Stalker | FULL MOVIE | Directed by Andrey Tarkovsky

Based on the novel "Roadside Picnic" by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky. The Zone that arose on Earth for unknown reasons attracts attention with inexplicable phenomena that occur there. A rumor has spread that in the center of the Zone there is something that gives a person everything he wants. But staying in the Zone is deadly, and therefore it is strictly guarded. There, each for their own reasons, the Writer and the Professor go, the Stalker leads them to the mysterious center, feeling and understanding the Zone...

IMDb rating: 8,1

Year of production: 1979

Directed by: Andrey Tarkovsky
Writted by: Strugatsky Boris, Strugatsky Arkady
Music: Artemyev Eduard
Operator: Knyazhinsky Alexander
Production Designer: Andrey Tarkovsky

Cast: Nikolay Grinko, Anatoly Solonitsyn, Alisa Freindlich, Alexander Kaidanovsky

[Arrowboy]

Tarkovsky's work was truly ahead of its time. The fact that he had the foresight to add a like and subscribe button animation at the start of a film that released before YouTube was even a website really shows how much of a visionary director he was.

[BogdanLiviu]

What a joy to have this miracle of a movie free, online, in excellent quality! Thank you! “The aim of art is to make man capable of being good.” (Tarkovsky)

[mousaka]

Incredibly in a world of endless greed and selfishness a film like this is actually FREE on the internet …
Thank you Mosfilm …

[hisbidding]

Wonderful film. I liked that for the adults; life was grey outside of the Zone. But since the child had the Zone living in her, life was color no matter where she was at.

[davidmetis]

Three frens take a walk. Nothing happens. One comes back with a dog. Best. Film. Ever.

[UnreasonableOpinions]

The key moment for me in Stalker was what comes after the group's realisation that the room does not grant you what you want or plan or even need, but what your heart truly desires. The Writer never enters the Room, as his lack of inspiration is just a symptom of his lack of self-knowledge - he can't know what he wants. The Professor never enters, and dismantles the bomb - if the Room truly does grant you your desire and his deepest desire was to destroy the Room, the bomb is actually redundant. Not one of them enters the Room because they are afraid of what their true desire is. And yet, thanks to going through this process of realisation, all three men arguably end up with exactly what they wanted. The Writer understands he was lacking inspiration because he didn't understand himself; he leaves with both inspiration and understanding. The Professor said he wanted to understand the Zone but planned to prevent its misuse by evil men; he leaves knowing it is beyond the whims of evil men, and with some understanding of what the Zone truly is. The Stalker wants to take people to the Zone but laments that people have lost the belief for traversing the Zone and living good lives; three men have safely navigated to the heart of the Zone and back again, and all three have a belief in something beyond them as a result.

The Professor and the bomb literalise that thought - you get what you truly desire from the Room, but you do so from the act of reaching and understanding it. Entering the Room is redundant - and as the bomb is thrown away unused, so the Room is never used and even goes unseen.

Understanding ourselves is the most powerful thing we have at our sole disposal. So many films, political plans, news angles here are about creating a narrative that suits, and so few challenge the necessity of it. Even when a story is about finding yourself in a narrative you don't control, it is almost always about seizing the narrative for yourself, or finding comfort within it. We are directed to fight the narratives that surround us on their grounds of greatest strength, and told that the correct victory is the one that leaves a narrative redirected but ultimately still in place. Stalker felt important to me as one of the few stories that tells you that you can exist outside of these narratives, so long as you are willing to abandon your narrative of self first. If you understand yourself you don't need to tell stories about yourself to fill that gap, and you find the gulf between you and the narratives that would drag you in is suddenly visible, so visible you don't know why you didn't see it before.

[younob]

why do people says that this movie is so boring? THIS MOVIE IS A MASTERPIECE.

Thank you Tarkovsky

[darthnihilusthebestsith]

it's incredible how Tarkovsy kept my eyes glued to the screen for hours watching 3 men walking in the grass. A masterpiece

[szilagyipeter]

One of those movies that stops time and makes you forget who you are, where you are, and totally immerses you in the story.

[ladycharlesmusic]

Can't believe one of the greatest films ever, with the most beautiful cinematography, is available for free, thanks Mosfilm!

