The sound effect of the train clacking along the rails blends seamlessly into the music.

The train sequence is also a Moment of Awesome for some, accompanied by Awesome Music.

Having dodged the security forces, our heroes treat us to five minute-long studies of the backs of each other's heads as they ride a motorized draisine into The Zone.

The Soviet Union would soon have an area like the Zone for real it's called Chernobyl.

Stalker's wife describes his crippled daughter as 'a gift from The Zone.' The locations for the outdoor scenes were heavily polluted, and several people on the crew suffered illnesses and untimely deaths.

Faux Symbolism: According to Word of God, a black hound is just a black hound.

On the other hand, there are those who like the slow pacing because of the calming, cerebral tone it gives the film. They argue that getting rid of those would have made Stalker fit rather nicely within a two-hour runtime, not losing any of what makes it interesting in the process. Even though the movie is widely praised for its smart and thought-provoking story that manages to be free of pretentiousness at the same time, the way some shots go on for a couple of minutes seemingly without providing the audience with any new information regarding the characters or the setting has been interpreted by some as Padding.

Broken Base: Much like many other entries in Tarkovsky's filmography, his Leave the Camera Running trademark tends to divide people till this day, as it did when the movie first came out.

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