Someone help me understand...

I have only watched the movie once and was somewhat struggling with keeping in synch with subtitles and the audio since I'm not at all into russian.

The scenes you are asking about; Firstly I'm not certain if he throws the nut to activate the phenomena to protect the Writer or kill the Writer in order to save themselves (him and the Professor). Think about what happent to that other Stalker they kept talking about; having sacrificed his brother to the phenomena for money.

When it comes to the animals in the Zone I have no idea. I first interpreted the dog as one of the aliens having created the Zone. Mainly because of the Stalkers rant after they first slept. And this dog keeps coming back.. But it doesn't really make much sense for one of the aliens to follow the Stalker out of the Zone. So I am not sure.

When it comes to the child having special powers I can only imagine they come from the same thing as her handicap. Re-listen/read the ending monologue of the mother.

(Spoilers fro those who haven't seen it yet)

Firstly, a less literal approach to this film is generally a good advice. Much of its magic comes from us wondering, not from understanding everything in its entirety.

Secondly, I don't remember if the nuts' significance was explained thoroughly in the film itself or my knowledge stems from reading the Strugatsky book (or any of those books I read about Stalker...): Throwing the nuts (or the stone before the meat grinder, for that matter) is like holding a stick out of your hiding place in a trench to see if this attracts fire. It's a test for traps, especially (this is from the book) for one that works through extreme gravity. Whatever steps into its field is being smashed to the ground. So, Stalker really just tries to save Writer from possible dangers. He may send one of the guests to go first so as not to fall victim to the Zone, but he is not someone who knowingly gets rid of someone he is supposed to protect.
The doves/pigeons (I think pigeons) are just another (beautiful) example for the Zone's way of being irratic and wondrous. One bird passes, the other before it just vanishes. This was intentional, not an editing glitch.

The ending: this has been subject of debates before, so don't despair. There's no definitive answer here. To some, and I think I remember Tarkovsky himself seeing it thus, the fact that Monkey (Stalker's daughter) possesses telekinetic powers is a way of hinting that hope is not lost. She may not be able to walk, and generally the society around the Zone is pretty much hopeless and dire, but there's magic and beauty and strength and wonders still.

The dog, I think, is not one of the "aliens." That would be another example of taking things too literal. Tarkovsky has made sure that almost nothing in the film was sci-fi-ish. Having aliens wandering around as dogs would contradict this. I think it's literally just a dog. Like the stalker and his guests were able to walk into the Zone and out again, the dog lived as a wild animal within the Zone and decided to follow Stalker home. It doesn't mean the world, but I like it because it adds warmth ... and something more to wonder about ;)

Hope this helped a bit.

OK. I have very little comprehension of what I just saw either, so you are very much not alone on this one.

This is what I took from the film, and it is most definitely a film and not a movie - a movie is something by which you can actually eat popcorn to while being assaulted with some form of coherent storyline.

I felt as though:

1. This is in my opinion an allegory for life, religion and God. A bit too much? Let me explain. We had the Stalker - a believer. A man with complete faith in all that he does without any attempt at personal gain. The Professor - The symbol of science and the need for explanation of all things. The Writer - The symbol of Art. The intrinsic voice within us all that asks the questions to the big things in life.

2. Russian Literature and its corresponding historical influence. Russian literature has a habit of doing this. The Cherry Orchard, for example, was a tale of Old Russia meeting New Russia and the inability to let go of the old regimes and traditions. Stalker, for me, had a very similar theme. The shift from B&W to colour and back again. A very apparent fear of a new world and everything that comes from the shift to the present.

3. The bomb - and more specifically the dismantling of the bomb. Perhaps a symbolic gesture of Russia's disarming of itself during the Cold War. We are left with three hopeless wrecks, none any better off than they were before, and one new hope - a child with terrifying kinetic powers - again another symbol of fear of the future and what this may hold for its present denizens.

There are hundreds of themes and no small amount of symbolism throughout the film, the crown of thorns, the large black dog, the child without working legs, the huge industrial landscape, the militarisation, the water, the dust. I cannot begin to try to explain them all, nor can I hope to understand them either, but I do think that any amount of reference can be taken from every individual scene, and it does very much stick in your mind for quite some time.

The only thing I don't understand - and maybe this is just me - but where does everyone get the alien notion from? Just because the poster looks a bit otherworldly doesn't have to mean it was little green men, does it?

It was a while since I watched it but it has stuck with me..

I'm bewildered but I think that it's intentional - different phenomenons and desperation of trying to make sense of it all.. one scene that sticks out in my mind is when Stalker is lying on the ground, just connected to the reality of things not caught in navigating the confusing mind**** landscape.. almost seems like a sanctuary, but the environment is hostile, wet and cold - he can't rest in it.

I think the film is about mind and body, or consciousness and matter, and the failure of the mind to adequately improve the material existence.
Both Writer and Scientist are men who try to seize the world with their mind, whereas Stalker is a figure straight from the pages of Kierkegaard who represents the third stage on the path of life, ie faith. Writer being seen with a pretty woman in the beginning can represent the first stage of the aesthetics, and scientist the man devoted to the laws of nature and mind, ie the moralist, for whom the absurd liberty represented by faith is a danger so threatening that he's ready to destroy it completely with a nuke !

The throwing of the bolt/nut is, IMO, from Nietzsche who said that the geniuses are born in each generation to throw a stone a bit further, so that mankind can move to this new spot. Then another genius is born and throws the stone further etc.

The mutant daughter, in this respect, is a successful result of Stalker's faith: she can move matter with her mind, at the cost of her own body that is crippled and, like Alexander's miracle in Offret/Sacrifice, hers too is hidden to the world and must be preserved in silence.

about ending
i can tell you that belief was thing that made glasses be moved by the girl. he believed in this thing fully one hundred percent. if you believe in something that way, you will make it happen for sure.