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37: Project Hail Mary Part Two
45 Plays26 days ago
Fist our bumps! In this episode of BookWatch, the crew of the Hail Mary do a deep dive into the plot of Project Hail Mary and all the hard science therein. With tragedy and tears, comedy and joy this adaptation hits all the right Eridean notes that make us trill with joy. Special guest J Scotty St Clair returns for part 2 of our coverage of the friendship that saved two worlds.
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Transcript
Introduction and Guest Welcome
00:00:00
Speaker
Welcome back to Book Watch. We are going to continue our discussion today of Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir and its 2026 adaptation of the same name. I'm Chris.
00:00:12
Speaker
I'm Sarah Day. And I'm Jordan. And we've got our returning guest, special guest, J. Scottie St. Clair. And I could remember my name before I could remember two plus two equals four.
00:00:24
Speaker
Nice. May is a may is. And we'll be back after these messages.
Podcast Format Explained
00:00:40
Speaker
Welcome to Book Watch, the podcast where pages meet screens. Each week we dive into the world of adaptations, comparing beloved books with their cinematic counterparts. From faithful retellings to bold reimaginings, we'll break down what worked, what didn't, and what made each adaptation unforgettable. Whether you are a bookworm, a movie buff, or both, grab your bookmark, grab your popcorn, and let's watch some books.
00:01:04
Speaker
All right.
Comparing Book and Film Scenes
00:01:05
Speaker
So in this episode, we're going to start comparing the major scenes of the ah film with the era of the book with their adaptation. um in this, we have both the um what's happening right now in space and his flashbacks. And we'll try to talk about both when we can remember them. But mostly we're going to, think, focus kind on the space side of things here just because it lines up best with ah the important adaptation parts. But we'll throw in the things we need to here and there.
00:01:34
Speaker
start out with we have the chapters one through six of the book which is uh the amnesia in space and everything up until they um see the alien ship which i was really interested to see how they were going to open up the movie because that's what hooked me in the beginning of the book was he wakes up and he doesn't know where he is and he's like i think like and he's starting to piece things together he's like oh am i like how do i know all this and i thought they did a really great job doing that in the film Yeah, these chapters are very flashback heavy because he's trying to remember like, who is he and I love his like sleuthing to figure out who he is where he's like, okay, I'm a white male.
Adapting Scientific Concepts for Film
00:02:15
Speaker
I speak English, so I'm probably American.
00:02:18
Speaker
my name's probably John. And I'm like, that's a valid thought process to have. And then he's like, okay, I'm a single man. I live alone. I work with kids. I'm freaking out. Oh my God. I'm a teacher. I'm a teacher. Everything's fine. And it was just it's so funny. And then his delivery too, like Ray Porter, especially in the audio book, it was just very, very funny the way it all worked out. And then we get the introduction of the Petrova line and astrophage and like what these things are. And I like how in the movie, instead of just like kind of info dumping the background information, they put him in the classroom and the kids are talking about like, well, my mom says this, or my dad heard this, like the news said, but yeah and like, again, i think the movie did a really great job of making all that heavy, like well-researched science seem approachable to us non-STEM people.
00:03:13
Speaker
And he uses that as a chance to put the, yeah when when we're going through that, he puts that line of ah tape up on the planet and we get the visual of, oh, this is what the Bedrova line is. this and he explains kind of the the science of what's happening and what the problem is in the world, which helps a lot with the progression. Yeah. and I remember when I was reading the book, you know, part of what makes it so good is Andy Weir does a really good job of like slowly doling the mystery out in a fashion that just makes you, yeah okay, that question's answered. Now I want to know what the the next answer is and just keep coming back and back. So I thought it was really effective when I was reading it. And I think I made some allusions in our previous episode that we did that, you know, going from reading Project Hail Mary to reading The Martian, I've actually been struggling a little bit because I think it's um I think Andy we're evolves and and gets a lot stronger as a writer in between the Martian and Project Hail Mary and also just the the conceit of the story having that mystery having that element that were like I said you just kind of want to keep coming back I think that's just a it makes it a little bit stronger of a story in my opinion
00:04:22
Speaker
where there are some similarities otherwise.
Protagonist's Amnesia and Discovery
00:04:24
Speaker
But yeah, as far as you know how it's adapted in the film, I feel like it's very truncated, but that's okay. A lot of that stuff can be told visually and depicted visually. But the the big difference for me, and I know we're not gonna talk too much about differences here though, But in the in the book, like the first thing you hear is, like what is 2 plus 2? The computer is almost like this opponent to him. like It's like, you have to get you have to meet reach these milestones before I'm going to even let you access other parts of the ship. And like even remembering his own name is such a
00:04:55
Speaker
There's such a trajectory towards that. And he has to build up the memories to where he even remembers that. and then the movie, it's just like, can you give me a current list of, you know, everybody that's on board? And it's like oh, you're Dr. Ryan, Rylan Grace. It's like, okay, that's, I mean, that's fine. It works for me in the movie. I didn't have big qualms with that, but it was just, you know, a notable difference for me.
00:05:12
Speaker
It did ask him about the two plus two, but then they just kind of skim. Oh yeah, sure. it's like oh Yeah. Why didn't we, you dig into that? Oh, well it moves on. We moved on. Right. And for obvious reasons, they really like go quickly through this scene of him waking up. But when he falls off the table, I do remember him falling off the table in the book and like thinking about the tubes being pulled out, which they don't really do in the film much. But in the film, I did go, oh, because I know like what's happening in the book during that scene. um But yeah, I mean, I think they did a really good job introducing what's going on in in a fast paced way to get us started on this journey that we're about to embark on in the theater.
First Contact and Alien Interactions
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah. And again, with the pacing, like that waking up process alone takes like several days. like He has eye movement detected and two plus two is four and that, and then he falls asleep. And then now he can like kind of lift his arms and then he falls asleep again. and like It takes him several days to build up the strength to even roll himself off the bed. And then he gets put back to bed. And like it's an ah a very long process. And then, ah of course, it's a film they have to cut for time. And so they just were like, let's just do some...
00:06:23
Speaker
physical comedy and have him fall off and then he gets to rip it out of the like proverbial amniotic sack and call it a day so it was funny the way they did it I also noticed that he went through the doors really quickly too because he in the book hadn't answered those questions. But in the movie, he falls off and goes right up through the door yeah and explores the ship a little bit, yeah which is fine. It's fine for the movie purposes. But it would have been fun like in a show to spend like that whole first episode, um him like getting used to the ship and waking up and like still having the flashbacks. But for the film, it was great. Oh,
00:07:01
Speaker
Yeah, the physical comedy definitely added some, uh, some fun to that kind of scary moment of waking up and not knowing who you are. Um, and then, um, chapters seven through 12 of our, of the book go through the first contact, um, which is meeting Rocky, uh, covers grace and finding a rocket's crew die and all that. And, uh, though then goes all the way to the watching him sleep.
00:07:28
Speaker
Uh, how'd you guys feel about that adaptation part? I thought the first contact was really great. Like, he sees this ship show up, and he's like, I'm going get the fuck out of here. And then we have that quick little, like...
