Stalker (1979 film)

A man works as a "Stalker", leading people through the "Zone", an area where the normal laws of physics do not apply, and remnants of seemingly extraterrestrial activity lie undisturbed among its ruins. At the heart of the Zone lies a "Room," which is said to grant the wishes of anyone who steps inside. The Zone contains ominous, supernatural hazards. The government bans anyone from entering the Zone and subjects Stalkers to long prison sentences if caught.

The Stalker has just returned from prison to his wife and daughter. To his wife's horror, two men, a "Writer" and a "Professor," hire him to guide them to the Zone. He meets his clients in a rundown bar-café, and warns them that they must do exactly as he says to survive the dangers that lie ahead. He explains that the Zone is a living thing that visitors must respect, and warns that within the Zone, the straightest path is not always the shortest path.

The group evades the Zone's military guards by following a train inside the gate. They ride into the heart of the Zone on a railway work car.{{#tag:ref|The film goes from monochrome to full color at this point.|group="n"}} The Stalker tests for gravitational anomalies by throwing metal nuts tied to strips of cloth. The Writer is skeptical of any real danger, but the Professor generally follows the Stalker's advice.

As they travel, the three men discuss their reasons for wanting to visit the Room. The Writer expresses his fear of losing his inspiration. The Professor seems less anxious, but insists on carrying along a small backpack. The Professor admits he hopes to win a Nobel Prize for scientific analysis of the Zone. The Stalker insists that he has no motive beyond the altruistic aim of aiding the desperate to their desires; he mentions that his mentor, another stalker, obtained great riches by entering the Room, and then hanged himself.

After traveling through the fields and tunnels, the three finally reach their destination: a decrepit industrial building. The men hesitate as the Room is guarded by a "Meat Grinder" anomaly that requires a death for someone to enter the Room proper, which causes an argument. In a small antechamber, a phone rings. The surprised Professor decides to use the phone to telephone his former boss to gloat about finding the Room. As the trio prepare to enter the Room, the Professor reveals his true intentions in undertaking the journey. The Professor has brought a 20-kiloton bomb to destroy the Room and prevent evil men from abusing it for their own gain. He blames the Room, the Stalkers, and their clients for the rise of crime, social strife, military coups, and destructive science.{{Cite web |title=Stalker Film Script |url=https://www.alchemergy.net/articles/Stalker%20Film%20Script.pdf |access-date=January 11, 2024 |website=Alchemergy |quote=Oh what can you understand, you funny man! And you are not the only stalker in the world! And not a stalker ever knows, with what those, whom they lead, come in here and with what they leave. And the number of unmotivated crimes is rising! Isn’t it your work (goes around in the room)? And military coups and mafia in the governments – are they not your clients? And lasers, and all these supreme bacteria, all that repulsive filth, until the right moment hidden in safes?}} The three men enter a physical and verbal standoff just outside the Room that leaves them exhausted.

It turns out that the Room's ability to grant one's deepest desire serves as a mirror into the soul. The Writer deduces that Stalker's mentor hanged himself because he sent his brother to his death in the Meat Grinder and entered the Room to wish for his brother back, only for the Room to realize that he valued money more than his brother's life. The Professor gives up on his plan of destroying the Room, and disassembles the bomb. Although the Writer asserts that it is impossible to use the Room for selfish reasons because nobody can know their true desires, no one attempts to enter the Room.

The Stalker, the Writer, and the Professor are met back at the bar-café by the Stalker's wife and daughter. After returning home, the Stalker laments 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 monologue delivered directly to the camera. She says that she would prefer an interesting life of hardship than an easy, boring one. Martyshka, the couple's daughter, sits alone in the kitchen reading while a love poem by Fyodor Tyutchev is recited. She appears to use psychokinesis to push three drinking glasses across the table, but that is made ambiguous as simultaneously a train passes by the family's apartment and the whole room shakes.

• Alexander Kaidanovsky as the Stalker
• Anatoly Solonitsyn as the Writer
• Alisa Freindlich as the Stalker's wife
• Nikolai Grinko as the Professor (voiced by Sergei Yakovlev)
• Natasha Abramova as Martyshka, the Stalker's daughter
• Faime Jurno as the Writer's interlocutress
• Evgeniy Kostin as Lyuger, owner of the bar-café (credited as E. Kostin)
• Raimo Rendi as the patrolman
• Vladimir Zamansky as the Professor's telephone interlocutor

The meaning of the word "stalker" was derived from its use by the Strugatsky brothers in their novel Roadside Picnic, upon which the movie is based. In Roadside Picnic, "Stalker" was a common nickname for men engaged in the illegal enterprise of prospecting for and smuggling alien artifacts out of the "Zone". According to author Boris Strugatsky, "prospectors" and "trappers" were potential word choices before "stalker" was decided on, which was at least partially inspired by Rudyard Kipling's character "Stalky" in his Stalky & Co. stories, of which both authors were fans. Their adaptation of the English word into Russian is pronounced slightly differently as "Stullker", and it came into common usage after being "coined" by the authors.{{cite book |last1=Strugatsky |first1=Arkady and Boris |title=Roadside Picnic |date=2012 |publisher=Chicago Review Press, Incorporated |isbn=978-1-61374-341-6 |page=197}}

Tarkovsky also wrote "Stalker is from the word 'to stalk'—to creep." in a 1976 diary entry.{{cite book |last=Tarkovsky |first=Andrei |date=1991 |title=Time Within Time: The Diaries 1970–1986|url=https://monoskop.org/images/d/dd/Tarkovsky_Andrey_Time_Within_Time_The_Diaries_1970-1986.pdf |access-date=2016-05-04 |publisher=Seagull Books |page=136 |isbn=81-7046-083-2}}

In the film, a "stalker" is a professional guide to the Zone, someone having the ability and desire to cross the border into the dangerous and forbidden place with a specific goal.{{citation|last= John Gianvito|title=Andrei Tarkovsky: Interviews|publisher= University Press of Mississippi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WKp-hAuQ_2oC |year=2006 |pages=50–54 |isbn=1-57806-220-9}}

In a review in Slant Magazine, critic Nick Schager describes the film as a "dense, complex, often-contradictory, and endlessly pliable allegory about human consciousness, the necessity for faith in an increasingly secular, rational world, and the ugly, unpleasant dreams and desires that reside in the hearts of men", while conceding that the obliqueness of the imagery renders definitive interpretation "both pointless... [and] somewhat futile".