[grahamcharman]

I watched this film with my dad when i was very young in the UK.
i think I would have been maybe 8.
It stuck with me all through the years but had always thought I'd never find it again .
Luckily a complete stranger on line came up with the answer after I posted some very hazy memories
of scenes involving the army vehicles in a strange eerie zone where nothing was happening.
Cant believe I can now rewatch it here.
Thanks so much

[igornatasa]

it's all about Faith..Друже Тарковски, велико ти хвала!

[andreinikolaev]

Мне было лет 15, когда вместо того чтобы идти в школу, гуляя с другом по родному Таллину попали на сьёмки эпизода, где герои прорывались на Зону. Пролезли к самому режисёрскому столику, но Андрей Тарковский не прогнал нас, а стал рассказывать, что за эпизод они снимают, даже кофем

[dipr]

Tarkovsky's films are master pieces. I started watching them in the 90's, when I was studying photography, and it was a must to see the beautiful and genius images of Tarkovsky's work.

[pchhuhn]

I'm having the worst day at work today. I'm watching this film for the 10000th time to feel good. Thank you, Mosfilm. Thank you, Mr. Tarkovsky.

[philipr]

Thank HEAVENS no-one has seen fit to re-make this movie!

[sandels]

I've watched this movie so many times. I can't explain why but it just speaks to my soul directly

[Rodrigoteacher]

I remember watching it decades ago. My friends told me I was getting sleepy because the film was extremely slow but I was just...fascinated!! Masterpiece!

[snaslansmammamia]

My favorite movie. Film as parable, film as drug, film as spiritual journey, film as anthropology, film as history. Exhibit A on the enormous power of cinema. A sublime work of genius.

[thesapphireone]

I watched Stalker recently, after watching another good film, Ivan’s Childhood, and it immediately became one of my all time favourite films with it’s engaging, minimalist storytelling, the Stalker, Writer and Professor, in spite of their different personalities, backgrounds and viewpoints on life, are still likeable and relatable characters, and the themes of faith, hope, and mankind’s struggle for happiness and finding meaning in life, along with quiet moments, lack of any villains or end of the world style narrative, good acting, charming and funny interplay between the three leads, a calming, cerebral atmosphere, that make it oddly relaxing and comforting, this is one of Andrei Tarkovsky’s more optimistic films, especially when you consider a lot of his other ones are quite melancholy when you really think about it.

In my personal opinion, the two most emotional moments in the film was the scene where the Writer, rejects the Room, no longer needing it to find inspiration for his books, notices the Stalker crying on the floor after having a breakdown over leading people into it, regardless of their moral stance or what they do with their wishes, to feel like he had a purpose in his lonely, miserable life, and the Writer, who, outside of briefly putting aside his negative feelings to try helping him find the Professor when they’re separated, had been the most confrontational and cynical with him throughout the journey, gently puts his arm around him and hugs him, showing a more compassionate and humble side, as the Professor, a man who always tried to find logic and reason to explain life, realises that the Room is beyond our comprehension of good or evil, yet at the same time, if it’s destroyed, the Stalker bringing hope back into the lives of people would be for nothing, also gives up on entering it too and the three quietly sit together in solidarity. As the area flickers with a yellow/brown light, I interpreted it as the Room trying to tempt them subconsciously into giving in to their deepest desires, regardless of if they want more than what they initially had, especially since Porcupine wanted his dead brother back and killed himself in guilt after choosing a selfish wish of getting money over saving him, but they still remain defiant together, even as it starts raining and when the Stalker and his Wife return home, the Writer and the Professor don’t look all sunshine and rainbows, but they don’t look miserable either, they just quietly watch him leave, and presumably go back to their old lives, as wiser men who have changed for the better, hopefully, they continue to stay friends with him, because the poor guy really needs them.

As for the second moment, it’s when the Stalker’s Wife sees the Stalker’s despair over his perceived failure in the Room, calms her husband down and puts him bed, trying her best to soothe his anxieties until he falls asleep, and gives that great, well-acted monologue about how in spite of all the difficulties she endured, in both her relationship to him and how people treated him badly, whether it’s inside the prison or out in the Zone where people inevitably leave him or die due the unpredictable nature of the Room, along with struggling to raise their disabled daughter, but his Wife does her best to accept and understand his fears and worries, cares for him and their child deeply, never treats him like a liability, and that he is loved and and valued by the people closest to him, and she’d rather take a life of passion, and pain, over a grey, dull, unfulfilling one, because she loves her family that much and I found that so sweet, hopeful and beautiful. Plus, they got a cool new black dog to play with!