00:07:44
Speaker
it's like you see both ships and you see grace's ship go forward in like little increments and then you see this big gold ship go forward in little increments and it was just so cute my whole theater you know laughed at that moment um that whole situation of them trying to figure out what's going on was really great and then we get the um little canister coming through and it goes too fast and Then he's like, okay, now he thinks I'm stupid because it goes out really slowly the second time. And they just, it was a really good, they just nailed that whole, you know, like we were talking in our other episode that we're not used to having friendly aliens.
Cultural Exchanges and Relationship Dynamics
00:08:25
Speaker
So you you see this alien ship show up and you're like, this is not good.
00:08:30
Speaker
little Spider-Man moment from Infinity War. Don't put your eggs in me. Yeah. I mean, and the ship looks kind of scary too. Like it's all, it's, it's all like rough edges and like, it looks pointy, like, and then, you know, like we said, like we're used to the aliens being the bad guys and like being hostile right off the bat. so you know he's of course he's gonna be like i'm up bye i'm dipping out here i'm gone and fight or flight yeah but then the ship follows him and then he's like why are you following me and then it it was done really cute way and i think it was adapted well enough where like i don't remember anything else that happened that wasn't included throughout these scenes so i think it was good and i like you know the
00:09:17
Speaker
the visual of Rocky's ship like building the tunnel like in the layers like I thought that was really cool to kind of show a little bit more how Xena night worked and what that looked like and yeah the first interaction with Rocky my husband always makes fun of me because I get got by jump scares really easily sure so the first jump scare of Rocky im like I know he's not scary I know what's gonna happen and it's still i was still jumped out of my seat so it was all fun, fun and games. My friend and I jumped at the same time too. And we were just like, oh my gosh, I can't believe that. Just because again, like you said, like I knew it was coming. I knew Rocky was going to be fine. But yeah, the jump scares get me too. um And I wanted to talk about the Xenonite making the tunnel.
00:10:01
Speaker
I did not know how to picture that in my head, how this tunnel connected the two ships. So I really appreciated how they made that work. Yeah. Yeah, i usually see jump scares coming enough that I was in this movie specifically, I was warning my wife. I just kept leaning over like jump scare and warning her ahead of time because she will jump and get pretty startled by them. So I was warning her.
00:10:21
Speaker
um This also covers the the communication stuff too, I believe here, of learning how to speak. And that I really thought that was cool. i want I would love to see someone make a practical version of that. know The idea of learning how to speak with Rocky and through tones and computer program with two computers strapped together.
00:10:39
Speaker
It's a cool idea. Yeah, I thought they did just a fantastic job of capturing that that fear that Grace had. he He's very curious and excited because he he realizes the weight in import. Like, hey, I'm the first person to ever come in contact with intelligent life, the fact that this ship is here. So, yeah, both the book and the movie did a great job of kind of like vacillating between that excitement and curiosity, but the the palpable fear that would be there, and I think the the tunnel did a great job when he just kind of in the movie when he first like kind of goes into the tunnel and just realizes the sheer darkness and you do get the sense that he's almost like spelunking like he would just kind of have to drop into this like not knowing any idea what's ahead and i think that's what builds up to that jumps jump scare so effectively but um everybody kind of talks about it but i do want to come back to it because in the in the tunnel and when he finally starts to interact with rocky and they have their go going back and forth where they they at first have the very rudimentary
00:11:34
Speaker
level of communication where it starts just with like holding one finger and that means like wait you wait here give me one second i'll come back um but with him trying to escape and the ship kind of like following him in like synchronicity
Visualizing Science and Humor
00:11:47
Speaker
and unison not only did that create like a lot of humor but i think it kind of got across some of what happened in the book in those instances there's a lot of them like mimicking each other and and there's yeah just mimicry happening and i thought what was happening with the ships was kind of doing that too because even though it is a big scary ominous ship you you get the sense that like oh this is their their intentions are good they're altruistic they're they're showing that they're intelligent here And I know it doesn't happen in the movie, but every time I think about that sequence, I think about that. um the The theme escapes me, but it's like a famous ballet theme. that like the donna na and not
00:12:23
Speaker
da na na na na and nannanna I just want to hear that when the when the ships are like, you know, whenever they're rotating or or doing any of that stuff in unison. um So, yeah, I appreciate what they were able to do visually convey so many so many of those ideas and themes and kind of emotions um and in a visual format. And I think that was ah a great example of it.
00:12:49
Speaker
um On top of the visualness, I thought they did a really great job a lot like throughout the whole movie with the audio. In this particular scene with the spaceships, um it was completely silent because there is no sound in space. And then they did that a few more times throughout the film, whereas if it was looking out at the spaceships, it was silent. And I thought that really...
00:13:11
Speaker
Brought you back into the fact that. Like they're in space. And it's like this is like. How real the science is in this film. Like it's not. It is science fiction. But it's not science fiction. Like this could like. It just grounded the story. I thought.
00:13:25
Speaker
Nowadays, you're not going to hear that ballet. You're going to hear the the Bridgerton song and the dance on TikTok with the ships going back and forth next to each other. That's what we're going to see soon, probably. But I actually was thinking that that's going to totally all of Rocky's little dances and the little different ah um moments that they have throughout this thing are totally going to become viral moments online as soon as this is available to to be used that way.
00:13:46
Speaker
You like tapping, huh? yeah Oh, yeah. Look behind you. Oh, turn around. Idiot. Well, maybe I am dumb. Stupid human. Yeah. No, Ryan is just so good. I'm not mad at it. Yeah, you can see how much fun we have with it. So I had with it. So.
00:14:08
Speaker
um Yeah, that was good. um
Adaptation of Key Scenes and Character Growth
00:14:10
Speaker
Next up, we have the exploration and backstory covered up until, let's see, Rocky getting to know Grace's ship, coming into the ship and and kind of building his little ball is kind of the um the next section of the film here, next couple of chapters.
00:14:31
Speaker
um I think they went pretty quick through that in the film, but what did you guys think of that part? What have we gotten so far like in the flashbacks? Where are we with flashbacks at this point? Does anybody kind of know? like ah we we We know what astrophage is and we've seen all that montage, right?
00:14:47
Speaker
Yeah, I think we know what astrophage is and we're kind of starting to get to the beginnings of project. I think this is like where all the big scenes of Carl and like the Home Depot trip, I think that's happening kind of around here. want to Yeah.
00:15:03
Speaker
I want to talk about how they made Astrophage because I, again, had a really hard time visualizing what Astrophage was in the book. I think a lot of times with being an audiobook listener, you you miss a lot of descriptions when you're listening to something. And I think that's one of the things I really missed out on was the description of Astrophage. And like I really just saw it as like black dots, like little beads. But the fact that it was like a goo in the movie um and then when you looked at it under the microscope, you got to see like the different cells. And then when you saw the one cell and then when he like killed the cell and it like kind of popped, um i thought all of that was done really well.
00:15:46
Speaker
Yeah, I agree. Yeah, they got a lot of, and the book did a pretty good job of not being like overly sciency or, yeah you know, making you feel stupid if you weren't, you know, understanding everything that they were getting at. But yeah, very quickly, they were able to convey like, hey, this guy hedged all of his ah his bets around the fact of like,
00:16:07
Speaker
hypothesizing that life could live without water. And then you find out very quickly, oh, okay, it's it's got hydrogen and oxygen, so therefore it has water. and you And you understand very quickly why that's so deflating to him. And yeah, so I thought all of that was done very, very well, even for you know the layman like myself that's not you know spent any time in ah in a lab like that.