Several critics have identified the nature of human desire as a central theme of the film. James Berardinelli interprets the film as suggesting that "one's innermost desire may not be what one thinks it is and that one may be better off not achieving it",{{cite web |last=Berardinelli |first=James |date=April 27, 2019 |title=Stalker (USSR, 1979) |url=https://www.reelviews.net/reelviews/stalker |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=ReelViews}} while Schager describes the film as capturing "the essence of what man is made of... a yearning for something that's simultaneously beyond our reach and yet intrinsic to every one of us".

Geoff Dyer argues the Stalker is "seeking asylum from the world", and says that "while the film may not be about the gulag, it is haunted by memories of the camps, from the overlap of vocabulary ("Zona", "the meat grinder") to the Stalker's Zek-style shaved head".{{Cite web|last=Dyer|first=Geoff|date=February 5, 2009|title=Danger! High-radiation arthouse!|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/feb/06/andrei-tarkovsky-stalker-russia-gulags-chernobyl|access-date=January 4, 2021|website=The Guardian}}

Writer Lilya Kaganovsky says the film's mysterious Zone drawn comparisons with the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone that was established in 1986 (seven years after the release of the film) in the aftermath of the Chernobyl disaster,{{cite web |last=Olsen |first=Mark |date=May 18, 2017 |title=Review: Rereleases of 'Stalker' and 'Solaris' gives us a fresh look at Andrei Tarkovsky's heady sci-fi |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/movies/la-et-mn-tarkovsky-stalker-solaris-review-20170518-story.html |access-date=February 6, 2021 |website=Los Angeles Times}} and some of the people employed to take care of the Chernobyl power plant referred to themselves as "stalkers".{{cite web|url=http://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/?p=1125 |title=The Stalker meme |publisher=Johncoulthart.com |date=2006-12-07 |access-date=2022-11-07}} Though the film does not specify the origin of the Zone, near the end, in a shot of the Stalker with his family outside the Zone, what appears to be a power plant is visible in the background. The themes of nuclear radiation and environmental degradation would be revisited by Tarkovsky in his final film, The Sacrifice.

Midway in the film, the Stalker has an interior monologue in which he quotes the entire section 76 of Lao Tse's Tao Te Ching, the text of which characterizes softness and pliancy as qualities of a newborn, hence, new life; hardness and strength, on the contrary, are qualities nearing death. ("Man, when he enters life, is soft and weak. When he dies he is hard and strong."){{Cite book|last=Wilhelm|first=Richard|title=Tao Te Ching|publisher=Routledge, Kegan Paul Ltd|year=1985|isbn=1-85063-011-9|location=London|pages=62}}

Slavistic Nils Åke Nilsson says that in the context of late Soviet stagnation, Tarkovsky makes a contrast between the oppressive dystopiaNILSSON, NILS AKE. “UTOPIA AND DYSTOPIA IN TARKOVSKII’S FILM ‘STALKER.’” Russian History, vol. 11, no. 2/3, 1984, pp. 320–26. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/24652749. Accessed 26 Nov. 2023. of the outside world—marked by industrial decay, pollution, alienation, and political repression—and the Zone, a realm of beauty and mystery. In conjunction with the Room, they act as a representations of new possibilities, a utopia amidst the anti-utopian world of modern society, offering an escape from the constraints of the decaying society. The film reflects the disillusionment of late socialism,Kaganovsky, L. (2009). The cultural logic of late socialism. Studies in Russian and Soviet Cinema, 3(2), 185–199. https://doi.org/10.1386/srsc.3.2.185_1 which fell short of the communist utopia, resulting in a stagnant and sterile reality.

In this film, Tarkovsky wishes to emphasize two essentially human aspects, faith and love. He believes that faith "cannot be dissolved or broken down, [it] forms like a crystal in the soul of each of us and constitutes its great worth," and that when humans feel that there is no more hope in the world, love is what proves them otherwise. The Writer feels as though the world has become mundane and ordinary, and has become cynical of it, he desires to be shaken by the unknown that is the zone. What ends up surprising him is not the zone, but instead, the Stalker's wife and her faithfulness to the stalker even after all he has put her through, "her love and her devotion are that final miracle which can be set against the unbelief, cynicism, moral vacuum poisoning the modern world, of which both the Writer and the Scientist are victims", in Tarkovsky's films, he believes that it is his responsibility to make his viewers aware and reflect on their need to love and to give their love.

Like Tarkovsky's other films, Stalker relies on long takes with slow, subtle camera movement, rejecting the use of rapid montage. The film contains 142 shots in 163 minutes, with an average shot length of more than one minute and many shots lasting for more than four minutes.{{citation |last=Johnson |first=Vida T. |author2=Graham Petrie |title=The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1994 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=GnFYvV6FiMIC&q=a+visual+fuge |page=152 |isbn=0-253-20887-4}}{{#tag:ref|For comparison, modern Hollywood films typically have an average shot length of four to six seconds.{{cite web |last=Semley |first=John |title=Why Andrei Tarkovsky's interminably dull 1979 sci-fi masterpiece "Stalker" is the movie we need right now |date=July 29, 2017 |url=https://www.salon.com/2017/07/29/why-andrei-tarkovskys-interminably-dull-1979-sci-fi-masterpiece-stalker-is-the-movie-we-need-right-now/ |website=Salon.com |access-date=February 6, 2021}}|group="n"}} Almost all of the scenes not set in the Zone are in sepia or a similar high-contrast brown monochrome, with the exception of scenes featuring Stalker's daughter, shot in colour.

