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About This Quiz
This 2002 psychological drama set in space had critics applauding and audiences scratching their heads! Now, test your knowledge of this sci-fi gem with our quiz!
What is Solaris?
a poem
a planet
Solaris is, in a way, the "star" of the film. It's a mysterious blue-purple entity threaded with what look like electrical currents, and it may be alive and thinking.
a spacecraft
a star
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Who wrote the novel on which "Solaris" was based?
Barry Malzberg
Stanislaw Lem
Lem's novel has been filmed three times. He was critical of this 2002 American adaptation, saying it focused too heavily on the romantic relationship between the two leads.
Octavia Butler
Gene Wolfe
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Who played Chris Kelvin?
George Clooney
Kelvin lives alone in a very modern apartment in Chicago. He is widowed; the story of his doomed marriage unfolds throughout the film.
Daniel Day-Lewis
Bruce Greenwood
Robert Downey Jr.
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What is Kelvin's line of work?
special investigator for the FBI
medical doctor
psychologist
Kelvin is seen early on mentoring a support group. The topic under discussion seems to be the events of 9/11.
theoretical physicist
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The two men who come to his door are emissaries of what organization?
the DBA corporation
The corporation that underwrote the mission to Solaris is known as "DBA." We never learn what these letter mean, and they might be a sort of joke: In business, "dba" is short for "doing business as."
the CIA
NASA
Interpol
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Who sent the video message to Kelvin?
the head of DBA
his friend Gibarian
Gibarian asks Kelvin to come to Solaris. He implies that something serious or dangerous is going on, but won't explain what that is.
Dr. Gordon
Snow
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Along with Snow, who is the other surviving crew member on the space station?
Gibarian
Reese
Dr. Gordon
Gordon is a physicist, not a medical doctor. When Kelvin first meets her, she won't come out of her room or let him in.
an unnamed cadet
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Who does Snow say his replica (of a loved one) was?
his brother
Snow says that his replica stopped appearing. He's not being up front, though, about any of this.
his ex-girlfriend
his sister
his cat
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Whose blood does Snow say is on the floors and walls?
Coutard's
Later, we're meant to have our doubts about the origin of the blood. But Snow says that Coutard died resisting the DBA security patrol who came to the station.
Gibarian's
Snow's
Gordon's
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How did Gibarian die?
he was sucked out the air lock
his hibernation chamber malfunctioned
he was killed in a fight with a "replica"
he committed suicide
Kelvin finds Gibarian in a body bag upon boarding the station. He also finds smears of blood on the floor and walls.
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How did Reese die?
also suicide
from drinking liquid oxygen
of exposure on a spacewalk
Reese just disappeared
The space station had a crew of five: Coutard, Reese, Gibarian, Gordon and Snow. Of these, we never see Reese or Coutard.
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Who played Dr. Gordon?
Viola Davis
Gordon is the voice of skepticism and reason on the station. Snow, in comparison, speaks every line as though he is deeply stoned.
Catherine Keener
Lynne Thigpen
Sanaa Lathan
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Who was Gordon's replica?
her mother
her husband
her son
we never learn this
Gordon might have a difficult relationship with the replica of her family member. She takes definitive action, destroying it as soon as she and Snow devise a way to do so.
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What was Kelvin's wife's name?
Athena
Jane
Rheya
This is an unusual spelling of "Rhea." It's also an anagram of "Harey," the name of the protagonist's wife in the Polish novel.
Sonja
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What is Rheya carrying on the train?
a doorknob
Kelvin first spots her on a city train, holding the knob in her lap. It turns out they are going to the same party, at the Gibarians.
flowers
a violin
a toolbox
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What art is important to Rheya?
music
painting
poetry
It's implied that Rheya writes poetry as well as reading it. Kelvin encourages her to submit work for publication, which Rheya isn't keen to do.
synchronized swimming
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How did Rheya die (on earth)?
of a botched abortion
she overdosed on pills deliberately
Rheya's suicide came after a bitter fight with Kelvin. She'd had an abortion without telling her husband.
she was in a car wreck
she died of cancer
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What does Kelvin do with the first Rheya replica?
has sex with her
jettisons her in a pod
Kelvin acts decisively for someone who doesn't really understand what's going on. He also seems to master the workings of a space station very quickly, for a psychologist from Chicago.
strangles her
ignores her
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What upsets the Rheya replica in the meeting of the crew?
Gordon suggests they can't return to Earth
Gordon wants to leave her Rheya
Gordon tells her Kelvin jettisoned the first Rheya replica
Kelvin has kept this information from Rheya. When he becomes angry with Gordon for revealing it, she tells him that it's a mistake to think of the replicas as human.
the discussion of creating a Higgs device
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How does the Rheya replica commit suicide?
she hangs herself
she drinks liquid oxygen
Kelvin finds her after waking up alone. She resurrects not long after, as Gordon knew she would.
she puts herself out the airlock
she shoots herself
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Why does Gordon say she wants to defeat Solaris and return to Earth?