00:16:32
Speaker
This film actually made, or this book even actually made me want to do science. I was like, man, I really want to get a microscope and start looking at some stuff. This has got me like it wanted to get into my getting STEM stuff and look at stuff more.
00:16:44
Speaker
So I was excited about that. And the fact that that's probably happening to other people too, or kids and people who will go be the next ones to do this NASA stuff and everything that we're going to need the future.
00:16:56
Speaker
Yeah, I think in 20, 30 years, we're going to have a lot of NASA scientists and engineers and even like, you know, biologists talking about like, oh, yeah, when I was a kid, I saw Project Hail Mary and that really inspired me. um Sitting next to me in the theater was a dad and his son. He was like, hey, you remember this part of the book and like talking kind like whisper talking him through the movie. And I was like, that's a really special moment for a dad and his kid to like be here watching this and you know who knows that kid could go on and create a ship like like the hail mary and go out in this space and we could get there at some point because like you said i think sarah day this story is so well grounded in reality that it really makes you believe like oh this is possible like there's enough of like contemporary technology being used that you're like dang, like we really could get there. If we really like put the full forces of all the smartest people on earth who specialize in these things together, we could really do it. Like we could really get there. well and it will never happen because we're all squabbling and fighting like animals, but we could. And that's really cool and to inspire a new generation of kids to get into science and engineering and and take us to these new places.
00:18:13
Speaker
I think that's what makes the character of Strat so important in this book and and movie, though, is because I mean, and she even says it, that they they will go to war if the resources are at stake. But if we don't have a character like her pulling these people together in spearheading this and being like, we have to get along for for us to live. like even like if Wars are going to kill us. Famine's going to kill us. The sun is going to kill us. like We need to come together. So that makes her character so important. and I'm glad that he wrote that character to make that believable. like Yeah, because otherwise...
00:18:51
Speaker
that everything would fall apart.
00:18:55
Speaker
Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, but I believe it's um this section in the book and they they get it across in the movie as well, but it's kind of like um the relationship between Rocky and Grace, like they're finding their boundaries. And like in the book, I remember they're very intentional about like, hey, if they say it's a part of my culture, it's like if there's any pushback, they just say, hey it's a culture thing. Okay, enough said. Mm-hmm.
00:19:21
Speaker
i'll I'll do what I have to. And a lot of that is centered around, um you know, Rocky wanting to watch Grace sleep as well as be, you know, be watched while he's sleeping. But it does bring to mind um one of the the differences between the the book and the movie. And it's not a big one. It's kind of actually, I think it's really for like the people that have read the book to be like, ah, I see what you did there. But in the book, um,
00:19:42
Speaker
rocky is kind of ashamed of the way he eats he doesn't he wants to eat in private it's not a communal thing for iridians and they kind of invert that and they have a moment in this sequence where they're kind of going back and forth and grace is starting to say like hey i've got this roommate and he's kind of driving me crazy but yeah you get to like oh you look so gross when you're eating it's like well what does it look like when you eat it's like it's it's beautiful and you know no it's not Well, and I think in the book, they describe them as ah creatures that eat and defecate out of the same orifice. So it's, you know, it's all happening out of there. And so it's not necessarily a pretty moment, but that's, you know, it's a cultural thing, so it's okay.
Visual Storytelling and Scientific Concepts
00:20:23
Speaker
Yes. Yeah, there's a lot of those little things that they added in. um I don't know where it happens, but at one point in the film, they had the like ah the first contact like music, the do, do, do. You know, a little bit of the, um I don't think it's from, I don't remember which one it's from, but ah um they had the music play that was from of Close Encounters. Yeah, Close Encounters, that's it. Yeah, I had that, just a little bit of that theme play, and I was like, oh, that's a reference to my wife, and i think there was a reference to Alien somewhere in there, too.
00:20:56
Speaker
um, at the heart, like coming out of my chest or certainly he's made joke that. Oh yes, that a concern for a while. There's another, he's not growing in me, which was a concern. Yeah. And actually i liked that, uh, talking to the screen as a way to get some of that, um, descriptive,
00:21:11
Speaker
moments where he did we wouldn't have seen it on screen as easily but talking to earth about it um really helped with showing that happening things happen yes i really like that they made him having and you saw that in the preview to his video his um yeah his video recordings back to earth instead of getting all the dialogue from his head um that was a really clever way to make that work on screen yeah ah Yeah, I agree. Vlogging was definitely better than just like him monologuing internally.
00:21:43
Speaker
Yeah, agreed. And I think that's one of the things they learned from the Martian that works so well in the Martian that it was kind of like, hey, this is an easy thing to recreate here. Yeah.
00:21:54
Speaker
Why reinvent the wheel if you don't have to? hmm. Well, that's exactly what we do with most science things anyways, is we're going to document it. So it's an easy thing to just, you know, we'll just make our little video recordings here.
00:22:05
Speaker
um Rocky's balls. Rocky's like joining the ah coming into the ship. What you guys think of how they did his little geometric ah rolling balls? His hamster wheel. Yeah, his hamster ball rather. Yeah.
00:22:20
Speaker
Yeah, I thought it worked really well. It was fun, especially because it wasn't it wasn't fully round. So he was the same as all of his other stuff. It doesn't sit quite the way that you'd expect of all the sits. it kept bumping into things and it was fun.
00:22:34
Speaker
Oh, and then him talking about how dirty the room was. Is this your trash room? No, I just wasn't expecting company. Been there. thank Yeah, that was one of the things I think it was, you know, pretty faithfully adapted. i mean, it's it's effectively a hexagonal hamster ball. But for whatever reason in the book, and it's been a little bit since I read the book, too, but I got the sense that he was leveraging more like ramp-like platforms that gave him more like verticality and and whatnot. But I didn't necessarily need that for the the movie. I thought, you know, they got the point across pretty well.
00:23:14
Speaker
Yeah, there's um tunnels that he created all throughout the ship or like some sort of, yeah, like a a tunnel system throughout the ship where he did he did get some verticalness. So he you see the little thing over Grace's bed so he can like sit on top of him and watch him sleep. So there was. So many more sides to you.
00:23:36
Speaker
Yeah. I'm side sleeper anyways. Yeah.
00:23:43
Speaker
and Next up, they move into fishing for the astrophage predators. and So they found that the predators exist. They early postulate the predators will exist on the planet. And that's why the Talseti is not dying.
00:23:56
Speaker
And so they go fishing. They go to the room and look at watch the video of fishing and kind of give Rocky a reference to. see that Rocky has built his little crystal that lets him see at least the shapes of video feeds, which is, I was wondering how they were going to visualize that. And i think it was well done.
00:24:15
Speaker
And then they start prepping their chain and their fishing gear. I thought the epiphany was really well done. um and it was really good from page to screen when Rocky realizes they they both they come to the realization together, but Grace doesn't get there as fast as Rocky does. And you see the excitement. and He's trying to explain what's happening, but they're still working on their communication and You just see him kind of like jumping up and down and saying predator, predator, predator. And Grace is still calmly like, yeah, okay, I get it. Like, tell me what you mean. Like, what's happening here? um
00:24:53
Speaker
oh life is reason. Life is reason. Life is reason. Yes, yes, yes, yes. That's what he said. And he's like, yeah, life is reason for what? And then they finally get there and then come up with a plan for the fishing and fishing. um i think they added a little tension in the film because i don't remember the fishing line like breaking in the book um and then he goes and grabs it and rocky's like no just leave it we'll we'll try it again i do remember all the aftermath happening but that specific thing i don't remember happening in the book but um
00:25:27
Speaker
I like how we go from this really beautiful scene of seeing the planet and seeing the red line and then having this tension um and like a lot of tension like we're the thing breaks and he gets back in the ship and then the ship is broken and then the gravity thing is happening and this is when he gets out of his ball to save him right like this is all happening at the same time yeah so we have this beautiful scene and then we have all this tension and that really worked well I think in the theater.