After reading the novel Roadside Picnic, by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky, Tarkovsky initially recommended it to a friend, the film director Mikhail Kalatozov, thinking Kalatozov might be interested in adapting it into a film. Kalatozov abandoned the project when he could not obtain the rights to the novel. Tarkovsky then became very interested in adapting the novel and expanding its concepts. He hoped it would allow him to make a film which conformed to the classical Aristotelian unity: a single action, on a single location, within 24 hours (single point in time).

Tarkovsky viewed the idea of the Zone as a dramatic tool to draw out the personalities of the three protagonists, particularly the psychological damage from everything that happens to the idealistic views of the Stalker as he finds himself unable to make others happy: "This, too, is what Stalker is about: the hero goes through moments of despair when his faith is shaken; but every time he comes to a renewed sense of his vocation to serve people who have lost their hopes and illusions."{{Cite book |title=Sculpting in Time. Reflections on the Cinema |last=Tarkovsky |first=Andrey|author-mask=Tarkovsky, Andrey {{sic}} |date=1987 |orig-date=1986 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |page=[https://books.google.com/books?id=u-HRWkL6vnAC&pg=PA193&dq=%22This,+too,+is+what+Stalker+is+about:+the+hero+goes+through+moments+of+despair+when+his+faith+is+shaken;+but+every+time+he+comes+to+a+renewed+sense+of+his+vocation+to+serve+people+who+have+lost+their+hopes+and+illusions%22 193] |isbn=0292776241|title-link=Sculpting in Time }}

The film departs considerably from the novel. According to an interview with Tarkovsky in 1979, the film has basically nothing in common with the novel except for the two words "Stalker" and "Zone".

Yet several similarities remain between the novel and the film. In both works, the Zone is guarded by a police or military guard, apparently authorized to use deadly force. The Stalker in both works tests the safety of his path by tossing nuts and bolts tied with scraps of cloth, verifying that gravity is working as usual. A character named Porcupine is a mentor to Stalker. In the novel, frequent visits to the Zone increase the likelihood of abnormalities in the visitor's offspring. In the book, the Stalker's daughter has light hair all over her body, while in the film she is disabled (uses crutches) and has psychokinetic abilities. The 'meat grinder', a particularly perilous location, is mentioned in both film and the book. Neither in the novel nor in the film do the women enter the Zone — indeed, the film features a female character who is introduced as wishing to enter the Zone, but who is dismissed by the Stalker prior to departure. Finally, the target of the expedition in both works is a wish-granting device.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In Roadside Picnic, the site was specifically described as the site of alien visitation; the name of the novel derives from a metaphor proposed by a character who compares the visit to a roadside picnic. The closing monologue by the Stalker's wife at the end of the film has no equivalent in the novel. An early draft of the screenplay was published as a novel titled Stalker, or The Wish Machine, that differs substantially from the finished film.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In an interview on the MK2 DVD, the production designer, Rashit Safiullin, recalled that Tarkovsky spent a year shooting all the outdoor scenes. However, when the crew returned to Moscow, they found that the film had been improperly developed and their footage was unusable. The film had been shot on new Kodak 5247 stock with which Soviet laboratories were not very familiar. Even before the film stock problem was discovered, relations between Tarkovsky and Stalker{{'}}s first cinematographer, Georgy Rerberg, had deteriorated. After seeing the poorly developed material, Tarkovsky fired Rerberg. Safiullin contends that Tarkovsky was so despondent at having to discard all the outdoor work that he wanted to abandon further work on the film.

After the loss of the film stock, the Soviet film boards wanted to shut the film down, but Tarkovsky came up with a solution: he asked to be allowed to make a two-part film, which meant additional deadlines and more funds. Tarkovsky ended up reshooting almost all of the film with a new cinematographer, Alexander Knyazhinsky. According to Safiullin, the finished version of Stalker is completely different from the one Tarkovsky originally shot.

The documentary film Rerberg and Tarkovsky: The Reverse Side of "Stalker" by Igor Mayboroda offers a different interpretation of the relationship between Rerberg and Tarkovsky. Rerberg felt that Tarkovsky was not ready for this script. He told Tarkovsky to rewrite the script in order to achieve a good result. Tarkovsky ignored him and continued shooting. After several arguments, Tarkovsky sent Rerberg home. Ultimately, Tarkovsky shot Stalker three times, consuming over {{convert|5000|m}} of film. People who have seen both the first version shot by Rerberg (as Director of Photography) and the final theatrical release say that they are almost identical. Tarkovsky sent home other crew members in addition to Rerberg, excluding them from the credits, as well.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

{{stack|File:Jägala HEP, Sept 2009.jpg, Estonia, where the central part of Stalker was shot]]}}

The central part of the film, in which the characters travel within the Zone, was shot in a few days at two deserted hydro power plants on the Jägala river near Tallinn, Estonia.{{Citation |last=Norton |first=James |title=Stalking the Stalker |url=http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Norton.html |publisher=Nostalghia.com |access-date=2010-09-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180316214005/https://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Norton.html |archive-date=2018-03-16}} The shot before they enter the Zone is an old Flora chemical factory in the center of Tallinn, next to the old Rotermann salt storage (now Museum of Estonian Architecture), and the former Tallinn Power Plant, now Tallinn Creative Hub, where a memorial plate of the film was set up in 2008. Some shots within the Zone were filmed in Maardu, next to the Iru Power Plant, while the shot with the gates to the Zone was filmed in Lasnamäe, next to Punane Street behind the Idakeskus. Other shots were filmed near the Tallinn–Narva highway bridge on the Pirita river. A small set was built in Moscow not far from the CHPP-20 thermal power plant for the scene exiting the bar.{{Citation |last=Bessmertny |first=Sergey |title=Моя работа на съёмках "Сталкера" |url=https://immos.livejournal.com/67613.html |publisher=immos.livejournal.com |access-date=2023-09-13 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230407192441/https://immos.livejournal.com/67613.html |archive-date=2023-04-07}}

