The Crypt in Outer Space: Grief in Solaris

Solaris (Lem, 1970) is a Polish science fiction novel written by Stanisław Lem in 1961. It is about an alien encounter. Therefore, its entire narrative is a thought experiment where humans try to interact with a sentient planet called Solaris. It had two famous cinema adaptations starting with Andrei Tarkovsky's version in 1972 (Solaris, 1972). Soderbergh's adaptation in 2002 (Solaris, 2002), while it remains faithful to this central theme, also focuses on the nature of human relationships which are delicate and fragile. It puts the problematic relationship of its two main characters at the front: Chris and Rheya. The way they are separated is where the trauma happens: Chris gets trapped in an intrapsychic tomb due to losing Rheya to suicide.

The storyline of the film is linear with a few flashbacks as dream sequences. Chris Kelvin (George Clooney), a clinical psychologist, is asked to travel to a remote space station in order to investigate the sudden break in communications. He reluctantly agrees to go. Shortly after his arrival, he understands what the problem is: the planet Solaris taps into the memories of the scientists while they are asleep, creates what the scientists have lost, and sends them in physical form to the station. In Chris's case, it is his wife Rheya (Natasha McElhone), and via flashbacks the narrative reveals how they met, how she felt abandoned after an argument with Chris and killed herself, how Chris got traumatised and never got over it until now. The narrative after this point becomes independent and follows a different trajectory compared to the novel.

Bereavement by suicide is a horrible experience I know personally very well. This experience enables me to read into Chris Kelvin's predicament easily. He is not only inconsolable but also unable to help himself as a trained mind in human psychology. Therefore, his helplessness has a dual quality: mental and emotional. His melancholic intrapsychic tomb, or simply crypt, fits in with the defin