00:25:52
Speaker
I do think I remember something about the chain breaking or the the line breaking and him having to save something, but I could be wrong. I could be complaining it. um The building of the chain in the book was like they had to start taking apart his ship and converting it into these links. And it took forever to get these links built in the in the book. It was a long process and Grace was frustrated by the end of it.
00:26:15
Speaker
rocky was a little frustrated by the end of it. So it was a longer montage but I think that was kind of not necessary for the film it worked that Rocky was just good at 3D printing with his body but it worked Yeah, and as I recall, it was a team effort in the book and still took like weeks and weeks and weeks for them to get the astronomical number of these links for this chain that they needed.
Cultural Differences and Scientific Collaboration
00:26:38
Speaker
But I didn't need to see that play out in real time in the movie, obviously. So that's that's a change that works for me. But I also think it works because it gives you that moment where Rocky gets to say like, hey,
00:26:50
Speaker
my collection device is ready i made my chain your piling still not good yeah it helps to uh uh but also i felt like rocky you know they sing the praises of his ability as an engineer so much in the book and there are some references to it like he can he can basically build anything But I felt like his role as like a contributor to the science with the exception of what you just brought up Sarah Day about like, he's the one that realizes life is the reason apart from that, you kind of get the sense that they're a little bit more like siloed. Like Rocky is the one that can build the stuff and Grace is doing the science. And there is an element of that to the book, but I felt like there was just lot, a lot more collaboration in the book and it felt like Rocky was bringing something more to the table as, as a scientist and,
00:27:39
Speaker
um So to give him more to do is kind of like, yeah, I've done A, B, and C, and you still haven't done this this one thing. I i just thought that that worked well in terms of like the major contributions that that Rocky brings to this team.
00:27:55
Speaker
One thing. Speaking on that, sorry, Chris. um We also, he explains to Rocky why his whole crew died because they don't understand the same science we understand and they didn't understand radiation poisoning. And that's, you know, getting that explanation I think is, was, and it and they, they touched on it briefly. I think they spent more time in the book on that. um But I'm glad that we, we got that, you know, kind of.
00:28:22
Speaker
a moment um ah of him explaining like why his team died and that comes back to play later on and we'll get to that. But, um, well, that was basically what I was going to say. And the other half of that is him explaining relativity to him and that we didn't get as much of in the film. He does mention that they didn't know it. Um, but, uh, if you don't know what relatively relatively does in space travel, that doesn't mean anything to you watching it. But he explains in there that it would have taken, less time than you would have expected to take based on the relativity that it's 12 light years, but it really was like four or something years. So Rocky packed way more fuel than they needed for their crew. That's why he had the extra fuel.
00:29:03
Speaker
Yeah. Yeah. Cause in the movie, he just makes a comment about it'll take him six years long longer to get to get home. um It relatively doesn't have anything to do with it, but again, like fine for the film because yeah I didn't change. don't need to explain relativity in the film. Yeah. But I thought it was a really cool thing in the book. I liked the, you know, explaining relativity being why that happened to him. So.
00:29:25
Speaker
Yeah, and speaking of things that happen in the book that were left out of the movie, ah we kind of touched on it in last week's episode about like turning the Sahara Desert into like a astrophage farming factory because they need they're using astrophage as fuel for the Hail Mary and so and it needs heat and light to breed and so they put ah factory on the Sahara Desert to collect that sunlight to breed it. And then they also talk about like, well, you know, if astrophage, you know, kills our sun, we're going to fall into an ice age and that's what's going to cause all the problems of the starvation and and all these things. So, you know, we've been accidentally doing global warming for centuries. Let's do global warming on purpose to try to slow the effects of the sun shrinking. And so they're like cut chopping off chunks of Antarctica into the ocean to raise, to raise the sea levels. And they're, trying to get hey let's get our carbon emissions up let's get our methane emissions up let's try to warm the earth and like purposely do all the things that like climate change scientists have been talking about avoiding for years to try to counteract those effects and don't I don't think we lost anything in the movie by not having them but I think those are really interesting like scientific questions and like you know just filling out the world a little bit more and showing more of
00:30:51
Speaker
the the earth banding together and working together to to save it. And like, there's not just sitting there at home twiddling their thumbs while the Hail Mary is out in space. Like they're still trying to do stuff at home too. And then the other thing is I kind of wish they had stuck closer to the book, ah the scene of like the ship crashing and all that.
00:31:13
Speaker
Because Rocky saves Grace, but then Grace is like is conscious enough to be like, oh, my God, like Rocky, you know, is out of containment, basically. And he's going to die in this pressure and in this atmosphere. Like, and Grace, like, has a heroic moment of saving Rocky in return at at that time. And then they both are just like.
00:31:35
Speaker
sitting there on the brink of death, like trying to heal. And um Grace actually like interferes with Rocky's healing process. He's trying to save him. He thinks he's doing the right thing to help him, but he's like, oh oh my God, I ripped the scab off of his wound as when he was in the middle of healing, like I almost killed him because I was trying to help. And I think like taking that scene out, like had more of an effect than some of the other scenes or like lines of explanation that got taken out. I wish that had been in there.
00:32:06
Speaker
I agree. And that was really, I was one of the things that was a little missing, but I was not sure how they were going to do it either. i was like, I don't know what that can visually be as easily portrayed with him having to get into Rocky's containment area. yeah Right. And they they had mentioned it because I was waiting for this moment because I knew like he saved him after Rocky saved Grace. So I was waiting for that switcheroo. um But he's kind of just unconscious.
Emotional Impact and Character Arcs
00:32:30
Speaker
And when he wakes up, he sees that Rocky's pulled himself into.
00:32:34
Speaker
that area. um And they briefly touched on the fact that it it is warm because when he handed them something through that little like yeah tape measure, or yeah okay he was like, oh, it's really hot. And this is that ammonia? And then the when he opened the canister, it almost looked like he was smelling the ammonia too because he like threw it.
00:32:56
Speaker
And he didn't mention it then, but I think us book readers could know that's what was happening in that moment. And then That's all we really get about their difference in atmospheres. And like, yeah maybe I'm wrong and maybe I miss it in the film, but I don't think they really explained why they had to be separated like that.
00:33:13
Speaker
and Yeah, I think that was like mentioned 20 atmospheres above or whatever. should maybe You might have talked to the screen or something about that. but Yeah, the pressure was really different to like 29 times the pressure on right Arid than on Earth. So like they, yeah.