Several people involved in the film production, and possibly Tarkovsky himself, died from causes that some crew members attributed to the film's long shooting schedule in toxic locations. Sound designer Vladimir Sharun recalled:

{{blockquote|We were shooting near Tallinn in the area around the small river Jägala with a half-functioning hydroelectric station. Up the river was a chemical plant and it poured out poisonous liquids downstream. There is even this shot in Stalker: snow falling in the summer and white foam floating down the river. In fact it was some horrible poison. Many women in our crew got allergic reactions on their faces. Tarkovsky died from cancer of the right bronchial tube. And Tolya Solonitsyn too. That it was all connected to the location shooting for Stalker became clear to me when Larisa Tarkovskaya died from the same illness in Paris.{{Citation |last=Tyrkin |first=Stas |title=In Stalker Tarkovsky foretold Chernobyl |url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Stalker/sharun.html |publisher=Nostalghia.com |date=2001-03-23 |access-date=2009-05-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20180322094135/https://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Stalker/sharun.html |archive-date=2018-03-22}}}}

The Stalker film score was composed by Eduard Artemyev, who had also composed the scores for Tarkovsky's previous films Solaris and Mirror. For Stalker, Artemyev composed and recorded two different versions of the score. The first score was done with an orchestra alone but was rejected by Tarkovsky. The second score that was used in the final film was created on a synthesizer along with traditional instruments that were manipulated using sound effects.{{citation |last=Johnson |first=Vida T. |author2=Graham Petrie |title=The Films of Andrei Tarkovsky: A Visual Fugue |publisher=Indiana University Press |year=1994 |page=57 |isbn=0-253-20887-4}}

In the final film score, the boundaries between music and sound were blurred, as natural sounds and music interact to the point where they are indistinguishable. In fact, many of the natural sounds were not production sounds but were created by Artemyev on his synthesizer.{{Citation |url=http://www.electroshock.ru/eng/edward/interview/varaldiev/ |title=Russian Composer Edward Artemiev |last=Varaldiev |first=Anneliese |publisher=Electroshock Records |access-date=2009-06-12}}

For Tarkovsky, music was more than just a parallel illustration of the visual image. He believed that music distorts and changes the emotional tone of a visual image while not changing the meaning. He also believed that in a film with complete theoretical consistency, music will have no place and that instead music is replaced by sounds. According to Tarkovsky, he aimed at this consistency and moved into this direction in Stalker and Nostalghia.{{citation |last=Tarkovsky |first=Andrei |others=translated by Kitty Hunter-Blair |title=Sculpting in Time |publisher=University of Texas Press |year=1987 |pages=158–159 |isbn=0-292-77624-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=u-HRWkL6vnAC}}

In addition to the original monophonic soundtrack, the Russian Cinema Council (Ruscico) created an alternative 5.1 surround sound track for the 2001 DVD release. In addition to remixing the mono soundtrack, music and sound effects were removed and added in several scenes. Music was added to the scene where the three are traveling to the Zone on a motorized draisine. In the opening and the final scene Beethoven's Ninth Symphony was removed and in the opening scene in Stalker's house ambient sounds were added, changing the original soundtrack, in which this scene was completely silent except for the sound of a train.{{Citation|url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/newsStalker_RusCiCo.html|title=The RusCiCo Stalker DVD|last=Bielawski|first=Jan |author2=Trond S. Trondsen|date=2001–2002|publisher=Nostalghia.com|access-date=2009-06-14}}

{{stack|File:Azerbaycan Tar'ı.jpg is used in the Stalker theme.]]}}

Initially, Tarkovsky had no clear understanding of the musical atmosphere of the final film and only an approximate idea where in the film the music was to be. Even after he had shot all the material he continued his search for the ideal film score, wanting a combination of Oriental and Western music. In a conversation with Artemyev he explained that he needed music that reflects the idea that although the East and the West can coexist, they are not able to understand each other.{{citation|url=http://www.electroshock.ru/eng/edward/interview/egorova/|title=Edward Artemiev: He has been and will always remain a creator…|last=Egorova|first=Tatyana|publisher=Electroshock Records|access-date=2009-06-07}}, (originally published in Muzikalnaya zhizn, Vol. 17, 1988) One of Tarkovsky's ideas was to perform Western music on Oriental instruments (or vice versa). Artemyev proposed to try this idea with the motet Pulcherrima Rosa by an anonymous 14th century Italian composer dedicated to the Virgin Mary.{{citation |last=Egorova|first=Tatyana|title=Soviet Film Music |publisher=Routledge |year=1997 |pages=249–252 |isbn=3-7186-5911-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gFeJrPBSV6kC |access-date=2009-06-07}}

In its original form Tarkovsky did not perceive the motet as suitable for the film and asked Artemyev to give it an Oriental sound. Later, Tarkovsky proposed to invite musicians from Armenia and Azerbaijan and to let them improvise on the melody of the motet. A musician was invited from Azerbaijan who played the main melody on a tar based on mugham, accompanied by orchestral background music written by Artemyev.{{cite web|title=August 26 – International Day of Azerbaijani Mugham|url=http://www.today.az/news/entertainment/93230.html|website=www.today.az|access-date=15 August 2014}} Tarkovsky, who, unusually for him, attended the full recording session, rejected the final result as not what he was looking for.

Rethinking their approach, they finally found the solution in a theme that would create a state of inner calmness and inner satisfaction, or as Tarkovsky said "space frozen in a dynamic equilibrium". Artemyev knew about a musical piece from Indian classical music where a prolonged and unchanged background tone is performed on a tanpura. As this gave Artemyev the impression of frozen space, he used this inspiration and created a background tone on his synthesizer similar to the background tone performed on the tanpura. The tar then improvised on the background sound, together with a flute as a European, Western instrument.{{citation|last=Turovskaya|first=Maya|title=7½, ili filmy Andreya Tarkovskovo |publisher=Iskusstvo |location=Moscow |year=1991 |isbn=5-210-00279-9|url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Stalker/artemyev.html|access-date=2009-06-07 |language=ru}} To mask the obvious combination of European and Oriental instruments he passed the foreground music through the effect channels of his SYNTHI 100 synthesizer. These effects included modulating the sound of the flute and lowering the speed of the tar, so that what Artemyev called "the life of one string" could be heard. Tarkovsky was amazed by the result, especially liking the sound of the tar, and used the theme without any alterations in the film.

