Stalker (1979)

Notes on Tarkovsky’s 1979 science fiction movie, Stalker, and [[Terrain vague]].

In Stalker, {terrain vague} becomes the material embodiment of an idea—that the world around us is, ultimately, the world we think into existence and, at the same time, the world that inhabits us. What is magical in this version of terrain vague (which, as Solà-Morales suggests, is indeed “evocative”—it “calls forth”) is that people bring their world into being, so that terrain vague, in its productive indeterminacy, becomes a tangible manifestation of an otherwise suppressed or forgotten dialogue between the human being and the physical environment. (Radović, 2013)

Bibliography

Radović, S. (2013) ‘On the Threshold: Terrain Vague as Living Space in Andrei Tarkovsky’s Stalker’, Terrain Vague, Interstices at the Edge of the Pale., pp. 114–129.

Tarkovsky, A. (1979) Stalker. Soviet Union.

Annihilation (2018)

Notes on Alex Garland’s 2018 science fiction movie, Annihilation, and [[Terrain vague]].

• Alex Garland’s 2018 science fiction movie, Annihilation, features an alien entity which transforms organic material in a zone called the shimmer. The shimmer concept is similar to Andrei Tarkovsky's 1979 movie, Stalker, in which a departed alien entity has transformed corridors of space subjected to unknown extra-terrestrial laws called the Zone.

• Like Tarkovsky’s Zone, Garlands’ Shimmer is a [[terrain vague]] territory, one that is visually post-apocalyptic and rewilded, however, due to the extra-terrestrial, nature constantly distorts and evolves. This constant change is also applied to the characters as Garland explores, metaphorically and visually, existential crises, terminal disease, relationships and trauma through the journey in the [[Terrain vague]] landscape.

• On the surface the film is a straightforward extra-terrestrial action horror, however, Garland, like Tarkovsky, uses the concept of [[Terrain vague]] as an uncertain representational space as a metaphorical landscape, one that reflects the protagonist and characters. The shimmer's mutating DNA plot device echoes the ambiguous terrain vague with the characters themselves becoming uncertain of who or what they are. Subtle physical attributes and traumatic experiences are shared between the characters.

• The four supporting characters succumb to the shimmer. Two are absorbed into the physical environment. In the final, the protagonist questions who they are and if they are still themselves. The existential question is at the core of the film through the terrain vague metaphor, land is representational -it reflects ourselves, culturally and socially. The shimmer and the zone are metaphorical landscape devices open to interpretation just as there many interpretations of both films.