SOLARIS Page #4

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.

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