The title sequence is accompanied by Artemyev's main theme. The opening sequence of the film showing Stalker's room is mostly silent. Periodically one hears what could be a train. The sound becomes louder and clearer over time until the sound and the vibrations of objects in the room give a sense of a train's passing by without the train being visible. This aural impression is quickly subverted by the muffled sound of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The source of this music is unclear, thus setting the tone for the blurring of reality in the film.{{citation|last=Smith|first=Stefan|date=November 2007|title=The edge of perception: sound in Tarkovsky's Stalker|journal=The Soundtrack|publisher=Intellect Publishing|volume=1|issue=1|pages=41–52|doi=10.1386/st.1.1.41_1}} For this part of the film Tarkovsky was also considering music by Richard Wagner or the Marseillaise.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}

In an interview with Tonino Guerra in 1979, Tarkovsky said that he wanted, "... music that is more or less popular, that expresses the movement of the masses, the theme of humanity's social destiny ... But this music must be barely heard beneath the noise, in a way that the spectator is not aware of it."

{{quote box

| quote = I would like most of the noise and sound to be composed by a composer. In the film, for example, the three people undertake a long journey in a railway car. I'd like that the noise of the wheels on the rails not be the natural sound but elaborated upon by the composer with electronic music. At the same time, one mustn't be aware of music, nor natural sounds.

| source = –Andrei Tarkovsky, interviewed by Tonino Guerra in 1979.

| align = left

| width = 30%

| fontsize = 100%

}}

The journey into the Zone on a motorized rail car features a disconnection between the visual image and the sound. The presence of the rail car is registered only through the clanking sound of the wheels on the tracks. Neither the rail car nor the scenery passing by is shown, since the camera is focused on the faces of the characters. This disconnection draws the audience into the inner world of the characters and transforms the physical journey into an inner journey. This effect on the audience is reinforced by Artemyev's synthesizer effects, which make the clanking wheels sound less and less natural as the journey progresses. When the three arrive in the Zone initially, it appears to be silent. Only after some time, and only slightly audibly can one hear the sound of a distant river, the sound of the blowing wind, or the occasional cry of an animal. These sounds grow richer and more audible while the Stalker makes his first venture into the Zone, as if the sound draws him towards the Zone. The sparseness of sounds in the Zone draws attention to specific sounds, which, as in other scenes, are largely disconnected from the visual image. Animals can be heard in the distance but are never shown. A breeze can be heard, but no visual reference is shown. This effect is reinforced by occasional synthesizer effects which meld with the natural sounds and blur the boundaries between artificial and alien sounds and the sounds of nature.

During the journey in the Zone, the sound of water becomes more and more prominent, which, combined with the visual image, presents the Zone as a drenched world. In an interview Tarkovsky dismissed the idea that water has a symbolic meaning in his films, saying that there was so much rain in his films because it is always raining in Russia. In another interview, on the film Nostalghia, however, he said "Water is a mysterious element, a single molecule of which is very photogenic. It can convey movement and a sense of change and flux."{{citation|last=Mitchell|first=Tony|date=Winter 1982–1983|title=Tarkovsky in Italy|journal=Sight and Sound |publisher=The British Film Institut e|pages=54–56 |url=http://www.acs.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Tarkovsky_in_Italy.html |access-date=2009-06-13}} Emerging from the tunnel called the "meat grinder" by the Stalker, they arrive at the entrance of their destination, the room. Here, as in the rest of the film, sound is constantly changing and not necessarily connected to the visual image. The journey in the Zone ends with the three sitting in the room, silent, with no audible sound. When the sound resumes, it is again the sound of water but with a different timbre, softer and gentler, as if to give a sense of catharsis and hope. The transition back to the world outside the Zone is supported by sound. While the camera still shows a pool of water inside the Zone, the audience begins to hear the sound of a train and Ravel's Boléro, reminiscent of the opening scene. The soundscape of the world outside the Zone is the same as before, characterized by train wheels, foghorns of a ship and train whistles. The film ends as it began, with the sound of a train passing by, accompanied by the muffled sound of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9, this time the Ode to Joy from the final moments of the symphony. As in the rest of the film the disconnect between the visual image and the sound leaves the audience unclear whether the sound is real or an illusion.

Stalker sold 4.3 million tickets in the Soviet Union.{{citation|last=Segida|first=Miroslava |author2=Sergei Zemlianukhin|title=Domashniaia sinemateka: Otechestvennoe kino 1918–1996|publisher=Dubl-D|year=1996|language=ru}}

Upon its release the film's reception was less than favorable. Officials at Goskino, a government group otherwise known as the State Committee for Cinematography, were critical of the film.Tsymbal E., 2008. Tarkovsky, Sculpting the Stalker: Towards a new language of cinema, London, black dog publishing On being told that Stalker should be faster and more dynamic, Tarkovsky replied: "The film needs to be slower and duller at the start so that the viewers who walked into the wrong theatre have time to leave before the main action starts." The Goskino representative then stated that he was trying to give the point of view of the audience. Tarkovsky supposedly retorted: "I am only interested in the views of two people: one is called Bresson and one called Bergman."{{Cite book |title=Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room |last=Dyer |first=Geoff |date=1987 |publisher=Canongate |location=Edinburgh |page=13 |isbn=978-0-85786-167-2|title-link=Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room }}}}

