The Stalking

"The Zone" is a huge tract of open land where the normal laws of physics supposedly do not apply, containing supernatural hazards. At the heart of the Zone lies a "Room" that is said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. The government has fenced off the Zone, subjecting "Stalkers", people who illegally guide others through the Zone, to harsh prison time if caught crossing the border. One Stalker has just returned from a long prison sentence to his wife and daughter. To his wife's horror, a disaffected writer and a physics professor immediately hire the Stalker to take them through the Zone. Needing the money, he meets the Writer and Professor in a rundown bar-café, warning them that they must do what he says to survive the dangers that lie ahead. He explains that the Zone is a living thing that visitors must respect. The trio evades the Zone's military guards by following a train through the gate, riding through the Zone's vast wilderness on a railway work car.[n 1] The Zone contains such human remnants as old abandoned industrial facilities, corpses, guns, and tanks. The Stalker cautiously tests for anomalies as they painstakingly make their way toward the Room, though nothing unusual occurs. The three men discuss their reasons for wanting to visit the Room as they travel: the Writer fears losing his inspiration, the calm Professor hopes to analyze the Zone in order to win a Nobel Prize, and the Stalker insists he has no motive beyond the altruistic aim of aiding the desperate to their desires. He mentions that his mentor, another Stalker named "Porcupine", obtained great riches by entering the Room but then hanged himself when he returned home. The trio draw lots to determine that the Writer will go first through an especially long, dark, ominous passageway that the Stalker calls the "meat grinder". Nervously, the Writer passes through without harm, shocking the Stalker, who reveals that the meat grinder kills anyone the Zone deems morally unworthy. The Writer forges ahead and delivers a soliloquy directly to camera about the futility of knowledge and feeling overwhelmed and criticized by other people. He returns to the others, and the Stalker reveals that Porcupine sent a brother ahead of him into the meat grinder, where the brother was killed. The Stalker then recites a poem about never being satisfied, and the Writer rages at the Stalker for assuming he was morally unworthy. Suddenly, a phone in the antechamber rings. The surprised Professor uses it to call an old enemy scientist, gloating about finding the Room. As the trio prepare to enter the Room, the Professor reveals his true intentions: he has brought a 20-kiloton bomb in his backpack to destroy the Room and therefore prevent evil men from abusing it for gain. He blames the Room, the Stalkers, and their clients for the recent rise of crime, political strife, and destructive science. After a brief scuffle over the bomb, the Stalker weeps, claiming that only the Room has given him meaning in his otherwise pitiful life and that it is the last beacon of hope for humanity. The Writer deduces that the Stalker's mentor Porcupine hanged himself because of the guilt the Room caused him when it presented him with riches rather than the return of his deceased brother, showing that Porcupine subconsciously cared more about wealth than love. Thus, the Room's ability to grant one's deepest and most secret desire additionally provides a window into the morality of one's soul. The Writer suggests that it is impossible to use the Room for selfish reasons because nobody can know their deepest subconscious desires. The Professor's fears soothed, he dismantles the bomb. The three men sit just outside the Room in silence; none attempt to enter it. The Stalker, the Writer, and the Professor are met back outside the Zone at the bar-café by the Stalker's wife and daughter. The Stalker returns home in total distress, lamenting to his wife how humanity has lost its capacity for faith, which is needed to traverse the Zone and live a good life. As the Stalker sleeps, his wife contemplates their relationship in a soliloquy delivered to the camera. She says that she would prefer an interesting life of hardship over an easy, boring one. The couple's daughter sits alone, while a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited through voice-over. The girl appears to use psychokinesis to push three drinking glasses across the table, a train shakes the room as it passes by, and Beethoven's "Ode to Joy" is heard.