworker of his, Gibarian. The crew of the station Solaris doesn't seem to want to come home, and they have lost contact with the security team they sent. Gibarian puts a good word in for Chris with the crew, and the latter goes to Solaris to try and fix things. Weirdness ensues.

** [[spoiler: Rheya gets this ''several times''.]]

* DrivenToSuicide: Rheya and [[spoiler: Gibarian]].
** [[spoiler: Rheya ''several times''.]]

* SceneryPorn: The few shots of the planet.
* SoullessShell: An interesting case. Rheya's manifestation claims that that's all she is. Gordon agrees. Kevin thinks so at first, but as the film goes on he seems to reject this hypothesis. [[spoiler: copy Snow acts like he agrees with Gordon, but is one of these manifestations himself.]]

* StartsWithASuicide: Though it's intimated in the flashbacks instead of at the beginning.
* WhyDontYaJustShootHim: Discussed, with respect to the manifestations aboard the Station. Gordon does construct a machine that does the job. Chris objects at the idea of using it on Rheya.

American adaptation of Creator/StanislawLem's 1961 science fiction novel ''Literature/{{Solaris}}'', written and directed by StevenSoderbergh, produced by Creator/JamesCameron, and starring GeorgeClooney.

->'''Chris :''' Am I alive, or dead?
->'''Rheya :''' We don't have to think like that any more. We're together now. Everything we've done is forgiven. Everything.

The American adaptation was written/directed by StevenSoderbergh was produced by JamesCameron, and starred GeorgeClooney.