More recently, reviews of the film have been highly positive. On review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Stalker is rated at 100% based on 43 reviews with an average rating of 8.6/10. Its critical consensus states, "Stalker is a complex, oblique parable that draws unforgettable images and philosophical musings from its sci-fi/thriller setting."{{cite web |url=https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1043378_stalker?|title=Stalker (1979) |website=Rotten Tomatoes |access-date=2018-07-01}} Metacritic assigned the film a weighted average score of 85 out of 100, based on 17 critics, indicating "universal acclaim".{{cite web | url=https://www.metacritic.com/movie/stalker?ftag=MCD-06-10aaa1c | title=Stalker | website=Metacritic }} It earned a place in the British Film Institute's "100 Greatest Films of All Time" poll conducted for Sight & Sound in September 2012. The group's critics listed Stalker at joint No. 29.{{cite web|url=http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120802102928/http://www.bfi.org.uk/news/50-greatest-films-all-time|url-status=dead|archive-date=2 August 2012|title=The 100 Greatest Films of All Time|author=Christie, Ian|date=1 August 2012|work=Sight & Sound|others=Contributors to Sight & Sound magazine.|orig-year=2012|via=British Film Institute|access-date=2022-11-07}} Directors ranked it at No. 30. In The Guardian, Geoff Dyer described the film as "synonymous both with cinema's claims to high art and a test of the viewer's ability to appreciate it as such". Critic Derek Adams of the Time Out Film Guide has compared Stalker to Francis Ford Coppola's Apocalypse Now, also released in 1979, and argued that "as a journey to the heart of darkness" Stalker looks "a good deal more persuasive than Coppola's."Adams, Derek (2006). [http://www.timeout.com/film/reviews/75240/stalker.html Stalker], Time Out Film Guide Slant Magazine reviewer Nick Schager has praised the film as an "endlessly pliable allegory about human consciousness".

In 2018, the film was voted the 49th greatest non-English-language film of all time in a poll by BBC Culture involving 209 critics in 43 countries.{{Cite web|last=|first=|date=|title=The 100 greatest foreign-language films|url=https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20181029-the-100-greatest-foreign-language-films|access-date=January 14, 2021|website=BBC Culture}}

The film was awarded the Prize of the Ecumenical Jury at the Cannes Film Festival,{{cite web|url=https://www2.bfi.org.uk/features/tarkovsky/|work=BFI|title=Andrei Tarkovsky, Solaris and Stalker|author=Stephen Dalton}} and the Audience Jury Award – Special Mention at Fantasporto, Portugal.{{Citation |title=Stalker (1979) - Awards - IMDb |url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0079944/awards/ |access-date=2024-01-13 |language=en-US}}

• In East Germany, DEFA did a complete German dubbed version of the movie which was shown in cinema in 1982. This was used by Icestorm Entertainment on a DVD release, but was heavily criticized for its lack of the original language version, subtitles and had an overall bad image quality.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
• RUSCICO produced a version for the international market containing the film on two DVDs with remastered audio and video. It contains the original Russian audio in an enhanced Dolby Digital 5.1 remix as well as the original mono version. The DVD also contains subtitles in 13 languages and interviews with cameraman Alexander Knyazhinsky, painter and production designer Rashit Safiullin and composer Eduard Artemyev.[http://www.ruscico.com/catalog/cataloguedvd/catalogue_195.html R·U·S·C·I·C·O-DVD of Stalker] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20121015180306/http://www.ruscico.com/catalog/cataloguedvd/catalogue_195.html |date=15 October 2012 }}
• Criterion Collection released a remastered edition DVD and Blu-Ray on 17 July 2017. Included in the special features is an interview with film critic Geoff Dyer, author of the book Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room.{{cite web|title=Stalker (1979) The Criterion Collection|url=https://www.criterion.com/films/28150-stalker|access-date=2020-08-22}}

• The film heavily influenced the Cacophony Society, which began in 1986 in the San Francisco Bay Area and which organized "Zone Trips" for participants.{{cite web |last1=Weisenburger |first1=Kristen |title=Into the Zone — Episode 2: A Bad Day at Black Rock |url=https://journal.burningman.org/2021/09/black-rock-city/building-brc/into-the-zone-episode-2/ |website=The Burning Man Journal |publisher=Burning Man Project |access-date=10 September 2021 |date=3 September 2021}}
• The first burning of a wooden, symbolic man at Black Rock Desert, Nevada, occurred on "Zone Trip Number 4" in 1990. This occasion evolved into an enormous annual festival of arts, music, culture called Burning Man.{{cite web |last1=Weisenburger |first1=Kristen |title=Enter the Zone — Episode 1: How a Band of Pranksters Inadvertently Created Burning Man |url=https://journal.burningman.org/2021/08/black-rock-city/building-brc/zone-episode-1-how-pranksters-created-burning-man/ |website=The Burning Man Journal |publisher=Burning Man Project |access-date=10 September 2021 |date=23 August 2021}}

