Happiness?

Stalker presents us with three main characters who venture into the Zone, a mysterious and mystical area said to grant entrants their wish. The director himself believed that the pursuit of happiness should not be our main goal in life.

The film takes us on the main character's journey through the Zone, as they perform various rituals and adhere to its esoteric rules. Throughout, we sometimes hear each character's monologue, as they discuss their spirituality, or lack thereof.

What we can see is that the Zone is reflecting religion, with its various rituals and rules. At one point in the film, we see a decrepit and rundown church, symbolizing the death or incompleteness of religion, as it is unable to grant its adherents their wish of happiness. The scene where the three men are lying down is highly symbolic of the Mount of Transfiguration, where the three Apostles see Christ in a shining garment, serving as a pivotal moment within Christianity, where ".....human nature meets God: the meeting place of the temporal and the eternal....."

When the main characters are riding on the platform deeper into the Zone, we see the camera angle showing them moving from the (left). This signifies to the audience that the path they are taking towards the temporal, is the wrong path.

If Christ is the liaison between the temporal and the spiritual, then the black dog is our Jesus figure. In Greek mythology, Cerberus was a black dog that guarded the entrance to the underworld, and also served as a guide between the temporal and the spiritual realms. Taking the dog with them out of the Zone may suggest that instead of seeking what they wanted (temporal happiness), the characters received what they needed, in the form of a spiritual rebirth or understanding.