us.
You first, Professor.
Now you, Writer.
Your room is over there.
We'll go this way.
Why were you hiking up the price?
It's so close at hand.
Yes, but the hand
has to be very long.
We don't have such a hand.
Don't! Leave it alone!
Don't touch it!
Don't touch it, I said!
Are you crazy? What's the matter
with you?
It's not the place for leisurely
strolls.
The Zone wants to be respected.
Otherwise it will punish.
Don't you ever try it again...
Have you no tongue or what?
I warned you, didn't l?
Are we to go there?
Yes. Up, enter it and to the left.
Only we are not going this way.
We'll go around.
Why?
People don't go this way.
In the Zone, the longer way,
the less risk.
And to go straight ahead is fatal?
He told you it's dangerous.
- And making a detour's not dangerous?
- It is. But they don't go this way.
What do I care that they don't?
What if I take a chance...
Listen, what's the matter with you...
To go all the way around!
When everything's so close.
Here a risk, there a risk.
What the hell!
You're being very flippant
about this.
I'm fed up with all those nuts
and bandages.
You may do as you wish,
but I'm going.
- You're insane.
- It's you who are...
May l?
The wind is coming up...
Can you feel it? The grass...
All the more so.
What do you mean?
Wait!
Keep your hands off!
Professor be my witness,
I didn't sent you there.
You go of your own will.
Of my own will. What else?
Nothing. Go.
God help you to be lucky.
Listen!
Should you notice something,
or just feel something,
go back at once, or...
Just don't throw iron poles at me.
Stop! Don't move!
- Why did you do it?
- Why did I do what?
- Why did you stop him?
- I thought it was you...
What's up?
Why did you stop me?
I didn't stop you.
Who did it then? You?
Who the hell knows...
You're smart, Mister Shakespeare.
To go straight ahead is scary,
to go back is embarrassing.
So you gave yourself a command.
Fear has made you come to your senses.
- What?
- Stop it.
- Why have you emptied the bottle?
- Stop it, I said!
The Zone is a very complicated system...
of traps,
and they're all deadly.
I don't know what's going on here
in the absence of people,
but the moment someone shows up,
everything comes into motion.
Old traps disappear
and new ones emerge.
Safe spots
become impassable.
Now your path is easy,
now it's hopelessly involved.
That's the Zone.
It may even seem capricious.
But it is what we've made it
with our condition.
It happened that people had
to stop halfway and go back.
Some of them even died
on the very threshold of the room.
But everything that's going on here
depends not on the Zone, but on us!
So it lets the good ones pass
and kills the bad ones?
I don't know.
I think
it lets those pass who...
have lost all hope.
Not good or bad,
but wretched people.
But even the most wretched will die
if they don't know how to behave.
You have been lucky,
it just warned you.
I guess I'll wait for you here
until you come back,
made happy.
It's impossible!
I've got sandwiches, a thermos...
You won't last even an hour here
without me.
Besides, one doesn't return here
the way one comes.
Anyway, I would prefer...
Then we're going back right away.
I'll return your money
minus a certain sum
for the trouble, so to speak...
Have you come to your senses,
Professor?
All right. Go on, throw your nut.
Part Two
STALKER
Where are you?
Come here!
Are you tired?
Oh, God!
Judging by his tone, he's going to
start sermonizing again.
Let everything that's been planned
come true.
Let them believe.
And let them have a laugh
at their passions.
Because what they call passion
actually is not some emotional energy,
but just the friction between
their souls and the outside world.
And most important,
let them believe in themselves
Let them be helpless like children,
because weakness is a great thing,
and strength is nothing.
When a man is just born,
he