00:33:31
Speaker
And that might be the one sequence where when I was watching the movie, I was like, Maybe I shouldn't have read the book because I wonder how this would impact me if I didn't know that Rocky was going to survive. How would it hit me in the theater? Because oh yeah again, I know what's going to happen having read the book, but I did feel like even with just like some of the changes they made there, like the fact that um Rocky makes his own way back to his enclosure. He's not just left there as a husk that Grace has to drag all the way back with, you know, a lot of effort to make that happen. And even like when Grace, you know, follows the trail and sees him there and and gets to see Rocky kind of like give him like a little bit of like, hey, I made it and then go to sleep. Like those kind of things just made me feel like, again, I don't have i don't know what I would be thinking if I, because I have this knowledge, but as if viewer, would I take that as an indication that he might survive? But because I definitely, both times I saw it, I heard people sniffling at at this point. Like people thought Rocky was, was,
00:34:30
Speaker
was gone or were very very concerned for rocky oh yeah in the book i was totally i was beside myself i was like no suming no thank grace but yeah yeah it's it's one of those things this the movie is such a a crowd pleaser um like i can understand like they know they'd have younger people in the audiences maybe they don't want to go to the full depths of of making you think they killed off arguably the most lovable character in the movie so yeah Well, and we didn't really talk about this part of Grace's character too much in the last episode, but I wanted to bring it up. Like, him as, like, a reluctant hero. like he's...
00:35:11
Speaker
he's a coward like on earth like we see the flashback of him and strat talking and she literally has to knock him out and drug him and force him on this mission he does not he did not volunteer for this he did not want to be here like he you know there and in the book it does a lot more explanation of like she tells him like i know you you're and she does it in the movie too like i know you you're a good guy like Once you're out there, you're going to do the right thing. It's just scary to think about right now because it is a suicide mission and that's made very clear to everybody from the beginning. Like if you're going out there, you're not coming back. You're going to die in space. um And so I like he...
00:35:48
Speaker
is a coward. And I think that reveal comes around this time of the story. And he has to wrestle with the fact of like that shame and that guilt of like, you know, I'm not, I'm not the hero that i thought I was for a little bit here. And, but he does get to still be the hero. He gets to have that, that character arc and that transformation from the cowardly reluctant person who's forced to go on this mission to, you I'm going to risk my life.
00:36:16
Speaker
yeah like Rocky just saved me and now I'm going to go back and risk my life again to save him. And that is heroic and that is coming from a place of deep love and affection for Rocky. And so I think like taking that part of it out, like... Again, time maybe time for the movie, maybe like you know not wanting to stress out the kids.
00:36:36
Speaker
I understand all of that, but I think it is it doesn't give Grace as much of that character arc that he got in the book, and that to me is still disappointing ultimately.
00:36:47
Speaker
Well, I think that comes into play more so later on um because he when Aniba is eating the astrophage or whatever that's called at the end. And he realizes that Rocky doesn't know that. And he's like dead in space right now. And he's like, i can go home and I can save earth and be a hero, or I can go save Rocky. I think that's the real moment of heroism in the book. And they do do that in the movie. Yeah.
00:37:16
Speaker
Um, but the, I want to comment on him realizing that he did not volunteer for this mission and he is a coward and he was drugged and forced upon this mission, um, because they had that flashback. He's on Rocky's ship. Um, and he's like, he's, it's beautiful. And he's having this wonderful experience. He has that flashback. And then we cut back to him on Rocky's ship and you can see him like just deflate. And then I think it cuts to him like on his ship, just being sad and like head, you know, like head in his hands or whatever. But seeing how much of an impact that's having on him and like that realization, I thought that they did, they showed rather than told that really well in the film.
00:38:00
Speaker
Yeah. And then again, we can go back to him realizing he needs to go save Rocky. And then that's when, you know, he has his flip and his change and he becomes a hero and
Problem-Solving and Friendship
00:38:12
Speaker
not a coward. And you're right. It is because of that friendship that they formed. Yeah.
00:38:18
Speaker
Yeah, and I know it's really ah impressed upon on the book, and I think there are a few like choice lines of dialogue that kind of bring it home in the movie as well. But there's like the idea that the reason that he's a middle school teacher is because some of this cowardice we're talking about. like He's one of the smartest guys, an expert in his field, but he prefers the comfortability of a middle school classroom because he gets to be the man in that environment. Nobody's going to question him. he's He's just, he's, you know, the guy with all the answers there. So I don't want to get too far at him ahead of myself, but the fact that he does, you know, make this very brave choice to save Rocky, knowing that he won't be able to go back to Earth, but... to have him wind up on um arid and and get to kind of reclaim that where the thing that he loves the thing that he's passionate about the place that he belongs in the classroom like strat kind of took that from him and like in the movie she says like don't make it about the kids that's so insulting
00:39:11
Speaker
Like, you know, don't, don't, don't do that. In the book and in the movie, I feel like he really gets to kind of reclaim that. Like I'm back in the classroom doing what I love doing, but I can all, I can have both, both things can be true. I can be a hero and be brave and not be a coward, but also embrace this thing that I love, which is again, one of the great things about this story.
00:39:30
Speaker
Yeah. So you've already kind of started jumping into the next part here with the, uh, not you, you're fine. I mean, yours is way down, but, uh, um, Jordan, you were set talking about the, uh, um, the that you didn't volunteer for the mission that comes up in the chapters 19 and 23. That was the next up here. And that's also where, Grace starts to find out that the, um, the, uh,
00:39:54
Speaker
Predator amoeba is not able to survive on Venus. And so he has to start ah breeding them and to be resistant to nitrogen and ah um is wait just waiting patiently for Rocky to survive. He creates the heat lamp for him. He does everything everything he can to help Rocky out in that time frame in the film, at least. um I'm not sure what i I know in the book he does the...
00:40:17
Speaker
Actually tries to help him physically. but that's kind of how I, I saw that, uh, what, what they tried to do to get that, uh, um, same, I'm trying to do whatever I can for Rocky was like the heat lamp and the little things like that was kind of where I saw that going.
00:40:32
Speaker
Um, I love in the movie when Rocky comes to and Grace has the realization like, oh, you're you're alive and you're awake. And Rocky asks, hey, did we did we successfully get the Taomiba? And in the in the movie, like they don't make any reference this to this in the book, but it's again, I have to imagine that this was probably like improvised or ad-libbed, but Ryan Gosling as Grace, he's just shaking his head no and then turns it to yes. And ah it got me both times i I saw the movie. I really love it.
00:41:05
Speaker
Yeah, I mean, Ryan Gosling is just so endearing in this movie, and he's just so great. And I, like, maybe that's the reason why I'm going to go back and see it again so badly. Don't tell my husband. But he's just so, so great in this movie. Hey, if you're not crushing on on Ryan Gosling, I'd say there's something wrong with you.
00:41:26
Speaker
Thanks. Thanks. You got me back. Yeah, i'm I'm right there with you. I say that as a... Jay Scott has a man crash on Ryan Gosling. I do. I totally do. I get that too. mean Especially that, you know science bros, you know, I'm there.
00:41:41
Speaker
So the next up, we have the kind of where they've figured out the, they solved the problem. Rocky wakes up. He tells them about how he's bred the resistant ones enough of them for both their plans to survive. And so they're able to basically...
00:41:57
Speaker
go their separate ways and, uh, celebrate and be excited that they've saved their worlds. And so we see that celebration moment in the film, um, in the book, it's kind of yeah, think a similar thing. They're kind of, they're working together to get that, uh, uh, finished up, I think, but, uh, um, making the containers and everything. And in the film, they already got there with, uh, he made them ahead of time for him.
