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Solaris (Solyaris)
Psychologist Kris Kelvin is about to be sent on an interstellar journey to evaluate whether a decades-old space station, positioned over the oceanic planet Solaris, should continue its research. He spends his last day on Earth with his elderly father and a retired pilot named Burton. Years earlier, Burton had been part of an exploratory team at Solaris but was recalled when he described strange happenings, including seeing a four-meter-tall child on the surface of the water on the planet. A panel of scientists and military personnel dismissed these visions as hallucinations, but now that the remaining crew members are making similarly strange reports, Kelvin's skills are needed. After leaving the house, Burton tells Kelvin that he recognized the child's face as that of one who was orphaned due to the disappearance of one of the Solaris explorers.
Upon his arrival at the Solaris research station, he finds it in disarray. He soon learns that his friend among the scientists, Dr. Gibarian, has killed himself. The two surviving crewmen—Snaut and Sartorius—are erratic. Kelvin also catches fleeting glimpses of others aboard the station who were not part of the original crew. He finds that Gibarian left him a rambling, cryptic farewell video message, warning him about the strange things happening at the station. The video shows two appearances of a little girl who should not be aboard the station, with Gibarian asking Kelvin if he has seen her and insisting he is not insane, and should strange things happen to Kelvin, it will not be Kelvin having gone insane.
After a fitful sleep, Kelvin is shocked to find Hari, his wife who died ten years earlier, sitting in his sleeping quarters. She is unaware of how she got there. Terrified by her presence, Kelvin launches the replica of his wife into outer space. Snaut explains that the "visitors" or "guests" began appearing after the scientists conducted radiation experiments, directing X-rays at the swirling surface of the planet in a desperate attempt to understand its nature.
That evening, Hari reappears in Kelvin's quarters. This time, he calmly accepts her and they fall asleep together in an embrace. Hari panics when Kelvin briefly leaves her alone in the room, and injures herself attempting to escape. But before Kelvin can give first aid, her injuries spontaneously heal before his eyes. Sartorius and Snaut explain to Kelvin that Solaris created Hari from his memories of her. The Hari present among them, though not human, thinks and feels as though she were. Sartorius theorizes that the visitors, also called "guests", are not composed of atoms like regular humans, but are made of neutrinos, and that it might still be possible to destroy them through use of a device known as "the annihilator". Later, Snaut proposes beaming Kelvin's brainwave patterns at Solaris in hopes that it will understand them and stop the disturbing apparitions.
In time, Hari becomes more human and independent and is able to exist away from Kelvin's presence without panicking. She learns from Sartorius that the original Hari had taken her own life ten years earlier. Sartorius, Snaut, Kelvin and Hari gather together for a birthday party, which evolves into a philosophical argument, during which Sartorius reminds Hari that she is not real. Distressed, Hari kills herself again by drinking liquid oxygen, only to painfully resurrect after a few minutes. On the surface of Solaris, the ocean begins to swirl faster into a funnel.
Kelvin falls ill and goes to sleep. He dreams of his mother as a young woman, washing away dirt or scabs from his arm. When he awakens, Hari is gone; Snaut reads her farewell note, in which she explains how she petitioned the two scientists to destroy her. Snaut then tells Kelvin that since they have broadcast Kelvin's brainwaves into Solaris, the visitors have stopped appearing and islands have started forming on the planet's surface. Kelvin debates whether to return to Earth or remain on the station.
Kelvin appears to be at the family home seen at the beginning of the film. He sinks to his knees and embraces his father. The camera slowly cranes away to reveal that they are on a Solaris island.