Decades later, in present day, top scientists around the world start dying by suicide. A mysterious countdown appears in their retinas. A quantum physics experiment yields impossible results (particles are literally moving in ways that break our understanding of reality).
The game is frustrating, brilliant, and horrifying. It forces you to sympathize with the San-Ti. By the time you solve the puzzle, you aren't afraid of the aliens anymore. You want to help them. Critics sometimes argue that 3 Body Problem is cold. That the characters are just vehicles for ideas. And to be fair, author Cixin Liu (who wrote the Remembrance of Earth's Past trilogy) is more interested in physics than feelings. 3 Body Problem
A ragtag group of brilliant Oxford physicists (called the "Oxford Five" in the show) discovers the truth: Ye Wenjie's signal was received. An alien civilization is coming. And they have already begun to sabotage Earth’s science. Here is what makes 3 Body Problem unique. Most alien invasion stories ask: How do we fight them? Decades later, in present day, top scientists around
The suns move unpredictably. Sometimes they rise all at once and scorch the planet. Sometimes they all set and freeze it. The humanoid inhabitants "dehydrate" into flat sheets of paper to survive the chaos. The game is frustrating, brilliant, and horrifying
This story asks: What if the aliens are so far away that communication takes four years? What if they can manipulate our reality at a quantum level before they even arrive?
The aliens—the San-Ti (Tri-solarans)—live in a chaotic solar system with three suns. Their planet is subject to random, apocalyptic "Chaotic Eras" where they are burned or frozen alive. They are desperate to leave. Earth is their paradise.
Here is the breakdown of the phenomenon that has everyone from physicists to TikTokers talking. The story begins during China's Cultural Revolution in the 1960s, where a young woman named Ye Wenjie witnesses the brutal destruction of her family. She eventually gets recruited into a secret military radar base in the remote mountains. During a moment of desperation, she makes a choice: she sends a signal into space inviting contact.