• The French filmmaker Chris Marker used Tarkovsky's concept of "The Zone" from the film for his film, Sans Soleil (1983).{{cite book |author1=Catherine Lupton |title=Chris Marker - Memories of the Future |date=2005 |publisher=Reaktion Books |isbn=9781861892232}}
• Stalker, the Russian International Human Rights Film Festival, was named after the film at its founding in 1995.{{cite web | title=О фестивале | website=Международный фестиваль фильмов о правах человека «Сталкер» (Stalker Film Festival)| url=http://www.stalkerfest.org/o-festivale | language=ru | access-date=4 September 2022}}
• The 2012 film Chernobyl Diaries also involves a tour guide, similar to a stalker, giving groups "extreme tours" of the Chernobyl area.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
• Jonathan Nolan, co-creator of Westworld (2016–2022), cites Stalker as an influence on his work for the HBO series.{{cite web|url=https://www.facebook.com/WestworldHBO/videos/1763104840625568/ |title=Facebook Live discussing Westworld moderated by The Atlantic's Christopher Orr |website=Facebook |date=2016-10-09 |access-date=2017-02-15}}
• In the 2017 film Atomic Blonde, the protagonist Lorraine Broughton goes into an East Berlin theater showing Stalker.{{cite web |date=2021-01-03 |title= Atomic Blonde |url= http://www.filmsinfilms.com/atomic-blonde/ |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20171113191416/http://www.filmsinfilms.com/atomic-blonde/ |url-status= usurped |archive-date= 13 November 2017 |website= Films in films |access-date=2021-01-03}}
• Annihilation (2018), a science fiction psychological horror film written and directed by Alex Garland, although based on the eponymous novel by Jeff VanderMeer, for some critics seems to have obvious similarities with the Roadside Picnic and Stalker.{{cite web |author1=Ignatiy Vishnevetsky |title=What Annihilation learned from Andrei Tarkovsky's Soviet sci-fi classics |url=https://www.avclub.com/what-annihilation-learned-from-andrei-tarkovsky-s-sovie-1819005171 |website=The A.V. Club |access-date=2020-03-08 |language=en-us |date=24 February 2018}}{{cite web |author1=Alex Lindstrom |title=Fear and Loathing in the Zone: Annihilation's Dreamy 'Death Drive' |url=https://www.popmatters.com/annihilation-fear-and-loathing-2573291244.html?rebelltitem=8#rebelltitem8 |website=PopMatters |access-date=2020-03-08 |language=en |date=11 June 2018}}{{cite web |author1=Stuart Starosta |title=Roadside Picnic: Russian SF classic with parallels to Vandermeer's Area X {{!}} Fantasy Literature: Fantasy and Science Fiction Book and Audiobook Reviews |url=http://www.fantasyliterature.com/reviews/roadside-picnic/ |website=fantasyliterature.com |access-date=2020-03-08 |date=2 December 2015}}{{cite web |author1=Christopher Campbell |title=Watch 'Annihilation' and 'Mute,' Then Watch These Movies |url=https://filmschoolrejects.com/movies-to-watch-annihilation-and-mute/ |website=Film School Rejects |access-date=2020-03-08 |date=24 February 2018}}{{cite magazine |last= McCoy| first= Chris| date= 2018-03-02| title= Annihilation|url= https://www.memphisflyer.com/annihilation|magazine=Memphis Flyer |publisher= Contemporary Media |access-date=2022-11-07}} However, such notions prompted the author of the Annihilation novel, upon which the movie is based, to state that his story "is 100% NOT a tribute to Picnic/Stalker" via his official Twitter account.{{cite web |last1=VanderMeer |first1=Jeff |title=Annihilation is 100% NOT a tribute to Picnic/Stalker. But I keep hearing Tanis = Annihilation. Why? |url=https://twitter.com/jeffvandermeer/status/754674019174060032 |website=@jeffvandermeer |access-date=2020-03-08 |language=en |date=17 July 2016}}
• Shadowland (2024), a documentary film portraying an esoteric Pyrenean community and its leader Richard Stanley, who borrows the Zone concept both as a personal interpretation of the supernatural and as a tool of manipulation.https://moveablefest.com/otso-tiainen-shadowland/

• In 2012, the English writer Geoff Dyer published Zona: A Book About a Film About a Journey to a Room drawing together his personal observations as well as critical insights about the film and the experience of watching it.

• In the song "Dissidents" from the 1984 album The Flat Earth by Thomas Dolby, the bridge between two verses includes a narrative from the film.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
• The track "The Avenue" by British group Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark samples the sound of a train in motion, recorded directly from the film. Band member and songwriter Andy McCluskey refers to the film as, “One of the most haunting pieces of film and music that I ever saw". The track features as a B-side on the group's 1984 hit single Locomotion.{{cite web |url=http://www.omd-messages.co.uk/club-66-the-avenue/ |title=Club 66 : The Avenue|publisher=omd-messages.co.uk |date=2011-02-01 |access-date=2020-07-27}}
• Stalker was the inspiration for the 1995 album of the same title by Robert Rich and B. Lustmord,{{cite web|url=https://www.sputnikmusic.com/review/33806/Robert-Rich--B.-Lustmord-Stalker//?p=1125 |title=Robert Rich & B. Lustmord - Stalker |publisher=sputnikmusic.com |date=2009-12-04 |access-date=2017-02-12}} which has been noted for its eerie soundscapes and dark ambience.{{cite web|url=http://www.expose.org/index.php/articles/display/robert-rich-b.lustmord-stalker-21.html |title=Robert Rich / B.Lustmord — Stalker |publisher=Exposé |date=1996-08-01 |access-date=2017-02-12}}
• Ambient music duo Stars of the Lid sampled the ending of Stalker in their song "Requiem for Dying Mothers, Part 2", released on their 2001 album The Tired Sounds of Stars of the Lid.
• The Prodigy's music video "Breathe" is heavily influenced by film's visuals and cinematography.{{citation needed|date=June 2020}}
• The lyrics of the 2013 album Pelagial by the progressive metal band The Ocean are inspired by the film.{{cite web|last=Mustein|first=Dave|title=The Ocean Collective Explore Every Imaginable Zone With Pelagial|url=http://www.metalsucks.net/2013/04/08/the-ocean-collective-explore-every-imaginable-zone-with-pelagial/|date=8 April 2013|website=MetalSucks |access-date=2013-05-09}}
• The Vocaloid music series Parties Are For Losers by producer Ferry is heavily influenced by both the novel Roadside Picnic and Stalker, having utilized the concept of the Zone.{{cite web |author1=Ferry |title="How often do you get hate comments/complaints? Was it ever hurtful?" |url=https://www.tumblr.com/nopanamaman/715072932103290880/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%B2%D1%8B-%D1%81%D0%BB%D1%8B%D1%88%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5-%D1%85%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE-%D0%B2-%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%88%D1%83? |website=Tumblr |access-date=22 April 2023 |ref=56 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230422203833/https://www.tumblr.com/nopanamaman/715072932103290880/%D0%BA%D0%B0%D0%BA-%D1%87%D0%B0%D1%81%D1%82%D0%BE-%D0%B2%D1%8B-%D1%81%D0%BB%D1%8B%D1%88%D0%B8%D1%82%D0%B5-%D1%85%D0%B5%D0%B9%D1%82%D0%BD%D0%B5%D0%B4%D0%BE%D0%B2%D0%BE%D0%BB%D1%8C%D1%81%D1%82%D0%B2%D0%BE-%D0%B2-%D0%B2%D0%B0%D1%88%D1%83 |archive-date=2023-04-22 |language=English, Russian |date=2023-04-19 |quote="Someone on Tumblr once wrote that I, as an author, "do not get" the essence of the Zone in Roadside Picnic and Stalker. Which is very funny to hear from a foreigner, who, by definition, cannot grasp the themes of these works in their entirety"}}
• The 2024 song "Tarkovski" by New York band Bodega refers to "The Zone." The title is "a pun on the famous Russian director and skiing," according to vocalist Ben Hozie.{{cite web|url=https://readdork.com/features/bodega-upset-cover-january-2024/ |title=Bodega Take On the Battle of the B(r)ands with Their Third Album and New Single 'Tarkovski' |publisher=Dork |date=2024-01-09 |access-date=2024-04-15}}
• Legendary 80s Argentine post-punk band Don Cornelio y la Zona takes its name from "The Zone".{{cite web | url=https://www.lanacion.com.ar/revista-rolling-stone/la-discografia-de-palo-pandolfo-de-don-cornelio-a-la-hermandad-canciones-de-amor-delirio-y-muerte-nid15092021/ | title=La discografía de Palo Pandolfo: De Don Cornelio a la Hermandad, canciones de amor, delirio y muerte | date=15 September 2021 }}