"I've made mistakes on Earth I want to fix."
"It's messing with us, and that's bad manners."
"I want humans to win."
Gordon represents a common, even stereotyped, version of scientists in science fiction. She sees the interaction with Solaris as a battle or chess match and only wants to "win."
"My parents would expect this of me."
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What does Gibarian (or his replica) say about why he committed suicide?
"There was no other way out."
"I was not who I was."
"I don't remember."
"It seemed like a good idea at the time."
Gibarian appears to Kelvin either as a replica or in a dream. He tells Kelvin that "there are no answers, only choices."
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What does Gibarian say when Kelvin asks what Solaris wants?
"To know us."
"To win."
"Why do you think it has to want something?"
Gibarian is the one who told Kelvin, at a party, that Solaris "seems to be reacting. It's as if it knows it's being observed."
he doesn't say anything
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What does Kelvin find in the ceiling of the space station?
a message from Gibarian
Reese's body
Snow's body
The discovery that their Snow is a replica is extraordinary on several levels. For one, the replica Snow was willing to help come up with the Higgs device, a weapon he knows could kill him. Also, it suggests the blood Kelvin saw early on wasn't Coutard's, but from the knife fight between Snow and his replica.
a book titled, "To Serve Humanity"
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What side effect does the use of the Higgs device have?
it gives the user cancer
it causes Solaris to rapidly take on mass
it drains the station's fuel cells
both #2 and #3
The Snow replica explains this to Gordon and Kelvin. Solaris, having taken on mass, is now pulling everything nearby into itself, including the space station.
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What is the name of the shuttlecraft Gordon and Kelvin will use to escape?
Artemis
Athena
The Snow replica suggests that Kelvin and Gordon could escape in the Athena. He doesn't seem concerned about being left behind to be sucked into Solaris, suggesting that the replicas are, in fact, part of the planet.
Hera
Persephone
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When he collapses on the space station, who does Kelvin see standing before him?
Gibarian
Gibarian's son
Kelvin abandons the Athena to stay with or near Rheya, evidently. He calls her name as he stumbles through the hallways, but it's Gibarian's son who shows up to take his hand.
Rheya
Snow
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What reveals to Kelvin that he has not, in fact, returned to Earth?
a cut heals instantly
Kelvin cut himself while cooking early in the film. That cut bled, but this one disappears, and then Kelvin sees Rheya in their apartment.
he needs no sleep
he sees Gibarian outside his window
the news feed on his wall TV is all recycled news
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What does Rheya say when Kelvin asks if he's alive or dead?
alive
dead
both
"We don't have to think like that anymore."
It's possible that by the movie's end, Kelvin is a replica of himself. Trippy!
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Which poem did Rheya (on Earth) have in her hand when she died?
"And Death Shall Have No Dominion"
This is the poem Kelvin tries to quote to Rheya on the night they meet. He actually only cites the title; he's not a poetry guy.
"She Walks in Beauty"
"To His Coy Mistress"
"Stopping By Woods on a Snowy Evening"
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Who wrote the screenplay and directed "Solaris"?
James Cameron
Steven Spielberg
Steven Soderbergh
Soderbergh wore many hats on the film. He was its editor and cinematographer, both under assumed names.
Kathryn Bigelow
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Which actor was Soderbergh's first choice to play Kelvin?
Daniel Day-Lewis
Day-Lewis was working on "Gangs of New York" at the time. Clooney lobbied Soderbergh for the role, and won it.
Kevin Kline
Ben Affleck
Leonardo DiCaprio
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Kelvin shared his last name with a scientist best known for what?
solving Fermat's Last Theorem
quantifying absolute zero
William Thomson was known as Lord Kelvin, who determined the value of absolute zero as -460 Fahrenheit. Writer Soderbergh's interest in scientific discovery turns up in little things like this, as well as in the larger themes of his projects "Contagion" and "The Knick."
developing a vaccine for polio
discovering Pluto
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Who played Rheya?
Selma Blair
Natascha McElhone
Sadly, McElhone appeared in two of the three 2002 movies to get an "F" rating on CinemaScore. The other was "Feardotcom."
Christina Ricci
Cameron Diaz
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Actor Jeremy Davies, who played Snow, resembles and has played which famous killer?
Charles Manson
Davies played Manson in a film version of "Helter Skelter." (Bonus points if you knew no one knows what Jack the Ripper looks like!)
Jack the Ripper
Ted Bundy
Henry Lee Lucas
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You Got:
/35
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