00:42:19
Speaker
Um, but they, Get that and they go off their separate ways and then we find out that the um predators are escaping from their containment and eating the fuel.
00:42:32
Speaker
um You know, we talked about it when we thought Rocky might die, how we wish we didn't read the books and know that he actually survived. I thought the same way in this moment. Like, I'm like, I'm not emotional because I know what's going to happen. Like, I know they're going to get back together. And um so I do wonder how this goodbye felt to people that didn't read the book like did they really think this was goodbye and wasn't emotional for them because um I personally thought okay I'm like it's taking a little too long like I this is goodbye it needs to be emotional I know but I want to get to what's happening next because I know the big emotional impact is going to happen in the next couple scenes
00:43:10
Speaker
And you on for the Harry Potter video. I know exactly what's happening in that film. I actually had kind of a unique experience watching it because I didn't finish the book before I saw the movie. Oh yeah. I got like three quarters of the way through the book, saw the movie. So this scene of them leaving, i didn't know they were going to get back together at the end. So I did get to have, I was telling my husband, i was like, I think I accidentally saw this movie the perfect way. Like, I had read enough of the book to like know all the science in the background and be able to follow everything really well.
00:43:45
Speaker
But I missed like that last emotional moment in the book. And so I was able to like see it for the first time on film and see them leaving and so yeah I was crying when they separated and then i was like I was just as stressed out as Ryan Gosling when I thought Rocky was gonna die in space like oh my god you have to go save him like please you have to go like and so then and then they reunited and I was crying again because I was so happy that they got to be reunited and I was like he's such a like he you know he has that full like i was talking about earlier that full hero turn where now you know
00:44:20
Speaker
Once again, he knows that he's going on a suicide mission and now he gets to choose to go on a suicide mission to save his friend. And that's i was crying again. and it was just like...
00:44:32
Speaker
I recommend reading three quarters of a book and then seeing the movie and then finish the book later. Because it just it was like the best of both worlds, like knowing enough. I knew that Rocky survives. I didn't have to be super stressed out, but I didn't know how it was going to end. And so getting to see that ending was very beautiful. And them figuring it out was was fun too, to see all that science happening. That's a lot to start doing these.
00:45:00
Speaker
we'll start watching three we' We'll start reading our books three-quarters the way and then we'll watch the film. That's just our new thing. hey you'll You'll definitely have a niche in the in the space. I don't think anybody else is doing that. so ah Yeah, this sequence is a lot more extensive in the book, but I really have no qualms with it being shorted in in the movie because i I think like a couple of people have already alluded to, it's kind of like we've already gone through so much like emotional turmoil that it's kind of like okay one last challenge is okay but let's just get through it really quickly and get to where we really want to with reuniting these two characters so In all those senses, I think it really worked. But two, just note some of the
Narrative Closures and Reflection
00:45:40
Speaker
differences in the book. like
00:45:41
Speaker
In the book, like you know discovering how the Tau Miba even got out in the first place is like a whole little mini mystery too. And to resolve that issue, like he has to go into like the fuel tanks and like scrub them out like multiple times. And it's like a whole process of like figuring out, like oh, I scrubbed it once, but left like the trace amount in the last one that I cleaned. So I got to go back and scrub them all over again. So it really, it kind of adds to that exhaustion in a good way at that point in the book. It's just like, like I was just saying in the movie, you've you've already gone through all so much turmoil, you're kind of ready for it to be done. But in the book, it's like, my God, like, you know we've we've gone through so much, like there's this one final hurdle to overcome before we can we can get to where we want to to be.
00:46:26
Speaker
yeah i will say i wish they had done more in the movie of talking about the beetle probes or the drones or whatever i feel like that like in the book they were talked about the whole time and it was fun like grace's like naming mechanism like the three little astrophage that he got to start his experiments with were larry curly and mo and then he named the beetles after the beetles and like that like showing his personality was fun I feel like in the movie they kind of came out of nowhere at the end like you know oh fun little plot armor egg yeah like it was fun little plot armor they get to he gets to do both he gets to send this stuff back to earth and save earth and he gets to go save Rocky without like doing the lead up that like the whole time he knew he could have
00:47:12
Speaker
sent that he could have just sent the Beatles and he was supposed to just send the Beatles but he was able to get the fuel from Rocky to go back and so like I feel like because they like cut all these little things out in the middle it felt a little like wonky to skip like, oh, by the way, here's the Beatles and we can send them back and it's fine. um So that kind of, don't know, it didn't sit quite right with me.
00:47:36
Speaker
That is totally absolutely it to be a be suicide mission, um but Yeah, I think you're right. Like the fact that they we didn't talk about the fact that these little things that he was supposed to send back were called the Beatles. And in like when he's getting ready to send them back, they do. um They show the names of the Beatles. And I'm wondering, like, would people really like, why are they showing the names of these things when like that's pure for us as book readers to know? Yeah.
00:48:05
Speaker
that's what these are because you're right they didn't talk about them at all um in the movies and so we just get these random beetle names yeah that's absolutely something nasa would do is name things after the beetles or there's always somebody at nasa that's a nerd and wants to name something after something so And we talked about some of the other science stuff that got taken out, like the stuff with the Sahara Desert and the ice and the, you know, the the coma gene where we talked about the last episode that was completely removed from the movie. So like some of these like things can be removed and it doesn't change that much. And it's kind of nitpicky for us as book readers. Yeah.
00:48:47
Speaker
And so like, if you don't know, you don't know, and it's fine. And it it still flows pretty smoothly. This one, I feel like was one of the times where it there was a little like bump in the road as far as like consistency, um where it didn't, it didn't flow perfectly where I could just ignore the fact that it didn't happen exactly the same.
00:49:05
Speaker
Four hour cut. Four hour cut. Yeah. yeah it It does feel a little convenient because even having read the book and knowing the story and paying attention to the movie the movie, there is that kind of moment where like, oh yeah, this does feel like incredibly convenient that he can just do this, even though you know it's a suicide mission. And then as you think about it, you're like, oh, well, yeah, he had to have some way to send it back in the first place. But I agree. I think that is kind of a noteworthy um criticism or omission there. But they do play the song by the Beatles to really drive the point home that I'm going home.
Creative Decisions and Easter Eggs
00:49:37
Speaker
I saw a thing.
00:49:39
Speaker
in yeah In terms of differences from the book, like in the book there was a whole character about like the development of the Beatles and the guy that created them and how he was kind of a little bit of a religious nut. And, you know, Grace had the interactions with him about his beliefs. And I feel like you get a little bit of a moment like that with Strat and Grace on the on the aircraft carrier against because she's like, you know, God will. do you think it's going to work? And she says, God willing, you believe in God.
00:50:03
Speaker
It's a lot better than the alternative. her um and that reminded me too there's actually a whole like plot point in the book about them having to take apart one of the um beetles to use i think it's for the astrophage like breeding them or something um so he's down to three or down to two by the end of it i think yeah um and they didn't do that they had all four of them going back to earth in the movie right
00:50:32
Speaker
I did watch a little thing of the, um, of Andy. We were talking with Ryan and a couple of other of the other, think it was the directors. And they are asked that question when they were like reading the cards from Google of things, they were asked about why the Beatles were in there. And they said, well, it was an Easter egg from the book, but it also gave us a chance for an incredibly high priced, uh, song, uh, uh, song reference to the Beatles.