• In 2007, the Ukrainian video-game developer GSC Game World published S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl, an open-world, first-person shooter very loosely based on both the film, the original novel, and the real life Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant disaster.{{Cite web|last=Winslow-Yost|first=Gabriel|title=In the Zone of Alienation: Tarkovsky as Video Game {{!}} by Gabriel Winslow-Yost|url=https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2012/05/01/zone-chernobyl-tarkovsky-video-game/|access-date=2021-05-19|website=The New York Review of Books|date=May 2012 |language=en}} While the story in the game differs completely from both the book and the movie, several characters offer parallels to those found in the movie and the book. The game was a critical and commercial success, selling over 15 million copies through 2021 and leading two sequels set in a similar environment.{{Cite web|title=KOCH MEDIA AND GSC GAME WORLD PARTNER UP FOR THE PHYSICAL RELEASE OF S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: HEART OF CHERNOBYL|url=https://www.kochmedia.com/en/2021/08/11/koch-media-and-gsc-game-world-partner-up-for-the-physical-release-of-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chernobyl/|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210918131945/https://www.kochmedia.com/en/2021/08/11/koch-media-and-gsc-game-world-partner-up-for-the-physical-release-of-s-t-a-l-k-e-r-2-heart-of-chernobyl/ |access-date=2023-10-26|archive-date=18 September 2021 |language=en}}
• The entire Metro book trilogy and video game series is partly influenced by the novel Roadside Picnic, on which the film was based.{{Cite web|last=Jenkins|first=David|date=2019-01-16|title=Metro Exodus Dmitry Glukhovsky interview – 'I lived in a post-apocalyptic state'|url=https://metro.co.uk/2019/01/16/metro-exodus-dmitry-glukhovsky-interview-i-lived-in-a-post-apocalyptic-state-8350225/|access-date=2021-05-03|website=Metro|language=en|quote=It’s kind of a joint influence with Mad Max, Fallout, and the Soviet science fiction books by the Strugatsky brothers, who wrote Roadside Picnic.}}
• Pacific Drive is inspired by the novel Roadside Picnic, on which the film was based.{{Cite web|last=Dracott|first=Alex|date=2023-07-27|title=Pacific Drive, the video game road trip inspired by the weird fiction of Jeff VanderMeer|url=https://www.theguardian.com/games/2023/jul/27/pacific-drive-the-video-game-road-trip-inspired-by-the-weird-fiction-of-jeff-vandermeer/|access-date=2024-03-27|website=The Guardian|language=en|quote=Pacific Drive is inspired by the Strugatsky brothers’ novel Roadside Picnic, Andrei Tarkovsky’s film Stalker, and Jeff VanderMeer’s Southern Reach trilogy.}}
• In 20 November, 2024, S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl, the sequel to S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl was released.{{Cite web |title=S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Heart of Chornobyl on Steam |url=https://store.steampowered.com/app/1643320/STALKER_2_Heart_of_Chornobyl/ |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=store.steampowered.com |language=en}}{{Cite web |title=Launch Trailer |url=https://www.stalker2.com/news/launch-trailer |access-date=2024-11-25 |website=www.stalker2.com}}

{{reflist|group=n}}

{{Reflist}}

{{wikiquote}}

• {{IMDb title|0079944}}
• {{TCMDb title|id=344200}}
• {{rotten-tomatoes|id=1043378_stalker|title=Stalker}}
• [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TGRDYpCmMcM Stalker], released on official Mosfilm YouTube channel, with subtitles in multiple languages
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20140504004514/http://people.ucalgary.ca/~tstronds/nostalghia.com/TheTopics/Stalker/stalker_links.html Stalker] at Nostalghia.com, a website dedicated to Tarkovsky, featuring interviews with members of the production team
• [http://www.geopeitus.ee/?p=350&c=335 Geopeitus.ee] – filming locations of Stalker {{in lang|et}}
• [http://www.cinephiliabeyond.org/unique-perspective-making-stalker-testimony-mechanic-toiling-away-tarkovskys-guidance A unique perspective on the making of Stalker: The testimony of a mechanic toiling away under Tarkovsky's guidance] – article on the production of Stalker
• [https://www.criterion.com/current/posts/4739-stalker-meaning-and-making Stalker: Meaning and Making] an essay by Mark Le Fanu at the Criterion Collection
• [https://old.kinoart.ru/archive/2008/02/n2-article15 Машина желаний. Стругацкие и Тарковский]

{{Andrei Tarkovsky|state=autocollapse}}

{{Arkady and Boris Strugatsky|state=autocollapse}}

{{S.T.A.L.K.E.R. Series|state=autocollapse}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stalker (1979 Film)}}

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