Grief and abandonment of memories. There is always the defining question of whether those memories deserve to live or die in the mind, no matter how painful and nostalgic they may be. What if someone could make that decision?
The video gameDead Spaceand the movieSolarispresent equally compelling arguments from various angles. Each main character struggles to accept their tragic pasts through their stories as they suppress what is not visible in their daily lives.Even though each character’s journey is unique, all share important connections that are worth exploring.
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Dead Spaceprotagonist Isaac Clarke is all too familiar with pain, grief, and repressed memories — not just from his own life, but also from the time and place he lives in. In the year 2508, humanity is dispersed throughout space and faces extinction due to a lack of resources. When the USG Kellion is dispatched to aid the crew of the USG Ishimura, the Kellion finds most on the Ishimura dead or having given way to the unfortunate fate of the Necromorph and the Red Marker’s influences.A deep sense of isolation starts to seep through, and becomes more evident with time as Isaac continues his mission. He attempts find out what happened to his girlfriend, Nicole Brennan, a senior medical officer for the Ishimura. While on board the Kellion, Isaac keeps looking at a video message Nicole had sent him. He uses her voice and video recordings as sources of emotional connection.
ThroughoutDead Space, all three crew members aboard the Kellion go down a dangerous path of unsound behavior that escalates to hallucinations, memory loss, and paranoia. Even for Isaac, there is a sense of dehumanization where no one can physically connect with him. Only through the visage of the glass walls or videos can anyone feel a connection with him. For most ofDead Space, there is not even a face to put with the name.The only thing the characters and even viewershave in common is suffering, something that becomes unbearable as time passes. As the story progresses, Isaac has to make the dark choice to abandon or murder people to survive. Basic human rights are denied to those who have transformed into Necromorphs. Due to the virus, and partially because of the Unitolgist’s personification of what salvation means, Isaac has to kill and dismantle bodies and make sure they never return.
Isaac learns from Kendra, who now has the marker, that his encounters with Nicole were nothing more than fabrications of the mind created by the marker to be returned to the Hive Mind. Nicole had ended her message by committing suicide to stop herself from becoming a Necromorph. Before she can escape, Kendra is murdered by the Hive Mind. Isaac then departs on Kendra’s shuttle with the marker destroyed, mourning Nicole. While grieving, he is attacked by a hallucination of her.
Dead Spacetells a haunting story of repressed memory, dehumanization, and dealing with the grief of those memories. Isaac’s feelings for Nicole are not only a driving force that Marker identifies, but also a source of manipulation, which Marker employs as a form of torture. One can surmise that Isaac knew Nicole was gone the moment he heard what happened to the Ishimura, but refused to admit it to himself. This sense of optimism and denial is used by the Red Marker to help him deny not only that she is gone, but that it will use him to further its own self-interest.Isaac has been used throughout, and the Red Marker only adds to the metaphor of Isaac being nothing more than a pawn for gain.
Only by chance does Isaac return the Marker and narrowly avoid the ensuing chaos. Finally, Isaac admits that Nicole is no longer alive and that he did love her. This development in Isaac’s character, however, comes at a cost. He has been exposed to the essence of the Marker, which has penetrated his mind. It becomes a living nightmare for Isaac instead of a moment of peace, entwining itself around the only memory Isaac will never forget: his relationship with Nicole.
What Is Solaris About?
LikeDead Space,Solarisalso sets a somber tone of one struggling with the demons of his painful past, and how an outside force controls how they deal with that.Solaristells the story of a psychologist, Kris Kelvin (Donatas Banionis), who embarks on a trip to the planet of Solaris to examine if it is deemed worthy of communicating with further. While there, he notices things do not feel quite right.From the mysterious death of his friendand scientist, Dr. Gibarian (Sos Sargsyan) to the unsound behavior of his two crew mates, he discovers Solaris has other plans for him aboard the space station.
Solarisfocuses on the personification of humanity, repressed memories, and grief, with the planet taking the form of everyone’s subconscious desires. For Kelvin, repressed desires take the shape of his wife. Eventually,Solarisbecomes more of a poetic study of a man finding himself through internal chaos. While not as outwardly frightening asDead Space, its themes of internal conflict, humanism, and disconnect from existence are all explored in their own unique way.
From the beginning, Kris is shown as being insensitive to others. When arriving at the space station, he determines whether the mission to explore the planet continues. The atmosphere aboard is already creepy because one of the crew members is dead, creating a haunting sadness and paranoi. Unease has already seeped into the space station’s walls due to recent events, but it multiplies when Kris’s dead wife, Hari, appears after Kris has fallen asleep.
The subtle terror starts to sink in as it becomes clear that there is something wrong with the mission. The planet is not just a planet, but a perceptive being, capable of creating other forms of life from the minds of the crew members. The crew members experience psychosis. Kris himself falls into delusions as he succumbs to his grief, building a personal connection with Hari.While Kris starts to form deeper feelingsfor Hari, the other two crew members feel hatred towards her, disregarding her emotions one night at one of the crew members' birthday parties, viewing her as inhuman.
Solarisbrings about a few key themes that revolve around repressed memory and grief. As Kris battles with himself, he also battles with the others who also try to retain their humanity in a world that is slowly taking it away. Kris’s hallucinations force him to confront her death, changing his perception of reality. Is Hari real? If she is, what is making her real?Is it a physical body that makes someone human, or is it a human connection that gives it that purpose?
While both stories take different approaches the same themes, each addresses the issues of suppressed memories, grief, and delving deeper into one’s consciousness. Issac and Kris both mourn the loss of their partners because something happens in between their stories that they wish they could change. For Isaac, it’s the pain of not being able to save Nicole when the Ishimura was attacked.This is true not only of Nicole’s death, but of any suffering he has witnessed throughout his story.
Kris’s callous nature catches up with him when, like Isaac, he loses his partner. Unable to erase the fact that he could have appreciated her more when she was alive, her presence on Solaris torments him constantly. Regardless, the torture transforms him into a better person. In the same way that the Solaris tortures Kris with the memory of Hari, the Hive Mind tortures Isaac, using his feelings to further its dark plans.
Both Hari and Isaac experience dehumanization, where those around them treat them as less than what they are. While Hari was manifested on Solaris, the crew members neglected her and made her feel less than worthy. For Isaac, the Kellion’s mission was doomed from the start.No one was coming to save him, and almost everyone around him uses him as a pawn forDead Space’sendgame.
While both Issac and Kris learn from their horrific experiences, questions remain on both sides. Although sentient beings are pulling the strings to make these people see their loved ones, what made Nicole or Hari human in the first place? Was it the ability to connect with something that reminded them of what they had? Or is it physical form that justifies existence and what matters? Both stories allow viewers to see the vast array of possibilities, and none are wrong.