00:50:53
Speaker
Yeah. It was one of the, the wired interviews where they, yeah, I think so. Yeah. yeah I like those a lot. Those are fun. Yep. And so we find the next section was where Grace decides to send the rockets back to Earth and go save his friend who was stranded with no more astrophages because of the escape and no way to stop it because this whole ship is made of the, what are they, what was this? The Xenite. Yeah. And so he has no way to protect himself in there from that at all. And so Grace protects himself and then goes to save Rocky and decides to be the, do the selfless thing and not knowing if he'd ever get to go home.
00:51:35
Speaker
And,
00:51:38
Speaker
kind already touched on it like that full hero turn of him like being forced onto the suicide the original suicide mission and then at the end choosing to go on another suicide mission for his friend um was really really well done i think and you know seeing those parallels and like like i said already like they had their reunion and i'm sitting there sobbing because i'm like They're back. The best friends are back. I'm so happy. um And like both of that, each of them, like Rocky and Grace getting emotional, seeing each other like, yeah, I'm back, buddy. I'm here for you. I got you. It was just really, really well done. And it's like that final, you know, sweet moment of, you know, yeah, he's dealing with the sadness that he's never gonna see Earth again. He's never gonna see his kids and his family and, or, you know, his friends that he made as part of Project Hail Mary. He's not, he thinks, I'm never gonna know if the Beatles made it back and if Earth survived, but I'm gonna take the chance. Because I have to save my friend. And that like, heartwarming moment of brotherhood between these two, you know, last final survivors of their missions, and them getting to go and have at least a partial happy ending before the epilogue is was really sweet and really well done.
00:53:01
Speaker
And the part that the book or the movie don't tell you that is that Grace was actually really selfish in that moment because he just wanted to have the claim to fame that he saved not one, but two planets. Yeah. earth well And first to visit another planet this is what we find out. He gets to go to it a separate planet. and so That too. That too. Yeah.
Epilogue and Thematic Closure
00:53:22
Speaker
And so after that, we kind of go into the um the finale of ending up on Irid and ah living with Iridians in his little bubble, basically. Instead of them being in the little bubbles, he's in his little like habitat being kept as a pet by the Iridians. and Just them helping him out with getting his ship fixed up and getting ready to send him back to Earth. But because of relatively all of the different things, he's definitely a lot older by now. And so he kind of is you know, taking some time to think about it inside. I think they do mention that Earth, they they were able to detect that Earth has made a recovery. And so he finds out that Earth made it.
00:53:59
Speaker
um well they see his son right their son has gone back to normal so he knows they must have gotten the information from him and learned how to get rid of the astrophage but they leave that out of the movie right ah you see her open up the package so you know she's gotten the information but they don't talk about the son i don't think they they do the epilogue like We as the audience get to see Strat opening the video and like, you know, going through watching it and we know that his mission was successful. But he i don't think in the movie he does not know that his mission was successful, but he's content living his life, you know teaching the baby Iridians like he's he's he's satisfied with how everything went out, went down, even without knowing. But in the book, he does get that moment where Rocky comes and tells him like, hey, I want to be the one to tell you. Your star, your son got writer. So like they, they fixed it. You, you did it. And he gets to have that, you know, old man moment of like, wow, I really did it. I i accomplished my goals. And now it's like, well, knowing that I saved earth.
00:55:10
Speaker
you know, do I really need to go back? Like, you know, or can I continue to live out the rest of my days content here on, on Arid? And so it makes that final question a little bit, you know, more peaceful to me, at least like that, you know, I could, I could just stay here. No, I don't think I will. I think I'm okay. I'm good. Yeah. Because he has that satisfaction of knowing.
00:55:33
Speaker
In the film, they say a ship is ready and that he can go, but he's like, I'm going to think about it for a little bit. And then that's when we go and walk you know along the beach and he's talking about the water. and Then he goes to his class and I'm so, so glad that they kept that.
00:55:48
Speaker
of him being a teacher on Aridian because that is, i was on on the edge of my seat a lot and I got a little emotional a lot, but this is the first time I actually teared up in the book, of course, at the ending. And um it's funny because i had begged Matthew to read the book and I'm like, you'll love it, just read it. And he had gone on a trip and he's like, oh I need a book to read. it I'm like, Project Hail Mary is right here for you. and he actually beat me and finished it oh before I got to. So he comes home and I'm still finishing it.
00:56:16
Speaker
And I'm listening to it like before I go to bed because I have like 15, 20 minutes left. And that's and he had told me that the ending because I think J. Scott, you guys on the podcast, Multiverse News, had talked about how like emotional it is and how the ending is just so good. So I've been waiting for this ending and waiting for this ending. And right before they reveal that he's a teacher, I'm like, oh, my God, he's a teacher. And I just teared up with something. This is his whole identity was. Yeah. him being a teacher and the kids are actually his reason for, you know, becoming who he was. And like the fact that he is teaching these Iridian rock children, like it's just, Oh, it's so good. And I'm so glad that they kept it. And they were so cute and they, they all look so different and they were all excited to answer about the speed of light. And it just really wraps everything up in beautiful bow and comes full circle and just really completes his character arc.
00:57:13
Speaker
yeah
00:57:15
Speaker
My big question and to end it after this, after the movie, my only big question is what about the rest of the stars? It was just the rest of the sky going to start blinking out because we didn't save anybody else's star or are the Iridians going to start helping everybody else.
00:57:31
Speaker
Correct me if I'm wrong here, but I think there's kind of like a visual montage sequence where you get to see the Petrova line and you watch like the astrophage like start to deplete. So I think the intention was there was like, hey, this is this is happening throughout the solar system, but but maybe I'm off base there. But I kind of wanted to just hop back to for a second. the the exchange between rocky and grace on the beach where he said where rocky gets to tell him hey the ship is ready for you which i don't think happens in the book maybe it does happen in the book but there's some possibility that he could come go home but his his body has aged and then the atmosphere has taken such a toll on him that the likelihood of survival is is really low and what kind of quality life would he have if he did make it back to earth um but
00:58:17
Speaker
Getting to you know say, can I have some time to think about it, is such a great inversion of the previous scene with Strat, where Strat basically tells him like, hey, you've got to do this. Can I get some time to think about it? You've got three hours, but ultimately that three hours doesn't even matter.
Final Thoughts on Friendship and Cinematic Achievements
00:58:31
Speaker
And here it's like just the the difference in that exchange. It's like he had a connection and a partnership and a collaboration with Strat to do something very important.
00:58:40
Speaker
And he had that with Rocky too, but the dynamic is just so different. Like Rocky is his true friend, his true confidant has his back and says, yeah, take all the time you need. And just to give him that freedom and openness, I'm getting goosebumps again because it's so nice and and beautiful and so heartwarming. I love it.
00:58:59
Speaker
Excited to have him on his planet. Yeah. Yeah. All of that. I'm going to defend stride a little bit because it was literally life and death. yeah Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Yeah. I mean, like he says, you're good.
00:59:13
Speaker
You're good. You get it done. Yeah, it was. Right. It's a great it's a great parallel. And I do love like those opposite sides of the coin of, you know, yeah, you can take time to think about it. But like you said, it doesn't matter. Like the decision has already been made for you versus. Yeah. Like.
00:59:28
Speaker
actually take your time and think about it because i'm your best friend and i don't want you to leave like it is a really beautiful moment but i like i've mentioned before i love the character of strat so i'm gonna defend her a lot oh i'm like she she was trying to get shit done okay like she was trying to save old hey it worked out earth was saved she did it in the book if he was able to tell her you were right i know he says it to himself like she was right i'm here and i want to finish this mission in the movie he does get to say in the video that you were right also um i don't know how much he was able to tell them about rocky because in the in the movie he is on video with him right
01:00:13
Speaker
right Yeah, I don't know. I don't think the book like talked very or if it did, I don't remember, talked very explicitly about like what sort of methods there were to send information back. If I don't think they ever mentioned like video diaries going back home or if it was just like, here's a bunch of test tubes and some insulation for the trip. And some fuel and just send back whatever like data you have that way. um but ah we already kind of talked about how the video diaries like were a great tool to get like Grace's inner thoughts out without it being like him standing there talking to himself. So I think that was a really great like use of them again like to show. hey, I met Rocky. Hey, I'm going to go save Rocky. going to be the first person to touch to be on another alien planet, build a statue. And just give have that one last little bit of like Dr. Grace humor and be like, all right, like you were right. like you know Yes, I stepped up and I was the hero, but you were right to make me do it and you know and all of that. So it was fun.
01:01:23
Speaker
All right. I think we've kind of covered almost everything. Any specific bookmark bookmark moments before we before we wrap this one up?
01:01:35
Speaker
I can't remember if I said it in the last episode or the beginning of this one. I think it was the last one because i had said Rocky's character design was amazing. And exactly. they They literally pulled him out of my brain and onto the screen.
01:01:49
Speaker
Yeah, I'm not sure if I drove this point home in the last episode or not, but I just want to cover all bases. I think the one big change they made from the book to the movie that I think was a positive, like I really actually applaud it because I think it it it makes more sense, is the removal of the the gene that makes it more likely for you to survive a coma. Because
Conclusion and Recommendations
01:02:10
Speaker
I think that takes a little bit of the agency away and also,
01:02:15
Speaker
While the book is called Project Hail Mary, it is a Hail Mary in every sense, and and Grace being the guy to do it is such a Hail Mary. I just kind of liked the way it played out in the movie a little bit more and made him feel like ah really the you know the most renowned or or knowledgeable person on the planet when it came to to astrophage and astrophage physologyph physiology. So I thought that was a good change.
01:02:41
Speaker
um I think my bookmark moment is Grace and Rocky trying to hug through the hamster ball. i like That just made me tear up. And I like Rocky. like you know That was one of those moments that like they didn't use like the word like or the phrase. like it's It's from my culture. like Just go with it. But that's what it was. Rocky was like, what are you doing? Like, why are you this close to me? What's happening? And he's like, it's a hug. Like, just go with it. Like, it's okay. Like, you're supposed to come in here. Like, I thought that was just a really sweet moment. And then we also kind of talked about it before, but the visuals of this film are stunning. And I found out after the fact that the – all the images we see in the credits are actual photos of space um that oh wow nasa NASA scientists took. So like our like I said in the last episode, our galaxy and our universe is so stunning. And it's just a matter of like finding it and recognizing it and remembering it that it's
01:03:40
Speaker
we are so we are lucky to be alive at all. Two quick follow-ups. um The contrast between the first hug and the second hug through that, because the first one, like you said, he didn't know what was going on. And the second time when they reconnect, he immediately puts his little arms up too. And like, he can't hug each other, but like is a hug. um And so like, he actually understands what ah the meaning behind it is. um And then, yeah, the space stuff. I mentioned it, I think, in the last episode. But if you haven't seen the up-to-date images of the planets in our solar system, you need to go look at them because like they're completely different colors than we always thought they were were They're gorgeous. Like space is amazing.
01:04:24
Speaker
um The hugging they did reminded me exactly of my the way my blue healer hugs. she'll She'll like go up on your shoulders, but then she leans in with her head and it's exactly like that. I'm like, aw. Reminded me of my dog.
01:04:36
Speaker
Yeah. Dogs are great. That's another thing. Sorry. Rocky, I thought his character design was very dog-like. Yeah. If if that makes sense. Yeah. yeah and Well, they just endear you to him so quickly with the interactions. Like when, you know, Grace is scared at first, but then sees the mimicry and then he laughs and Rocky does the little chortle like to...
01:04:59
Speaker
Yeah, he had a little laugh. Everyone's just like, me okay, I love him. ah You can't do anything to him. I love him. But before we get out of here, i just wanted to give a call out to one of the lines that consistently always just got a guffaw out of me as well as everybody in my theater is during the Taumbiba collection, the fishing sequences, where Rocky says, words of encouragement. and He says, you can't just say words of encouragement. Words of great encouragement. So so funny. Yes.
01:05:28
Speaker
yeah i mean the movie's great it's it's it's got the stakes it's got the humor it's got the visuals it's got the acting like um i cannot wait to see award season next year and see what happens with this film yep and get it home and be able to watch it over and over again yes exactly oh and the funko need the funko rocky that's definitely something i need 100 yeah and final thought i know we said it last time but if you can please see this in the theater like this movie deserves to be seen on the big screen the biggest screen you can possibly find before it leaves theater like do your best to see it this film like i don't know if it was shot in imax but it
01:06:14
Speaker
is This is a movie theater movie. It's just just not going to be the same experience seeing it at home. So if you can go and see it. You won't regret it.
01:06:26
Speaker
All right. So before we get out of here, ja Scott, do you want to tell anybody about where to find you online before we say goodbye? Yeah, please check out Multiverse News. It's the podcast where we talk about the latest and greatest in movie and TV news, sometimes some video game news. Basically, if it can be construed as geeky or fandom in nature, you can probably find us talking about it. So wherever you get your podcasts, please check out Multiverse News. And thanks again for having me.
01:06:51
Speaker
Had a lot of fun. yeah yout have we're all We're all viewers of Multifirst News. We all heavily endorse that show. So definitely go check it out. Thank you very much. yes All right. Thanks for watching and go watch Project Hail Mary. Thanks, guys.
01:07:07
Speaker
Bye. Bye.
01:07:12
Speaker
That's a wrap for this week's episode of Book Watch. We hope you enjoy diving into the world of page-to-screen adaptations with us. If you love this episode, don't forget to subscribe, leave a rating and review wherever you listen and share it with a fellow book and movie lover.
01:07:27
Speaker
If you prefer to watch along, you can check out the show on YouTube, youtube.com slash at book, watch podcast. You can follow the show on Instagram at book, watch podcast, and you can follow me Sarah day on Instagram at captain.mcd that's M C D E E.
01:07:45
Speaker
And you can follow me, Jordan, on Instagram at JJ Corrito. That's C-A-R-R-I-D-O. And you can follow me, Chris, at CyborgNight404. That's Knight with a K. You can also join the conversation in the Book Watch Lounge on Facebook at facebook.com slash groups slash Book Watch Lounge.
01:08:06
Speaker
If you'd like to support the podcast, you can join the Patreon at patreon.com bookwatchpodcast. Tiers start at only $4 a month, and we would love to have you over there. Have a favorite adaptation you'd like us to cover, or a book you think deserves a screen adaptation, or just want to let us know of any feedback, send us an email at bookwatchpodcasts at gmail.com.
01:08:28
Speaker
Until next time, keep reading, keep watching, and we'll see you next week.